7 Best Niches For Affiliate Marketing In 2020

People ask Alston Godbolt the same question all the time: which niche should I pick for affiliate marketing? His answer might surprise you. Almost any niche can work. The real question is how much competition you want to face, how much recurring revenue the niche supports, and whether the audience is large enough to build a real business on top of it.

In this video, Alston walks through the seven niches he considers the strongest starting points for new affiliate marketers. Each one has a large audience, real products to promote, and genuine room for someone willing to narrow their focus and create content with a specific person in mind. Here is a complete breakdown of everything he covers and why the advice holds up.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A clear explanation of why any niche can technically work for affiliate marketing and what actually separates good niches from great ones
The seven niches Alston recommends as the strongest starting points, in the order he covers them
Specific sub-niche examples you can act on today, not just broad categories that are too wide to compete in
Why technology and gaming each deserve their own spots on the list instead of being lumped together
The NFL affiliate program as a concrete, real-world example of how sports affiliate marketing can work
An honest breakdown of the drawbacks in each niche so you know what you are walking into before you commit
A free quiz at finder.platformproof.com to match your skills and background to the right starting point

Why the Niche Is Not the Most Important Thing

Before listing the seven niches, Alston makes a point worth pausing on: any niche can work. He uses the example of comparing health to basket weaving. Health has millions of people searching for answers every day, while basket weaving has a fraction of that audience. That difference affects how much money you can realistically make, how many products you have to promote, and how much competition you will face. But the niche itself is not what determines whether you succeed.

What determines success is whether you serve a specific audience well. The most profitable thing you can do in any of these seven niches is to niche down. Stop competing for the broad keyword and start owning the narrow one. That is the consistent advice across every niche on this list, and it is the reason most new affiliate marketers fail: they try to compete for topics that are already owned by sites with years of authority and thousands of backlinks.

With that framing in place, here are the seven niches Alston puts at the top of the list.

Niche #1: Health

Health is the most universally searched topic on the internet. People want to lose weight, build muscle, manage a chronic illness, deal with diabetes, recover from cancer treatment, and find better ways to feel well day to day. That demand does not slow down during economic downturns, during slow news cycles, or when people are busy. If anything, it grows during hard times because health problems do not wait.

The challenge is that the top-level keywords in health are controlled by sites with massive authority and dedicated medical teams producing content. You will not rank for “how to lose weight” or “symptoms of diabetes” as a new affiliate site. Those keywords are not available to you at the start.

But that is not where the money is for affiliate marketers anyway. Alston gives a specific example of the kind of phrase that actually works: “how to lose 10 pounds in 10 days for beginners without working out.” That is a long-tail phrase with real search volume and dramatically less competition than the broad category. More importantly, the people searching for that exact phrase are highly motivated. They know what they want and they are looking for something specific to help them get it, which makes them far more likely to click an affiliate link and buy a product.

The health niche also has a wide range of products to promote. Supplements, fitness equipment, workout programs, meal planning tools, coaching services, medical devices, and health tracking technology all fall under this umbrella. Commission structures vary by product type, but the volume of available products gives you a lot of options to find something that genuinely serves your audience.

Niche #2: Wealth

The wealth niche covers everything connected to making money, saving money, and growing money. Personal finance, investing, side hustles, online business models, dropshipping, affiliate marketing itself, real estate, and dozens of related sub-topics all live here. It is one of the broadest niches on the list, and one of the most competitive.

People search for wealth-related information constantly. They want to make more money at their current job, start something on the side, pay off debt faster, invest their savings intelligently, or retire years ahead of when their current trajectory would allow. That is a large, motivated audience with money to spend, and they are often willing to pay for products and courses that help them move faster toward their financial goals.

The competition is intense, and Alston does not sugarcoat that. Marketers know that people searching for money-related information are close to buying, which means a lot of other affiliates are competing for the same audience. The phrase “how to make money online” is not something a new site can compete for. You need to go narrower: “how to start affiliate marketing with no money as a beginner,” “how to make money with dropshipping without inventory,” or “how to invest your first $500 in index funds.”

One thing the wealth niche has going for it is the potential for high-ticket commissions. A software subscription, an online course, or a financial product can earn you much more per sale than a physical product in another niche. Even a smaller audience can generate meaningful income if the products you are promoting pay strong commissions. That balance of lower volume and higher commission per sale is one of the things that makes the wealth niche attractive despite the competition.

Niche #3: Relationships

Every adult on the planet has at least one relationship they would like to improve. Romantic partnerships, marriages, parent-child relationships, friendships, and professional dynamics all fall into this category. Alston notes that relationships represent a wide industry with a large number of products and services already built to serve the people searching for help in this space.

Think about what people actually buy in the relationships niche: couples therapy programs, communication books, dating coaching services, parenting courses, marriage retreats, apps designed to help couples connect, and self-improvement content that helps people show up better for the people they care about. These products exist and sell because people are genuinely willing to pay to repair and improve their relationships.

The audience for relationship content is nearly everyone. Whether someone wants to save a struggling marriage, get better at dating, connect more meaningfully with their children, or communicate more effectively with a difficult family member, they are a potential customer for something in this niche. That breadth is both an opportunity and a challenge, and again the answer is to niche down.

Instead of creating content about “relationships” in general, build content around “how to rebuild trust with your spouse after a major argument” or “how to talk to your teenager without them shutting down.” Those are specific problems with specific people actively searching for answers. They are far easier to serve than the broad category, and the people who find your content will feel like you wrote it specifically for them.

Niche #4: Technology

Technology might be the most underrated niche on this list. Alston makes a point about why it is uniquely valuable: technology turns over every six months to a year. If you create content about laptops today, you have a new reason to create content in six months when the next generation comes out. The refresh cycle is built into the niche. You never run out of things to say.

The technology space is also enormous. Computing, smartphones, home automation, cameras, audio equipment, software tools, productivity applications, streaming devices, and more all fall under this umbrella. The range of products you can promote as an affiliate is almost unlimited, and the audience spans every age group and income level.

Alston makes a broader observation about why technology crosses into every other niche: consider how many pieces of technology went into creating his video and getting it in front of you. He used a microphone, a webcam, a computer, and an internet connection. You watched it on a device, through a platform, over a network. Every single one of those touch points is an affiliate opportunity for someone in the technology niche. Technology does not exist in a silo. It touches everything else on this list.

The honest drawback is that commissions in the technology niche tend to be lower than in health or wealth. Selling a laptop might earn you two to four percent commission, while a digital product in the wealth niche might pay twenty to forty percent. You also need to create a high volume of how-to content, tutorials, and comparison reviews to build the kind of authority that attracts traffic. That requires consistent work. But if technology is something you genuinely understand and follow with interest, the content creation feels much less like labor.

Not sure which of these seven niches fits your skills and situation?

Take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com and get a personalized answer in under two minutes.

Niche #5: Pets

Pet owners are not casual spenders. People who love their animals spend real money on food, treats, grooming, veterinary care, training, toys, beds, travel gear, and everything in between. The pet industry generates billions in revenue every year, and a significant portion of that spending starts with an online search before the purchase happens. That makes the pets niche a natural fit for affiliate marketing.

Product reviews, breed-specific training guides, health and nutrition advice for specific animals, and gear comparisons all attract engaged audiences who are ready to act on what they find. A pet owner who searches for “best food for a German shepherd puppy with a sensitive stomach” is not casually browsing. They have a specific dog with a specific problem and they want a specific recommendation.

Alston’s advice in the pets niche mirrors what he recommends everywhere else: go narrow. Do not try to compete for “dog training.” Instead, build content around training German shepherds specifically. Go even narrower and focus on training female German shepherds, which is more specific still and has far less competition. The person searching for that exact phrase is extremely likely to trust your recommendation when they find it, because your content was clearly built for their situation.

The pets niche also has something most niches do not: built-in repeat purchases. Pet food, flea prevention, grooming supplies, and similar products are things owners buy monthly or quarterly for years. Some affiliate programs pay commissions on subscription purchases, which means a single referral can generate recurring income for as long as that customer keeps buying. That compounding dynamic is one of the reasons experienced affiliate marketers like the pets niche even though it takes time to build authority in it.

Niche #6: Gaming

Alston separates gaming from technology on purpose, and the reasoning is straightforward. Gaming has developed into its own cultural and commercial space with dedicated platforms, professional leagues, university scholarship programs, and a community with its own language, celebrities, and economy. Twitch exists specifically for gamers. Gaming is now offered as a scholarship-eligible degree program at certain universities. Division one esports programs recruit players the same way traditional athletic programs recruit athletes. Gaming is not a niche inside technology anymore. It is its own world.

The affiliate opportunities inside gaming are extensive. Think about everything a serious computer gamer needs to compete and stream: a high-performance machine with a strong graphics card, enough RAM to run demanding titles smoothly, an updated motherboard, multiple monitors, a quality microphone, a webcam for streaming, a gaming chair, a precision mouse, and a mechanical keyboard. Every item on that list has affiliate programs attached to it, and the people buying them are actively researching before they spend.

If you focus specifically on streamers, the gear list grows further. Streaming software, audio interfaces, ring lights, green screens, and capture cards all become relevant products to cover. Beyond hardware, you can promote gaming courses on platforms like Udemy, covering everything from how to build a game from scratch to how to improve performance in specific titles. The audience for that kind of content is large and actively looking for guidance.

Handheld games and mobile gaming are their own distinct sub-niches within gaming, each with dedicated audiences and separate product sets. Alston points out that the sub-niches within gaming are specific enough that you could find a more targeted, less competitive entry point through a gaming sub-niche than you could by entering the broad technology space and trying to compete there. That is why gaming gets its own spot on the list.

Niche #7: Sports

Sports rounds out the list, and Alston makes a strong case for why it deserves a spot. People who follow sports do not just watch the games. They buy equipment, apparel, training materials, coaching programs, travel packages for away games, and anything else connected to the teams and sports they care about. That spending is consistent and emotionally driven, which makes sports fans a particularly responsive affiliate audience.

Alston focuses on football and soccer as his main examples, noting that football is the most popular sport in the United States while soccer dominates in most other countries. Both sports have massive global audiences that are passionate about their teams and willing to spend money on gear, apparel, and experiences connected to their favorite sport.

One concrete example Alston highlights is the NFL affiliate program connected to the NFL Shop. As an affiliate, you can create content around NFL teams, season previews, player news, and Super Bowl coverage, then send traffic to the NFL Shop where fans can buy jerseys, hats, and other merchandise. He specifically mentions running YouTube or Facebook ads targeting fans of the two Super Bowl teams right before the game as a timely, practical way to take advantage of the program when interest is at its peak.

The sports niche also connects naturally to health and technology, which means you have room to expand once you build an audience. A football content site can branch into training equipment reviews, nutrition content for athletes, wearable technology for performance tracking, and travel content for game attendance. Sports touches multiple other niches on this list, which gives you more directions to grow from a single starting point.

Honest Drawbacks Across All Seven Niches

Every niche on this list is worth pursuing, and none of them comes without friction. Here is what you should expect going in so you are not caught off guard:

Health: Platform rules around medical claims are strict. If you make specific health claims that cross into medical advice territory, your content can be removed or your ad account can be suspended. You need to be careful about how you phrase recommendations, especially for products that touch on illness, medication, or treatment.
Wealth: Competition is high and trust is low. People searching for money-making information have seen a lot of hype and they are skeptical. Building credibility takes time, and you likely will not generate meaningful income in your first few months no matter how good your content is.
Relationships: Sensitive topics require care. Advice about marriage problems, breakups, or parenting can backfire quickly if it lands the wrong way. The content you create in this niche carries more emotional weight than content in technology or sports, and the consequences of getting it wrong can damage your reputation.
Technology: Lower commissions mean you need higher volume to generate real income. Earning two to four percent on a $500 product is very different from earning thirty percent on a $100 digital product. You may need thousands of visitors per month to hit meaningful revenue, which requires significant time and content investment.
Pets: Domain authority takes time to build. The pets niche has enough established competition that a new site may take six to twelve months before it ranks for anything significant. Patience and consistent publishing are required before you see traffic.
Gaming: The audience tends to be skeptical of promotional content. Gamers have seen a lot of sponsored content and paid reviews, and they are quicker than most audiences to dismiss recommendations that feel inauthentic. You need to be genuinely knowledgeable about what you are promoting, and you need to disclose affiliate relationships clearly.
Sports: Seasonal traffic patterns create revenue gaps. Football content peaks from August through February and drops significantly the rest of the year. If you build around a single sport, you need to plan for months where your traffic is a fraction of what it is during the season, or diversify across multiple sports to keep traffic more consistent throughout the year.

Find Your X

Knowing the seven best niches is useful. Knowing which one fits you specifically is what actually gets things moving. The right niche is not just the most profitable one on the list. It is the one where your existing knowledge, your genuine interest, and a paying audience all overlap. That intersection is where your affiliate business becomes sustainable instead of just a project you get tired of after three months.

The free quiz at finder.platformproof.com asks about your background, your skills, and what kind of work you actually want to be doing. The result is a specific direction matched to your situation, not just another list of possibilities to sort through on your own. Take it before you pick a niche and start building content around it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it really true that any niche can work for affiliate marketing?

Yes, and Alston makes this point explicitly at the start of the video. The niche itself is not the deciding factor. What matters is whether you serve a specific audience well, whether the content you create matches what people are actually searching for, and whether the products you recommend genuinely solve the problem your audience has. A small, focused niche with an engaged audience can generate more income than a broad niche with millions of half-interested visitors who never buy anything.

What does “niche down” mean in practical terms?

Niching down means narrowing your focus from a broad category to a specific sub-topic with a defined audience. Instead of “health,” you target “weight loss for busy parents over 40.” Instead of “pets,” you target “training adult rescue dogs.” The narrower your focus, the less competition you face and the more directly your content speaks to the person reading it. Alston’s example from the video: instead of “how to lose weight,” target “how to lose 10 pounds in 10 days for beginners without working out.”

Why does Alston separate gaming from technology on the list?

Gaming has developed into its own distinct space with dedicated platforms like Twitch, professional leagues, university scholarship programs, and a culture that barely overlaps with the general technology audience. The sub-niches within gaming are specific enough that a site focused on, say, PC building for streamers or competitive shooter game coaching can build a tighter, more engaged audience than a broad technology review site would. That level of specificity is why gaming earns its own spot rather than being folded into technology.

How does the NFL affiliate program work?

The NFL Shop runs an affiliate program that allows content creators to earn commissions on merchandise purchased through the official NFL store. Affiliates create content around teams, games, player news, and events, then direct their audience to the store using trackable affiliate links. When a visitor clicks and completes a purchase, the affiliate earns a commission on the sale. Alston mentions the Super Bowl period specifically as a high-opportunity moment, when interest in the two competing teams is at its peak and fans are actively buying merchandise and gear for watch parties.

Which of the seven niches has the lowest competition for a beginner?

Competition depends heavily on how broadly or narrowly you define your topic. At the top level, health and wealth are the most competitive by a wide margin. At the sub-niche level, any of the seven niches can have pockets of very low competition if you go specific enough. For beginners, the pets niche and the sports niche tend to have more accessible entry points because there are many specific breeds, sports, and teams you can build around without running into the same established competition you would face in health or wealth.

Why are technology affiliate commissions lower than other niches?

Physical technology products typically pay lower percentage commissions than digital products or subscriptions because the margins are thinner for the companies selling them. A laptop retailer operating on slim hardware margins cannot afford to pay thirty percent commissions. A digital course creator with near-zero marginal cost per sale can. The trade-off in technology is that there is an enormous volume of products you can review and recommend, and the audience size is huge, which can make up for lower per-sale earnings if you build enough traffic.

How long does it realistically take to make money with affiliate marketing?

There is no reliable specific timeline, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing or selling something. Most affiliate marketers do not see meaningful income during their first three to six months. Building enough traffic to generate consistent commissions requires time, consistent content creation, and enough authority for search engines and audiences to trust your recommendations. The more specifically you serve a defined audience and the more consistently you publish content they find useful, the faster that process tends to move.

Do I need to be an expert in my chosen niche to succeed?

You do not need to be the leading authority in your field, but you do need to know more than the average person in your audience or be willing to learn ahead of them consistently. The affiliate marketers who build lasting audiences are the ones who genuinely care about the topic, do the research to give accurate and useful recommendations, and are honest when they do not know something. Faking expertise tends to show up in the content, and experienced audiences in particular sense it quickly and stop trusting your recommendations.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “7 Best Niches For Affiliate Marketing In 2020,” YouTube, https://youtu.be/CHm6EjXW52I
NFL Shop Affiliate Program, referenced in the video as an example of a sports-niche affiliate opportunity around the Super Bowl
Udemy, referenced in the video as a platform for finding and promoting gaming-related courses