What is a Niche
You have the basic structure of your Affiliate Marketing website laid out but now you have to decide on a niche. You ask yourself, what is a niche? Simply put a niche is a group of people who have an interest in a particular product or process or outcome. When you think about it a niche can be practically anything. Let me give you an example of some niches by way of pictures and explanations.
A niche can be a passion of yours, a type of job you have, a hobby, a lifestyle, a particular product that you use, do you see how many niches can be available? Let me be even more specific. A niche can be coin collecting, baking, a type of photography, 
clothing, shoes, animal training, internet marketing, health & wellness, sports related products, toys, types of music, carpentry, debt reduction, types of wine, fruit and vegetable juicing, weight loss, video games, iPhones, smartphone accessories, computer tablets, camping equipment, hiking gear, exercising,…
Many of those examples can be even more focused and thus create more niches. For example, toys can be narrowed down to toddler toys or children’s toys or dolls or action figures. Baking could be narrowed down to baking cookies or cakes or baking accessories. Shoes can be narrowed down to men’s shoes, women’s shoes, boots, dress shoes, casual shoes, or athletic shoes. A niche can be any of these things and that is why niche content websites are very popular and rewarding.
How to choose a Niche
It is very important that you choose a niche based on how much you know about that niche. Do not, and I repeat, do not choose a niche that you feel will be the most profitable. Any niche can be very profitable. What makes it profitable is how well you know it and thus how well you are able to promote it by the writing of your content.
I gave you examples of how you can narrow down a niche to make it more specific and less competitive. You want to do this so you can start out by focusing on a particular aspect of a niche. Let me give you another example by way of the below picture.
I enjoy hiking and I have hiked through many of the local state parks and forests in the New Jersey and New York area. The picture above is one of my favorite hiking trails. From this picture, what products do you think I could promote within the niche of hiking? Being that hiking is a passion of mine I know a lot about what is needed for a productive and safe hiking experience as well as some of the pros and cons of certain hiking trails.
I could promote Lightweight Cargo Pants, Waterproof Hiking Boots, Backpacks, Canteens and Water Bottles, First Aid Kits, Energy Bars and Trail Mix, Compass, Emergency Blanket, Hand Warmers, and many other things that hikers use. Instead of promoting products for my hiking niche I could promote various places to hike or hiking techniques for traversing different types of terrain. Can you see how much can be chosen and promoted just from the one broad niche of hiking?
Engage your readers
Now let us say that the niche for your Affiliate Marketing website is related to sports and more specifically the NFL, National Football League. Put yourself in the place of someone who is searching the internet for something related to the NFL. How are you going to present the knowledge that you have to your readers without sounding like you are a talking textbook? You don’t want to provide the same old rehashed knowledge that is already on the internet from the manufacturers of these products, rather you want your content to be unique and fresh. Make your content stand out from all of the rest in your particular niche. How do you do that?
Take a look at the picture above of a football game I went to. I can think of many things to promote from just looking at that picture and they do not need to be NY Giants related items. Now being that the Giants are my favorite NFL team, my passion, I can talk a lot about the entire franchise both past and present.
The same should be true for you in whatever you decide for your niche. The best way to make your content stand out is by engaging your readers in a two-way conversation. Think of it as you sitting at a table across from a good friend or a family member of yours. You are explaining to them what are the best NFL clothing and accessories to buy and why. The only difference is that instead of you speaking these words you are typing them out. As you type your content try to anticipate the questions that your readers may have for you and provide those answers within your content.
You want to satisfy and answer as best as possible to the questions your readers have about buying a particular NFL shirt, hat, jersey, or any other product. Here’s another thing to consider. If you go up on a website to search for an answer to whatever it is that you are seeking, wouldn’t you be more inclined to act upon the knowledge you gained from that website if that website answered all or most of your questions? I know I would and so will the majority of people who read that content.
Provide specific knowledge
For the Weight Loss niche one of the many ways to lose weight without any real exercise is to cut out fattening foods and drink while consuming fresh vegetable juice. This would be the narrow and focused way I would start my niche on weight loss. It is but one aspect of the niche that can be expanded upon and has many items that you can promote and sell from it.
When you are building the framework of your website you want to keep in mind what information you will be providing for your readers. What you will want to do is build theme related pages on your website and then add content to those pages that are relevant to that theme. For this example of weight loss I would have a page called Fat Burning Veggies and another page called Juicing Recipes.
Tell your readers and provide information on how and why vegetable juicing is a great way to lose weight. Tell them what juicer you used, how often you drank your juice, provide them with some juice recipes, and walk them through the process. You should also engage your readers by the use of images and videos too.
Make your website both informative and visually stimulating so that people will want to keep reading and just as important, share your website with others. The more unique and quality information you provide, the more people will want to read it and act upon your recommendations. The purpose of your niche is to help your readers find the answers to the questions they have in the most unique and complete way. If you can do that, you will be profitable in your niche.
If you have any questions or comments about what you just read as to what is a niche, please leave them below in the comments area and I will be happy to reply to you with an answer.
Thank you, this is a subject I have been thinking a lot about, as it is an important strategy in internet marketing. You have laid it out in a very simple, easy to understand manner, as all of your writing. You are one of the best resources on the internet for us newbies. Appreciate it.
You are welcome Shell. I am happy that you found my information on what is a niche to be helpful. I think it is important to be as simplistic in my explanations on what certain things are on my website because I am hoping that many newbies like yourself will find my instructions easy to understand.
Great article you’ve written Robert! The information is very clear and written in a way that everybody likes it. Keep up the good work!
Thank you Michelle, I’m glad you liked it. I tried to make my content as consistent in style as the rest of my website, basically keeping the information simple yet informative. When it come to describing what is a niche I felt it would be best to keep the information as clear as possible. – Thanks for your comment.
This is a really fantastic article; well written, clear, concise and to the point. Really helpful info for a newbie like myself. Thank you!
You are welcome! I wanted to try and explain what is a niche in a simple way by giving examples so that people would understand that there are so many niches available. You just have to find the one that is right for you.
Awesome information. I love the site, and appreciate the valuable content!
Thank you Erica. I’m glad you liked my website and the information I have provided. Please come back for a visit again. 🙂
You have presented so many valuable points here.
I like the assurance that any niche can be profitable. This motivates a newbie like me to go out there and share my “stuff”. It certainly means that I will enjoy sharing information about my chosen niche. I already have years of experience using and teaching my tools to others.
Now, finding ways to present my information in a way that stands out is a challenge that I am trying to meet. I want to be clear and helpful as well.
I also appreciate the tip on personalizing my content as a way to engage my visitors. I want them to feel as though I am talking to them.
Thanks.
You are welcome Cindy! When it comes down to the basics of a niche people should approach it by saying, what do I know a lot about that can benefit other people? Unfortunately too many people choose a niche based off of the notion that it has to be a profitable niche to be successful. If that were true there would be a ton of successful people in some niches and none in the others.
Great article with very relevant and valuable information. Takes a lot of the “mystery” away… Great job!
Thank you so much Rohan. It was my intention to try and simplify the process of choosing a niche. For some reason this seems to be a problem with many people because I believe they either look at it wrong or overlook certain possibilities. It is my hope that this webpage simplifies it better for them.