Choose your advertisers

One of the most important steps to perform in affiliate marketing is choosing advertisers, or more precisely, choosing the product category you wish to promote. Why? Because advertisers and the products they offer for promotion must accommodate the specific needs of your business and the interests of your site visitors. By monitoring the performance of our affiliates, we discovered that, to increase your chances for a successful conversion, most affiliates started by applying to about 30–40 advertisers that fit the needs and requirements of their target audiences. I suggest you do the same!

To choose the right product category, you must know, even approximately, your target audience’s profile. Linking your target audience with good advertisers can only bring profit for both sides. A rather simple and useful method to find out your visitors’ preferences is to create a poll on your own website to ask them, for example, “If you had a 50-euro voucher that you could use only today, what would you order online?” You can also give them options based on product categories, but make them as specific as possible: women’s clothes, presents, etc. Pick the categories that correspond to your interests, such as fashion, IT&C, travel, etc.

Apply for those affiliate programs and carefully read their descriptions and the benefits you’ll gain from promoting their offers. Niches are also a good revenue opportunity for many. A niche website welcomes a more restrictive audience interested in that specialized field or area. To be sure you choose a niche with great potential, you must invest time in market research. We are sure you’ll be able to turn your investment into profit. Choosing a niche affiliate program can be based on general interest, seasonal interest or other financial criteria.

• General interest refers to those products and services that are indispensable to a person and can be bought or used at any time, by any visitor, from any geographical area, etc.
• Seasonal interest means those products and services that can be promoted on special occasions or for special events throughout the year to visitors that might have a commercial interest in a product/service only for a specific period of time.
• Financial criteria are also as important. They can generate higher incomes and are somehow related to the previous criteria. Some affiliates can focus on promoting luxury products, which are expensive products that attract a special kind of visitor from different geographical areas and have a specific financial potential.

Another way you can choose a niche website is by analyzing the advertisers and their product categories. The latter, depending on their depth (sub-sub-categories), can be great niches that you can promote.

How can I find a profitable niche?

The profitability of a niche is often inversely proportional to its degree of exploitation—the fewer there are in that particular niche, the more money you will be able to make. An easy way to find out the competition in a certain niche is by using Google. Search the keywords relevant to that niche; fewer results equal higher potential. One of the most important aspects to consider when choosing your niche is finding a topic that you are really passionate about. Moreover, it is important to have a firm grasp of the traffic type and trends expected from that particular niche. If you haven’t used Google Trends before, I recommend you give it a try! It is free and a very useful tool provided by Google that allows you to search historical data on multiple keywords/topics in a specific niche. The graphic resulting from that search will show you a tendency over time of the keywords you’re interested in and also from the regions you targeted.

In addition, Google Trends shows you topics and keywords related to your search (Related Queries and Related Topics) that have registered significant growth in search volume. In this way, you will be able to find some interesting topics that might incite many readers.

Besides Google searches and Google Trends, another way to find the profitability of a niche or a topic is by using Google Alerts. These Google alerts are basically emails that notify you when new information, news, blog posts, videos that interest you are published on the internet. All you have to do is enter your search terms (words and/or phrases related to the topic you’re interested in) and set your alert. This tool will help you find out the latest news about the niche you have chosen and also stay informed about everything that happens/is discussed on that chosen topic. For example, if you have a travel blog, you can set a Google alert about offers and promotions from major travel agencies.

After you have discovered the best niche for you, it is best to see if there is a market demand. You can also find out this aspect with the help of Google by searching blog posts, questions and answers on forums or using Google Adwords Keyword Tools, a tool that shows you the exact number of searches made on those particular keywords (do not forget to select the country and language).

Choose your advertisers from 2Performant

Once you have chosen the right niche, you can start selecting advertisers from your affiliate account by accessing the campaigns directory from the Affiliate Programs section.

2Performant provides information for affiliates regarding advertisers: promotional products, commissions, cookie life, terms of service and contact details. Many advertisers have policies regarding the way affiliates must promote their products and/or services. Thus, it is important for affiliates to know and adhere to these policies. Another important detail displayed by our platform is the date since advertisers became members of 2Performant.

Advertisers’ longevity in 2Performant proves that they’re generating sales and paying their affiliates. Therefore, they become more reliable. Analyze all the data based on the criteria mentioned above and choose the right campaigns. You can always apply to as many campaigns as you wish, but it’s very effective if you promote only offers and products that correspond with your audience’s needs. You can begin testing more campaigns and products, and afterward, you can renounce the ones that are not generating conversions and try new advertisers. To maximize your chances of profit, we recommend you constantly follow what new advertisers are joining the platform, along with their policies. A lot of the announcements for entering the system are made on our blog, and sent out in newsletters but they also appear in affiliate accounts.