But what if I told you that you could find more profitable niches<\/a> and keywords than you could ever use?<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that you could do it as often as you want. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So that you could produce an affiliate income like this:<\/p>\n\n\n Well, believe it or not\u2026this article is going to show you how to do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Including sites with almost zero authority that rank for juicy affiliate keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Get ready to take lots of notes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you promote an affiliate offer your site usually links to a tracking domain of some kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These domains are separate from the parent website, so most affiliates don\u2019t give them a second thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are they used for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Basically, to direct the click to the correct affiliate offer and make sure you get credited for any sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An example of this is Amazon.com – their tracking domain is Amazon.to.<\/p>\n\n\n So, every time you link to an affiliate offer you\u2019re also linking to one of these tracking domains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This got me thinking\u2026tracking domains probably have millions of affiliate links pointing to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what if\u2026I could reverse engineer the backlink profile of a tracking domain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I ran the Amazon tracking domain (Amzn.to) through Ahrefs<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n It\u2019s a DR94 domain\u2026with links from 739,000 domains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each of these domains represents an affiliate site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of which are bound to be making money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But who has the time to filter through hundreds of thousands of domains?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nobody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So you can use the Ahrefs Backlinks report to filter by things like authority, search traffic, platform type, language, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n This allows you to refine your results to dig out the exact information you want from a sea of affiliate sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like low authority sites that actually get a lot of traffic to their Amazon affiliate pages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But this doesn\u2019t just work with Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It works with ALL affiliate programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ShareASale<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n Yep – https:\/\/shareasale.com\/r.cfm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n CJ<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n You got it – www.kqzyfj.com<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can use this method with any tracking domain you can think of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And to make your job even easier here\u2019s a list of the tracking domains used by the bigger affiliate networks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n So that\u2019s a useful hack, Gael\u2026but how does it help me make money?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are 4 ways you can use this concept to put more money in your bank account:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now I\u2019m going to show exactly how you can find niches to profit from, but without a ton of authority or backlinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of which you would never, ever have thought of before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which makes this method worth its weight in gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s use Amazon\u2019s tracking domain as an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re going to filter down as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I end up with 11,473 domains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next up, I sort these by DR, from lowest to highest:<\/p>\n\n\n Patience is a virtue\u2026so let Ahrefs do its thing here \u2013 it can take a few minutes for each query to process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember, you\u2019re dealing with thousands of domains here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the filtering is complete it\u2019s time to go shopping for interesting niche sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are a few examples of what our backward engineering of backlinks turned up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Geek Baby Clothes<\/a> is a niche site about cute clothing for the children of geeks and nerds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So that\u2019s a pretty cool angle on the \u201cbaby niche\u201d i.e. it\u2019s not the usual \u201cbaby shower ideas\u201d stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what\u2019s really interesting about it is the site is a DR1\u2026.with 12,000 organic searches per month:<\/p>\n\n\n But the actual traffic figure is probably 3x that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So you could spend some time poking around in the kind of keywords they\u2019re targeting if you need some inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And just to show you that this isn\u2019t a one-off, here\u2019s another interesting, and very niche, site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tanning Review<\/a> is a site all about getting a tan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And nothing else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s also a great example of how thinking outside the box can work really well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I mean, which of you would have thought of the \u201ctanning\u201d niche before today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that you could earn money reviewing home tanning machines or lotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Exactly.<\/p>\n\n\n Something else to pay attention to is how much traffic this DR 0.8 site gets – almost 7,000 organic visitors per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And this is a site that will probably generate at least 10x as much traffic as it gains more authority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The last niche site I found was KnifeUser.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Which is a site\u2026about knives, so no surprises there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what might catch your eye is that despite it being a DR 13 site it gets over 26,000 organic visitors per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DR 13 is almost nothing \u2013 it took 89 links to get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And a lot of those are junk links e.g. forum posts, Blogspot, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n This is one of those niches I would never have thought of without using this method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s also a lot of potential still in this niche for those of you paying attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lesson:<\/strong> You don\u2019t need a ton of DR to get thousands of visitors per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second use of this tactic is finding keywords in competitive niches that you have a shot at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or finding keywords that help you promote a specific offer that’s already making you some money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of affiliates stay as far away from competitive niches as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They assume every keyword is going to need a DR90 site to rank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s take Semrush as an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They pay 40% commission, so that\u2019s going to attract a lot of affiliate marketers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So I go to grab my affiliate link\u2026and then notice something:<\/p>\n\n\n Semrush doesn\u2019t use a tracking domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Damn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But wait\u2026they do use a UTM parameter to track referrals: \u201cutm_source=berush\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So now I have a footprint for their affiliate program that I can use to track them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I run Semrush through Ahrefs and check out their \u2018Backlink profile\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n And then I\u2019m going to add my UTM parameter to the \u2018Include\u2019 filter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next up I set \u2018Any Target\u2019 to \u2018URLs of backlinks\u2019 to get the results we want:<\/p>\n\n\n Ta-da!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lots of affiliate sites promoting the Semrush affiliate program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From here, I can apply the usual filters for traffic, blog, English, DR, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that\u2019s also when I noticed an anomaly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I couldn\u2019t find any of the big Semrush promoters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No Matthew Woodward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No Robbie Richards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No Niche Pursuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I went looking for answers as to why these guys were missing from the Ahrefs report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This started with a Google search for the term \u2018Semrush review\u2019 because I know any of these guys are going to want to rank for a big fat keyword like that.<\/p>\n\n\n Matthew Woodward was ranking for it, so I took a long at how his affiliate links are formatted:<\/p>\n\n\n Aha!<\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019s not using a tracking domain \u2013 he\u2019s using a redirect: <\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/www.matthewwoodward.co.uk\/get\/semrushtrial\/<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, I ran this through a redirect checker<\/a> to find the destination page:<\/p>\n\n\n And I found this:<\/p>\n\n\n So his actual affiliate URL is this \u2013 it doesn\u2019t use the \u201cutm_source=berush\u201d parameter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/www.semrush.com\/partner\/matthewwoodward<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n How is this possible?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Basically, Semrush has a VIP affiliate program for people who can send a ton of potential business their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matthew is part of this elite group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s also a pretty safe bet that other VIPs are also tracked through \u2018https:\/\/www.semrush.com\/partner\/\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I ran it through Ahrefs to check.<\/p>\n\n\n Then filtered by \u2018One link per domain\u2019 and got a list of 698 domains:<\/p>\n\n\n From there I apply my usual filters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then go looking for new angles on how I might go about promoting Semrush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re leveraging the creativity of others here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And who better to take inspiration from than somebody like Robbie Richards?<\/p>\n\n\n His blog post on \u20186 Best SimilarWeb Alternatives<\/a>\u2019 takes a keyword with commercial intent and then mentions a high-paying affiliate offer in the form of Semrush as the #1 alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s not a ton of traffic to this page:<\/p>\n\n\n But what visitors do show up are looking for a replacement for SimilarWeb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which makes them the literal perfect audience for a 14-day free trial of Semrush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, I\u2019d imagine this page converts pretty well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another one that caught my eye was this post on FreshSparks<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n \u201c11 Simple Steps for a Successful Brand Building Process\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a detailed guide to building your own brand that features Semrush as part of the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 95% of other bloggers literally just push this SEO tool in a review format or \u201cHow to use Semrush for X\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FreshSparks uses a much softer sell, and probably a lot more effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And also attracts a lot more traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n Custom landing pages are something you\u2019ll encounter quite often with high-paying affiliate offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is how you deal with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s a perfect example of something you didn\u2019t go looking for when researching a topic but turns out to be really valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Analyzing the backlink profile of a tracking domain can reveal all kinds of goodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Including a very unexpected one – proven affiliate programs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s run the CJ tracking domain through \u2018Site Explorer\u2019, again filtering by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now you\u2019ll see all the usual stuff like \u2018Referring page\u2019, \u2018DR\u2019, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But under \u2018Anchor and backlink\u2019 we find this:<\/p>\n\n\n The name of the affiliate program being promoted on a page that gets at least 27,235 organic traffic per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d never heard of Vueling.com before today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I now know they generate revenue for ThriftyNomads.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Otherwise they wouldn\u2019t waste their time promoting them since Feb 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n You can repeat this process on Awin, where we find a printable tarot cards offer:<\/p>\n\n\n That to me is a perfect sub-niche in the spirituality vertical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What about ShareASale?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grammarly<\/a> looks like a solid program to promote based on what we see here:<\/p>\n\n\n Long story short, this method can be used by you on any tracking domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How cool is that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n And now we come to the third way to make use of this particular research hack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finding sites to add to your existing list of competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n All good marketers should have a competitors list that they can analyze and research when they need to create new content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we circle back to KnifeUser.com \u2013 one of the niche sites I mentioned earlier in this article.<\/p>\n\n\n They\u2019re getting a lot of traffic despite not having a huge amount of authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even back when they were barely a DR1 their site was still getting almost 20,000 organic visitors per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So they\u2019re obviously doing something right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And when you run their site through \u2018Site Explorer\u2019 and filter by \u2018Top Pages\u2019 you get proof:<\/p>\n\n\n The top page on KnifeUser.com gets 5,703 organic searches per month.<\/p>\n\n\n And for a keyword that the average affiliate would never come up with on their: 8cr13mov<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a very specific type and model of knife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So you\u2019re not going to find any keyword research tool randomly spitting this result out either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s what makes this method a gold mine for low authority keyword research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll find proven topics that are almost guaranteed to make you money in the early stages of your affiliate journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which is pretty much unheard of in this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So make the most of it while you can!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hopefully, you can now see how easy it is to uncover profitable affiliate niches and keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll find more affiliate opportunities than you will ever have time to take advantage of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You now have a secret weapon that you can deploy whenever you need it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s just a sample of what we can teach you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of it with a specific mission \u2013 to help you build your first profitable affiliate site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/affiliate-1024x621.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nTracking the trackers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Amazon](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/amazon-tracking-domain-1024x253.png\"){kind=tracking}
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nThe Hackspiration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Amzn.to](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/amzn.to-referring-domains-ahrefs-1024x165.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Amzn.to](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/amzn.to-ahrefs-backilnk-report-1024x281.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Shareasale](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/shareasale-homepage-1024x390.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Cj](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/cj-affiliate-homepage-1024x381.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
#1 Finding easy niches<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
![\"Amzn.to](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/amzn.to-backlink-report-filtered.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Amzn.to](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/amzn.to-backlinks-DR-sorted-1024x371.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nGeek Baby Clothes<\/h3>\n\n\n
![\"Geekbabyclothes](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/geekbabyclothes-homepage-1024x403.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Geekbabyclothes](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/geekbabyclothes-ahrefs-overview-1024x182.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nTanning Review<\/h3>\n\n\n
![\"Tanning](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/tanning-review-homepage-1024x423.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Tanning](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/tanning-review-ahrefs-overview-1024x186.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nKnifeUser.com<\/h3>\n\n\n
![\"Knifeuser](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/knifeuser-homepage-1024x383.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Knifeuser](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/knifeuser-ahrefs-overview-1024x187.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n#2 Find easy keywords<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Semrush](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/semrush-affiliate-link-1024x367.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Semrush](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/semrush-backlink-profile-ahrefs-1024x344.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Semrush](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/semrush-backlinks-utm-parameter-1024x103.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"Semrush](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/semrush-backlinks-filter-1024x322.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Semrus](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/semrus-review-serp-1024x508.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Semrush](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/semrush-review-with-redirect-affiliate-link-1024x361.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Redirect](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/redirect-checker-1024x356.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Redirect](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/redirect-checker-results-1024x249.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Semrush\/partner](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/semrushpartner-ahrefs-backlinks-1024x145.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Semrush\/partner](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/semrushpartner-backlinks-profile-1024x434.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"Robbierichards](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/robbierichards-similarweb-alternative-post-1024x381.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Robbierichards](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/robbierichards-post-ahrefs-overview-1024x189.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Freshsparks](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/freshsparks-blog-psot-with-affiliate-links-1024x402.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Freshsparks](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/freshsparks-brand-post-ahrefs-overview-1024x185.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n#3 Find profitable affiliate programs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
![\"Vueling](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/vueling-offer-affiliate-link-1024x107.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Vueling](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/vueling-offer-affiliate-link-ahrefs-date-1024x107.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Awin](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/awin-affiliate-link-ahrefs-1024x112.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Grammarly](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/grammarly-offer-affiliate-link-1024x116.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n#4 Build a list of competitors <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Ah](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ah-competitors-1024x387.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Knifeuser](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/knifeuser-ahrefs-top-pages-report-1024x372.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Knifeuser](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/knifeuser-top-page-traffic-1024x116.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nConclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n