One of the absolute most prolific pieces of advice for prospective affiliates is to work within their passions—to find their niche market in an area of personal interest and stay with it. Although there is a place for niche marketing in affiliate marketing, it is not about what you have been led to believe that it is. For sure, "work within your personal niche" is one of the worst pieces of advice given to new entrepreneurs, and the cause of multitudes of affiliate failures.



Do what interests you

Do what interests you; find your niche; do what you have a passion or interest about; sell products and/or services that interest you the most...

These are the pieces of advice that entrepreneurs are told time and again. And there is some basis to this train of thought, a bit of method behind this madness.

The overall belief is that if you choose to do business in an area or 'niche' that you are deeply interested in, that passion will shine through and you will make sales almost accidentally. The feeling is that by selling products or working within your most favorite niche you will have a built-in sense of urgency and desire that will compel you to work on your business and to succeed.

Moreover, by working within a niche category of personal interest you will come prepared. That is, you will come armed with bucket loads of knowledge and experiences with various products so that you don't have to 'waste time' getting up to speed. You'll already know the products that deserve promotion. And you'll know all the promotional background information almost off the top of your head.

The belief is that if you focus on promoting products that are in some way of interest to you, you can easily take care of business. You can construct websites that will sell the products; you can write articles to submit to directories and gain links back to you, the niche expert; you can build blog upon blog and never run out of something great to say about your favorite little widget that so transformed your life as a widget collector (whether you should or not, is another matter, and we'll discuss that later).

Now here's the thing about this—none of it is untrue. It is easier to put yourself behind a product you already know. It is easier to hit the ground running when you are already well-versed in matters. It is much easier to connect with visitors and readers who are more like you.

So why, then, is it a myth to believe that you should focus first and foremost on your personal-interest niche as an affiliate marketer's? Why can't that mean virtually automatic sales and commissions?