What are low competition niches for affiliate marketing? A niche is a sub-topic within a larger subject area. For example, affiliate marketing is a niche within the “money making online” niche. “affiliate marketing for seniors” is a sub-niche within the affiliate marketing niche. To find low competition niches for affiliate marketing, you need to look at either obscure topics, which have little to no competition, or find micro niches, within a larger subject area.
The main problem with obscurity is that it’s more difficult to monetise with affiliate marketing. There’s fewer affiliate products within those niches and the few products there are don’t sell well! Topics in the main stream sell well and all year round. The main niches which are generally thought of as good to go for in affiliate marketing are:
- Health and Fitness
- Wealth/personal finance
- Money making online
- Technology
- Pets
- Hobbies and interests
- Dating and relationships
These are the well paying affiliate niches which make money all year round – known as “evergreen” niches. But as most affiliates will know, they are pretty saturated. To get organic traffic for any of these topics takes a huge amount of time and investment. But for a sub niche, or a micro niche this is less so.
Low Competition Niches For Affiliate Marketing – A Micro Niche
A micro niche is good for a couple of reasons. It attracts a specific audience and there’s less competition. With a specific audience you know which products will be best to promote. See how to know your target market.
“Affiliate marketing for seniors” for example, is a micro niche within the affiliate marketing niche. Although affiliate marketing is hugely competitive, by choosing a specific sub-niche within it, you attract a certain type of person and the sub niche is less competitive.
Building a website in a very competitive niche is going to take a long time and a lot of work. Most will quit before anything actually happens. Likewise with a YouTube channel. But a micro niche lets you create an online presence in an evergreen niche, without going up against the big boys! Long standing websites and YouTube channels have a tonne of backlinks and content. They have often been around for years and are well established. A brand new affiliate will struggle going up against them looking for free traffic.
Here’s a few suggestions for sub niches within the most profitable categories:
- Money making online – affiliate marketing for seniors
- Health and fitness – Chair exercises for the elderly
- Personal finance – Retirees guide to money management
- Technology – DIY electrical fixes from home
- Pets – Crate training for Alsatian puppies
- Hobbies and Interests – Lockdown hobbies for a pandemic!
- Dating and relationships – Confidence hacks for the over 50’s
See also micro niche website examples.
Low Competition Niches For Affiliate Marketing – Obscure Topics
Another way to find low competition niches for affiliate marketing is to pick obscure topics and use Google’s keyword planner to find them. However, be aware that some topics are going to be difficult to monetise because of this obscurity.
As an example, I once created a website around the topic of garlic harvesting. Although I did rank my website and get traffic, it was difficult to maintain my interest in the topic and keep creating content for it. It was also hard to monetise because there were no good affiliate programs in this subject area.
So before rushing in and creating a tonne of content on a topic, do some research and decide whether you can monetise it based on your topic. Here’s a few other lesser thought of topics you can create content on:
- Model railways
- Scrapbooking
- Stamp collecting
- Handicraft
- Scale models
- Bargain Travel Tips
- DIY mechanics
- House plants
- Recipes for students
- Re-skilling in your 50’s
- Career options for retirees
- Moth collecting
- Bees
Follow Your Passion – Remember To Monetise
Many affiliates advocate following your passions when it comes to building an affiliate business. But you also need to find an area which can be monetised, if you want to make it profitable. If you have a hobby or interest, look at ways you can monetise that interest with an information website or a YouTube channel which gives value to its visitors.
Before choosing a topic think about:
- Can you spend months/years building content on that topic?
- Will you need to research every piece of content you create?
- How will you monetise it and are there good affiliate products within the niche?
Making Little Traffic Go Further
In a competitive niche, it’s much harder to get traffic. But you can make a small amount of traffic go further if you have a well targeted audience within your micro niche. As people land on your website, or YouTube channel, if the information you provide leads them to a product they want or need, you have a well targeted audience.
In this scenario a small amount of traffic can do better than a large number of less well targeted visitors. So by targeting each piece of content you create at your specific audience, you’ll get more from your site. To get the best out of your traffic, offer something for free on your site and build an email list. An email list will make your efforts go further because you can build a long term relationship with your visitors and subscribers. See the power of email marketing.
Another way to get more out of your efforts is by choosing recurring income affiliate programs. With subscription and software products, partner programs often offer recurring commissions to affiliates. With a few recurring commissions coming in month after month, you’ll be profitable more quickly and be able to build more stability into your affiliate business with less work. One off commissions are all well and good, but if you have a slow month or two, the money stops. Recurring income is best! See also high ticket affiliate marketing. High ticket sales pay much larger than average affiliate commissions and are another way of generating more income from the same amount of work.
See also best niche for affiliate marketing.