I must be stooopid(((

Greg - Don't try and reinvent the wheel. Look for products to promote that are already selling well in a given niche. As for niche selection, get some ideas about hot niches by checking out Clickbank, Amazon non-fiction best sellers, etc.

Very basic advice but you really don't need to be overcomplicating things at this stage.

Roy

Gregg,

I think the problem is that you're getting hung up on the technicalities of this.

Stop thinking keywords and start thinking accessible markets.

You have a lot of options available as an affiliate marketer so don't think you have to rely on search engine traffic.

For example - go to Youtube and see what's popular and getting views. Go to Twitter Search and see what's hot on Twitter, pay attention in your local area (listen to the radio, read the papers) and get a feel for what people that you can access are actually interested in.

Finding products will be the easiest part of the puzzle.

Andy

Gospel according to Travis Sago:

"First find a hungry crowd"

Hugh

What I've learned is that choosing your first niche is more about mindset. Here is a copy of my latest blog post...

-----------start blog post-----------------------

Pick a Niche, Any Niche

Don't spend all of your time looking for the perfect niche, market or product to sell. Don't look for the best niche. Don't even spend too much time looking for a good niche. You could easily end up waiting for months trying to figure out what a good niche is.

Those months could turn into years if you don't give up first. This was another big mistake I made when I started to learn Internet marketing. I wanted to KNOW that I would make money in the niche or market before I spent my time working on it.

So many newbies say that choosing their first niche is the hardest part of learning Internet marketing and it is what is holding them back. I completely understand because it held me back for longer than I care to admit. Then I learned the cold hard truth. It's almost impossible for a newbie to choose a niche that they know will be profitable because they don't have the experience or confidence to know what will work for them.

And if you expect someone to tell you what their successful niche is you might as well ask them for their bank account numbers and what their passwords are. It ain't going to happen. So then, how do the people who are successful at affiliate marketing figure it out? Their desire to make money was greater than their fear of wasting their time. They took chances and learned by trial and error.

There are people who are successful in almost every niche. So what does this tell you? It should tell you that choosing a niche is not as important as learning how to sell to that niche. This is a skill you will learn by practicing. Selling stuff online is mainly about one thing... SELLING.

----------end blog post-----------------------------

So, I feel that getting started is more about mindset. Just choose a niche that you are interest in and one where people are already spending money. Next you need to learn and practice your basic marketing skills.

Here is something else to think about. A successful marketer could tell you his best niche and just because she is successful doesn't necessarily mean you will be. Here's proof of that. I'll tell you a niche that I know for a fact that some people are making easily over $1000 per day. It's ringtones, but unless you have highly developed skills you will probably not make any money in that niche. Another niche is the Forex markets.

I could go on and on, but the bottom line is just pick something and start learning the basics. As you develop your skills you will start to feel much less overwhelmed and more confident in your ability to choose niches.

John P