There’s a lot of money to be made online, and a lot of it is made by people who don’t have any products of their own. The rise in online affiliate business marketing is the result of more and more people discovering the benefits of selling someone else’s product, using one of the most powerful advertising mediums available: the Internet.

However, this rise in online affiliate business marketing has also resulted in a fair amount of saturation in certain areas. When this method of making money online started, there was very little competition and it was easy to make a lot of money very quickly. Now, with the ever-growing popularity of affiliate marketing, it has become more of a challenge, but it simply means that those who are well prepared and have the right information are the ones who will prosper.

There are three initial steps to ensure your success in online affiliate business marketing. They form the basis of everything and can make the difference between success and failure. This article covers the first cornerstone: finding the right niche. In the next two articles, I’ll share with you the other two pieces of a solid foundation for your online affiliate marketing success.

Choosing a niche is the most important part of your preparation for online business affiliate marketing, and it can set you up for easy success if you know what to look for. Most of us tend to look for the biggest market and the most popular product, and go with that. But there is a lot of money to be made in the more niche niches, and it is often much easier as there is much less competition.

So how do you find a profitable niche? I advise starting with what you love, or a topic that interests you (preferably, excites you). If you are working on a topic that you like, EVERYTHING is easier. The research is interesting; marketing is nice and social media is fun. And on top of all this (or because of it) you will do a much better job and be much more successful.

So, here are the three steps to creating the first (and most important) cornerstone in marketing your online affiliate business:

Step one:

Make a list of all the topics and topics that excite you, topics that you are passionate about, that you enjoy. Don’t worry if you think there is some money in them or if you think other people will be interested in them. Just write them all down anyway, each one. For example: tennis, cinema, gardening, steam trains, bees, lasagna, socks… You get the idea.

Second step:

Go through the list and add some details: choose one aspect of each topic that interests you the most, for example: tennis techniques for beginners, horror movies, growing roses, etc.

Step three:

Choose three items from your list that you like or are most interested in. Now, be careful…don’t pick the topics you think will make the most money, and don’t leave out the ones you think won’t make money, pick the topics you’re most excited about. There will always be a way to make money on your interest; sometimes you just have to think a little outside the box. And the next article in this series: “Online Affiliate Business Marketing – 3 Cornerstones to Success – Second Step: Keyword Research” will show you the next step in how to make money from your interest, whatever it is! !

Here’s an example: More than 27,100 people search for the term “gel ant” each month. So if you were fascinated with ants, there will be a way to make money from them. There are 33,000 searches each month for “performance socks.” I don’t even know what they are, but if socks are one of your passions, maybe they are 😉 In the next article, I’ll share with you how to find what people are looking for within your chosen topics and how to find the areas within those topics that have the least competition. Let’s make the most of your potential!