Most people pick one they have a passion for so it's easier to write/get content considering they know a lot about it already. Others pick one with the highest expected ROI/highest payout vs lowest cost to get in.
Ive seen a lot of highestpayingkeywords list.Is there any list that actually shows almost the correct figures?
Actually using high paying keyword tools is going to help you find highly competitive MARKETS not niches. The more competition the harder to market and the less you can make due to competition unless you are a pro. Ideal niches have good interest but arent highly competitive yet. Here's a ton of niche finding ideas and tools including a key word tool that will help you find related niches and keywords and see the relevant cost/value. Niches to Riches - Hot FREE High Profit Niche Finding Tools http://affiliate-blogs.5staraffiliateprograms.com/2006/08/05/high-profit-niche-finding-tools/ TopSeo is right. Think of something you have an interest in or hopefully are even passionate about - IF it's a topic that has good monetization potential. Also try to think of niches within a niche. Instead of highly competitive dating market - think of catholic dating for example. Hope this helps and best of luck!
Can't fault this at all. Try to find a niche that has at least 3 or 4 different affiliate programs dedicated to it in different areas. In the above example of catholic dating you could have affiliate links to a dating service, catholic books, dating books and even evangelical sites.
When I see/read/hear things during the day I sometimes ask myself if this could be one of those "niches". It's sometimes surprising just how many ideas you can come up with just by general conversation with family, friends, co-workers .. or by reading the newspaper. When I think of something I normally do the following things: 1. Get an initial idea of what keywords I might be able to use 2. Get an idea of traffic potential (overture, DP keyword tool, etc). 3. Get an idea of existing competition (Google allinanchor, allintitle, etc). If the allinanchor/allintitle looks promising (I have a realistic shot of getting more keyword anchor text pointing to my site than the existing top SE slots), then I look to see if I can monitize the niche. Basically I just do searches for my niche keywords + "affiliates". Sometimes this works, sometimes not.