Tips for choosing your niche as an Amazon Associate

So you've decided to delve into the world of Amazon Associates (if you need more info, check out my blog post for beginners here!) First things first, you'll need to choose a Amazon associates niche. Now, this isn't a required step. BUT, it helps a lot to have a niche to focus on. It will help you decide what your blog will be about (if you have one, and I recommend it!) and what your social media channels will be about. You want followers to come to you for info, but if you're too all-over-the-place, you may fail to get the audience you want. Ok, so here are my top tips for choosing your niche as an Amazon associate.

Choose a lucrative niche

This is one way of going about choosing your Amazon Associates niche. If you look at the Amazon associates commission schedule (check out the most current commission schedule here: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/operating/schedule) some categories have bigger commisions than others. I suspect these are the areas where Amazon needs more sales. For example, the category of Luxury Beauty regularly fetches in big numbers. So that's a great option to get into, since your commisions, should someone click on your link and buy, will be high relative to the price of the product you're advertising. But let's say you're like me and don't know the first thing about luxury beauty nor do you really care for the topic. It will be hard to write about the topic with any sort of authority. But of course, it can be done, you can always research the topic, but expect more of a time commitment on your part.

Choose something you're knowledgeable about or interested in

You'll be blogging about your Amazon Assocites niche and maybe even building a community about this topic. You want people to follow you to learn more about this topic etc. This can be any topic you know very well...something related to your field of study or career, or a hobby you partake in and know a lot about. Or it can be something you're interested in and enjoy learning more about. For example, you might be getting started crocheting. Take readers and followers along on your journey as you learn more, and share your favorite products along the way to bring in those commisions! When you choose a topic you're interested in, it feels less like a chore.

Should you choose a high-commission niche or one that you're interested in?

Well that's the age old question isn't it? It's often one we ask ourselves when deciding what to do in college...choose the high paying career or the one we have a true interest in?

Which you choose depends on you. With the lucrative niche, you may have to put in a lot more effort when it comes to blog posts and more, since talking about the topic won't come as naturally to you. At the same time, you have a better chance of pulling in more money. But will you burn out easily when you get bored of all the research required to keep up with your niche? If you choose something your knowledgeable in/interested in, you'll enjoy the journey more (and keep in mind you won't be immediately raking in cash or anything, so you don't want your motivation to fizzle out). But, you might need to put more effort into getting your links out there if your categories aren't as lucrative (for example my categories are mostly home and baby/kid products, which are some of the lowest paying categories.)

Consider what other affiliate programs are available within your niche

When it comes to your niche, consider what other affiliate programs are out there that you can promote within your niche. For example, in the baby/kids niche, there's also Target affiliates. There are also plenty of baby and kid companies that offer credit for you referring people to their products. So if you buy those items yourself, you can save lots on future purchases if you refer people!

Remember, you can always branch out a little

When I'm posting in my baby and kid deals Facebook group (check it out here, would love new members!), I'll sometimes branch out a little from my usual toys and baby items posts. Sometimes I'll share deals on items the whole family can use (like a TV or iPad) to get a big ticket item in there. Or I'll post about handy cleaning products because what parent couldn't use those? It's ok to occasionally branch out as long as you can somewhat make it work for your audience!

And here's where I'll let you in on a little tip: you don't have to settle for just one Amazon Assocites niche!! While it's certainly more work to add on more niches (ie more blogs to manage and more social media channels to post to) you certainly can do it and many do. If you choose to do this though, I advise you to get one up and started first before branching out.