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This is a follow-up post to a question asked in Ask Away Round 4. If you have any questions about affiliate marketing in general and want some answers, feel free to leave a comment there or shoot me an email.

So, you’re ready to fire up an affiliate campaign, but you’re absolutely stumped on what to run. It happens a lot more than you’d like it to, and I have the problem on a daily basis. There are a few steps I take to get around this and start thinking.

Hit Up the News

Start reading some popular English news sites. Browse through the different categories you see there and you might see a trend of posts talking about one niche or a product or something you can turn into an offer on your own. You can also start browsing gossip sites. Notice the advertisements. Anything being promoted on gossip sites would probably make for a great niche to promote, number 1, because if they’re making money spending huge on media buys there, they’re probably making a decent return. Also, the quality of traffic on celeb gossip sites is horrible, so again, if you can make money there, you can make money anywhere. Google Trends is also great for seeing whats hot.

Hit Up a Network You Can Trust

Affiliate networks are sleezy, but there are a few out there that know what they’re talking about. EWA, Qwik, A4D, C2M are all pretty decent in that they have affiliate managers that are or have at some time in their life been affiliates themselves. I really like checking out EWA as they have a leader board of best converting offers on their home page after logging in. This helps me not only pick niches, but offers as well.

Know Your Traffic

Another thing you’ll want to do is to know your traffic. What are the main demographics for it? Where is it coming from? Then, match the traffic source to the offer. Use demographic research tools like Google Ad Planner, Compete, Alexa, and Quantcast to really dig deep into your traffic demographics. Run the offers through those tools, as well, and see which one gives you the closest match!

Keep It Interesting

If you are still stumped, use what you are interested in and pick out an offer you’d sign up for yourself. Target people with similar interests and demographics as you and you might be able to build out a successful campaign.

For more in-depth tips and coverage on selecting and running an offer, you might be interested in joining my private forums. You’ll get one-on-one help from me, as well as from many others already in the community! Click here for more details.