The Broke Man’s Guide to $2k/Month Affiliate Keywords (No Paid Tools)

CodeCanyon · Saturday at 07:39 AM

I haven’t paid for a keyword tool in over 2 years.

I don’t need to.

Not when I’ve ranked dozens of affiliate pages using free tools, instincts, and a bit of manual digging. Honestly, if you're chasing low competition goldmines, most paid keyword tools just slow you down.

They show the same stuff to everyone. If 100 other affiliates are looking at the same KD 8 keyword in Ahrefs... it’s already dead.

Let me show you how I actually find keywords no one’s targeting — the kind that rank with AI content, no links, and a new domain.

Amazon Autocomplete Is Better Than Any SEO Tool

Go to Amazon. Start typing in a product you’re curious about — even something boring like “heated blanket” or “portable shower.”

Watch what Amazon suggests.

Now tweak your phrasing:
Add “for…” → “heated blanket for car”
Add “with…” → “portable shower with water tank”
Add pain points → “heater that won’t trip breaker”
These are actual buyer searches. Real people, typing with purchase intent. And guess what? A lot of those keywords have zero optimized blog content targeting them properly.

The trick is this:
Whatever Amazon shows you = people want it.
Whatever Google shows with weak results = you can rank for it.

Cross-check the two. That’s your goldmine.

Stalk the Forgotten Pages of Affiliate Sites
This one’s dirty but effective.

Pick a niche affiliate site that’s been around a while.
Check their sitemap or plug them into a free SEO tool like Ubersuggest (if you must).

Then scroll straight past the high-traffic pages.
Look at the pages that get 0–10 visits/month.

Why?
Because they once had hope.

Someone wrote that article for a reason. They thought it would rank. They wanted that keyword. But they gave up, or it got buried.

Now it’s yours to steal, but do it better.

Same topic, tighter headline, clearer intent, better formatting. Add visuals. Make it skimmable. Turn a dead keyword into a hit.

I’ve had pages like that rank in a week.

Mine Reddit & YouTube Comments for Hidden Phrases

This one’s lowkey my favourite.

Reddit is where people ask real questions — unfiltered, unoptimized, untapped.
YouTube comments are raw buyer feedback — frustrations, use cases, “Does this work for X?”

What I do:
Search Reddit with: site:reddit.com “best [product] for”
Sort by recent. Look for posts where people say:
“I’m looking for X but I need it to do Y”
Copy exact phrases into Google. Check if any blog is covering that long-tail variation. If not? Jackpot.

Same thing with YouTube:
Find a popular product video
Sort comments by “Newest” or “Top”
Look for stuff like:
“Will this work for someone with arthritis?”
“Does this fit on older models?”
“Looking for a version that runs on battery.”
Each of those is a keyword in disguise. You won’t find them in Ahrefs. But they’re real, rankable, and they convert.

My Personal Filter: The “1 Page Rule”
Here’s the final litmus test:

If I can rank for this keyword with 1 good page, it’s worth targeting.
That means:
The top 10 results are weak (forums, low DR sites, Quora, outdated posts)
No one is targeting the exact phrase in the title
The search intent is clearly buyer-related or problem-solving
I can hit all the sub-questions in one article
I’ve built sites off this alone.

No topical authority. No cluster content. No links.

Just sniper content around zero comp keywords that buyers are actively searching.

I’m not knocking paid tools — they have their place.

But if you're starting out (or even if you’re advanced and just tired of the competition), this way of finding keywords is faster, cleaner, and works like hell.

Hope this helps someone.
It’s what I still do today.