May 13th, 2008 
Writing with Passion is one of the most important things in affiliate marketing in my opinion. Passion can make or break a campaign! It can allow you to come up with keywords that will convert that others may not of thought of when doing their keyword research. It can provide you with the motivation to keep going even if the campaign doesn’t work out the way you thought it would at the beginning. It can provide you with the knowledge to continue writing about the niche for years to come! There are so many things that passion can help you accomplish in your career as an affiliate marketer.
Are you passionate about the niche that you’re promoting?
I receive probably 5 - 10 email’s a day asking me what niche someone should promote. They are 9/10 times completely new to the world of affiliate marketing. Normally the email will go something like this…
Hey Derek,
I’ve recently started taking a look at affiliate marketing and how it all works. I’ve read a lot on it and I think I’m ready to start my first campaign. My question is, should I start with Ringtones, Dating, or Payday Loans? I’m thinking I should start with ringtones because I see that a lot of people are promoting them. Do you think this is a good niche to start with? Thanks a lot!
My answer to the person every time is simply this…What are you passionate about? Are you really interested in cell phones? How they work, how to fix them, how ringtones and other downloads work, etc. Are you interested in online dating? Do you read about the online dating industry everyday? Do you have 10 blogs bookmarked on the subject of online dating?
The response I normally receive after sending my reply is No not really, I just know a lot of affiliates are doing it.
Let me ask you a question. Why would you want to write or build a site about a subject that you know absolutely nothing about or don’t care about learning about? To me this just seems crazy! How could you possible provide the right information and quality information that will keep people coming back to your site and referring their friends to for information when they are having a problem?
Passion is one of the simplest ways to come up with a niche when your starting affiliate marketing. What are you interested in? 99% of the time you can find an affiliate program for whatever it is your interested in. Let me give you a few examples.
I have a few hobbies which include: Japanese Anime, photography, saltwater fish/reef tanks, and ferrets.
Just by thinking for a minute about what I’m interested in gives me 4 different things that I could easily start a site or blog about! In another minute, I was able to find out that there are several affiliate programs out there for each niche that I could easily incorporate into my site or blog.
Now, since these are things I’m passionate about, I could easily think of things to write about. Also, since I know this stuff, I know all the different slang words and abbreviates used for each niche which will allow me to find keywords that someone who knew nothing about the niche wouldn’t find!
Also, when your writing about something your passionate about, your readers will notice. It will show in your writing! So the next time you’re trying to think of a niche to enter, instead of trying to find out what everyone else is doing, simply take a minute to think about the things you are passionate about!
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Derek, thanks for that post, however one thing I’ve had trouble with is finding offers in the niches I enjoy. Honestly, the big networks don’t seem to branch too far outside of ringtones, dating and payday loans anyway. Could you give us any ideas on where or how to find offers for niches that aren’t on the radar of the big guns?
Hey Nate, it’s actually quite easy. I simply do a search for the niche that I’m looking to promote via Google and visit the sites and see if they have any type of referral program. Also, Amazon alone carries so many movies, books, gadgets, etc that they can be used on most sites along with the ebay affiliate program as well.
You just gotta use the search engine to find them. It may take a good solid day to find a couple good affiliate programs. There are soo many affiliate programs out there, don’t worry about the cpa networks so much. Use them if you can, if you can’t find someone else.
Derek, really? You advise using the small affiliate programs? They seem so… antiquated and risky to me. I dunno.. kinda freaks me out. How many offers do you run on these smaller site affiliate programs?
Well I wouldn’t just use any small affiliate network, but many sites that are well known in a niche will have an affiliate program.
For example, lets say I’m doing a site about saltwater fish, I could goto any namebrand site that sells saltwater equipment and probably find an affiliate program were I can promote their products and earn a commission.
Also even when you work with affiliate network, once you do so much volume you tend to work direct with the advertiser, this really isn’t so different.
I’m not saying to just use an affiliate program you find out there, especially when its a site that isn’t a namebrand in your niche.
Ah, well good. That makes sense. Thank you for the clarification. I appreciate it. Keep up the great content. I love sharing your articles.
Cheers.
Hi Nate. Another tip on how to find them is to search google for “Niche Affiliates” It’s how I found a few MMA affiliate companies that are working out great. Not everything you use has to come from the big 3-4 companies out there. Like Derek said, Amazon alone sells a LOT of stuff you could use. So does e-bay, although I’ve never tried them.
BTW, great article Derek. I wrote an article on “From Passion to Profit: Getting paid to do what you love” a while back. I definitely believe in being passionate about your work, I mean afterall, isn’t that why we all left the 9-5?
Derek, the same problem lies with bloggers who try to make their life with blogging. They first stick at the stage of niche selection, and can’t decide whether to select the more profitable subject(about which they are not perfect) or to select the subject they know very well about but is not that profitable.
Well its not really a problem. As I said in the article, I highly suggest someone new to affiliate marketing to do a niche they personally have a passion for.
Once you get the hang of affiliate marketing and how it works and have a couple good solid campaigns under you belt, by all means you SHOULD try to get into some of the more competitive niches as well, there is still money to be made in them. Don’t listen to those who say otherwise!
Yep well explained.
People in affiliate marketing would first run to see things which make more profit for them, rather than seeing what is easier and suiting them actually.
That is the biggest blunder they do.
yeah. I totally agree. I love marketing so I write about it. I love design, so I write about it. simple as that
I don’t write about celebrities or other nonsense because it has a “good CTR” or anything. Maybe one day for fun, but I’d rather do something I love first.