Great changes bring great opportunities. Learn how to recognize an opportunity when things go wrong. Last year (2020) was a disaster for business overall. Peel a few layers from that onion and figure out how to take advantage of the situation.
Start with the understanding that your product is determined by the customer want or need you satisfy. The big 2020 want was Covid-19 relief. Most all other wants flowed from Covid-19 social restrictions. Within your niche what can you provide that satisfies one or more of these?
Big 3 Affiliate Marketing Niches
The top affiliate niches are relationships, weight loss and income. 2020 and now 2021 make these niches stronger than before. People lost jobs, cannot socialize and signs reveal they are gaining weight.
Your job is figuring out how to satisfy these needs/wants in a restricted economy. Let’s look at weight loss. Gyms are closed due to Covid-19. In many parts of the nation parks and free outdoor exercise areas are closed to the public. Now is a great time to market exercise tools, weight loss programs and diet cookbooks.
The links above are all to products on Amazon. I’m an Amazon affiliate and use these as an example of low cost items bringing customers into your funnel. A prospect clicking on any of those links is mine for 24-hours. If they explore low-cost resistance bands and decide to purchase a treadmill or exercycle all the better.
FYI – don’t neglect weight loss programs. I lost 30+ pounds in a few months last year. Now I’m going for another 20. My gym is closed so I bought a recumbent exercycle (Amazon) and follow a moderated Keto diet (book and supplements from Amazon).
Drill down into the health niche and locate products that are quick sellers. Use them to build our list and expand your offerings.
Niches Not Explored
Affiliate marketing is the fastest way to start an online business. I’m surprised how many people sign up for Amazon Associates account before learning how to generate traffic. When sales don’t come Amazon drops them or the aspiring affiliate thinks making money on the Internet is a bunch of hooey and quits.
Just like golf you “learn to play, not play to learn” when starting an online business. It is rather easy to set up an authority website and populate it as an affiliate for a niche your familiar with. Start by expanding the big 3 – relationships, weight loss and income. These are broad niches and your best opportunity is to drill down, seeking narrower niches fitting one of the big three.
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- The Technology Niche.
- The Health / Weight loss / Fitness Niche.
- Digital Marketing Niche.
- Love/Relationship Niche.
- Finances and Investments Niche.
- The Pet Care Niche.
- The Entertainment (Movies/Music) Niche.
- The Fashion/Beauty Niche.
Expand your thinking. #8 may be part of relationship, as is #4. Then #1 may fit in more than one broad niche depending on the technology. An example is FitBit in #2 or music software in #7.
Be guided by a famous Steve Jobs quote, “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers”.
Affiliate marketing is little different than everyday retail. You know your products and your customer needs and wants the products satisfy. Don’t market tropical fish to a woodworker – unless that woodworker has established an interest in tropical fish.
Success is determined by locating your ideal customer and offering solutions for that person’s needs and wants. Start with self analysis. What is the last thing you bought online? What need of yours did that product satisfy? Why did you make the purchase at that time?
Now what is the next thing you need to buy. What problem will that item solve? Where would you normally but that item? Would you go online and research the product before making a buying decision?
Most people would not think of buying appliances online.
Do you know Lowe’s is the #1 seller of appliances? Do you know Lowe’s has an affiliate program, as does Home Depot? Go to the Lowe’s and Home Depot web sites and explore all items you can feature on an authority site.
A Question of Money
A quick response to my suggestions brings comments such as. “If people are out of work how can they pay to buy products”. A simple answer is to market credit sources. Credit repair and credit sources is a lucrative affiliate market. The link is to an article describing top affiliate programs for that niche.
I’ve accelerated my online money-making products. They sell well when people need additional sources of income. Are you noticing how many of the online big dogs are bringing out new products and marketing more heavily that in recent years?
A good seller is Sqribble, an excellent eBook creator. I use it for lead magnets and how-to tutorials. The other day I quickly wrote a non-fiction children’s book with a grandson as the featured character. Naturally, he was thrilled and is asking for more. Now I’m thinking of writing a series of eBooks for children and selling them on Amazon.
Of course include domain registration, web site hosting, and list management. Offer programs structured so you can start an online business without a web site. Include in your offerings good books and tutorials.
Teaching to Fish
Be creative. Simply stuffing a lot of old software as bonuses doesn’t do the trick. Give new buyers solid information that brings results.
Treat your existing customers well. Give more and better reasons to continue following you, staying on your list, and making purchases. I send 3 informative emails for every single selling email. I also offer solid return for their investment.
Here’s the 2021 online business landscape from ROI.com
2021 COVID-19 + ecommerce stats
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- 56% of consumers have tried a new retailer during the pandemic (Narvar)
- 18% of consumers have tried curbside pickup for the first time over the COVID-19 period (Narvar)
- 36% of consumers have experienced substantial shipping delays due to COVID-19 (Narvar)
- Ecommerce sales are forecasted to have increased 32.4% in 2020 with brick-and-mortar forecasted to fall 3.2% (eMarketer)
- Best Buy saw the largest YoY ecommerce sales growth in 2020 (105.5%), followed by Target (103.5%) and Kroger (79.2%) (eMarketer)
- Amazon saw 39.1% year-over-year sales growth in 2020 (eMarketer)
Think how you can capitalize on those stats. How can you provide more value than other Internet affiliate marketers? We’re living in the Information Age, give enough insightful information for buyer informed decision making.
Do not be a huckster. Be an authority with a clear message.
There’s a story about 3 pizza shops on the same street. One put a sign in it’s window, “The Best Pizza in Town’. In response a second put a sign up saying, “The Best Pizza in the World”. The 3rd shop captured the business with a simple sign, “The Best Pizza on this block”.
Buyers determine who is the best. Your job is to determine how to cause buyers to think of you as the best.
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