Prologue

This is how I started and made my first sales online (and still is my very favorite technique).

We took a look at historical data and we gathered useful statistics. The data will help us understand the true potential of this business model, to shape a winning strategy for the future, and give us an advantage over the competition in terms of development and content creation.

Additionally, we expanded on the key benefits of this model for all the parties involved, the advertisers (merchants), the publishers (affiliates), the affiliate networks, and the final consumers.

Then, we analyzed all the pricing models that advertisers and publishers are utilizing in order to maximize their reach and results. Every model has its own advantages and disadvantages, different for merchants and publishers.

Furthermore, we analyzed the various types of affiliate websites that exist and we showcased examples of affiliate sites that you can use as inspiration.

But how exactly are we going to make money with affiliate marketing? In order to discuss how affiliates are making money, it’s crucial to give you a recap of how affiliate marketing works

Affiliate Marketing Model Structure

Affiliate marketing is a kind of performance marketing in which promotion/advertising of products and services takes place exclusively on the internet

Let’s imagine the next marketing plan in which there is 

a) the company that offers affiliate programs for some or all of its products through its own or other 3rd party networks (affiliate networks)

b) the affiliate marketers promoting those products by publishing website content, by blogging, or using other methods and campaigns, or paid ads.

The company that owns the final product will pay commissions to the affiliates if the customer was driven to the company by the unique marketing actions of the affiliate. This is a modern way of marketing that both companies and affiliates get benefited.

The company is benefiting from the “pay-per-performance model structure” meaning they don’t have to pay anything for advertising. When sales occur by the marketing efforts of the affiliates who take care of the advertising on their own, they pay affiliate commissions. The affiliates don’t have to spend a fortune on product development, the only thing they need to do is promote those products on their websites.

Nowadays, the simplified process of website creation resulted in open opportunities for writers, website owners, bloggers, marketers, owners of forums or online communities and various kind entrepreneurs to participate in the affiliate marketing model.

However, if potential customers visit the company’s website and take action, such as the purchase of its products, then the company is asked to pay publishers (in the case of selling products or services a percentage of profits).

Let me note here that the final price of the product does not change and of course, it is for the benefit of the final consumer. That is, publishers, advertise their products at the price that the companies sell. And the company is asked to sacrifice a small percentage of its profits but avoids the colossal burden of independent advertising and promotional costs.

In this way, the company pays ONLY when a sale or other action is reached, in other words, the desired result.

The desired result is not always selling products or services.

It may be some other action on the part of customers

ie…the record of the customers in the email listings or newsletters of the company as a possible prospective buyer that showed interest, and which gives the company the ability to re-market its products, either current or future, to these prospective customers. Other actions include: customers sign up a form, give their personal data, download a software or any other digital content, and more.

There are many other forms of final actions that yield the “desired result” that generate revenue for affiliates and expense for the advertised company

And as the content on their sites and other mediums is accessible to online visitors at all times, these affiliate sites can literally generate revenue non-stop, 24/7.

Many companies will pay off recurring affiliate commissions for sales and purchases by repeated customers, even for a lifetime. And this is another huge advantage for the affiliates.

How it Works

Affiliates (publishers) place special links (texts, banners, images, widgets) on their blog posts, pages, anywhere on their websites and on other channels like emails, social media profiles, and other properties. When someone clicks those links they get redirected to a merchant’s website. The moment a visitor clicks an affiliate link a special cookie is being placed on his/her computer (this cookie tells the company that the visitor is being sent through the unique link of a particular affiliate). Now the merchant has to close a deal so that affiliates earn commissions based on sales.

Affiliates don’t have to worry about customer service, delivery, or support. They only have to send visitors to the companies’ landing pages. In most of the cases, they won’t even know who clicked their links. This method brings immediate results, as long as affiliates have traffic.

The only concern is that the cookie might expire. Other companies place cookies that last 24 hours, like Amazon, other companies use 30-day cookies, other companies use cookies that last a lifetime.

Amazon uses 24-hour cookies but they will pay their affiliates commissions on any product the referred customers may purchase during those 24 hours (even if the product has nothing to do with the page they landed on after their visit to the affiliate’s properties).

It’s like owning a supermarket. How do supermarkets operate? They buy products from various sources, they promote those products on the shelves, and customers buy those products at a higher price than the price the supermarket owner paid to own them. It’s the exact same principle, the only difference is in pricing.

Advantages

As you probably understand, this system has tremendous benefits for all parties involved, for the advertised companies, for publishers, for publisher networks, but also for end-users.

The company pays only for sales or other desired predefined results. It does not pay without results, with only a few exceptions depending on the pricing model, for example, when companies pay for ad impressions or ad clicks. The desired results thanks to new technologies and the internet are absolutely measurable, in contrast to the classic/traditional advertising methods which are hard to measure.

Imagine a company having to hire 100 sales representatives to advertise its products. How would they compensate them? Could they be able to ensure them? Probably hard, if not impossible. However, with this system, hundreds of publishers promote their products without the company being forced to pay in advance

For publishers, the system is overly flexible and lucrative, although they are only get paid for successful customer visits on merchants’ websites and for desired results.

Publishers take on the workload and cost of the advertising campaign without being paid in advance but they have the ability to promote multiple products from multiple companies at once. If they fail to achieve the desired result they simply don’t get paid.

Publishers, the vast majority of which have their own blogs, websites, and social profiles, advertise multiple products on their online properties.

However, the content of publishers’ sites is accessible to potential customers all days of the year, at all times. Imagine these online properties as uninterrupted operations with minimum maintenance costs and without the need for the publishers to be present.

In this way, affiliates in a very short space of time manage to promote dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of different products at the same time without additional workload and without being in their workplace. That is publishers, complete an advertising campaign for a product that can earn them profit for years. And this is achieved because of the technologies, the Internet, and this powerful model.

On the other hand, publisher networks undertake transaction management, offer publishers and advertisers business and management tools to monitor promotions and receive an entry fee from businesses and a percentage of sales

The final consumers end up enjoying the same product at the same price with the same guarantees.

Connecting Effectively with People

But we don’t want just any traffic, we want the right traffic.

People are using the internet as a ‘Highway’ of information. They’re looking for solutions to specific problems, information on products and services, they want to avoid low-quality programs, invest in profitable plans, they want to improve their lives and satisfy needs, they want to enjoy hobbies and interests, and they buy stuff.

And just like it happens with the traditional offline businesses where every store and organization serves a specific segment of the market, the same is true for websites. For example, there are stores selling clothing, coffee shops, hotels. And there are websites dedicated to health, marketing, books, music, and so on.

Every website targets a specific segment of a market. Every industry is divided into distinct segments, we call them niches. You can not target the whole internet population with one website. Every website out there is dealing with a portion of the market.

For example, Web Market Support is about helping people make money online.

“Niche” Definition in Marketing

A Niche is an Audience

Important Requirements in Order to Be Successful Online

• A well-defined targeted group of people searching for specific information, solutions, and products or services. In other words, an audience.
• Understanding their needs, desires, problems, challenges, and goals.
• A dedicated solution to their problems and needs just like it was exclusively designed for them from which you can make money (we’ll discuss more on that later)

Diving Deep into Niches

Imagine it for a while, if you are an experienced parent you could talk easier to new parents. If you are a musician, you can speak the same language with other artists. If you are a teacher you can speak directly with students or other teachers and so on…

The Importance of Narrowing Down Industries

But why are we doing this? Why do you have to narrow down a market?

Think about it for a moment. Would you be able to create a website and target the whole ‘Health and Fitness’ industry? You would need dozens of employees to accomplish that.

That’s why we break one big market category into smaller parts, into specific very targeted groups of people, one at a time. You can expand on new sub-niches on the same website at a later time. And this is very important because targeting a smaller group of people, in the beginning, will get you results faster which is the ultimate goal of any entrepreneur.

And better yet, by creating content for smaller groups of people you become an authority so that people trust you immediately as the ‘Go-to’ resource for their very specific needs.

The more you narrow down an industry, the more targeted traffic you can get, the easier you can create content and campaigns, the faster you climb up the rankings and build an authority brand.

Industries – Big Market Categories

Narrowing Down Industries Into Broad Niches, Sub-Niches, and Micro-Niches

We can even divide big market categories by location and demographics, or type of products and services so that we can target effectively smaller groups of people. For example, we can divide niches by race, income level, level of education, religion, expensive and luxury products, discounts, offers, coupons and so on…The list is endless here.

We try to target tiny groups of people that will engage with our brand so that we can have a piece of the giant internet pie. The more you narrow down a category of the market, the more effective and productive you become

Choosing a Profitable Niche Market Based on Your Interests

It’s all about identifying profitable opportunities in the marketplace. It’s not enough to narrow down an industry and choose a niche based on our interests only. We need to make money as well.

That means we need to spot a niche in the market in which people are buying products and services. A niche in which people are only looking for free information would be very hard to be monetized effectively.

Why People Buy Products and Services?

How to Choose a Profitable Niche Market

1. Choose a topic in which you have a genuine interest in, something you’re passionate about, willingness to learn more
2. Pick a topic in which you can help other people, and one that you can update information and content regularly
3. Research the market and trends, evaluate the competition and identify opportunities using a list of relevant keywords
4. Spot a narrowed down niche market full of real products and services that people buy and that can be monetized
5. Do not choose a super competitive niche when starting out
6. Broad niche or micro-niche? – The Future Plan

• The smaller the niche, the lower the competition, faster results, less growth and potential
• The bigger the niche, the higher the competition, slower results, more growth and potential

• You will be creating content within your niche.
• You will be discussing with people that will ask for your help in your area of knowledge.
• You are going to help those people make informed and balanced decisions in your area of expertise.
• You are going to promote and create products and services within that segment of the industry
• You will be connecting and communicating with like-minded entrepreneurs, influencers, and brands
• Your first niche choice may not be your last one, there are thousands of entrepreneurs that serve multiple industries
• Any given niche can become profitable regardless the competition and can be turned into a full-time business

You should choose a topic that lifts and sustains you spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. It’s not always a matter of which niche is the most profitable. Because the “Make as Much Money as You Can” mentality is often not one that can sustain you spiritually.

And remember, you don’t have to be an expert, you become an expert.

You don’t need to create content daily, but you have to be consistent. If you follow this rule and this one rule only you’ll get great results because this is how you can outrank your competitors, by being consistent. 

So think of a topic that you can expand upon regularly with fresh material to keep your readers engaged.

First, we need to identify our audience. Who is a potential customer? What do they need? Their desires, challenges, and goals. What are they trying to achieve? Which language do they use to search for information online? What problems do they face? Are they buying products and services within a particular “niche”?

And people as we already mentioned, are looking to solve specific problems and searching for information on products and services. They use search engines, social media channels, forums. And people use ‘Keywords’. Billions of searches every single day.

A keyword is just a phrase or a word that someone is typing into the search engines, like Google, Yahoo, and Bing and on other networks and forums.

At this point, our goal is to create a list of relevant keywords to our niche in order to research the market and trends, the competition, and potential opportunities.

 Just like you would probably do if you were about to start a brick & mortar business. Would you open a store just because you had an idea right away? Or would you research the market before you get started?

And by creating content that targets the same exact phrases people use we will receive traffic from the search engines, which is the most targeted traffic we can get. It’s GOLDEN TRAFFIC.

It’s way more effective to target a market with real physical and/or digital products where people already buy. You will be promoting products and services, and you will be creating your own products.

You can get ideas for this task based on your personal needs as a customer.

In every situation, there are always 2 sides of a coin.

You may think of exploring such an extremely competitive niche in the future, but if this is your first attempt try to choose something less competitive.

But how can you tell if a niche is competitive? For that reason, you need some tools, with the most important being a keyword research tool. 

It’s harder to build an authority site, it takes longer, and you need to be more consistent in terms of creating content and adding fresh information and material. But authority sites can be monetized easier, there are more flexible, and literally with no limits in potential and growth.

Micro-niches can get you results faster, you don’t need to be so consistent with publishing new material, but they are somehow limited in terms of growth, traffic, and monetization. But although authority sites in the majority return higher profits, sometimes the most obscure and smaller niches are the highest paying segments., because there’s way less competition.

There is no golden rule, you have to make a decision on your own, don’t worry though, whatever niche you choose there are opportunities and you will do business. Remember, there are over 3 billion people online searching for information on products and services and they buy stuff.

A Niche Market Breakdown

A Viable Niche Market Requirements

1. A topic we are interested in and we want to learn more about and one that can be updated regularly with fresh content
2. Enough demand based on the volume of keyword searches per month
3. Less possible competition
4. Enough volume of related keywords and searches
5. Increasing, Stable or at least Non-Decreasing Trends
6. Real products and services, people’s buying intention

Following the 6 Niche Selection Elements

Now it’s time to find a sub-niche to get started. You have to test if there is any ‘Lose Weight’ sub-niche worth targeting because as we analyzed targeting the whole Lose Weight industry would be very difficult.

There are many people building Health & Fitness related niche-websites where they track their progress and experiences with new workout programs, diets they try, and update their content all along.

Keyword Research

1. Enough demand based on the volume of keyword searches for our main keyword
2. Less possible competition
3. Enough volume of all related keywords and searches

There are many Keyword Research tools online and you can use any tool you want

I plug in my favorite WA Keyword Research Tool to examine the ‘Lose Weight’ broad market

Here are the keyword research results of the ‘Lose Weight’ query with numbers and data using the tool.

The screenshot shows only the very first of results. As expected, this particular search query ‘Lose Weight’ returned hundreds of related keywords. There are over 800 results but I will narrow them down

• Searches – How many times a particular keyword is being used per month on Google, Yahoo, and Bing
• Traffic – How much traffic (visits) you will get on estimate if you get rankings on the first page of the search engines
• Competition – How many websites target the same exact keyword

1. Enough demand based on the volume of keyword searches for our main keyword (ideally over 200)
2. Enough volume of all related keywords and searches (ideally over 500 combined)
3. Less possible competition (ideally less than 100 per keyword)

Of course, we want the most of traffic and searches with the less possible competition

• The ‘Lose Weight’ query is placed in the 5th position. It’s been searched over 200,000 times per month.
• The “Weight Loss’ query which is, in essence, the same query returns almost the same volume of searches.
• The query ‘How to Lose Weight’, again, returns the same volume of searches.
• These 3 keywords alone are being searched over 600,000 times per month. That number is huge.
• That means if you can get on the 1st page of the search engines for this query your website will receive only from 1 keyword over 35,000 visits per month.

Here’s the first table I created selecting interesting keywords and including the competition factor:

At this point, I have only performed one single search using the keyword tool…the ‘Lose Weight’ query, and by using the related keywords the tool provides on the same page, I come up with sub-niche ideas on the spot.

“Lose weight” narrowed down sub-niches:

A keyword with 200 competition can be targeted effectively (there are methods that we can use to rank for any keyword we want). But if we go and narrow it down we may discover greater opportunities.

Every related keyword to the query ‘How to Lose Weight Fast’ is a potential micro-niche we can target with our content.

Now imagine it again, I examined one secondary keyword, the ‘How to Lose Weight Fast’ to get 30 additional results. If every primary keyword from the 1st search query “Lose Weight” returns 30 additional results, that means we can target 30 X 100’spotential micro-segments of this market.

At first look, the 4th result, ‘How to lose weight fast for free’ looks like a niche in which people are searching for free information only. But that does not mean we can’t monetize it successfully. Someone might search to solve a problem for free, but in the process, they might decide to purchase products and services, for example,  in order to speed up their results.

If we dedicate a department on our site targeting this micro-niche, we can promote products and services on the side. We can even create our own digital/informational products on a special premium section on our site.

This is a whole new subject for discussion, it has to do with the buyer’s journey. Every customer before the moment of purchase gets through some phases and we can target customers in every phase of their journey. And yes, at some point we will target keywords containing the magical word ‘Free’ no matter our niche. Every keyword counts because every keyword brings in traffic, meaning more potential sales.

The new table after the 3rd and 4th search is as follows:

Important detail

We have 4 keywords with less than 10 competition. What does it mean? With just one article we can get ranked on the first page of the search engines automatically. Less than 10 websites compete for those keywords.

So far the keyword we examine has passed 4 out of 6 viable niche requirements

1. A topic we’re interested in
2. Enough demand
3. Less possible competition
4. Enough volume of related keyword searches

But we’re not done yet with the related keywords. We can expand the list of relevant keywords using the search engines, Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other tools as well in order to gather more data, ideas, and potential niches to explore by getting to know what people are also searching for.

The Most Sophisticated Keyword Tool In The Market – Jaaxy

Using Search Engines to Better Understand your Customers

Usually, I search for terms like:

• Things to know about XXX (product or niche)
• What every XXX (your niche) person needs to know
• Tips on XXX (product or niche)
• Tips on how to XXX (niche)

and other similar queries. You can be as much creative as you want.

1st query – Things to know about ‘Losing Weight’

I skim through the articles that show up on the first page of the results. The first article is entitled “Things you should know about weight loss”. Sounds interesting.

• Quick fixes don’t work
• You don’t have to give up carbs to lose weight
• It’s OK to let your body feel hunger
• Gluten probably isn’t making you fat
• It’s incredibly difficult to lose weight without changing diet
• Sometimes eating more can help you lose weight
• Your thyroid probably isn’t making you fat
• The best fitness classes for weight loss involve high-intensity cardio

I will not proceed with another article at this time, it exceeds the example’s purpose. You can expand your research even further visiting other websites on your own.

Those key points can help you organize content for your website. Not only, you might find new lucrative niches to hunt them down.

Key points

• Quick fixes don’t work – We know already people are searching for this information. They use terms like How to lose weight fast. We examined those keywords

• You don’t have to give up carbs to lose weight

Bingo!…1st keyword – Give up carbs 72 searches, 161 competition, 2nd keyword Giving up carbs 88 searches, 324 competition

• It’s OK to let your body feel hunger

Many keywords as expected. 1st Feel hunger 40 searches, 400 competition. 2nd Feeling hunger 120 searches, 300 competition. 3rd Feeling hunger after eating 24 searches, 8 competition. Too many keywords to list them all.

• Gluten probably isn’t making you fat

1st Does gluten make you fat 80 searches, 60 competition, 2nd Gluten bad 267 searches, 273 competition, 3rd related keyword “Will protein make me fat”? 32 searches, 23 competition.  There are many other gluten-related keywords.

Just by searching one simple query on Google, Things to know about ‘Losing Weight’, and by visiting only 1 website I came up with a bunch of related keywords, each and every one of them is a potential sub-niche or micro-niche.

Additionally, I discovered 2 keywords with less than 10 competition, thanks to very powerful keyword tool.

Exciting stuff!

With one article on your website targeting these specific queries, you can bring in traffic in minutes.

And later on, as I will gain experience by blogging and reading, I can create my own digital ‘Lose Weight’ e-books, guides, and reports.

The more you perform “Keyword Research” the more you gain insights into your industry and niche. This is how you can understand the market. This is why having a detailed plan up-front is what will make you stand out from the crowd, as I have already highlighted at the beginning of this phase.

I will examine only the keywords we came up with doing our primary keyword research. Of course, you can exceed your research using those new queries on your own at a later time.

Trends

• Lose Weight (broad niche) – to check the general trends for the big market category
• How to lose weight fast (sub-niche)
• How to lose weight for kids (sub-niche)
• How to lose weight fast for kids (micro-niche)

The results

• For the last 12 months, the graph is somehow stable, no big changes
• For the past 5 years, the graph follows a certain pattern, stable
• From 2004 till now the graph shows that the demand started to increase since 2008. From 2010 till today the graph remains stabilized.

2) How to lose weight fast

For the last 12 months, the graph shows a peak in January and July, a drop from September until the end of the year (screenshot)

• For the past 5 years, the graph goes up and down following a pattern, with a slight drop for this year
• From 2004 till now the graph shows a peak from 2010 – 2011, dropping slightly ever since (screenshot)

• For the last 12 months, the graph shows a peak in January and July, a drop from September until the end of the year (very similar to the previous query, How to lose weight fast)
• For the last 5 years, the graph shows a peak in 2013, stable ever since
• From 2004 till now, the graph shows a peak between 2010-2012, dropping slightly ever since (screenshot)

• For the last 12 months, the graph shows a peak in July, drop in the summer months, higher during the winter
• For the last 5 years, the graph shows a peak in 2013, and another peak in August 2014, and a few middle peaks ever since (screenshot)

Products and Services

This is where the magic of this business model comes in.

The most sufficient, effective, and shortest way is promoting products and services from existing companies, products that solve your customers’ problems, satisfy their needs, and desires in order to earn commissions. The final price of the product remains the same, the customer receives the same value, and you don’t have to worry about customer service.

There are thousands of companies eager for your co-operation and they will share their profits with you at no extra cost for the retail customer. Amazon, the world’s probably biggest online retailer built their empire with the power of their publishers and promoters.

This way you start seeing results fast, and you earn commissions to scale and develop your business. You take advantage of the traffic that your website will receive as you publish content, even from day 1

Retail Stores

For this case, we look for ‘Weight Loss’ supplements, recipes, diets, equipment, or even clothing, accessories, books, and videos.

Just by typing the main keyword ‘Lose Weight’ the instant search function shows popular related results before I even press the enter button, just like Google does in the search bar. This information can be used to hunt down potential micro-segments of the market.

1) Lose Weight

There is a whole ‘Weight Loss’ department full of products in various categories. 135 pages with results

• Fat burner supplements, Appetite control & suppressants
• Supplements, Green coffee bean extract
• Diuretics, CLA supplements, Carbohydrate blocker
• Detox & Cleanse, Raspberry ketones, Bars & snacks
• Diets kits & systems, Shakes & powders

Bestsellers (screenshot)

• Weight loss diets, other diet books
• Special diets, weight loss recipes, nutrition
• Health, fitness & dieting, Ketogenic, Self-help

101 pages with ‘Lose Weight’ books (screenshot)

For this case, we look for ‘Weight Loss’ supplements, recipes, diets, equipment, or even clothing, accessories, books, and videos.

3,935 results for ‘Lose Weight’ products. Fat burners (screenshot)

You can participate in the eBay’s partner network to promote products that are aligned with your website’s content and earn commissions.

For this case, we look for ‘Weight Loss’ supplements, recipes, diets, equipment, or even clothing, accessories, books, and videos.

25,212 results for ‘Lose Weight’ products

WalMart has an affiliate program powered by LinkShare (Rakuten Marketing), which is an affiliate network. Those networks enlist many vendors divided by categories, and they handle all the transactions between those who promote the products and the product owners

Now it’s time to search for products in Affiliate Networks. An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between publishers (affiliates) and merchant affiliate programs. 

You can participate in any of these networks and promote products aligned with your website’s content from vendors around the world. Every network has its own rules so take the time to read them before you proceed with any co-operation.

Affiliate Networks

• Arts & entertainment, business, computers
• Education, food, green products
• Health & fitness, software, sports

Tips: Go to ClickBank’s marketplace and search for products related to your niche. You can refine your search using various attributes. The most important factor is what they call ‘Gravity’, meaning how many affiliates are promoting a certain product. Choose products with Gravity 40 or more (screenshot).

• Total ‘Lose Weight’ products 565.
• Total ‘Lose Weight’ products with Gravity (40+) 9.

Independent Affiliate Programs

1. A topic we’re interested in
2. Enough demand
3. Less possible competition
4. Enough volume of related keyword searches
5. Increasing, Stable or at least non-decreasing trends
6. Real products and services, people’s buying intention

Paid Ads in the Search Engines

‘Golden’ Queries to Track Products and to Get Ideas for Your Niche

Research Examples – Search for terms like

• Best deal on XXX (your product)
• Best place to buy XXX (product)
• Buy XXX (product)
• Buy XXX (product) in (region) or for (age/gender/person…)
• Best price to buy XXX (product) in (region) or for (person)
• Search for articles-lists. Top 50 products in the XXX (niche)
• Best XXX (product/niche) for XXX (person/region/age/gender…)
• Search for independent affiliate programs using terms like XXX (product or niche) affiliate programs
• Search for similar queries, try to find the best fits for your niche and content

In the Digital Business Roadmap training, I breakdown more niche markets in detail, following another procedure. I begin by identifying ‘Hot Trends’, hot topics that are popular and people already spend money in these markets.

Niche Market Research Example – Recap

1) We decided to examine the ‘Lose Weight’ industry, a topic we’re interested in and we’re eager to learn more about in order to help other people and create a real business. We wanted to know if there are profitable sub-niches worth targeting.

These hundreds of keywords gave us insights into what people are interested in when they want to lose weight.

We found out that every keyword is a micro-segment of the ‘Lose Weight’ category, and we can target these micro-segments with our content.

Then, we created the first keyword table of ‘Lose Weight’ narrowed down sub-niches and we decided to examine the ‘How to lose weight fast’ sub-niche because of its popularity. There were 200 competing websites for this particular query, so, we decided to move on with our research to spot smaller sub-niches with less than 100 competition.

We performed a 2nd keyword search, this time for the query ‘How to lose weight fast’ and we came up with 30 additional results. 30 related keywords, 30 potential micro-segments of the market.

We created the 2nd table showing ‘How to lose weight fast’ narrowed down micro-niches and we began examining those new keywords starting with the less competitive one.

We decided to exclude the ‘How to lose weight fast for free’ keyword because of the word ‘Free’ and we proceeded with our research for the keyword ‘How to lose weight fast for kids’.

At this point, we know already that all the keywords in the 2nd table are easy to target micro-segments because of the low competition.

We used the keyword tool once more to find related keywords for 2 new queries, the ‘How to lose weight fast for kids’ and the ‘How to lose weight for kids’ without the word ‘Fast’ included.

We created a 3rd keyword table filled with keywords with a very low competition. 4 of them with competition less than 10. When we target keywords with such low competition we can get ranked in the search engines almost immediately, if we provide relevant and valuable content.

We examined the total volume of all related keywords to these 2 last queries and the results were more than satisfying.

We took a quick look at how you can expand keyword research by examining the related searches feature that all the popular search engines include. All you have to do in that case is to use the keyword tool to analyze the demand and competition for these related keywords.

Then we used the popular search engines once more in order to understand our customers better and we searched for the query ‘Things to know about ‘Losing Weight’.

By visiting only 1 website we came up with very interesting insights. We created a mini list of key points and we used the keyword tool to find out that people are already searching for these terms. More potential micro-segments to target.

Excited, we discovered 2 more keywords with less than 10 competition and we got to know that people are searching for information regarding the terms ‘Gluten’, ‘Thyroid’, and ‘High-intensity Cardio’ (programs, classes, and exercises) among others.

More potential products and services to be promoted and examined even further.

We found out that there is demand in general. Wintertime peaks, summertime drops and a slight drop during the last years. But is a topic where people are searching for information since 2004, at least. That means the market is alive for many years, it won’t go anywhere in the near future.

On Amazon, we discovered a whole ‘Weight Loss’ department full of products, 135 pages of product results (supplements, extracts, diuretics, blockers, ketones, bars & snacks, diet kit systems, shakers & powders, accessories, clothing) and 101 pages of book results.

On eBay, we found 3,935 ‘Weight Loss’ listings. On WalMart, 25,212 results.

We expanded our search on Clickbank, an affiliate network full of vendors and products. We found 565 ‘Weight Loss’ products with 9 of them passing the viable ‘Gravity’ requirement.

We discussed how you can expand your keyword research using other retail stores, affiliate networks, and the popular search engines by typing in ‘Golden’ queries or searching for independent vendors offering affiliate programs. And of course, you can expand the keyword research for any of the primary keywords.

We found out that there are paid ads in the search engines for our keyword and that means the market has potential as companies pay to get advertised.

Which sub-niche should you target first following this example?

For example, you may find that the keyword we examined, ‘How to lose weight for kids’ don’t have enough products, or you may think that the prices of the products or the commissions for publishers are not satisfactory.

Whatever the reason, you may want to choose one keyword over another.

I would approach this topic through a ‘Progress Demonstration’ model, as I said at the beginning. I would choose a weight loss product, workout, or training series, in order to track my progress in real time. People are always eager for personal reviews on every product of the market. They want opinions from others that used a product before they make their final decision.

From there, I would expand in other micro-niches, sub-niches and ideas as I’d be gaining experience.

 

The potential in the ‘Weight Loss’ industry is unlimited

The most important thing is to choose a micro-niche and get started with your content. Then, you expand in another micro-niche using new keywords, and you repeat.

But don’t lose days or weeks just planning without taking action. Don’t get obsessed with the numbers and think …” hey, this keyword has 112 competition, and this one has 89, which should I choose?”…These are traps in which you might fall, I’ve had my share. Don’t lose time with extreme details. Every keyword counts.

Additionally, don’t take the KWR (Keyword Rule) for granted. There are many keywords with less than 50 searches per month that could be proved very lucrative. They key thing is to target keywords that people use with the intention to buy products and services.

Which type of Niche should you choose for your 1st website?

• There is no such thing as a wrong niche choice.
• Every niche, no matter its size, is Profitable. Broad niches are harder in terms of competition, micro-niches are easier segments to market and you’ll get faster results. It only comes down to your goals.
• Competition is not an obstacle to be afraid of. In fact, competition means that the market has potential and other people are making money already. So you can do it too

In the Digital Business Roadmap training, I help people decide their niche with a questionnaire.

What Else You Need to Get Started

Affiliates are making money mostly by creating websites, but money can be made even without owning a website. But have in mind, that without a website it’s much harder to attract online traffic, to get recognized, and eventually build a brand name.

 

Not to mention that you’ll have a hard time to get approved by many companies on affiliate networks, as the majority of them require that affiliates run websites or at least run social accounts and profiles with a strong followers’ base.

 

And I strongly recommend that you focus on creating a website. Besides, spamming people on social media or other communities with affiliate promotions is not an effective way to make money. People are turned off by these promotions. You have to redirect people to your website. This is how you build an authority brand name.

• A domain name
• Web hosting services, A web host, or web hosting service provider, is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for the website or webpage to be viewed on the Internet. Websites are hosted or stored, on special computers called servers. A web hosting provider is also offering technical support.
• A website builder/platform where you can build a website on your own in a matter of minutes even if you don’t have any technical experience, or a custom-made website, which is an expensive solution, not recommended for beginners.

In the Digital Business Roadmap training:

• I analyze my Domain Choice Key Points
• I show people how I chose this domain name
• I give a list of tools you can use to help you choose a domain name
• I provide a list of domain registrars
• I discuss what to do when choosing web hosting services, where you should focus on, what to expect
• I give a list of website builders/platforms with details and I compare them
• And finally, I present my Top recommended builder

How to Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

Part 2

• Outbound and Inbound marketing
• The customer purchase lifecycle
• Keyword examples
• Researching the competition to gain insights
• Content creation/distribution

and

Various ways to gain online traffic

• Website content in various formats
• Blogging (general articles, news, lists, spark conversation, personal stories, discussions, answering questions, reviews, comparisons, guides, pillar articles, controversial topics)
• Pages (research, case studies, landing pages, optin pages,  members’ area, dashboards, eCommerce, products, store, interactive pages)
• Visual content (galleries, infographics, bars, charts, mini graphs, maps, GIFs)
• Audio (lessons, books, narrating, podcasts, interviews, commercials)
• Video (tutorials, how to’s, product reviews, announcements, testimonials, new product releases, launches, promotions, commercials)
• SEO (search engine optimization)
• Email marketing
• Article marketing on Forums, Communities, Groups
• Video marketing and channels, Live events, Workshops, Webinars, Seminars, Presentations
• Social Media Campaigns / Blogging Platforms / Boards / Surveys / Quizzes / Polls / Business Pages / Public or Private Groups / Chatrooms
• Podcasts, Audio Interviews
• Free Services / Memberships / Lead Magnets on our site
• Relationships / Connections (online/offline)
• Influencer Marketing (making relationships with top industry names to expose our brand in new networks)
• Guest Blogging (posting content on other people’s websites or letting others post content on our site)
• Paid advertising & PPC (where we buy ads on search engines, social media platforms, and other sites/properties)
• Product creation
• Outbound or Cold techniques (cold emails, phone calls, interruptive media…)