In the world of affiliate marketing, finding the right niche can make or break your success. While popular verticals like weight loss, personal finance, and e-commerce offer massive earnings potential, they’re also hyper-competitive. As an affiliate marketer, you’re up against deep-pocketed brands and seasoned professionals.
The smarter play? Seek out low competition niches where you can get a head start before the masses arrive. With less crowding, it’s easier to rank content, build an audience, and ultimately drive more sales through your affiliate links. In this guide, we’ll explore highly profitable yet underrated niches ripe for the taking.
How to Choose Low Competition Niches for Affiliate Marketing
Not all “low competition” opportunities are created equal. Smart affiliate marketers carefully evaluate several key factors before picking a niche:
- Search Volumes and Traffic Potential: Use keyword research tools to analyze search volumes for niche-relevant terms. Ideally, you want low-to-moderate volumes (500-5,000 monthly searches) indicating sustainable demand without being overly competitive.
- Competitor Analysis: Spend time reviewing the top 10-20 ranking pages for those keywords. Are they low-quality? Out-of-date? Clearly lacking expertise? If so, that could signal an opportunity to swoop in with superior content. Also assess the authority level of the competing domains.
- Affiliate Program Availability & Quality: There’s no opportunity without relevant, high-paying affiliate programs and offers to promote. Vet networks like ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, Awin, Rakuten, and Amazon Associates for programs matching your niche. Look for strong commission rates and reliable track records.
- Your Unique Expertise and Passion: The biggest advantage in a low competition niche? Leveraging insider knowledge and genuine enthusiasm for the topic at hand. Choose verticals tightly aligned with your professional background, hobbies, skills, experiences, and interests.
- Consumer Demand Indicators: Beyond search data, look for signs of real consumer activity, demand, and willingness to spend. Check trends like social media buzz, active niche communities, increasing media coverage, growing retail offerings, and product innovation within that space.
- Growth Trajectory and Evergreen Potential: While emerging verticals allow for early mover advantage, ensure the niche has a long growth runway ahead and evergreen sustainability. Use tools like Google Trends to analyze momentum over time.
- Ease of Creating Quality Content: Some niches naturally lend themselves to rich, multimedia content like guides, tutorials, reviews and more. Others may have more barriers. Assess your ability to create superior, differentiated content assets compared to competitors.
The sweet spot? Niches demonstrating upward consumer demand and opportunity but where competitors appear beatable through smarter content strategy and genuine subject matter passion. With diligent research, you can stake your claim before the gold rush.
7. Best Low Competition Niches for Affiliate Marketing
1. Jewelry and Accessories
While the general jewelry market is saturated, distinct micro-niches, such as popular jewellery online, attract passionate audiences seeking unique, personal pieces. For example, the world of personalized, hand-stamped jewelry pieces allows you to tap into a devoted consumer base. Customized name necklaces, coordinate bracelets, fingerprint charms, and more hold major sentimental value, commanding premium prices.
- Personalized/hand-stamped jewelry (e.g. nameplate necklaces, coordinate bracelets)
- Cultural/traditional jewelry (e.g. Native American, African styles)
- Fandom jewelry (e.g. music bands, movies, pop culture)
- Sustainable/ethical fine jewelry and gemstones
- High-end designer vintage and estate jewelry
2. Pet Supplies and Accessories
Pet ownership is booming, with owners seeking trusted online resources. An affiliate site in this vertical can position itself as a go-to for the latest innovations in pet care. For example, new smart pet technologies like automatic feeders and water fountains, along with pet cameras for monitoring, are in high demand. As are premium pet travel accessories like strollers, carriers and car seats for pampered pooches.
- Pet technology (e.g. automatic feeders, water fountains, quality of life cameras)
- Pet travel gear (e.g. strollers, carriers, car seats, travel bowls)
- Dog training tools (e.g. collars, clickers, agility tunnels/equipment)
- Premium pet furniture and home decor (e.g. designer beds, feeders, hutches)
- Supplies for exotic/unique pets (e.g. reptiles, small mammals, birds, fish)
3. Home Automation and Smart Home Tech
The smart home technology revolution has gone mainstream, with millions purchasing smart speakers and IoT devices for their households. However, there’s still a vast need for trusted resources to guide early adopters through the capabilities and integration of these emerging technologies.
- Smart lighting systems and devices (e.g. LED light bulbs, controllers, light strips)
- Unified smart home systems integrating entertainment, security, climate and more
- DIY smart home installation guides, tips and tutorials for tech newbies
- Innovative security cameras, video doorbells and alarm/monitoring systems
- Smart thermostats and wireless HVAC control devices
- Smart locks, garage access solutions and home entry management
4. Handcrafted and Artisanal Products
In a mass-produced, big-box store environment, the maker movement stands out by celebrating handcrafted products from independent artisans. Shoppers seek unique, sustainable goods with a human touch and personal story behind them. This presents a compelling opportunity for curated affiliate sites and influencers.
- Handmade jewelry and accessories (e.g. gemstone, precious metal, beaded)
- Hand-carved, handblown or handpainted ceramics, glassware and decor
- Handcrafted solid wood furniture, kitchen items and woodworking
- Traditional cultural handicrafts (e.g. Native American, African, South Asian)
- Woodworking tools, DIY guides and hobby supplies for home crafters
5. Health and Wellness Products
While the health and fitness space sees tons of competition for mainstream products like diet plans and supplements, niche affiliate marketers can still find opportunities in underserved micro-verticals.
- Senior fitness programs, mobility aids and healthy aging guides
- Pre/postnatal workouts, nutrition plans, and recovery aids for new moms
- Outdoor adventure gear and guides (e.g. hiking, rock climbing, camping, cycling)
- Niche workout types and enthusiast accessories (e.g. CrossFit, indoor cycling)
- Emerging biohacking technologies, wearables and sleep/recovery optimization
6. Travel
While most travel affiliates promote mainstream brands and bookings, you can stand out by going niche and local. Ideas include hyper-focused tours (e.g. culinary travels, archeological digs), solo travel guides, unconventional transport modes like RV or train travel, or tailored regional destination content only locals know. Other niches include traveling with specific requirements like solo parents, disabilities, pets, etc. These passionate microsegments crave trusted advice beyond just hotels and flights.
- Hyper-niche tours and travel styles (e.g. archeological adventures, solo female travel, RV lifestyle)
- Insider local/regional travel blogs uncovering hidden gems off-the-beaten-path
- Unique transportation guides (e.g. train travel across Europe, ultra-budget hacking)
- Traveling with specific groups (e.g. disabled, seniors, solo parents, pet owners)
7. Education
With online learning booming and careers rapidly evolving, the education affiliate space is ripe for content creators and curators. You could focus on specific areas like homeschool curriculum, professional certification programs, language immersion, or niche job training like trades and creative skills. The opportunity extends well beyond just accredited courses – any form of guided learning holds monetization potential. From video tutorials to comprehensive e-courses, owned education brands can prosper via affiliate partnerships.
- Homeschool curriculum, learning aids and educational toys/games for kids
- Professional certification courses, exam preparation and career development
- Language learning apps, software and full cultural immersion programs
- Specialized job training (e.g. trades, creative skills, personal services)
- Video tutorials and guides teaching niche creative/technical skills
FAQs
Q1: How small is too small for a niche?
While micro-niches have opportunity, you need to validate an audience and buying intent exists. Use tools to gauge search volumes and projected revenue potential. Aiming for totally uncharted waters could be overly risky.
Q2: How do I find relevant affiliate programs for these niches?
Start by searching for brands, products and services on major affiliate networks like ShareASale, CJ, Rakuten, and Amazon Associates. You can also search for “[company] + affiliate program” to find individual brand programs.
Q3: What if other affiliates jump in behind me?
Welcome competition! It validates you’ve identified a worthwhile vertical. Stay ahead by doubling down on quality, engagement, and audience loyalty.
Q4: Should I create one site or multiple niche sites?
Focus is important starting out. Build one authoritative site to start earning and learning the ropes, then expand your portfolio from there.
Q5: How do I vet whether a niche has long-term earning potential?
Use tools to analyze search trends, buying signals, and overall niche growth. However, the hottest niches can fizzle while evergreen topics endure. As an affiliate, keeping a forward-thinking, capitalized mindset is wise.
Conclusion
The opportunities in affiliate marketing are limitless for those bold enough to explore the road less traveled. While saturated markets may hold big paydays, they’re also fiercely competitive battlegrounds.
Instead, level the playing field by getting in early on emerging, low competition niches. Use your personal passions, keen observation skills, and a data-driven approach to pinpoint micro-verticals on the cusp of growth. Then, commit to creating immense value for that underserved audience.
Over time, you can build a defensible brand as the go-to authority while capitalizing on higher conversion rates and less advertising spend. The payoff? Earning revenue while pursuing your niche interests on your own terms as an ambassador for that community. That’s the true power of picking the perfect low competition affiliate niche.