When building an affiliate business, product research is one of the most important steps that you should do. Knowing what your audience is searching can help you find a targeted product to sell online within a niche. But, how do you go about collecting these data? Read on as I break down this process into 5 simple steps for you.
How to find a Niche Product?
(1) Identifying the Product Trend
If you haven’t been using Google Trend for your marketing, I urge you to. It’s an awesome tool that is able to capture the global search data, display the popularity of a product and it’s free to use.
All you need to do is to log onto Google Trend’s homepage and key in a product that you are interested in. I’ve randomly selected some products and here are the trend results for each of them. Look at the trend pattern closely.
Upward Trend
Current Trend
Downward Trend
Did you notice any difference? There are 3 types of trends here – the upward, the on-going and the downward trend. If you want a long term profitable affiliate business, you should get involved with products that are in the upward or on-going trend. However, do expect a higher level of competition (other people selling the same product) within these two trends too.
Selling products with a downward trend will produce the exact opposite results – less demand and less competition. Does that mean that the product niche is not good? Well, not necessarily. You just need to try a different marketing strategy and probably earn fewer sales.
(2) Get Ideas from Keyword Research
After choosing a popular niche product, think about how people will use it in their daily lives. What do they want to know before buying it online? Let’s take ‘fountain pens’ for example. A customer who is planning to buy this product is also likely to search for the following;
- What are the best fountain pens below $100?
- Which is the best ink set?
- How to use a quill fountain pen?
- What type of fountain pen set is best as a gift for your boss?
- How do you clean a fountain pen?
All these questions contain keywords that can give you ideas on what to write for your affiliate blog. The more you write content that people want to read, the more frequent your website will appear on the search results too.
If you wish to learn more about doing keyword research, Jaaxy is a great keyword tool that I would recommend you use.
(3) Know the Profit Range
Now, let’s talk about earning potential. We know similar products can have different selling prices so try to promote one that is within the higher price range for a bigger commission cut. A good place to source for this information is Amazon.
They have got a ton of products where you can read reviews and compare prices. Most of your competitors would be Amazon Associates too, so use this information to your best advantage.
For example, here are some higher priced range fountain pens from Amazon selling between $100-200 per item and we know that you can earn at least 4% in commission per product. So, if you manage to sell a Xezo fountain pen at $145, your profit is about $5.80.
But is Amazon your only choice for affiliate products? Of course not. Here where the next step comes in.
(4) Finding Affiliate Program with Google Search
Here’s a handy tip when you are looking for something specific on Google Search. Use the quote (“ “) and plus (+) signs in your queries. So, if I am looking for fountain pen affiliate programs, I would type something like this.
Right of the bat, I was immediately attracted to one of the offers. Cross is a well-known merchant for good quality writing instruments and they are offering 9-12% of affiliate commission for every sale. Here are some of the stylish fountain pens from the company.
Now, if you can sell a Townsend Fountain Pen at $145, you can earn up to $13 in commission – that’s double the profit compared to Amazon. Wouldn’t that be a better affiliate program to join?
(5) What about Affiliate Network?
To look for a niche product within an affiliate network such as ShareASale, or Linkshare, you need to search under a category. So, in the case of ‘fountain pen’, you are most likely to find them under ‘Stationaries’. The search results will give you some company/brand names in which you’ll have to dig to find the product that you are looking for. A bit of research work there, but not impossible.
When you do find them, do what you would with any merchants; check their original website, compare the commission structure and read some affiliate reviews before applying for the program.
A Profitable Niche…
Begins with a thorough product research and as I’ve demonstrated, it’s not really that difficult to do. In fact, paying attention to these details can actually save you more time and money than investing in a downward trend product or a low-paying affiliate program.
Hopefully, these 5 simple steps have provided some insights on how you can build a more profitable and sustainable affiliate business. Want to know more about finding a profitable niche online? Here is a great webinar by Wealthy Affiliate that you should check out.
Check out the video training below to learn how to get started.
Do you have any thoughts or questions about what kind of products to sell online? Please leave them in the comment area below and I’ll get back to you.
Really good stuff. Gives me a lot to think about. I guess I need to put more focus on upward trending products. Also the keyword tips will be invaluable. I really liked the information on niches. Finding a good one can be difficult sometime. I’m going to have to schedule some time to watch the niche study video.
It’s a good thing to focus on upward trend, but also keep in mind that continuous/seasonal trend is also worth looking at because there’s a constant demand/supply from this type of market. As for keywords, here’s a recent post that I wrote about researching for long tail keywords. I hope this will help you understand better about niche and keywords when put together in writing a blog.
I do agree the emphasis on the word passion has always made find a niche more difficult. It tends to throw me off focus that I’m not looking for myself, i’m looking for marketing problems and solutions. I’ll be sure to use the Google trends in the future. Thanks!
Hi Cathy,
Thanks for the article, I learned a lot. Finding a niche is usually difficult for me – maybe due to the emphasis on the word ‘passion.’
The part about Google Trend is a great tip. I will surely use that, as well as the info about the profit range. We tend to forget everything else except Amazon.
Amazon is a great place to start. Even if you don’t get accepted as an associate, you can use the marketplace for product and profit comparison. Here’s a blog to prove that you can actually earn more through private affiliate programs.
What I learned a long time ago was that you can’t pick a niche just because you like it. Don’t get me wrong, liking your niche is a very great thing, but you also have to know it’s going to make you money.
Unfortunately certain topics, not many, but certain ones – fail to get the draw most others do!
What do you think?
I think the interest that you are referring to is called micro-niche, ideas that are relatively new which either haven’t gain a lot of popularity online OR just thrive with a small group of people. Seasonal niche is also another trend that would only make money on certain period of time.
Hence, a thorough niche research is very important when one is planning to start an online business. In my opinion, most niches can make money and if you happen to choose a micro or seasonal niche, you just need to figure out a way to tie it to a larger/popular common interest and monetize from it.
Jay, from Wealthy Affiliate has some great video training on niche brainstorming, so I would recommend that you check it out.
Hi Cathy
Great article and some real gold dust in there! You have opened my eyes – I’ve not used Google Trends in my research, but will be sure to now.
Do you find yourself lean more towards affiliate programs like Amazon for their ease, or seek out product specific ones (like the Cross one mentioned)?
Thanks.
Welcome to my blog Steve,
It really depends on what type of niche you are involved with. If yours promote physical everyday-type of products, becoming an Amazon Associate is a good start because shoppers generally trust the brand. Plus, if they buying something else in that one transaction, your commission increases too.
Private affiliate programs like Cross, usually requires you to send an email or contact someone in their company for application. So that’s one extra step to take. I am guessing that they are quite selective and only want serious affiliate marketers that know what they are doing.
Very interesting article on finding a niche product. I know for a fact that using Google Trend can really help you seriously increase your income. Keyword research is another great way to find some good ideas and in fact I was able to find some great ideas for creating my content and get it ranked in search engines. These tips are really great and if applied correctly, can help a lot in your business.
Hello Cathy!
With a sea of affiliate products to recommend online and earn commissions from, I find it overwhelming and difficult to choose a niche product.
Google trends is actually a concept I have never tried, so this is one I will definitely put to work 🙂 You have shared some other amazing tips here, and selecting a good price range is also something I will bare in mind too!
Thank you for the Wealthy Affiliate webinar as well, and I will take a look. I need as much help as possible, and you have helped to put me on the right track with my affiliate marketing efforts.
I am glad you benefited from reading this article Neil,
Google Trend is a hidden gem, but once you know how to use it, it can offer some very interesting and profitable keywords that you can leverage on your affiliate blog. Profit range is something that a lot of marketers overlook but I think every niche has got products within the higher price range that you can consider for bigger commission cuts.
Here’s an article about how to sell big ticket items if you are interested to learn more.
Hi there,
Just had a read through your site and it it very informative, detailed and easy to read. I personally have not heard of Google Trends as I am a beginner. Now, you have enlightened me about it and I will be on there gathering more information. You clearly know what you are talking about and have made some good points.
Thanks for the advice!
Hi there CraigBoy,
I am glad that you learned something from this article. Besides Google Trend, there are other tools from Google that you can use to improve your online business. All of them are free to use so do check it out.
Thanks for these great tips!
You have taken the intimidating process of choosing a niche and have made it as easy as possible. This guide was very helpful. I have a question.
Let’s say I want to get into a competitive niche like computers, sports, or health. Is competition a thing I need to worry about?
Hi there Alec,
In a broad sense, the niches that you mentioned are indeed competitive. So the key here is to dig into sub-niches that will allow you to target specific audience and become an authority in it. Focusing on long tail keywords will help you outrank most of your competitors so it’s important to create your content around these ideas.
Here’s an example of how I break down a broad health niche into specific sub-topics. Hopefully this will help you understand better.
Thanks for this – it has been a great help with sorting out what product to target next for sales on my blog. I see one of your sections covers getting ideas from keyword research – this is where I suffer the most. What keyword tool do you recommend for this type of research? What do you use?
Hi there Chris,
For beginners, I would recommend that you start with the Alphabet Soup Technique (AST) first. The method is readily available to you if you are already using Google. Type something random on the search bar and see what rolls out from Google’s suggestions.
Then, grab the sentence that makes most title sense for your niche and run it through a keyword research tool. The one that I am using is Jaaxy because it’s very simple to interpret and it also has a special column for brainstorming in case you want to find variation for your initial keyword phrase.
Combined with the data I get from affiliate network and Google Search, it’s usually quite easy to identify a profitable product within minutes.
I hope this helps you. If you need any more information to grow your affiliate blog, check out my recommended training at Wealthy Affiliate.
Hi Cathy,
Great article and to the point. I am still quite new to affiliate marketing, so this will be a great platform for me as I am deciding to create my second website now. I will definitely use Google Trend to help me find the perfect niche. To be honest, I wasn’t even aware of the tool, so thank you for sharing it.
Hi there Zuzana,
Welcome to the world of affiliate marketing. It’s a very exciting business model and there is a ton of resources out there to help you out. I wrote an article for newbie in niche blogging not long ago. You may want to check it out for some tips.
Hi Cathy
I have a website where I am promoting mattresses online and there was a day where I earned a $300 commission from one sale. Who the heck buys mattresses online? This just proves that if someone is searching for something online, then they might just buy it.
I also made that sale through Rakuten Linkshare and they are now also supporting PayPal which is great news for those that do not want checks.
That’s awesome Viljoen!
Furniture, such as mattresses, is a great niche to get involved with if you have the knowledge in the industry. There are people who buy them online and by using Jaaxy keyword research, you can track this audience and convert them into buyers.
Besides, it’s also a big ticket item, which means you’ll get a big commission cut whenever a sale is made (yours is a proof of that). I will be publishing an article soon on how you can make money selling furniture online, so do check it out.
Wow, that was a great read on how to find a profitable niche product to sell online.
I’ve been tweaking and learning how to do proper research in my particular niche using both Jaaxy and Google though I have not used Google Trends. That is something I think I’m going to start doing now as well. I also want to try to find another affiliate program that has higher commission rates in my niche.
I’ve joined 3 affiliate programs that have the products my niche is geared toward, but one of the them that I used to promote the most has had a change in their commission rate payouts for the worse. They’ve decided no matter what product it is or the price of it, all affiliates will get 1% commission.
Hi there Brian,
1% of commission is too low to build a sustainable online income, you are probably better off earning 4% from Amazon, if you qualify. I am not sure what is your niche, but you can look up on Rakuten Linkshare or Commission Junction that offer way higher rates. Jaaxy keyword research tool run searches for both of these so it’s pretty convenient without having to log into two separate networks.
Hey, if you need any help with finding a niche product, just send me a PM at Wealthy Affiliate, okay?
Cheers!
Hi Cathy,
Another great and informative post. One of the biggest problems I had when starting out was finding a niche. I eventually settled for the WA affiliate program. Now, almost 12 months down the line, I am ready to branch out.
The information in your post will certainly help me when I start on a new website.
Hi there Mark,
The WA Affiliate Program is certainly a good place to start when you are totally new to niche marketing. Their training offers some solid foundation about website creation as well as running an online business. But then again, the ‘make money online niche’ can be quite competitive and it might not appeal to everyone.
If pursuing your own passion creates more interest in you, then go for it. I hope this article has given you some new ideas on getting started.
Great information on how to research a niche.
Most of us skip some or more of the steps that you mentioned, even though we have learnt it before, so it was great to refresh my memory. The keyword tool that you recommend is also great – I use it daily and some of my pages rank on page 2 within days.
Hi there Michel,
If you have selected a low-competition keyword and write a good article for it, it’s pretty easy to get into Page 1 or 2 within days. That’s because the content is still ‘fresh’. The challenge here is to maintain that ranking (it usually drops after a few days/weeks if you check on it again) and constantly be ahead of your competitors.
You can do this by improving your off-page SEO (assuming that you have done all your on-page SEO) through social sharing and blog commenting. Incorporate this into your blogging routine and you’ll maintain your ranking a lot longer.
Hi Cathy,
I really enjoyed reading about your methods on how to find a niche product to sell online. I’m like you, I first go to Google Trends, but I don’t feel this gives me enough information, and I also look at Google Adwords for the price and competition as well, but this still doesn’t always give the complete picture.
It helps give some insight, but I really find using a keyword tool like Jaaxy helps me with more of an in depth knowledge about my niche, related keywords, and find out the true competition of a niche.
I really like the advice of using Amazon to spot trends, price competition, but think they’re not the best affiliate program because of their low commissions as you point out.
I think you’ve outlined a great map for marketers to find clever, untapped niches. Nice work Cathy.
Now all you’ve got to do is put up your niche site which is a breeze using the SiteRubix platform. Easy instructions and video tutorials and you’re off and running with a profitable niche blog.
Hey Todd,
Thanks for your suggestion. I’ve not considered using Google Adwords before. Does it produce the same kind of data as Jaaxy or are they both different tools altogether?
Hello
l’m still new to online marketing, have a website up but was not sure how to find affiliate products to sell.
That`s why I’m so glad to read your post, things like product trends are totally new to me. l have heard of different affiliate networks but again here I’m still not sure which affiliate program is for me. Will follow your tips and see what to join.
Thanks for an informative read.
Hi Roamy,
Most affiliate networks are free to join so I would suggest you sign up with a few to get some ideas about the merchants and the affiliate product itself. Not all merchants will approve your application so getting into these networks and doing some research will increase your likelihood of being accepted into a good affiliate program.
Hey, good post
To find products for my blog I just use Google.
Before I create a website and choose a niche, I always first check whether there is going to be something that I could promote, so I’m looking for the right affiliate program first.
However I don’t use Amazon – their commissions are too small. I think I would have to promote some really expensive to make good money from Amazon.
Actually, as you rightly noted in your article, it’s always better to promote more expensive products.
Doesn’t matter if you’re selling something cheap or expensive, you need to put in some effort in order to be successful, and for this reason I prefer to promote more expensive products.
Hi there Luke,
There’s a huge misconception when it comes to affiliate marketing and most beginners only think within the realm of Amazon and eBay without realizing that Amazon pays very small commissions and eBay charges a ton of fees before they pass you the net profit.
Although other private affiliate programs are less publicized, they are potentially higher-paying merchants which is worth trying out if you think about the long-term profit making.
Hi Cathy,
Thanks for providing a great article on this topic. I learnt a lot of new information.
I am often confused in choosing a niche and I need your guidance. Do we need to choose first profitable products and then niche or first search for niche and then find profitable products in it?
Welcome to my blog, Khan.
I would go with the latter – choose a specific niche and then find a profitable product within that niche. A niche can give you multiple topic ideas to write about in which a profitable product is just one of them. A niche blog can target a wider audience while a profitable product is very specific.
When you think from a niche perspective, you also want to offer knowledge and good service. But if you start from a product first, there will be a tendency for you to be salesy as compared to being informative. Overall, I think a niche mindset will make you a better webpreneur unlike a product mindset that will make you sound like a repulsive salesperson.
Thanks for sharing this information. I’d never heard of Google Trends before, but as I’m just setting up a new site, I’m sure this information is going to be really helpful to me.
One question: When you’re looking at trends, what’s the time span you’re considering? As in, if something will be popular for a year or two, would you consider it to be worth it? And how do you go about deciding what a fad is, and what’s going to stick around?
I know you’re not psychic. I’m just interested in how you work 🙂 Thanks!
Hi Chloe,
I think 5 years is a good time frame to gauge whether a trend is moving upward or downward. Most stats in Google Trend reflect as far back as 2007, which is still quite recent when you consider the economic of things. If you look at the top right corner, you’ll see a ‘forecast’ tab that will predict the trend for the next couple of years.
You can also check mark the ‘news headline’ tab to find out the online fad for that particular year or sign up for Google News to get up-to-date topics for your niche.
Using Google Trend, news updates and answering comments from your readers will give you an idea what’s going to stick around and how you can diversity the information into something new.
I am not a psychic, but I hope this helps 🙂
Oh wow, I’m glad I came across this. I didn’t know about Google Trends. This is going to be super helpful, can’t wait to try that out.
I don’t think I chose a good niche, but it’s something fun that interests me, and that’s what really matters. The products that I market aren’t very expensive since they are related to hair. Good tips though.
Hi there Gina,
Congrats for choosing a niche that you like. Although I don’t know the specific product that you are promoting, as a woman myself, the first thing that I could think of is hair styling. And here’s what trending on Google.
According to the search queries, “hair styling products”, “styling products” and “hair products” are the top three popular terms. Most hair styling products are not really that expensive, but it is certainly an on-going trend that points you to some terms that can be leveraged within your keyword research.
Hope this information has provided some insights to help better understand your niche.
Hey Cathy,
This is a great post that I fully intend on referencing in the future. I did not know about Google Trends before reading this and utilizing that information (I believe) will prove to be beneficial for me going forward.
One thing that might be good to add to your Google Search tips is the – symbol. This is great for filtering out certain keywords that seem to keep popping up and getting in the way when you are trying to research. I have drastically speed up my searches and/or researching by using this to get rid of that fluff.
Oh, and being well educated on your products profit range and searching out affiliate programs are also very important.
Aside from the content itself; you have a very aesthetically pleasing page! Very easy to read, well put together, and great use of images. In my opinion, very nicely done.
Welcome to my blog Zach,
Thanks for pointing out on the symbol usage. For the clarification of other readers, the symbol – basically means that the search will “exclude results that include a particular word or site when searching words with multiple meanings”.
Google Trend is a superb demographic and market research tool that every online marketer can leverage. I am sure you’ll find it beneficial to your blog. Here are other Google Tools that I think you’ll be interested to learn more about.
And thanks for your kind feedback about my website design. That’s the bonus when you are using Genesis I guess 🙂
Hi Cathy,
I have a website, and have had limited success with finding a niche product that is a good fit for the topic of the site. But thanks to you, I’ll check out Google Trends. I’ve not heard of it before.
Also great advice about using Google Search properly to find a niche product to affiliate with. The results are much better the way you laid it out. To go without the +’s and the “”, is pretty much shooting into the sea.
Thank you for this post, I’ve learned a good deal.
Welcome to my blog, Brian.
I am glad you found the tips to be useful. Moving forward, you also want to make sure that the niche product belongs to a good affiliate program that can help grow your online revenue. A product that looks profitable without a proper support from the merchant can sometimes hamper your sales conversion.
This is a well informative article. I have not started to use Google Trend yet. I am new to affiliate marketing and currently following my passion in choosing a niche. I still dunno how well my niche is doing. Hopefully my niche can do well in the future.
If it does not do well, would you recommend that I change my niche or keep going with my original niche?
Welcome to my blog Lucas,
There are a lot of reasons why a niche doesn’t do well. Here’s what I suggest you can do before deciding to change to a new niche.
1 – Are your keyword choices too competitive?
2 – How frequent are you publishing your blog?
3 – Are you monitoring your traffic on Google Webmaster and Analytics?
4 – Does your merchant/affiliate programs offer any other ways to diversify the affiliate products/services so that you can target a wider audience?
Regardless of your niche, there’s almost always a way to make it profitable unless it is an obsolete trend. If you’re facing any difficulty moving forward, I suggest that you check out the training at Wealthy Affiliate or ask your questions within the community area so that someone can help you out.
Hope this helps.