How To Make Super Affiliate Commissions

The other day, my mom shocked me. She asked me what a niche market was, and since she is not an online marketer ( doesn’t turn the computer on regularly enough to use email ), this question appeared quite out of the blue. Perhaps I should not have been surprised because in the area of marketing but particularly online marketing, this term is showing up more and more frequently. In truth, one of those late night, “Be the next internet Millionaire” scams that airs at 4 am for those with insomnia, also trumpets this term.

So, to the heart of it – what is Niche Marketing ? Is it another of those overhyped terms or does this fad have some legs?

So let’s see what its isn’t. – It isn’t something you can buy – It isn’t something you can make ( well not directly ) – It’s not a new job opening so don’t ask your boss for a transfer – And as usual, the hordes of people taking a stab at it are nearly all probably going to fail.

So Let’s Look at An Example

Here is my own quick definition : Niche Marketing is an examination or sales analysis of a very narrow marketing segment that is being under-served by the competition. Let’s see what this looks like.

Marketing to those that buy – Basketball shoes. Niche or not? Not – Michael Jordan running shoes. Niche or not. Not (What did that surprise you?) – Michael Jordan High-Top running shoes. Niche or not? Feeling the sun yet ? – Michael Jordan HighTops signed by the great one himself . Niche or no Niche? Jackpot !

This last example sounds like a niche for sure. It has a narrow focus and we have eliminated several wider approaches to our target audience. So, should we run out and stock up on these specialty running shoes in anticipation of the demand?

If you want to lose your shirt go ahead! That was a joke, don’t do it. Please don’t think that I slipped and just told you about my huge money maker and have now decided to take it back. Further from the truth we could not be. We have an unproven premise here.

The prior example was just that. An example of the narrowing market segment that a niche market might end up in. That wasn’t even the process used to find a niche market so please don’t jump on that one. Even if half a dozen sports friends asked me for that product next week, I would neither stock nor drop ship this product for reasons that you will soon know.

So, did I just give you a really bad Niche Market example?

It might be and maybe it wasn’t but we don’t know that yet. When doing this kind of research one has to remind oneself that people use specific key words when searching for a product or service. Only the search engines, search engine tools ( like KeyWordwatcher ) really know what is being searched for. And unfortunately only niche marketing software tools can give one the market intelligence needed in order to make a business decision.

If we know how many people are searching for the product and how many competing websites there are, isn’t this enough information to quantify this as a niche product? Wasn’t this what groups traditionally used to make their decision in the past? Well, it was, but it’s not enough anymore. There are tools out there now that can make a newbie 10 times more efficient and powerful than the traditional analysis used just 6 months ago.

You may be someone with experience with keyword usage based on several of the great tools out there like KeyWordwatcher or the excellent google adwords tool that gives you exact number of potential clients for broad, phrase and exact searches. Perhaps even you were like me, thinking that I could use those excellent tools to find Niche Market products. Well, you probably can if you have an enormous amount of time, but a total newbie using specific niche software would blow us all out of the water due to the specificity of those tools now.

Competitive Niche tool products go significantly further than just how many potential clients are searching and whether the competition has the keyword on their site. They use algorithms that use several additional variables for ranking competition. They can immediately open affiliate sites like clickbank and others with a related product already found and ready for you to use. They can find articles from Private Label Sources for reprint. And this is less than a 1/10th of their abilities.

Why anyone would want to search for niche products the old manual way is really beyond me. Save yourself some time have a look at a few potential products that you can use. Watch the videos and see what I mean.

One last thing about niche keyword research. There is something called commercial intent. Microsoft’s ad center has an online program that enables one to see if a searched for phrase has stronger commercial intent than research behind it.