If you attempt to target a large, over-saturated market in your affiliate marketing endeavors, you may run into too much competition against other marketers and bigger businesses that already have a firm hold on that particular market.

That's where niche marketing comes in. Niche marketing is when you pick a topic (like dog training or acne) that has a hungry market of ready and willing buyers.

At times, some niche markets can be pretty competitive, as other marketers have already caught on to the idea that there is money to be made in a particular niche.

Don't let the competition scare you off; there are always ways to find sub-niches of topics that you can bite into, and ways to "one-up" your competitors by creating articles and web sites that stand out and are of higher quality.

So, how does one pick a niche?

Many experienced marketers will go after any niche as long as they think it will make them some money. This is after exploring and profiting from many different niches, so they have the experience to research, write, and market just about any topic they encounter. Chances are, when they first started, they went with something they knew a bit about.

If you're just getting into affiliate marketing and are trying to figure out where to start, take a look at what skills you have and what topics or niches you are experienced with or have an interest in.


Let no one fool you that making money online with affiliate marketing is an easy thing. It takes patience and, most of all, hard work to become established in this game.

So, as you immerse yourself in a particular niche for the first time, you will want to make sure your writing comes across with enthusiasm and know-how.

If it's a topic that you're unfamiliar with, or have no interest in, this will no doubt have an effect on your writing and marketing of the product you're promoting.

Having the insight into a particular niche will give you a huge advantage over your competitors, as you may know certain things about the niche that you can target and profit from.

Just make sure any niche you choose has good products to promote with a decent payout through sites like Clickbank, Commission Junction, or PayDotCom. Above all else, make sure your niche attracts customers who are ready and willing to buy.

How do you know if people are buying things in a particular niche? Check the forums about your topic, read through them, ask people questions, and participate. This is a crucial step that many marketers miss.

You have to know what people are buying and talking about. Even if you know everything there is to know about a niche, you will find plenty more to profit from by seeing what is on the minds of your prospective buyers.

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Don't have any money to invest into affiliate marketing? Can't find a good place to start? Well, your answer just might be in article marketing, or a technique more affectionately called Bum Marketing.

They say this method is so easy you can take a bum off the street, send him to a library with a computer lab, and make him rich!

Well, I'm not sure if this has ever actually happened, but you get the idea. You can make huge profits from the Bum Marketing method and it will cost you absolutely nothing.

Here's how to get started:

Google and all the other major search engines seem to have taken a liking to article directory sites like Ezinearticles.com, Goarticles.com, and Searchwarp, as well as blogging sites like blogger.com, wordpress.com, and the page you're on right now (squidoo.com).

In fact, if you found this page through a Google search query, this would be a perfect example of Bum Marketing in action.

Certain classified ad sites like usfreeads.com and craigslist.com can also perform well in the search engines.

If you write an article or make a blog post, classified ad, or squidoo lens and post them to any of the above sites with the right keyword targeted, it's possible to rank on the first page of Google in as little as 2 days to about 2 weeks.

Some of these sites will allow direct affiliate links, like Squidoo.com, Wordpress.com, and Usfreeads.com

Ezinearticles.com will allow affiliate links if you redirect the link from a website, and Goarticles.com will allow you to link directly to the affiliate page.

This is exciting for anyone just getting into affiliate marketing because you can start making money without your own website, and literally start making money in a matter of a few days!


So we're going to use all of these methods to funnel traffic to the destination of our liking, where we have affiliate links embedded on the page and can then make our affiliate sale commissions.

OK, so how do I know what keywords will rank in the search engines?

There are quite a few free keyword research tools on the internet, such as the overture search tool and the free tool from Wordtracker.

Go to these tools and start typing in phrases in your niche until you come across a phrase that has what we call "high traffic, low competition."

High traffic will be words and phrases that get at least 300 searches for that term per month, and low competition means less than 5,000 optimized results in Google.

Optimized results are basically the pages that you are competing against for that particular phrase in Google.

To figure this out, head over to Google, keyword phrase in hand, and type the keyword phrase in the search box with quotes ("") around it.

If the result is less than 5,000 competing pages, then you have yourself a winner!

Make sure your keyword appears in the title and a few times throughout the article, blog, ad, or lens. Roughly 3-5% of the content should contain the keyword.

This rule is not set in stone, and you may not rank well every time. It's also possible to rank well for terms that have more than 10,000 competing results. Once you take action and start Bum Marketing, you will begin to have a feel for what keywords will rank and which won't.