What comes first, niche or affiliate program?

[Jon12345]

When you are doing affiliate marketing, what is the best way to go about it? Do you choose a niche and then find affliiate programs? Or is it best to find an affiliate program and then go build keywords around that?

What is considered best practice?

Jon

 

[juniodude]

I'm not sure about everyones say on this, especially because i've been focusing on arbitrage. But i would think both are equally important(at least for your first few sites) You want to be able to choose a niche that you would be able to sit down and write about(but then again if the niche is totally trivial, like underwater coke snorting, then of course there will be no aff. programs) Think up a list of niches you might be interested in..then look at competition(numbers and sites) and look at affiliate programs available and if all matches well, make your site.

I think the first few sites are usually for "practice" Eventually, you can really start monetizing and look at good paying aff. programs. At least that is what i believe.

 

[Michel Z.]

That's a good question!

I should first research which niches have not too many competition and still sufficient searches in order to create traffic to my sites. Next from the niches which falling into this category, pick the ones you can use for affiliate offers to promote... Definitely, I will choose different streams of revenue for my sites and not only affiliate offers I think, but also do contextual advertising for example like Adsense!

 

[Juicify]

You must have a good clue about both from the beginning.

It's not very successful to find a niche with little competition and alot of searches and build a website of that to then see that there are no profitable ads for this niche!

The other way round works a bit better. Say you first find a niche with ads that pays big time, much like you do with arbitrage, you build a website for that niche, and then you see that there were way too much competition for this niche. Well this works pretty well with arbitrage, but arbitrage isn't all about just having 1 site, it's much about alot of sites! But if you have been into the game for a long time like Jon, you could push a new site in a niche with alot of competition pretty well. But I'm pretty sure that Jon takes much things into the calculation before a new website or project; competition, amount of searches, profitable ads, possible ROI etc.

Hope this answered some question :338:

 

[Michel Z.]

You must have a good clue about both from the beginning.

It's not very successful to find a niche with little competition and alot of searches and build a website of that to then see that there are no profitable ads for this niche!

The other way round works a bit better. Say you first find a niche with ads that pays big time, much like you do with arbitrage, you build a website for that niche, and then you see that there were way too much competition for this niche. Well this works pretty well with arbitrage, but arbitrage isn't all about just having 1 site, it's much about alot of sites! But if you have been into the game for a long time like Jon, you could push a new site in a niche with alot of competition pretty well. But I'm pretty sure that Jon takes much things into the calculation before a new website or project; competition, amount of searches, profitable ads, possible ROI etc.

Hope this answered some question :338:

After reading this, this might be a better option!

 

[trigatch4]

If you're Jon you're on a completely different playing field, although he may do the same type of competitive analysis.

It takes money to make money, and when you can shell out a few grand for web development, scripts and customized web programs to create a truly unique and functioning application or system online.... you can stay one step ahead of the curve and have the imitators imitating you.

 

[Andrew]

The problem with going at the niche first is there might not be any good affiliate programs out there. If you want to do something that has plenty of programs out there like mortgage leads, payday loans, voip, ringtones, etc. then you don't need to worry about the programs because you'll have plenty to pick from.

 

[Michel Z.]

The problem with going at the niche first is there might not be any good affiliate programs out there. If you want to do something that has plenty of programs out there like mortgage leads, payday loans, voip, ringtones, etc. then you don't need to worry about the programs because you'll have plenty to pick from.

Just wondering:

Those highly competitive affiliate programs you mentioned still have enough niches to pick from (including traffic) you think?

Thanks!

 

[AzoogleAds Yuli]

I would have to say affiliate network first, better yet - a handful of them, not just one. Review the programs they have, this might even give you an idea for a niche

 

[aeiouy]

I would have to say affiliate network first, better yet - a handful of them, not just one. Review the programs they have, this might even give you an idea for a niche

Isn't that a bit of a catch-22 though, as pretty much every affiliate program asks for one or more of your sites you own. I know they have varying levels of caring about those sites, I will just say in some cases someone new might be disuaded because they do not already have an established site.

 

[Stanley]

Isn't that a bit of a catch-22 though, as pretty much every affiliate program asks for one or more of your sites you own. I know they have varying levels of caring about those sites, I will just say in some cases someone new might be disuaded because they do not already have an established site.

I believe the idea is that you build the site after you find what programs you want to promote. So you scope out what you like, build the site, then join. After they approve you, stick your affiliate links into the site.