Affiliate Marketing - Picking a Niche THEN Creating A Customer Avatar

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Notes to Reader:

Words: 2920

Time To Read: Approximately 8 minutes

Recommended Resources: A fresh coffee top-up is recommended and a notepad/pen!

Selecting Your Niche

You are here to learn how to promote products and earn a commission. One of the first tasks is to select a niche...

Here is a great article by Kyle that talks about niches for 2020 - be sure to check out the featured comment too (it is mine)...

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/kyle/blog/which-niches-will-...

There are 90 niches that I included in my comment that are expected to do well in 2020. If you do not have one selected or are looking for another one to work on, have a look at that list...

Okay...Listen up...

This is an important step in creating your business and if you choose the wrong niche your sales might be like trying to sell beach trips to someone living on the beach...I can tell you you are not going to have much success unless it is a lousy beach?

Here are three questions that I use when I am determining whether a niche will be successful for me or whether it will be a waste of my precious time...

  1. Do members of the niche buy stuff related to the niche or are they mostly freebie seekers?

  2. What kinds of sales could you make, i.e. one-time or recurring and higher priced products or services to the audience members of this niche?
    ​​​​​​​
  3. At what level do you actually like the niche and do you understand or can you learn to understand who the target customers are - what their fears, needs, and desires are?

When you are just starting out especially, it obviously is going to be much more enjoyable working in a niche you are passionate about. That seems simple enough, and it is true.

If you have a connection or can learn about the niche to gain that connection it likely will be much more profitable. You will put the time and effort in to make it succeed.

There is more though, and this is what we want to drill down on with this article...

Knowing the fears, needs and desires of the target customer is going to help immensely in how you come across to those target audience(s).

Now, you may be thinking...

“This seems too hard. I really don’t know the fears, needs and desires for any potential customers or members of any niche...” - just stop for a second, please!

Did you know that you likely know a lot more than you’re giving yourself credit for?

Unless you have been involved in sales before, or in product creation, you may not think you have the skills or background to know this kind of information about people or buyers. You have been using a consumer mindset (only buying things)...

Transitioning to a creator mindset (promoting and selling things) can be a big frustration for you. But, it does not have to be.

Here is why and here's the thing...

Even if you have only been a buyer of things over the years, you know people. You compete to get the best deals, you comb the papers (or websites) to get information on products, you talk to other buyers...

You have been doing a pretty good job with navigating this thing called life so far...You get what you want, tell others what you need, and you manage to get your needs met.

To me and to everyone, it tells me that you understand basic human psychology.

Whether you have a degree in it is immaterial, just from getting through life you have attained skills that will help you for this business.

In a nutshell...I think MOST consumers...

...Want the fastest, easiest, most practical solution that provides them the most value for the least amount of money and work...

...and quite a few of them will pay a premium to get that quality and convenience they seek - so it is not ALL about the price point.

This is a good starting point for all niches. There is more, of course...you will need to do some research even if you think you know who the target members are and what they are looking for.

That in and of itself should not give you pause...

It can be an interesting undertaking, learning what makes people "tick" in a particular niche...A bit like spying...It does not have to take up a LOT of time, there is plenty of information you can find quickly and at no cost these days with the internet!

Here's another thing about selecting that niche...

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Competition Or No Competition? Which Is Better?

Be Careful on this one!

I have seen a lot of people make a big mistake when they are choosing a niche to go after...

They look for and select a very low competition niche. They do this because they are thinking that nobody is working the niche - it must be an untapped gold mine - I can much easier have success in the niche.

Unfortunately, this is not the way it really is generally.

Here is why...

There are VERY FEW new ideas. Especially with affiliate marketing, there have been countless people before you trying out niches, and they have figured out what niches work and which ones don’t.

"If there were tons of money to be made, there would be a lot of affiliate marketers in the niche. " says me... : )

This is a warning flag as opposed to being a positive indicator. Remember, you are getting started, you are not trying to break new ground, you are trying to get some sales and commissions going as fast as possible!

So my recommendation is as follows:

The single smartest thing you could do is find a niche that is full of products that people are already looking for, they are buying these products, and you simply have to get in front of those red hot buyers using your content and SEO skills you are learning here!

That’s the shortcut to success with affiliate marketing and of course this ties into the niche you are going to select.

NOTE: If you are a note-taker, write that down....If you are not a note taker, why not? This is a great way to reinforce learning (and you can refer back to them again and again)!

If you follow this bit of advice, you are going to avoid one of the biggest mistakes that many newbies make.

Bottom Line:

There are some niches that have proven to work over and over again for affiliate marketing, and then there are niches that truthfully are not worth your time at all. Doing a little research will tell you in which category the niche may fall into...

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Three Examples Of Hot Evergreen Niches

To keep things as simple as can be, I want to discuss three general niches that have proven themselves through the years to be profitable for many marketers and they are as follows: Health, Wealth, and Relationships.

Before you go running off to create a website on these general niches, read the rest of this article...For each of the niches above there are literally thousands of subcategories you can and should decide to enter over the general niches.

Taking one, health for example, you can find subcategories and niche products in...

  • men's weight loss
  • women’s weight loss
  • yoga, meditation
  • diabetes
  • erectile dysfunction
  • cancer
  • juicing
  • diets
  • etc.

Each of these subcategories have hot seller items that people are spending billions of dollars every month on! Best of all, they are shopping online too (hint: this is where you are at, making them offers they cannot refuse!).

Just think about this:

"If you can grab just a SMALL piece of that huge sales potential, you can have the financial freedom that you’ve been searching for. This is the reason you are here!" again says me... : )

Also, if your niche is TOO broad you will not be able to target the people that will stick around to buy whatever it is that you promote. There may be many that stop by that are interested in health but they do not care about yoga, for instance.

So it is better to drill down a bit to get an audience size that is large enough to sell a variety of products to, yet not so small that you will not have enough products or people to make some sales and profits for your work. There is no one-size fits all for this...

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What's My Preference?

Personally, I like the wealth niche, as it really offers so many ways to leverage what people are looking for - money and wealth (and all that this brings)!

"I like to show people how they can make money, grow their business, become independent, and build a better life for themselves…" last of my own quotes, I promise... : )

It really comes down to three simple ways to do this:

(1) Get customers, then get MORE customers.

(2) Grow the average transaction value of each customer, meaning that you do not need as many customers to maintain your sales figures, plus you have a good chance of growing your sales if you are getting more customers.

(3) Increase buying frequency. Get them to buy more often from you once you have them buying.

So how does this relate to your affiliate marketing niche and business?

---


When Selecting A Niche, Ask Yourself...

Will the niche you’re considering bring in revenue for you in the three ways I mention - or at least two of them?

That is the starting point after having an interest. The research you do can focus on the questions in addition to other areas of importance such as the target audience (and the avatar as we will discuss below).

Do you see how we have turned the niche selection process into a more disciplined exercise? This means you are not just going on a hope and a prayer. You have a solid plan and process that will lay it out for you.

This process will also help you understand what it is that you are looking for with this affiliate marketing business, it will help you identify what products to promote, who to promote them to, and how you will structure your content and promotions so you get your desired results.

This leads me to the next portion of the process that is very important: the target audience(s) or who are the people that want the products you want to promote?

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Know Your Customer

Who is the customer you will be targeting in that niche you know will work? Remember that in sales, marketing is all about reaching the people in the niche.

So not only are you choosing a niche, you’re also choosing the type of person you will want to market to.

I use what I call a "Customer Avatar System." This process helps me understand the target customers and the triggers that I have to include in my copy to get them to take the desired action (which is to buy the stuff I am promoting)…

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Developing Your Customer Avatar

Here are the steps I use:

(1) What are the qualities and characteristics of the targeted buyers?

- Are they leaders?

- High-achievers?

- Health-conscious?

- Spiritual seekers?

- Lazy?

- Skeptical?

- Politically charged?

Ask yourself these questions and more like them to really drill down on what makes the ideal customer tick. Knowing this information will help you more directly refer to the things that matter to the customers as you write copy for them.

(2) Research the Demographics.

- What do you know about their age, race, sexual identity, religion, lack of religion, personal habits, career paths, education, etc. that you can use to connect more deeply with them?

- Do some online reseach for this kind of information and collect it in one place - you will get a picture of the target customer when you go through this process. You are adding in information that will help you further understand them better.

(3) What kind of income do they make?

- Do they have the disposable income to buy the products that you want to promote? If so, are they buying such products now, and to what extent are they buying them?

(4) What are their pain points?

- When you determine the pain points (at least go after the top 3) you know what you are going to solve for them. It makes it easy to further sharpen the focus of what you are adding to your content and promotions.

(5) What is NOT working right NOW for them?

- There are things that many are doing right now in any niche that is not working, hence creating the demands for solutions. Determine what those things are, and provide those solutions for them.

(6) Determine the top 3 things they may be afraid of.

- This will help you address the fears as you write your copy, and it will also show that you understand their fears, plus it will help you grow trust and credibility with the customers as someone that knows what they are going through.

(7) Write down what you think the top 3 objections or skepticisms that they may voice or think about when considering buying from you.

- These may change over time, but you can take a stab to start with and back up your assertions by researching what they may be saying in reviews, within groups or forums, etc. Again this is information that you can use as you prepare your content and copy.

(8) What is the impact of the customers NOT taking the action you are recommending?

- Are there any viable alternatives to what your product or service is offering? How well will these alternatives perform for them? What will happen if they continue to do what they have been doing?

(9) What kinds of information do the customers need to know about your product or service right now to convince them to buy what you are promoting? The second part of this is what is the dream scenario you are offering? Your solution results in what for them?

- This answers the questions of how to present the features (but remember they are looking at it not from what the features can do, rather from the perspective of how the solution will help them). Tell them the outcome and make it what they are seeking.

(10) How are you unique from all the other marketers out there, what makes you the one to take action with versus another affiliate marketer (here you can add in your own story, your experiences, some bonuses, etc.)?

- This is something that you can add in as an extra(s), but they can have a huge impact on the decision-making process, so again you want to know what makes the customer tick so you can provide the confidence that you have what they are looking for and need.

Well, that was a handful to go through, right?

Okay...You have a good start. You can add to the areas above, these are just the ones I use. I also use a template to fill in and annotate all this data so it is easy to see in one fell swoop. It kind of brings everything together for me.

Now you may be thinking to yourself: "Yeah, but Dave, I really just want to get to selling..."

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How Does All This Up-Front Work Help You?

Once you have gone through the above process you will have a very clear idea of the niche, the market, the items to promote, who and how to promote, and what kind of copy to create to make the sales that you are looking for.

For every piece of your content, from a blog post to write copy and marketing material...

- You know what the customer looks like (in general terms).

- You know exactly who you're talking to (again, in general tems).

- You understand what they like or dislike, hate,or love, what their passions are, even their deepest fears (you guessed it, in general terms)...

Now you are selling to a human being, and can create your posts and marketing materials from their perspective. Your writing will be much more focused and likely effective. Your sales copy will be congruent with the reviews you write, it will all speak to the readers and customers.

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Wrap Up

The niche selection process is an important part of any affiliate marketing business, and I will go one step further by saying that although this is a true statement, just as important is taking the time to understand the people within that niche as much as possible.

If you go through the steps I mention above, you are going to approach the niche and marketing in a much more effective manner and likely you are going to sell more. You can easily rise to the top in any niche that you select (and have researched for its viabiity, of course).

Have fun with this, and let me know below any gaps or additional advice that you may have for affiliate marketers. Most certainly there are many ways to approach the business, and in my experience with sales over the years, this system works for both online and offline sales.

Cheers!

Dave : )

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Recent Comments

36

Thanks for that detailed information. I ave heard about Customer Avatar before but you have gone into more detail with a step by step process.

I can see that by following this and taking the time to go through each step then the end result will be so much more effective.

Thanks

Karen

You are more than welcome, Karen! I hope that it will help! Cheers! Dave : )

Hey Dave,
That is what I would call a very helpful post. You put a lot of useful info in it . Thanks!

Great to hear that it may help you! Cheers! Dave : )

Good detailed post, my friend. Thanks for sharing

No problem at all! I hope that it will help! Cheers! Dave : )

Whew Dave! What a great post, filled with loads of great ideas. Gonna put some of them to use. Many thanks for your good work.
Joe

Hi, Joe...

Thanks much, I do appreciate the kind words...These initial steps will save some stress later on for many members I think...I remember very well starting and wondering what on earth could a good niche be...

I want to help members avoid that feeling of frustration, or at least minimize it a bit. The work is there no matter the niche, good or bad. Better to select a good one...

Cheers and have a great weekend!
Dave : )

You did a great job Dave.
Joe

Great advice, thanks Dave, I chose my niche because I wanted to learn and teach at the same time so my target audience is people like myself who struggle to learn but want to succeed. I wonder how long should I wait before I decide it's not working? Is being indexed on Google enough to say that it might be or should I wait for 'traffic'? If I'm not really selling anything yet, how do I know if I should carry on or start something else?

I've just joined my first affiliate program but there's still so much I don't know how to do, will they kick me off if I cannae do it? Sorry about all the noob questions but you seem to know a lot and I'm a firm believer in "if you don't ask, you don't get!"

Thanks again for the advice, krs Caroline :)

Hi, Caroline...

Most definitely that is a niche that can work, there is an evergreen requirement for such websites and content. I would continue to add fresh content on a regular basis using the low-hanging keywords...

Since this is a very competitive niche, it will take a while to get a foothold with traffic, authority, and credibility. You can shorten that time using a number of tactics that may involve creating and selling a product (i.e. a training course)...

I just posted a reply to a question from another member that may give you some more solid ideas on how to start generating traffic to your site...

Here is that comment/reply: Unless you are doing something wrong, there is no reason to throw someone off a program as a seller, because you cost nothing unless you make a sale. I have affiliates and that is the only reason I would remove them...

If you are with Amazon, they have different rules, but most sellers such as myself do not have such minimum sales requirements (or rules on the way you promote other than not using negative titles such as "Is so and so a scam?"

The niche has legs, I would stick it out and work it...

Cheers!
Dave : )

Wow, thanks for the speedy reply! You've given me just what I need to carry on. I'm feeling much better about my chances of success so I'd better go and get on with it!

Cheers Caroline :)


I just added to the reply on this, so it may be worth it to have another look...

Cheers!
Dave : )

You betcha... : )

It is easier to get the job than if we sharpen our tools, And this is it We make our lives by the thing we do.

Absolutely! Cheers! Dave : )

"The way to earn is to first and always be a learner." Tom Short.

“Your education does not finish at school. Self-education is the best of Education.” Tom Short

“Always take the time to Live your life while you are earning your living.” Tom Short.

"Your life. Your choice. Now make it." Tom Short.

Thank you for your time,

Tom.

Lots of wisdom, Tom! Thanks for sharing with us....Cheers! Dave : )

Wow, this will keep me out of mischief for a week.

Thanks for the laugh you just gave me, I can always use that! I do hope it will give you some ideas that will make your content/efforts more successful!

Cheers!
Dave : )

Good Morning Dave,

A truly great post providing a great help step by step.
Have a lovely weekend.

Greetings from the south of Spain, Taetske

Good Morning, Taetske!

So nice to have you stop by, and this is one more post in a series that I am putting together as sort of a road map for some of the team members here that want to get some other perspectives on how to get started...

These posts can be saved and referred to again as needed, and I am hoping that folks here will do that. I love the South of Spain and wish I was there right now nursing a fresh Sangria! Enjoy your day over there!

Cheers!
Dave : )

Yes, I see the clever setup of your posts. Are you perhaps converting them into an eBook for the readers of your website?

Sangria can be very tricky especially on a hot day. You drink it like lemonade but the effect is quite different. I remember my 11 golf years. Especially foreigners would have a big Sangria after a round of golf and were surprised by the strong effect afterward.

Hasta Pronto, Taetske

That is an option I had not thought of but it certainly is a good one...Creating a PDF of them all organized by chapter and using that as a lead magnet...

This way I am not publishing the same material on another website, but I am tapping into the work done for them here on Wealthy Affiliate.

I do have a few courses that revolve around content marketing, and of course, this PDF would be a good lead-in to the course (preselling it)...

The whole pre-selling notion can be fleshed out too, I am currently participating in a 5-Day pre-sell challenge for one of the courses I have put together.

This one will be a giveaway course that normally sells for $99. I will give it to some local businesses as a way to then sell a few other tools that complement the course...

The PDF lead magnet regarding copywriting from these posts can be used to promote content creation for the same customers, with some editing of course...

The course I have for content creation and management will lead them through the process, but my hope is that they will say "We want you to do this for us - my time is worth way more than what I need to create content/worry about SEO, etc.!"

In regards to Sangria, I was introduced to them on an early summer morning on my first trip to Spain as a youngish lad (married with two kids though)...

We arrived early and had to wait for check-in at the hotel we were booked at in Tarragona...Costa Dorada as I remember it...Lovely weather versus Germany...

Instead of coffee, we chose to have Sangrias...Big mistake, hehe...They were great, but it turned out to be the start of one day after another of La Mumbas (sp?) and Sangrias...plus some bad food...

My sister-in-law had some memorable moments (actually a whole day) when we went to a water park and the hotel's bad food effects kicked in...

She lost a lot of weight that day and the trip back to the hotel was a long one for her...We were more careful about what we ate after that...She was even paler than usual as I recall, in spite of the warm sun we enjoyed...

It is a wonder that the rest of us did not get sick - I think it was the Sangrias? Memories...good ones always from Spain...I have been back there too many times to count since that first trip...

Cheers!
Dave : )

So next time you come you need to go a little bit further to the south, I live close to Malaga, Alhaurin de la Torre, inside El Alamillo, you can fly over with Google earth and see where I am at.

Hope to see you soon, Taetske

I so totally agree...Where you are it seems to be an ideal part of the world! Count me in for the next trip to Spain - will let you know, no Sangria needed!

Cheers!
Dave : )

Here I am.I will serve red wine.


It really looks nice...I would love to stop in there...That would be really cool...It would warrant a post or two here if we can make it happen!

This brings up a good point. How many people here have had the chance to meet one another eyeball to eyeball I wonder? There has to be some that are not far from one another...

Love red wine, BTW...Especially from Italy, Portugal, or Spain...In Germany I stick to the white wines, the red wines are not as good as those in Southern Europe...

Cheers, and enjoy!


Dave : )

I had a chance last year, here you can read about it.

Hasta Pronto, Taetske

THAT is SO cool! Thanks for the link! : )

Great info. I have to read it again and again.
It have to come in my mind.
Thanks

Glad it can help you...For sure if you read through it a few times you will pick up more..I do that all the time. Sometimes I will bookmark a site or post and come back in a day or two too...

Also, try taking some notes, then organizing it all into a form or sheet that you can use to add in the info - it really helps provide a complete picture right in front of you on a single page/s...

I know this seems like a bunch of extra work, but it may save you from wasting a lot of time on a niche that really does not fit with what your goals and strategy might be...

Cheers!
Dave : )

I have copy&paste; it to my editor and also translate it to my language.
You did it SUPER
Nice SUNDAY

Spasebo! Thanks mate! You too have a great Sunday! Cheers! Dave : )

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