It’s been 4 years since we started publishing Niche of the Week posts, highlighting one affiliate marketing niche (or sub-niche) at a time. I have looked at each and every one of these niches, and none of them are as boring as this one: the Survival niche.
That probably sounds unfair to all of you who find the concept intriguing, and to fans of reality survival shows like the ones listed here. But here's the thing: “Survivor” makes for great TV (an average of 20 million viewers each season), but I am highly skeptical it would make for a great affiliate niche.
The Survival niche is also a huge niche — much like the weight loss niche — and has several sub-niches under it. Which one do I start with?
I decided to go take a peek at the food crisis niche because 1. food is the first thing we need to survive, so in theory it would be more in-demand than other sub-niches. Two, it’s the least boring (maybe even most interesting) option to me.
Viewers Equal Buyers...Not!
Does a large following translate to great sales? Not always, particularly if there is no solid statistical evidence showing it.
Food crisis programs, and the survival niche as a whole, may not be interesting to me. But it is challenging.
The first hurdle is trying to find a solid statistic showing an interest in this niche. There are some big authority sites like OffGridSurvival.com and SecretsofSurvival.com, so it stands to reason there must be a number of people who are preparing for the worst. It's just not easy to tell exactly (or even roughly) how many.
If there is anything “solid” in this niche, it is that a food crisis is imminent. UNWater.org predicts that 9 billion people need food and water by 2050. Given how we’re slowly eating away the planet’s natural resources, the increasing temperatures and the recent droughts, then a food crisis is not too far-fetched.
But none of that is hard evidence that you could succeed in this niche.
Limited Keywords
Challenge number 2: There’s a keyword shortage in the food crisis niche.
When you're vetting a new potential affiliate marketing niche, data is everything. If you can’t find a solid following in the statistics, then move on to keyword research. Specifically, you should look at the monthly searches. How many are there? How’s the competition? What do the related keywords look like?
Surprisingly, the keyword “food crisis” is not highly competitive. But it also doesn’t have a lot of monthly searches, and the results for related keywords aren't always relevant.
Anything that has to do with “survival” has more monthly searches, but is extremely competitive.
At this point, I am comfortable saying there’s not much on the food crisis niche, in terms of data or keywords. There’s a lot on its umbrella niche, survival, however. If you do decide to pursue this option, I would target some of those survival keywords and mix them with the food crisis ones. I would also go into sites like KeywordSpy to find more related keywords to target.
Food Crisis Affiliate Programs
Not much for a list. There are not a lot of food crisis affiliate programs out there. Good thing you can always mix these with other survival-related products.
Food crisis affiliate programs are scarce. They are not so rare as to put you in a pickle, but you will need to dig around online like I did. AffiloJetpack members are lucky because they have an affiliate product list to refer to. There are probably others out there, but these are the only ones that stood out to me as far as commissions are concerned.
When looking at affiliate programs, I check out the vendor’s website for the product, particularly the sales page. If it looks outdated, or the sales page is not convincing enough for me to buy, then I move along and look around for other programs. You want a product with a sales page that can convert the traffic you send over into actual sales, after all.
Now without further ado, here are the four food crisis affiliate programs I found acceptable, two of which are results of my online hunt :
1. FoodCrisisNoProblem.com
About FoodCrisisNoProblem.com
We start off with the first food crisis affiliate program from the AffiloJetpack Survival niche: FoodCrisisNoProblem.com arms you with knowledge on how to survive a food crisis with a variety of methods, including aquaponics, worm farming, and organic cooking.
How much can I make?
Affiliates get 75% of the sale.
How do I apply?
You can go to the Affiliates Page on the site or check it out in the ClickBank Marketplace.
2. Food4Wealth.com
About Food4Wealth.com
Another off the AffiloJetpack’s Survival niche list of products is Food4Wealth.com. Unlike FoodCrisisNoProblem.com, Food4Wealth.com is exclusively about growing food. This is a product that you can promote in the gardening niche too.
How much can I make?
Affiliates get 75% per sale, same as FoodCrisisNoProblem.com.
How do I apply?
The site has its own Affiliates Page you can visit, or you can check out the ClickBank Marketplace.
3. SurviveFoodCrisis.org
About SurviveFoodCrisis.org
SurviveFoodCrisis.org helps you get through food shortage by giving you information on the key items you need to have.
How much can I make?
The commission is 69% per sale.
How do I apply?
SurviveFoodCrisis.org’s affiliate program is under VigLink.
4. SurvivalFood.com
About SurvivalFood.com
SurvivalFood.com is an online shop for survival and camping enthusiasts who want to stock up on food packs, drink mixes and other things you need to survive a food crisis, or even just a camping trip to the wilds.
How much can I make?
As an affiliate, you get 5% commission on every sale.
How do I apply?
Visit the Affiliate Page or go to ShareASale.
Get People to Pay Attention: The Food Scare is Real
The affiliate programs for the food crisis sub-niche may be scarce, but thankfully, the ways to promote your website on food crises and survival are not.
There are several methods you can use to promote your website, paid and otherwise. It’s a good idea to draw up a list of which marketing and SEO methods you’ll try first. You can do this in the early stages of niche research so you can transition smoothly from site building to marketing once the website is up.
Here’s a few SEO and inbound marketing methods to try for websites in this niche :
Infographics
One way to convince people of a need is to show them the numbers. Give them the statistics: Is it really likely food will be scarce in the future? Why? How?
Infographics are a creative, colorful way of delivering the statistics without boring your readers. It requires research but it pays off because all websites you note in your infographics can be further used as places to promote your infographic in. Send the website owners an email and let them know you’ve used their site as a source. Some will probably not reply, but some might, and they'll usually post a link to your infographic on their website.
Don’t worry if you don’t have an idea on how to create infographics. There are tutorials online and free tools you can use.
YouTube Marketing
Creating videos aren’t that difficult anymore, now that there are a myriad tools you can use. The challenge here is how you will present your content in an engaging manner, particularly with a subject matter like food crisis.
One type of video you can create for this niche is a whiteboard video showing how the current global situation can evolve into a food shortage. You can also create an infomercial-type videos on what to do during a food crisis. All these videos need to contain either your affiliate link or a link to a page on your website promoting a food crisis product.
Content Strategy
With all the content you need to be making to fill and promote the website, you need a solid content strategy. Start on this early and consider building up a backlog of articles and other content, so you'll have enough time to research and create the content for your website on a regular basis, and have something to post even when you wind up being short on time.
Not familiar with content strategy? Don’t worry. There are plenty of tutorials online, like this one from the Affilorama Blog: How to: Create a Content Strategy for your Niche Site.
Food Crisis Affiliate Programs: Great Start or Point of No Return?
There are other niches out there, equally challenging, but more rewarding to start with.
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75%
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69%
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5%
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| Signup | Signup | Signup | Signup |
I wouldn’t recommend the food crisis niche to anyone who is just starting out. It’s one challenge after another, and the commission aren’t all that great. You can get the same commission, maybe even more, from a much easier niche to break into.
You want a product that you’re interested in AND can make you money. It sounds like a tall order, but there are plenty of niches to choose from. Be sure to check out at least 5 potential niches before settling into one for sure. You might find one idea leads to another and suddenly you've found an idea even better than you expected.
I hope you find this week’s Niche of the Week helpful and engaging. Do you have any niches you want featured? Would you go with the food crisis niche? Leave a comment and let us know!
