There has been some useful posts of late that discuss the pracitical methods to get started at developing a new site or blog specifically for affiliate marketing. In particular Aaron Wall discusses practical tips for starting a new site and Dosh Dosh looks at choosing the right blog niche.
So along with the new Google hot trends report and analysing the top peformers within the affiliate programs, what other tools are available? I have put together a list of tools below that can help inspire & provide ideas to help identify trends, potential niches or opportunities that could provide decent traffic and monetisation opportunities for a dedicated blog or site.
Search Engines –
- Google Trends
- Google Hot Trends – US only. Replaces the old Google Zeitgeist.
- Yahoo Buzz – The days top 20 overall searches.
- MSN Hotlist – The days top 20 overall searches.
- AOL Hot Searches – Latest top searches with categories.
- Ask Top Searches – Top overall searches and movers.
- Lycos Top 50 – Just that.
- Dogpile – Not great.
- Search.com – Top 1000 searches.
- Metacrawler – Most popular search queries with categories.
Blog Sites –
- Technorati Most Popular – Top searches, blogs and videos.
- Ice Rocket Blog Trends – Top movies & news too.
Shopping Sites / Products –
- Ebay – List of top searches on Ebay.
- Kelkoo – Kelkoos most popular, not great.
- ShopZilla – As above, not great.
- Amazon Bestsellers – Bestsellers by category.
- Amazon Movers N Shakers – Whats hot or not anymore.
- Amazon Hot Future Releases – What should be hot.
News Sites –
- NY Times – Most popular search phrases.
- BBC – Top searches & fastest movers.
- BBC Celebdaq – Highlights hot celebs.
- Wall Street Journal – Most viewed / E-mailed.
Others –
- Alexa Top Sites
- Alexa Movers N Shakers
- Jupiter Research Most Popular – Inc most popular searches.
- Touch Local Popular Searches
Can you add to the list?
Hat tip to the Search Anyway blog, it was about time I spoke a little more about affiliate marketing.
