As an affiliate marketer, you are always searching for additional profit sources: more leads, sales, and revenues. But sometimes, the inability to scale goes to the very beginning—choosing an affiliate marketing niche. Choose the wrong niche, and you’re doomed.
This is why I suggest you approach the affiliate marketing niche choice with a cold head so you don’t get cold feet later. You can potentially make a fortune in dozens of niches, but not all of them rhyme with your expertise, experience, budget, and marketing capabilities.
Example: If you don’t drive a car, you might have a hard time promoting products like auto insurance because of the lack of firsthand experiences and less knowledge on the subject compared to someone who’s been driving for decades.
However, there are also affiliate marketing niches where you can excel financially and help people find the products they’re looking for.
Below is everything you should know about these affiliate marketing niches:
- Insurance
- Finance & Investment
- Real Estate
- Online Education & E-Learning
- Software & Technology
- Health & Wellness
- Home Services & Security
- Business & Entrepreneurship
- Solar
Your niche isn’t on the list? Book a demo with our affiliate & performance marketing professionals to learn how you can earn more with Phonexa in your specific niche.
Global vs. Micro Affiliate Marketing Niches
Identifying the best niche for affiliate marketing boils down to your expertise and budget, with global niches being more challenging than narrow-focused niches.
For example, the auto insurance market in the United States is extremely competitive, encompassing the broadest audience of car owners. At the same time, there are many less crowded sub-niches—auto insurance for first-time drivers, auto insurance for expats, etc.
For the same reason, becoming a micro-influencer might make you more money than a long shot at making millions where you lack knowledge. And the traction you can gain as an expert can be even with younger audiences: over 73% of consumers between the ages of 18 and 27 found influencer content more interesting than advertising.
Top Affiliate Marketing Niches: Detailed Overview
Insurance
Insurance is one of the most challenging affiliate marketing niches, where you can make over $100 per lead or qualified phone call. It’s no secret that generating traffic is the main challenge for affiliates—while a whopping 45.3% struggle to generate traffic, only 19.5% find converting this traffic problematic—and it might be even harder in the insurance industry.
| Popular Sub-Niches | Sales Cycle Length | Organic Traffic Generation Difficulty | Paid Traffic Generation Difficulty |
| Health insurance, life insurance, auto insurance, home insurance, pet insurance, travel insurance, business insurance | 7 | 8 | 9 |
However, you can still find quite a few low-competition, high-volume keywords to proceed from. So if you have deep expertise in one of the in-demand problems—for example, hazard insurance—you might get a head start against other affiliates.
| “As an affiliate, you’re helping your audience to find the right product while giving them the ability to sort through a lot of things they may not know much about. But, as an expert, you can help people see through the weeds to choose the best product for their needs. At the same time, providing more options creates more monetization opportunities for you.” – Talar Malakian |
Low-Difficulty Commercial Keyword Examples: KD<5, U.S. Monthly Traffic >5,000
| Keyword | Difficulty | Traffic |
| hazard insurance | 5 | 13,000 |
| driveaway insurance | 2 | 8,000 |
| motor truck cargo insurance companies | 5 | 7,800 |
| mobile catering van insurance | 4 | 7,700 |
| remote insurance jobs | 3 | 7,600 |
Read also: How Data Analytics Can Grow Your Insurance Business
Finance & Investment
Finance and investment might be the most high-ticket affiliate marketing niches, with the average affiliate earning over $9,000 monthly. Other than that, it is quite similar to insurance—the same long sales cycle and equally tough organic and paid traffic generation.
| Popular Sub-Niches | Sales Cycle Length | Organic Traffic Generation Difficulty | Paid Traffic Generation Difficulty |
| Investment platforms, popular investment tools, and financial advisory services | 7 | 8 | 9 |
The only substantial difference is that, unlike insurance policies, which cost roughly the same among all insurance providers, financial services and products vary greatly, ranging from a few dollars per month for budgeting apps or credit score monitoring tools to thousands of dollars for trading courses and wealth management.
If you’re a new affiliate, you can promote cheaper financial products to get a taste of sales. The only thing to mention is that finance comes with strict compliance requirements.
Low-Difficulty Commercial Keyword Examples: KD<5, U.S. Monthly Traffic >3,000
| Keyword | Difficulty | Traffic |
| remote finance jobs | 0 | 8,200 |
| finance internships summer 2025 | 1 | 4,700 |
| is real estate investment trusts a good career path | 3 | 4,200 |
| best paying jobs in real estate investment trusts | 1 | 3,400 |
Read also: Financial Lead Generation 101: Financial Leads That Can Bring You Profits
Real Estate
Growing at around 3.3% annually, real estate is one of the markets where both demand and supply are constantly high. However, while the competition may be high nationwide, there might be a chance in local listings. If you know your location through and through, you might be able to provide the details that nationwide real estate companies don’t know about.
| Popular Sub-Niches | Sales Cycle Length | Organic Traffic Generation Difficulty | Paid Traffic Generation Difficulty |
| Property listings, real estate investment, vacation rentals | 10 | 7 | 8 |
For example, focusing on the local real estate market, you can factor in the detailed infrastructure of the neighborhood, with some firsthand experience, commute insights, and local laws, taxes, and incentives like, say, local first-time homebuyer programs. SEO-wise, local real estate services are very popular, so smaller affiliates surely have a chance.
Low-Difficulty Commercial Keyword Examples: KD<5, U.S. Monthly Traffic >3,000
| Keyword | Difficulty | Traffic |
| real estate attorney near me | 5 | 8,300 |
| real estate commission changes | 5 | 7,000 |
| real estate for sale near me | 1 | 4,600 |
| real estate license cost | 4 | 3,500 |
Read also: How To Get Leads in Real Estate for Free
Online Education & E-Learning
Growing by almost 10% per year, online education is significantly less complex than, for example, finance or insurance. However, even though the sales cycle is shorter and the competition is moderate, the organic traffic volume is lower as well, so you might have to cover broader topics rather than focusing on a few popular queries.
| Popular Sub-Niches | Sales Cycle Length | Organic Traffic Generation Difficulty | Paid Traffic Generation Difficulty |
| Online courses, certifications, test preparation, language learning, professional development, educational software | 4 | 6 | 7 |
The good news is that you can earn recurring commissions, which are quite popular in subscription-based niches, such as online education and cloud software. So instead of receiving a single commission on a sale, you can earn recurring commissions every time the referred customer renews their subscription plan. Some recurring programs pay for every renewal throughout the entire customer lifetime, while some only pay for the first few renewals.
One major advantage of online education is that it allows you to go global, significantly increasing your potential for organic lead generation. For example, the search volume for “education specialist degree online” is 350 in the United States and 600 globally, which doubles your traffic potential.
Low-Difficulty Commercial Keyword Examples: KD<5, U.S. Monthly Traffic >250
| Keyword | Difficulty | Traffic |
| education specialist degree online | 4 | 350 |
| special education credential programs online | 3 | 300 |
| online art education degree | 4 | 250 |
Read also: Education Affiliate Marketing + 10 Best Affiliate Programs
Software & Technology
The gigantic SaaS affiliate marketing niche gives you plenty of moneymaking opportunities, from high-ticket enterprise-level software to under-$10 subscription-based music and design services. And the best thing is that there’s no limit to content creation. Once you’ve subscribed to the software, you can promote it simply by showing the beautiful things that can be done with it.
| Popular Sub-Niches | Sales Cycle Length | Organic Traffic Generation Difficulty | Paid Traffic Generation Difficulty |
| SaaS, web hosting, cybersecurity | 5 | 7 | 8 |
Software & technology is one of the niches where the average lead cost might not be the highest, but recurring commissions can compensate for that. Traffic-wise, the recipe is simple: create 80% educational and 20% marketing/sales content built around commercial keywords.
Low-Difficulty Commercial Keyword Examples: KD<5, U.S. Monthly Traffic >3,000
| Keyword | Difficulty | Traffic |
| entry level software engineer | 4 | 7,100 |
| software engineer new grad | 5 | 5,600 |
| entry level software engineer jobs | 0 | 4,900 |
| clipping software | 0 | 3,600 |
Read also: 18 Best Affiliate Marketing Software Suites to Grow Your ROI
Health & Wellness
Health & wellness is a gigantic affiliate marketing niche that encompasses a diverse range of sub-niches, from mental health to gut health to more exotic avenues like, for example, consuming healthy information. While the promotion complexity is moderate and the sales cycle is relatively short, it’s essential to be a trustworthy source of information. In other words, anything you promote within the health & wellness realm should be verified first.
| Popular Sub-Niches | Sales Cycle Length | Organic Traffic Generation Difficulty | Paid Traffic Generation Difficulty |
| Fitness, supplements, mental health, weight loss, personal care | 4 | 6 | 7 |
Health & wellness influencers have high income, and their audience includes a fair share of early adopters and innovators. Paid ads might also be effective: 57% of followers of health & fitness influencers remember seeing ads on social media.
But then again, platforms like Google and Facebook have strict advertising policies for health-related products, so you must comply with guidelines and are likely to face higher CPC rates than in other affiliate marketing niches.
Low-Difficulty Commercial Keyword Examples: KD<5, U.S. Monthly Traffic >5,000
| Keyword | Difficulty | Traffic |
| gut health supplements | 4 | 20,000 |
| mental health tattoos | 2 | 9,100 |
| how to get health insurance without a job | 5 | 6,200 |
| health information management jobs | 5 | 5,500 |
Home Services & Security
Home services & security is one of the niches where you might have to go local. Sacrificing a potentially larger audience does make sense for local affiliates, who may gain a competitive edge by hyper-localizing their offers.
| Popular Sub-Niches | Sales Cycle Length | Organic Traffic Generation Difficulty | Paid Traffic Generation Difficulty |
| HVAC, home improvement, smart home, pest control | 5 | 6 | 7 |
The simplest lead generation strategy would be to optimize your content for specific locations. Pick a keyword you’d like to focus on and add the state’s name. For example,“best home services” is much more challenging than “best home services in Minnesota.”
Low-Difficulty Commercial Keyword Examples: KD<5, U.S. Monthly Traffic >800
| Keyword | Difficulty | Traffic |
| in home care services near me | 5 | 1,400 |
| best home services | 5 | 1,300 |
| home electrical repair services | 5 | 800 |
Read also: Top Home Services Lead Generation Strategies
Home services is an inherently local market, so you need local SEO and geo-targeted campaigns. Many affiliate programs are lead-based, with leads priced higher than in most other affiliate marketing niches.
Last but not least, many home services are season-based, so you may need to shift your focus from one sub-niche to another throughout the year. For example, you may promote air conditioners in summer, heating systems in winter, and alarm systems after local break-ins.
Take a product tour to see how Phonexa can grow your affiliate marketing business.
Business & Entrepreneurship
Business & entrepreneurship spans hundreds of sub-niches—in fact, anything that can have value for the customers and can be sold—it’s hard to generalize. But then again, if you want to grow organically, you likely have to focus on low-competition niches and take it from there.
If you haven’t decided what business affiliate marketing niche to focus on, you might want to explore it using tools like Ahrefs or Semrush. Evaluating what content ranks on the first page of SERPs, how many links this content has, its length and contents, and the DR of the websites that rank in the top 10 can help you understand what you need to stand out.
Low-Difficulty Commercial Keyword Examples: KD<5, U.S. Monthly Traffic >5,000
| Keyword | Difficulty | Traffic |
| business for sale | 2 | 34,000 |
| business card holder | 5 | 15,000 |
| business spaces for rent | 0 | 5,800 |
| I want to start a business, but have no ideas | 1 | 5,300 |
Read also: 13 Insanely Effective Lead Generation Strategies You’re Not Using
Solar
Solar is another affiliate marketing niche where promoting local solar providers can give you an advantage over nationwide affiliates. Otherwise, with the solar market growing by around 5% annually, lead generation might be as competitive as in insurance or finance.
| Popular Sub-Niches | Sales Cycle Length | Organic Traffic Generation Difficulty | Paid Traffic Generation Difficulty |
| Residential solar, commercial solar, solar-powered gadgets, solar installation services, solar financing | 7 | 7 | 8 |
Low-Difficulty Commercial Keyword Examples: KD<5, U.S. Monthly Traffic >5,000
| Keyword | Difficulty | Traffic |
| solar panel cleaning | 2 | 20,000 |
| solar christmas lights | 1 | 11,000 |
| solar pool heater | 0 | 9,800 |
| solar system drawing | 0 | 8,000 |
Read also: How To Get High-Intent Solar Leads
Low-Competition Affiliate Marketing Niches in: Your Best Chance?
None of the affiliate marketing niches I’ve reviewed so far are low-competition in general, but every single one can become such if you focus on one or a few locations. Again, even if there’s no volume for your state-specific keyword, you get a higher chance of hitting the top search results for the parent-level keyword among the visitors from your target state.
Here’s what it means in practice: If your domain name is solarpanelsmassachusetts.com, and you’re optimizing your content for “solar panels Massachusetts,” you’ll have an inherently higher chance to appear at the top of search results for the “solar panels” query from users located in Massachusetts as opposed to users from other states. So you’re killing two birds with one stone, optimizing for local keywords and parent queries.
Alternatively, if you have unique knowledge—urban farming tools for indoor gardening, equipment for efficient home offices, minimalist furniture for tiny homes—then it’s even easier: just share what you love and find advertisers that sell these products.
How Much Can You Earn in Different Affiliate Marketing Niches?
First of all, a niche itself doesn’t determine the amount of money you can make there—even making $5 per lead can make you millions if you have a large audience and high conversion rates. So, it’s not as much about the commission size as it is about your skills.
On the other hand, knowing the average commission in different affiliate marketing niches can help you choose the most profitable affiliate marketing program and decide whether pursuing a specific niche is worth it. In other words, knowing your monthly traffic, approximate conversion rates for your type of traffic, and the commission per lead, you can calculate your expected affiliate income.
Here’s how much high-ticket affiliate marketing niches pay per lead and per sale:
However, the actual per-lead or per-sale payout depends on the specific affiliate program and, most importantly, you can ask for increased commissions if you’re an expert in your niche, especially within the pay-per-lead commission model, or you simply have high conversion rates.
Are High-Ticket Affiliate Marketing Niches Worth It?
Although I cannot give a definitive answer as to whether you should venture into high-ticket affiliate marketing or focus on conversions (which might be a better idea to feel the taste of it), I can help you make an informed decision based on your experience and expertise.
Here are the differences between high-ticket and traditional affiliate marketing:
High-ticket affiliate marketing niches are tougher overall, from lead generation to nurturing to conversion. More often than not, you can only be successful in a high-ticket niche if you know it through and through, have dozens of years of experience behind you, and can produce engaging content where the products you promote add value to the context.
In fact, affiliate income strongly correlates with experience. Chances are you won’t be able to earn good money in the first year—it may take up to 5 years to gain a substantial footing in the game and turn affiliate marketing into your main source of income.
Here’s the average monthly income of new and experienced affiliate marketers:
If you’re new, the best strategy is to choose the niche you’re passionate about rather than chasing profits in a niche that has nothing to do with your interests and personality. Affiliates who play to their strengths typically achieve results faster and can grow sustainably over time.
Here’s the average annual revenue of affiliate marketers of all levels:
As you can see, one thing is clear: affiliate marketing isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. On the other hand, if you are here for the long haul, you might be able to step up your affiliate marketing game from being a side hustle to being your only (major) source of income.
What Are the Best Lead Generation Strategies Across Affiliate Marketing Niches?
Even though generative AI has made content creation easier, content is still king, with global content marketing revenues expected to double in the next 5 years. In 2025, users are searching for verifiable, unique insights into the product or service in question rather than AI-generated descriptions copied from one website to another.
And this is where you can stand out. In my opinion, the best approach is to actually use the product you promote alongside a few competitor products. This way, you can get tons of valuable information for content creation, like unpacking and assembling the product, your firsthand experiences with it, and how it performs against similar products.
Lynx To Take Your Affiliate Marketing to the Next Level
While it’s okay for smaller affiliates to use the network’s affiliate marketing software, bigger players might leave money on the table by relying on external solutions. At the end of the day, granular insights into your traffic channels, audiences, and customer journey can only be unlocked when you own the software rather than pulling data from a third party.
And this is where Phonexa’s Lynx stands out—a comprehensive affiliate marketing software that tracks affiliate marketing performance from top to bottom in real-time, so you can pave the best customer journey on the spot depending on customer engagements. As a result, you get more form fills, more calls generated, and more leads sold and sales made by the customers you refer.
Grow Your Affiliate Income with Phonexa
Lynx is great on its own, but what about having a comprehensive performance marketing ecosystem that spans across all affiliate and traditional marketing avenues? What if you could solve marketing with one software suite without having to juggle between tools and reports?
Welcome to Phonexa, an eight-in-one performance & affiliate marketing ecosystem that helps you generate, track, distribute, and analyze leads from a single dashboard.
| “Phonexa serves pretty much anyone in the customer acquisition space, whether that’s media buyers, affiliates, brands – anyone looking to grow their book of customers or generate customers for other product providers and track their marketing from an end-to-end perspective, all the way from the first impression – where this customer first sees your advertising – to the final destination of buying your product.” – David Pickard, CEO at Phonexa |
Get Phonexa’s eight proprietary solutions at a single price (online price calculator):
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| Call Logic | Call tracking & distribution software |
| E-Delivery | Email & SMS marketing software |
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| Lynx | Click tracking software |
| Opt-Intel | Suppression list management software |
| HitMetrix | User behavior recording & analytics software |
| Books360 | Automated accounting software |
Build your plan now, or book a demo to learn more about Phonexa.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most profitable affiliate marketing niches?
Here are the affiliate marketing niches where you can earn $50 to $100 per qualified web lead or phone call: insurance, business & entrepreneurship, real estate, education, home services, software & technology, health & wellness, and solar.
What affiliate marketing niches have the highest conversion rates?
The affiliate marketing niches with the highest conversion rates are usually less complex niches that are focused on the mass market and require less commitment: entertainment, food, low-cost online software, fashion, and online gifts.
However, a high conversion rate doesn’t necessarily mean high profitability. Selling more low-cost leads may or may not be more profitable than selling fewer high-cost leads, depending on the actual lead price and lead generation costs.
What are the best niches for starting an affiliate marketing business?
The best affiliate marketing niches for beginners are low-competition niches, which are usually narrow-focused and less crowded. There are hundreds of low-competition niches for affiliate marketing. Here are a few random examples: eco-friendly pet products, sleep optimization, digital productivity tools, and DIY solar.
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