Choose an affiliate marketing niche

What you'll make

A scored comparison of 5–10 potential affiliate niches, ranked by how realistic they are for you to enter — factoring in competition, your existing knowledge, product availability and whether affiliate programs exist. So you pick a niche you can actually compete in.

What you need

• A Claude account
• 3–5 topics or industries you're interested in or know something about
• 25 minutes

Steps

1. List your candidate niches and ask Claude to evaluate each:

I'm choosing an affiliate marketing niche. Here are the niches I'm considering:
1. [niche — e.g. "home coffee equipment", "dog training products", "productivity apps for freelancers"]
2. [niche]
3. [niche]
4. [niche]
5. [niche]

For each niche, analyse:
1. Competition: how saturated is the affiliate content space for this niche? (are there big established sites dominating search results, or is there room?)
2. Product availability: are there real products to promote with affiliate programs? (not just one brand — a range of options so content isn't repetitive)
3. My knowledge advantage: how much do I already know about this topic? (more knowledge = more credible content, less research time)
4. Audience buying intent: when people search in this niche, are they ready to buy or just researching?
5. Content angles: what types of content work? (reviews, comparisons, how-to guides, roundups)

Score each niche 1–5 on each factor, give a total, and rank them.

2. For the top 2 niches, ask Claude to go deeper:

For the top 2 niches, tell me:
1. What specific sub-niches exist within each? (e.g. within "home coffee" — espresso machines, grinders, pour-over kits, accessories)
2. Which sub-niche has the least competition but still has products with affiliate programs?
3. What content formats are most competitors using? (and what gap could I fill?)
4. How long would it take to see traffic if I published 2 articles per week? (be honest — not "3 months" if it's really 12)
5. What's the biggest risk with this niche? (seasonal trends, dominant brands closing their affiliate programs, Google algorithm changes)

3. Pick one niche. Ask Claude to help you plan the first 10 articles:

I've chosen [niche]. Plan my first 10 articles. For each:
1. The target keyword (specific, not broad)
2. The article type (review, comparison, how-to, listicle)
3. The search intent (what the reader wants to do)
4. Which affiliate product(s) I'd link to
5. Why this article should be in the first 10 (not the second 10)

Order them so the easiest-to-rank articles come first — I want early traction, not to start with the hardest keywords.

4. Sign up for 2–3 affiliate programs in your chosen niche. Use the "Compare affiliate programs with Claude" guide in this library to evaluate them.

Check your result

• You have a scored comparison of all candidate niches, not just a gut feeling
• The niche you picked has real products with affiliate programs (you verified this — not just assumed)
• You chose a sub-niche, not the broad niche (competing in "coffee equipment" is harder than "pour-over coffee gear for beginners")
• You have a plan for your first 10 articles, ordered by ease of ranking
• You know the biggest risk and how to mitigate it

If all niches score similarly, pick the one where you have the most personal knowledge. In affiliate marketing, credibility is the one advantage you can't fake — and it comes from actually knowing the topic. A niche where you can write 20 articles without needing to research everything from scratch will always beat one that looks more profitable on paper.