This is a very important principle you need to know if you're a relative newbie to Amazon Associates, or indeed any affiliate program. You must find a good niche.
First of all, what is a niche?
A niche is a relatively small product or subject area - probably one within a much bigger, popular product or subject area - that you can make your own. A good niche needs to be not too big and not too small. A slightly tricky concept maybe, but here's why: If your niche is too small not enough people will be interested in it in order to generate good product sales. Worse still, if your niche is too big it will be difficult to compete with all the other, probably much bigger companies who are selling the same thing.
Here's an example of what I mean
Say you fancy selling big movie DVDs and related products for film buffs. That's far too big to be a niche and you'll be in competition with hundreds of businesses on the Internet selling identical products. So, say you decide to narrow it down and sell subtitled, French, horror movie DVDs from the late 20th century. That's far too tiny a niche. You'll probably have it to yourself but there won't be many if any potential customers... and a very limited range of products to sell them anyway.
What you need is something in-between. A niche that is big enough to be financially viable but narrow enough to be distinctive and exclusive (or fairly exclusive) to you.
You can, by the way, experiment with your niche as you go along. Expand it or narrow it down until you create the right-sized niche for yourself.
When you're choosing a niche, do some Googling to see what other websites, blogs, newsletters and so on there are already on that niche.
So what might your niche be? It really can be anything you like. There are thousands if not millions of niches out there. If you can (although it's not essential) it's good to choose something that you're already knowledgeable, interested and even passionate about. This way it will be easy to choose Amazon products to link to - and easier to introduce them to your customers. If you really like what you're suggesting people buy - whether it be a novel or a
digital camera - this will show through in your introductions and people are more likely to buy. Hobbies and interests make great niches, especially if they are something that's not well catered for.
Good products for Amazon Associates
When you're choosing a niche remember to think about what products you're going to promote to prospective customers. It's no good coming up with a fantastic niche if there are no or few products to promote to it - not just now but in the future.
Remember that Amazon doesn't carry a full range of products. So as you're working through niches keep checking back to Amazon to make sure there are products there that you'll want to promote.
Here are some good ideas for product areas to focus on:
* Books: the classic Amazon product, so whatever your niche you should find lots of relevant titles to sell. One slight snag is that Amazon discounts a lot of books, so your commissions might be small. It's best to have books as part of the product range you will recommend, but not your only product.
* Video and audio products. CDs, DVDs, computer gaming and downloads. These are another Amazon strong area and are always hot, in-demand products. But choose your niche carefully. Avoid areas that are over-competitive.
* Products that Amazon sells at a discount on RRP. As long as the discounted price is not very low. You won't have to work too hard to recommend these products.
* Higher value products, eg. 50 plus. This way you won't have to generate such a high volume of referrals. Technology products fit this description well.
* Products that are consumed, or which are updated frequently. This way you can get repeat and future sales from the same customers.
• High volume consumer products. Where there is a wide range of products, frequent new launches and intense competition. Buyers are always looking for guidance and information to help them through the buying jungle. So it is easier to pull in prospective buyers, perhaps by publishing reviews and so on. Mobile phones, laptops and digital cameras are good examples of this type of product.
• Products where there are a lot of complementary products - or perhaps a range of accessories. Again, these bring you additional sales. With Amazon you get a commission on all the products a customer you refer buys - not just the one you initially referred them to. So it is a big plus to choose products which lead naturally to purchases of other Amazon products at the same time.
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