Research Affiliate Networks
One of the first steps in finding profitable affiliate products to promote is to research affiliate networks.
You can easily find affiliate networks by searching online for things like "your niche AND affiliate program", or even just "your niche affiliate program".
Once you find a few of them, you should take the time to look through their offerings and see which products might be most suitable for your audience.
You should also look into their commission rates, as well as the requirements for being accepted as an affiliate.
By doing your research, you can ensure that you select the right products to promote and maximize your earnings.
This is not a one-size-fits-all situation!
Not all Affiliate Networks will have products for your niche or audience.
Related: 100+ Profitable Niches List for 2023
So, once you have a better understanding of the type of products and services that would be most interesting to promote to your target audience, the next step is to identify potential networks and programs that offer exactly what you’re looking for.
Researching affiliate networks can be a time-consuming process, but it’s essential in order to ensure that you choose one that offers the best possible selection of products and services in your niche.
Before deciding on any particular network, take some time to research their payment terms, cookie duration, commission structure as well as any additional services they may offer (such as promotional materials and support).
Additionally, look for networks that have been established within the industry for several years as this will typically indicate higher quality standards—a larger selection of products available—and more reliable payouts due to their long track record performance metrics.
10 of The Most Popular Affiliate Networks Worth Looking Into Are:
2. ShareASale
3. Rakuten
4. CJ Affiliate
5. FlexOffers
6. Amazon Associates
7. eBay Partner Network
8. AvantLink
9. Impact Radius
10. Pepperjam
Research commission rates
When researching affiliate networks, it’s essential to be aware of the commission rates and payment terms offered by each.
Commission rates can range from as low as 1% to as high as 50% depending on the product and the affiliate network in question.
Or, they might just pay a flat commission per sign up, could be $50, $75, $200 or even $1,000 (or more!) depending on the offer.
Some affiliate networks opt to send payments every quarter while others pay out on a monthly or weekly basis.
Knowing which payment terms are most beneficial—both for yourself and for your customer base—can help you make informed decisions about which network best fits your needs, so it’s important to carefully weigh each option one at a time before committing to anything long-term.
Find affiliate programs that offer products in your niche
Once you have a clear idea of the niche you want to target, the next step is to identify affiliate programs that offer products that fit within your niche.
To do this, you will need to search for affiliate programs in your niche either through an affiliate network or by reaching out to companies directly, this can take more work so it's something I usually do later, once I have an established and profitable website in whatever niche I'm going into.
Many companies also run their own affiliate programs, though they may not be listed on an affiliate network.
You can find out if a particular company runs its own program by doing a simple internet search.
Also See:
When looking for products to promote, try to select those products and services that will best match the needs of your target audience.
Products should be relevant to the content and topics of your website or blog; offering visitors something that improves their experience or helps them solve a problem, for example, quitting smoking, financial stress, or even how to lose weight quickly.
You should also keep in mind that certain products are more profitable than others so it pays to research potential earnings before selecting any one product or program.
Using keyword tools to identify popular products
When searching for profitable affiliate products, one of the best things you can do is take advantage of keyword tools. These tools allow you to identify what people are looking for and what products are popular. This helps narrow down the potential products you could promote, making it faster and easier to find a profitable product.
The 5 most popular SEO keyword research tools are:
There are several ways you can use keyword tools to identify these items. Most keyword research tools will offer suggestions based on popular trends, showing which terms are searched most often as well as related phrases and keywords.
For example, some of these tools will display rising or falling search terms, related topics, and competitors' content that relate to a particular product niche.
I PERSONALLY use Google Keyword Planner along with Ahrefs, and sometimes a tool called 'keywords everywhere'.
Using Google Trends
You can also use data from keyword tracking tools such as Google Trends to gain insight into seasonal or topical searches related to your industry.
By viewing search trends within different industries and niches, you'll be able to identify relevant products that are likely to be in high demand at certain times of the year or for certain reasons specific events such as holidays or sports championships.
For example, if we look at this Google Trends Analysis on the search phrase "Lawn Mower", we can see that searches slowly start to creep up early in the year, peaking at May, before dropping down when things start getting colder in October.
If you scroll down, you'll see which regions (US States, in this example) have the most searches for this phrase, even related topics & queries.
SOOOOOOO, if you're going to start a lawn care affiliate website, just keep in mind you're not going to sell a lot in December, but in Spring and Summer it's gonna have a lot of potential!
Analyze Your Competitors
When looking for profitable affiliate products to promote, one of the most useful things you can do is analyze your competitors.
By gathering information about what other businesses in the same niche are doing, you can gain valuable insights into their strategies and the types of products they are successfully promoting.
This can give you a good indication of what to focus on in your own affiliate marketing campaigns.
Ahrefs Example
Using Ahrefs, here's what I do to identify competitor's keywords and affiliate programs:
- First, I go to the Keywords Explorer tab and enter the primary keyword for my niche.
- Then, scroll down a bit see all of the related keywords for my niche, and even who's ranking for them!
- Now, By viewing the SERP overview, I can get an idea of the top-performing sites in my niche.
- From there, I can click on any of the top-performing sites to get a better idea of their backlink profile, organic keywords, and overall SEO performance.
This way, I can get a better understanding of the competitors for my niche, as well as find potential affiliate programs that I could use by examining who they're linking to and promoting.
This can be done by clicking on or entering the URL of a competitor's website into Ahrefs and then clicking on the "Organic Search" tab.
This will allow me to see what keywords they are ranking for and which affiliate programs they are using.
From there, I can compare the commissions offered by the different programs and determine which ones are the most lucrative.
Just by looking at the keywords here, I can already tell you Matt's likely promoting rank tracker tools, web hosting, domain registrars and a few others. Digging into the data, the keywords, his content should give me a lot more info I can use!
Want to outsmart your competitors? Here's how analyzing their marketing strategies can give you the edge
Keeping an eye on what your competitors are up to is key when it comes to marketing. So, you should look at what kind of content they're pumping out, where they're sharing it, and if it's working for them.
You should also be sure to check online and offline for the best insights.
Have a look at things like:
- their blog
- their press releases
- their social media posts
- and of course their YouTube videos
This'll help you figure out what topics they're into and what type of content people find interesting.
You might even spot some stuff they haven't tapped into yet.
On top of this, it can be useful to assess direct competitors’ offline activities as well:
- Do they attend trade shows or industry events
- What research papers or reports do they publish?
- How involved are they in any professional associations or bodies?
It's important to keep an eye on what your competitors are up to - their product and service offerings, pricing strategies, and promotional efforts.
Pay attention to discounts, special offers, and giveaways, as they can have an impact on profit - AND potentially give you insight into how they're promoting a particular affiliate program! (For example, do they have a 20% discount for those who purchase via their affiliate link?)
All this info can help you adjust your own approach and find profitable affiliate products to promote.
Monitor Your Own Performance
From here, it's a matter of testing out the offer you're interested in promoting.
Successful affiliate marketing requires you to actively track and monitor your performance. You must understand what’s working and what’s not, in order to make informed decisions and optimize your efforts.
In this section, we’ll discuss the best practices for monitoring and analyzing your affiliate campaigns in order to maximize your profits:
Use tracking software to monitor your performance
If you want to make the most money from your campaigns, it's essential to track your progress and performance.
Using tracking software to monitor clicks, conversions, revenue, sales, and ROI will help you pinpoint areas to optimize and maximize your profits.
Additionally, you can use this data to create more targeted campaigns and protect yourself from fraud and abuse.
Tracking your campaigns is the key to success for any affiliate marketer.
Voluum and Clickmagick are 2 of the more popular link tracking tools, BUT if you're a newbie this is something you can skip on for now.
Stop guessing, start earning: Analyze the performance of your affiliate links for maximum returns
Analyzing the performance of your affiliate links is an essential step in understanding which products will be profitable for you to promote.
The metric to look at most closely is the conversion rate, which measures how many people acted on the link and purchased or subscribed, divided by how many had a chance to click on the link.
Other key performance indicators will depend on your goals, but may include:
- Overall sales volume
- Cart Value (average cost of items purchased)
- Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
- ...and more
Keeping tabs on your affiliate program performance is super important. Use a tracking tool like Voluum or clickmagick to get automated insights and identify patterns and trends quickly.
Use this data to adjust bidding strategies, optimize marketing spend, and plan better strategies for future campaigns.
Just watch out for changes in the terms of provided affiliate programs, so you can make sure your campaigns remain as profitable as possible.
Conclusion
In conclusion, finding profitable affiliate products to promote can be a daunting task but it can also be a great way to make money.
With a little research and some trial and error, you can find products that will make you successful in the affiliate marketing business.
The key is to take the time to find the right products and to put in the effort to make sure that you have a solid understanding of the market and the products that you are promoting.
With the right strategy, you can be successful in the affiliate marketing business and generate a steady income from your efforts.
