OK, I’m being coached by Marc and Alex, and I’m starting on the real work that will move me forward in leaps and bounds.
My first task is to create a product to sell. But before I can do that, I have to decide on a niche for my business empire.
Easy Niche Selection:
People get hung up on this and spend decades deciding on a niche. Don’t let it get to you like that. Sure, – it’s important, but not THAT important.
Let me make it clear. If I were choosing a niche to build a site that I wanted to rank in Google, then that involves a whole load of research and back-linking and stuff that I’m NOT going to get into here.
I’m going to be driving traffic to this site in other ways, rather than relying on Google’s endless algorithm changes and updates. I want traffic to my site to be controlled only by me.
So now that you understand that, let me describe to you a few ways that you can make a nice quick decision about your niche, because seriously, you don’t want to get bogged down in this. As my mentors have said …
Don’t Get it Perfect, – Get it Going !!!
Easy Niche Selection: Method 1
If I may say so, you want to be a trend-follower here, not a trend-setter. And certain markets do well ALL THE TIME, so don’t go trying to pick a niche that no-one else has thought of. Choose one that already has loads of followers – I’ll show you exactly how in Method 3. But these first two methods are really cool too. Competition is really good for us. It means there are lots of customers.
Generally speaking, if you stick to one of these 3 evergreen markets … you’ll be fine.
HEALTH, WEALTH and LIFESTYLE.
Now you’ll notice I said that these are “markets”, not “niches”. There is a difference. A niche is a more refined topic that is a sub-section of a market. In other words, a niche is a more targeted thing altogether than a ‘market’, which is a general term.
“Cars” is a market. “Ford Cars” is a broad niche. “Ford 4WD Cars” is a tighter niche.
You get the picture? Pick a niche that’s specific, something that you can easily stand out from the crowd with.
I’ll list these 3 evergreen markets below, and under them, a selection of niches within that market. Then you’ll totally get the idea. Literally almost any of the niches, and there are many more than I’ve listed here, will be perfect.
So …
Health (market)
Healthy Eating, Vitamin Supplements for Babies, Lose Weight when Pregnant, Quit Smoking Easily, Skin Care for Farmers.
Wealth (market)
Work from Home, Online FX Trading, Internet Marketing, How To Purchase Foreclosures, Debt Relief for Beginners
Lifestyle (market)
Mind Body & Spirit, Online Study Courses, Alternative Energy, Relationship Advice, Dating for Mature People.
So you get the picture. Choose one and get started.
Easy Niche Selection: Method 2
Above I’ve described one way. Another way is to just make a list of all the things you’re either:
Already interested in, (a topic that currently appeals to you)
Already good at, (a hobby or something you do well, like train dogs)
Interested in becoming good at, (something you’d enjoy researching)
Just write them down and get together a list of a dozen or so, perhaps even as many as 20.
In just minutes, I was able to compile a list of over a dozen things that I knew I could make a reasonable attempt at writing an eBook about.
You need to slim down your list and ultimately decide on just one, so by a process of elimination, just tick off your favorite three niches.
Then think about your last three niches a while longer, and choose ONE. Maybe think about it for an hour or two.
And there you have it – your niche.
Easy Niche Selection: Method 3
My last easy method of finding a niche is really cool as it virtually guarantees that a niche is busy and active, with a hungry crowd of evergreen buyers wanting what you’ve got. So you won’t be left wondering if your choice of niche is a good one.
And I think you’ll agree, that’s exactly what we want.
In truth, any of these methods will work just fine. This one is just quite different in that it gives us that certainty of knowing that we’re choosing a good niche. And, it utilises some of the concepts already introduced in the other two methods.
Anyway, here’s how it works…
I’m going to be using a variety of factors that will confirm with certainty that a particular niche is busy, active and has people actively seeking it out and buying.
Get Niche Ideas First …
But I have to get ideas for my niche first. So for that, I’m going to go across to www.amazon.com and search the categories and sub-categories until I find a few topics that I could be interested in. Don’t over-dramatise this, it’s not difficult.
You might like to keep in mind the three evergreen markets that I mentioned earlier, and search on related categories/niches.
You’re going to want to jot down a list of maybe a dozen or so, just like you did before, in Method 2.
Then, for each of the niche choices that you’ve just written down, you want to run the following 5 checks to tell you for sure whether the niche is good or not. To be good, a niche has to pass ALL FIVE CHECKS.
1) I’m going to go to www.amazon.com and search Amazon books using my major niche term (weight training, quit smoking, wealth building etc) as the search term. What I’m looking for is over 1,000 results. If I get this, I know there’s demand for this material. Publishers would not print these things if no-one’s buying them.
2) Then I’m going to go to the Google Keyword Tool. This is an ingenious tool that allows you to see exactly what people search for in Google.
To use the Google Keyword Tool, you’ll need to set up an account first with Google. It’s easy enough and you can complete the application form here.
At the left hand side of the screen where it says “Match Type”, I’m selecting BROAD match.
In the center of the screen under the keyword zone, where it says “Only show ideas closely related ….” – don’t check that box.
In the same location where it says “Advanced Options and Filters” click on that and select “All Countries” or “USA” and “English”. This will give you more or less the whole world’s figures, or at least the largest English speaking nation’s figures – either is fine.
Then click “Search”.
What we want to see is at least a MILLION searches per year. So you’ll have to multiply the monthly total by 12 to get that figure. Or divide a Million by 12 if you want to use the figures the tool gives you. Either way, a quick calculation will do the job.
3) Next, we’re going to go to Google to search on your niche term. But don’t use your own country specific Google. Instead use the Google you’ll find at http://www.google.com/ncr as that is NOT country specific. Type in your search/niche term in QUOTES for an exact search. We want to see at least 50,000 “exact” search results.
4) Then you need to go across to Yahoo and Bing (these guys are now the same company), and type in your search term there. Again, don’t use your own country specific Yahoo as that will give skewed results.
For Yahoo, you’ll need to use a U.S. proxy server (this allows you to pretend you’re searching from the USA), so that your search results emulate theirs exactly.
A proxy server can be found at http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ . Enter that URL first, then just type Yahoo.com into the search field and click ‘Hide My Ass’.
You’ll then be taken to a virtual regular Yahoo screen. Just type in your niche search term as normal, and what you’re looking for are PAID ADS to show up to the right of the search results. The thinking here is that if Advertisers are paying to have ads appear when people search on those terms, then that search term (your niche) is profitable. If it wasn’t, they wouldn’t have ads there. It’s that simple !
5) My final check is a measure of a niche’s ‘saturation’ level. In other words, is it already over supplied or not? You don’t want to start out in a niche where there is already an over-supply of people trying to service that demand.
In plain language, this formula compares the amount of material available for purchase in a niche, to the number of people searching for that material, and it’s expressed as a percentage. I want to see a figure under 5%.
This is the equation I use:
Amazon Results x 10 / Google Keyword Tool Annual Searches x 100%
(With the Amazon results x 10, I’m just multiplying the largest single supplier’s offerings in a niche by a factor of 10, as a way of taking into account all the other places that may offer similar items in this niche. It’s not exact, but it’s certainly near enough for what we need.
An example for an imaginary niche might produce the following figures …
Amazon Book search results = 12,100 products available
Google KWT searches = 550,000 searches per month or 6.5 million per year
Therefore – ((12,100 x10) / 6,500,000) x100% = 1.86%
Which is well under our limit of 5%
As I said, this is not an exact science, but its close enough to provide us the indication we need.
So these can be your three methods of easily finding a good profitable niche.
You can use any of them. Method 3 will probably take the longest, but even that is only an hour or so once you get started.
If you’re still not totally sure about finalising your niche, for a final check, just Google the niche name. “Dog Training”, Weight Loss”, “Strength Training” to suggest a few good ones. And if a lot of information sites come up, then you know you’ve hit on a good usable niche, at least one that a lot of other people seem to be using, and they won’t be all wrong. Does that make sense?
Generally speaking, the best niches will either …
Solve someone’s problem, or
Improve their quality of life, or
Make them money
What Niche Did I choose?
My passion lies with Internet Marketing, and I already knew that the product I wanted to produce was something that I had sadly been unable to find in the past 12 months.
I wanted to construct a totally no-nonsense, nothing missed out guide, suitable for use by newcomers to the “Make Money Online” business. I wanted to create something that would show them how to go from total newbie to making money online.
And I wanted to make sure I laid everything out for them in simple to understand, easy to do steps, – with all the information they needed to go from Zero to Hero making money online.
So that was my choice. But hey, equally I could have chosen a Dog Training or Wealth Creation niche just as effectively.
A great product to help the newcomer or even not-so-newcomer to get to grips with this subject is:-
Niche Navigator – by renowned UK marketer, John Thornhill
As I said, don’t take forever choosing a niche. The great thing about this business is that it doesn’t cost big bucks if you get it wrong. If it doesn’t work out, start again with another niche, and all its cost is minimal money and some time.
In my next post, I’m going to talk about product creation. This is another topic that strikes fear into the hearts of mere mortals needlessly.
Finally, if you’ve found this post in any way helpful, or wish to add something, please feel totally free to leave a comment below. I’ll respond to every one posted in record time – promise.
To your incredible money making success,
