The Internet has opened a slew of opportunities for stay-at-home moms, students, and salaried individuals who want to generate a secondary income easily and conveniently.

Although there are various ways to make money online, if you have a shoestring budget or don’t have one at all, then affiliate marketing is a good option to start with.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a form of marketing in which you refer someone to buy a certain range of products or services online. For each sale you make, you get a commission from the manufacturer/reseller.

The money you make through affiliate marketing can vary considerably depending on the price of the product itself and your total monthly sales. However, another thing that can greatly affect your journey as an affiliate marketer is the niche you pick.

To save you time, the following are the top 5 most popular niches to pick from:

1. Make Money Online

Believe it or not, “make money online” itself has become a popular niche. This is because a large number of people are looking for ways to make money online through freelancing, affiliate marketing, etc.

There are various ways to tap into the “make money online” vertical- ebooks, online courses, premium videos, etc. You just need to figure out which ones are right for you, and then you can take it from there.

2. Health

Health and wellness are the biggest niche right now. With about 72% of the Internet users looking online for health information, you can imagine the size of this market today.

The problem with the health niche, unfortunately, is that it’s become quite saturated at this point. So, it may be tough to attract a considerable number of unique visitors.

If you are a medical professional yourself, then you automatically bring credibility to the table, which is why you could make a decent number of sales. Otherwise, you can take a different approach than simply creating a health blog where you just share tips on being healthy, etc.

3. Dating

The internet has allowed us to stay connected to our loved ones no matter where we are. This is the reason why social media has become so big, and so has online dating.

Dating is highly profitable niche, mainly because people are often willing to do whatever it takes to find a loved one or soul mate. So, you can build a website where you share tips and quality dating skills, etc.

You may also think about focusing on a subset of the market. For instance, there are plenty of dating websites for the teens, so maybe you can build a community for the introverts only, or are homosexuals, etc.

4. Trading

If you are interested in trading platforms, then there are a variety of affiliate programs here as well. The most popular one of these is the forex affiliation.

In forex affiliation, your aim is to refer potential traders to the forex brokers that are available online. This is usually done through referral links which notify the brokers when a particular trader registers with them through you.

There are multiple compensation methods offered for trading referral programs, including forex brokers. You can make money through rebates, CPA (Cost Per Acquisition), CPL (Cost Per Lead), etc.

5. Gambling

In 2015, the online gaming market was worth 37.91 billion USD, and it’s projected to touch 59.79 billion USD in 2020. So, is gambling a good niche for affiliate marketing? Absolutely yes!

Online casino and gambling sites have become highly popular today. The fact that gambling is still illegal in many countries is also one of the reasons why there is a huge global demand for online casino games.

Hundreds of online casinos have emerged on the surface of the Internet, and they are willing to pay attractive commissions for referring online gamblers to them. So, by creating an interesting/informative blog or website you can fetch a decent income from a referral program.

Affiliate marketing is easy and simple for any individual who knows how to use the Internet and a few basic software. You can just enroll in any of the top affiliate programs such as the eBay affiliate program or the Amazon affiliate program, create a blog/website, and say hello to new opportunities.