Niche Research – Finding Your Product to Promote

One of many free affiliate marketing tips.

There are a lot of very good programs to assist an affiliate marketer to help find good products – Niches – to promote including my favorite, Market Samurai.

This site was built to assist the beginner to be able to get started without having to spend an exorbitant amount of money as they learn the system.

Here are 13 of my favorite ways to snoop around and find that Niche I want to promote “the free way”.

EzineArticles Article Directory:

EzineArticles (EZA) is well known as one of the, if not THE, top article directories on the internet.

If you go to their site and click on the industry you would like to promote it will produce an impressive list of sub-categories.

You can then further refine your search to one of those sub-categories and get a close look at what others are promoting, the tactics they are using, and the affiliate programs attached to that Niche.  (You can also view what the top authors are promoting and see what is hot!)

DMOZ Open Directory Project:

The DMOZ Directory Website – Try visiting their site and click on an industry or Category that interests you.

It will then open up another listing where you can dig even deeper to find your Niche.

Quite often you can go 3, 4, or 5 levels down and find some unique micro niches that will give you some great ideas to promote.  It is an outstanding resource for niche research and is used by many internet marketers looking for new ideas.

eHow.com Q&A Website:

eHow.com Website is a nice site to find unique niches to promote.

Check out their Top Ten eHows, the Featured How Tos, and the eHow Essentials.  You just may come across some great niche ideas.

You must remember that the best way to sell as an affiliate marketer is to find a product that solves a problem or satisfies a need of a consumer.  Question and answer sites tell you what is on the minds of consumers.  Can you find a way to answer their needs and make a profit?

Yahoo! Answers Website:

Yahoo! Answers is another interactive website to investigate.  This one is even hotter than eHow.com.

This site has a large following of posters asking questions and looking for solutions. Do you have the answer to their needs?  If you do it could be a great Niche!

You also have to remember they are a High Authority PR8 site!  Sign up and make a dozen or so innocent posts without promoting anything to make yourself a regular.  Then when you find someone asking for something you can use to promote an affiliate product, make a nice post using a cloaked affiliate link as a resource for them!

Google Trends:

Google Trends allows you to see what is hot NOW, not last week, last month, or last year!

When you go to the site you can find out what are the hot topics and searches consumers are searching for on the internet.

You will be surprised how many times one can find an obscure topic that is heating up.  If you can find a trend that is evolving and jump into an affiliate program related to that trend before it becomes over populated with competition, you can get established and get an edge on everyone else!

Dummies.com:

The Dummies.com Website is a fun site.  It is also a valuable resource to find a targeted product, a niche!

By now I am sure you have seen many ads for eBooks addressing solutions for “Dummies”.  The list of topics is enormous!

You can research this site just like any directory choosing a category and drilling down to find ideas to promote.  It is actually a fun way to research different topics that almost always have affiliate products involved which you can choose to promote.  Give it a try!  It is free Niche research with a twist!

eBay Auction Site:

The eBay Auction Site is so well established I am sure you have heard of them.

It can be used to search for items people are looking to BUY!  That is important because you want a Niche targeted towards Buyers!

By doing searches on eBay you can find out what is hot!  The items that are selling with the highest percentage of completed sales, the most competition from buyers and the keywords they are using to find the items with.  What more could you ask for?  A great tool for physical product niche markets!

Additional Sites to Check Out:

• Mooter.com Research Search Engine is a highly recommended tool to use.
  
• Shopping.com Consumer Demand Index – another valuable tool
  
• Alexa.com Can tell you what is hot and help identify good niches!
  
• SEODigger.com – an excellent way to check out the competition and see what they are doing!
  
• Snap.com – Similar to Google instant to find out ideas of what is being searched for.
  
• ClickBank Analytics – An excellent site to find niches being carried by ClickBank.

I hope the 13 research ideas listed above will help you in finding your niche in the affiliate market!

From a collection of Free Affiliate Marketing Tips published by Free Affiliate Marketing Tips and Tools