Niches and Affiliate Marketing, Is There Unlimited Potential?

Last Update: August 10, 2016

It is a constant worry when people are starting out online that the proverbial opportunity “well” within any given niche will run dry. When will I tap out my niche so there is no opportunity left within it.

The answer. Never.

You will never run out of opportunity within any niche, in particular if you spend time working within your niche, regularly research products/services, forums in your space, other websites/blogs, and question and answer sites relating to your niche.

This is something that I have done naturally within any niche I have been involved in over the years, but instead of my taking a niche I already know, I decided to reach out within a Live Chat here at WA and come up with a concept for the niche that I will show you that CANNOT be tapped out.

The niche chosen by the community. DOG TOYS.

I don't have a dog (did when I was younger), nor do I know much about this niche, but I am going to spend a few minutes within this space to show you what I can uncover in a short amount of time.

And what I uncover is just the "surface" of what there actually is if you were to dig and immerse yourself in this niche. Remember, there are currently 3.1 billion (yes, BILLION) people online, buying stuff. Even seemingly small niches like "dog toys" are considerable.

There are 100's of millions of dog owners out there, most of whom I imagine are spending a lot of money on their dogs every year.

OK, Ready. Let's Start Digging for "Dog Toy" Ideas...

The first place I am going to go is Google. Google is one of my first go to's for keyword and niche research. Not only are you going to get a lot of keyword ideas using things like the Alphabet Soup technique, you can leverage Google to learn as much as you want about any niche.

For those of you that do not know about the Alphabet Soup Technique, it is simple yet one of the most powerful research techniques for opening up niches (cracking the shell of a niche).

You simply use Google instant and a broad keyword. For example, I typed in "dog toys b" below. Google will fill in the rest and give me "suggestions" based on popular searches.

In this case, I have the following 4 ideas:

dog toys bulk
dog toys ball thrower
dog toys ball
dog toys basket

I can then do the same with other letters of the alphabet, here is an example of what I got using the letter "e".

\

4 more ideas. And then f...

Another 4 ideas.

And then I can build out the phrase. In this case, dog toys for LETTER.

4 more ideas. And then I can even put a letter before the phrase or word and Google will suggest words preceding the phrase. In this case "adog toys" (note that you have to type "dog toys" first, then add the "a" preceding that phrase after for this technique to work.

And you can then build out larger phrases with a word before the main focal point keyword, in this case BEST dog toys.

Another 4 ideas.

So I have perform 7 very simple searches in Google that literally took me less than a minute and I have come up with 28 ideas! This all stems from ONE simple keyword alone, "dog toys" and from that one phrase I am sure I could expand into 100's, if not 1,000's of different ideas with some effort.

What About Using Competing/Other Websites?

Other websites in your niche or in similar niches can be a huge resource for you business and the ideas that you able to come up with.

When I searched for "best dog toys" in Google, one of results was a website that had a list of the 30 best dog toys.

Think this will be valuable research to me in this niche?

Yes, absolutely.

I instantly have a list of 30 popular dog toy products. Here is the website I visited, called PetBreeds.

As I started going through the list, I started recording some of the dog toy ideas. Here are just a few of them.

  • KONG Snugga Wubba Friend Dog Toy
  • JasGood Cute Animal Shape Tail No Stuffing Squeaky Plush Durable Chew Dog Toy
  • Mako the Shark - Squeaky Dog Toys Puppet
  • KONG Rosie Rhino Cozie
  • Booda Corporation Carrot Toy
  • Smart Pet Love Snuggle Puppy Behavioral Aid Toy
  • Petstages Mini Easy Toss Ring
  • Ethical Plush Skinneeez Fox 24-Inch Stuffingless Dog Toy
  • ZippyPaws Loopy 6-Squeaker Plush Dog Toy, Hedgehog
  • MultiPet Duckworth Duck 13"
  • Multipet Look Who's Talking Koala Dog Toy
  • etc...

These are all dog toys that I could review within my niche, recommend and earn money through the many affiliate programs out there in this space.

Google also made a suggestion when I did this search and listed the Top 10 Dog Toys in this space, MORE ideas!

Literally, I am into this seemingly small "dog toy" niche and within minutes of doing research, I feel overwhelmed as to the possibilities that reside within it. Want to see more incredible potential?

Welcome to Amazon...

I always like to do a quick search in Amazon when looking for products/ideas in a given niche. It truly will reveal how vast a niche is, any niche. I did a search for "dog toys" in Amazon and these are the results that I was given.

At the top, if you look closely you can see that there are 30,784 results for dog toys. That is 30,784 different products I could in effect, promote on my website. That is potential, for 30,874 product reviews!

See where I am going with this. That alone is enough content to keep me going for 10+ years of writing, writing and publishing an average of 10 posts per day!

Under the categories, I also got some more ideas for ideas that I could use as well to further my research.

  • Squeak Toys
  • Chew Toys
  • Ropes
  • Balls
  • Flying Discs

I can then plug these concepts in Google using the alphabet soup technique and get an amazing number of new ideas.

Want to see something else cool? I am going to filter these results based on price, High to Low so I get the most expensive products in this space at the top (which will pay some of the higher commissions).

You can see there are some really high ticket products in this space. This is just one example, but filtering results like this can be done in any niche. The average sale value if you were at the 10% commission rate in Amazon would be $325+ per sale!

Speaking of which, what are some other affiliate programs in this space?

Finding Affiliate Programs, Products, & Services in a Niche

I did a simple search in Google and I found TONS of affiliate programs relating to dog toys. Here was my search...

There are just a few examples of affiliate programs, I went through 5 pages (over 50 results of different affiliate programs) before I decided to stop.

One search, LOTS of affiliate programs. In fact, more than I will probably ever use and that is outside of the 30K+ products on Amazon and without dipping into some of the major affiliate networks out there like CJ.com, ShareASale.com, etc.

I actually went to the PetCo.com website and I was able to come up with some more dog training toy ideas.

  • ball launching toys
  • treat dispensing toys
  • bone and stick toys
  • interactive dog games
  • dog puzzles
  • dental chew toys

Then I realized they had a forum on their site where members of the community could discuss topics related to dogs. Although this wasn't an anticipated direction of my initial research, I always go with the flow when I am searching for information about my niche.

In this case, I went over to the forum and wrote down some ideas.

https://community.petco.com/t5/Dog/ct-p/DogStuff

You can use forums like this to come up with ideas for content, questions people are asking, things people need help with.

I would then create a list of any ideas I have relating to this space. In this case I was able to come up with some broad ideas.

  • dog behavior
  • house training my dog
  • dog swimming
  • dog travel travel
  • dog won't eat

I absolutely could find relevance in these topics in relation to dog toys. What are some dog toys that help with dog behavior, that help with house training, that help with swimming, that help with dog travel, that make eating fun for a dog. The wheels are turning!

So this leads me to the question...

Have I Ever Tapped Out a Niche?

Will the well ever run dry? The answer is no. I have never been in a niche where I found reason to believe there wasn't any opportunity left within it. Far from it.

I have literally spent less than 5 minutes researching this niche (it took me way longer to write this post) and I have come up with ideas that could easily fuel this business for a year.

Research is part of your daily activities and if you "perform and record" a little bit of research each and every day, you WILL be in a position of too many ideas and not enough time to address all of the opportunites.

That is the position YOU should and will be in within any niche. So if you are asking yourself "is my niche profitable" or "is XYZ niche profitable", have a look at what I have uncovered within the dog training niche in a matter of minutes and it will give you a whole new outlook.

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Minakshis Premium Plus
Research is part of your daily activities and if you "perform and record" a little bit of research each and every day, you WILL be in a position of too many ideas and not enough time to address all of the opportunites.
kyle Premium Plus
That is the position YOU should and will be in within any niche. So if you are asking yourself "is my niche profitable" or "is XYZ niche profitable", have a look at what I have uncovered within the dog training niche in a matter of minutes and it will give you a whole new outlook.
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