Two things never crossed my mind until I did research for this niche of the week: one, there are hundreds of beauty affiliate programs, apparently. Two, the beauty products industry is a billion dollar industry. That's just in the US market alone.
Back in the day, only the women used beauty products, so skincare products and cosmetics are endorsed and bought only by women. Not so anymore. The birth of the metrosexual man in the 90's paved the way for beauty products endorsed by and created for men; all the more enriching an already booming industry.
Given all that, is it any wonder why there are beauty affiliate programs left and right? These beauty affiliate programs aren't restricted to affiliate networks like Clickbank, Amazon or Commission Junction. But before we go into any of those, let's look at possible sub-niches first.
The Beauty Product Niches
I already mentioned how skin care is the biggest in the beauty products industry. If you look at beauty affiliate programs, most products are for caring the skin. The products are mostly for women, but there are products for men and for children too. You can pick a set of anti-aging beauty products for women and promote that on your site. That's one sub-niche. Or, check out organic, natural skin care products for babies and toddlers.
Of the various sub-niches in skin care, the biggest and most lucrative is the acne treatment sub-niche. Acne affects both men and women, across all races and ethnicity. This skin condition is not confined to teenagers going through puberty, some experience this through adulthood. As I was going through my research, I came across this article about how acne treatment is a business. The article does not really paint a good picture for all those brands in the business, but it does show that acne treatment is a lucrative niche.
There are other sub-niches too. There are beauty affiliate programs that have products that help promote good skin, or help cure psoriasis and other skin diseases. You can create a "beauty blog" where you recommend various beauty products like makeup or fragrances. I've always wanted my own beauty blog, but I think I will start it simple with a cure acne site.
Once you've picked out a sub-niche, you need to do further research and determine who your target market is. This is very important as this would dictate the keywords you would target. For example, both men and women have acne. You can further make your site specific by targeting women only, or men only. Instead of using "acne treatment", you can use "acne treatment for women". Both have high competition, but the second keyword is a long variation of the first which means you target the keyword "acne treatment" and making the keyword specific to your target market.
The most obvious keywords I've looked at beforehand are "cure for acne" and "cure acne" - both have high competition with global monthly search count of 880 and 1,000 respectively.
It's always good to look at Google Trends just so you can see the trend for a particular keyword. I always check Ubersuggest too so I can look at long tail variations of my target keyword. Looking over the results in Ubersuggest also give you an idea of what your articles would be about. Will it be about "cure acne at home" or "cure acne naturally"?
Beauty Affiliate Programs
Let's get on to the beauty affiliate programs so we can look at what products to promote, and get some more keywords from their sales pages.
There are not a lot of beauty products in Clickbank. Most are for skin care like the Skintervention Guide and Acne No More in the Health and Fitness category. It's all good though since I'm going to go for the cure acne sub-niche.
Acne No More has high gravity, and their sales page is compelling. I visited their Affiliates page and they offer affiliate support and provide resources as well. They certainly kept in mind those who are new to affiliate marketing as their Affiliate Resources section cover the basics and includes several marketing tools.
Skintervention is another acne cure that I can promote on my site. The sales page looks good. I wish they had a presentation though like with Acne No More. There's just too much text on the sales page, and a user won't really go through all that. But still, gravity looks good. They offer affiliates banners to place on their sites. I am not sure if they offer anything more as there was no mention of it on the site. Also, this is a Paleo skincare guide that not all users might want. Still, it's good to keep your options open.
I moved on and looked at MarketHealth. It is an affiliate network just like Clickbank and Commission Junction, but they mostly offer health and beauty products. The commission is good enough and their pay out scheme looks good. They have several payout options too.
They don't have a lot to offer as far as skin care goes as I was only able to find AcneZine. The commission looks good as I get 50% of the revenue. That's one acne product.
Commission Junction and ShareASale also have products the cure acne as well as other beauty products. There's also Amazon, where you can find books as well as medicated creams and facial washes. There's a whole lot more beauty affiliate programs, particularly if you are going to promote cosmetics or hair care products, even fragrances! So make sure you have chosen a sub-niche and stick to it first, before expanding to other products in the niche.
The main challenge in choosing the cure acne sub-niche is that there's plenty of competition. Type "cure acne" on any search engine and you will see just how many you will go against. But keep in mind that you do not have to reach the top of the SERPs to gain traffic. Also, this niche is a good niche to build a list in because skin care does not stop when the acne is cured. The next step would be to prevent it. So that's how I would grow my site, were I to build it. I just have to make sure that I tap the correct target market.
Oohhh… my head is just buzzing with ideas. This has by far been the most time-consuming niche of the week post for me. I keep getting distracted with all those beauty products; add to that the numerous beauty affiliate products. Choices, choices, choices! Remember to check out AffiloBlueprint for detailed lessons on niche and product selection.
I hope you find my niche of the week helpful! Make sure to leave a comment and let me know! :)
