This is info I discovered at Clickbank that they just updated....word for word.....hope it helps.

Niche Sites & Blogs

Like article marketing, creating niche sites and/or blogs can be another great option for affiliates who have more time and creativity than money. If you do create your own website or self-hosted blog, there may be costs for a domain name and hosting, but these are typically pretty small. There are also many options to get your own site or blog that is hosted for free, though you may be more limited on options like the look and feel of the site or how many pages your site can have.

Once you’ve identified a niche market that you want to promote (such as gardening), you create your own website or blog that is dedicated to this topic. You then write articles for your own site, similar to the types of articles you might write for article marketing directories. The goal is to get free traffic to your website, either by getting linked to from other sites or by ranking well organically in search engines on particular search terms. You can then have HopLinks to a number of different ClickBank products in that niche, giving you the opportunity to promote many different products from a single source.

Creating your own site is especially beneficial for ranking in search engines, as the more articles and content you create, the higher search engines will rank your site. Like article marketing, this technique can take time before you start seeing results, so it’s not something you should expect to show immediate returns, but it can be one of the best ways to create sustainable long-term profits with a minimum of money spent. You can even combine this technique with article marketing or social media marketing, by linking to your site from the bio of your article or social media profile.

Pros: Low cost or free; allows for a great deal of creativity; potential to drive large amounts of traffic through search engines or social media; you can build a “brand” for your website, especially if you host your own site or blog and have a unique domain name
Cons: Time-consuming; may take a lot of effort before you start generating traffic; can be very competitive if there are many other sites in your niche