LESSON #20: How to Choose a Niche (Part 2)

By | August 14, 2008

In the previous lesson, I talked about some important things to keep in mind as you choose a niche market.

I ended the lesson by asking you to brainstorm some possible topics for your information product.

Today we’re going to do some research to help you determine whether your topic has good potential for success…

(Watch this video…)

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Main points:

  • Google your topic (in quotes) and look at these things…

    – How many results?
    – How many paid ads?
    – What kind of sites are in the top 10?

  • Regarding number of search results: If it’s too few, your niche may be too obscure. If it’s too many, you may need to zoom in on a tighter niche.

  • Regarding number of paid ads: Lots of ads equal proof of money in the niche. But keep in mind that more ads also means more competitors.

  • Analyze the top 10 results. What kind of sites are they? Does it look like the sites are making money? Are there any information products, or direct competitors with your product idea?

  • Check the PageRank of some of the top listings. You can use Google Toolbar, or a free PageRank lookup tool.
    (This shows you how hard it will be to compete with their listings from an SEO standpoint)

  • Find out how many times the topic is being searched for each day. You can use this free keyword tool

    If you plan on launching many niche sites, you should consider investing in a tool that will help you automate most of the above processes. I recommend Keyword Elite

  • Spy on the competition using the free Spyfu search tool

    Look at:
    – How many advertisers?
    – How much traffic they are getting?
    – How much they are spending daily?
    – What are they advertising?
    – Do any related advertisers have an affiliate program? (potential back end promotions)

  • Search the ClickBank marketplace to see if there are similar information products, and how popular those products are. (Look at the grav score)

    UPDATE: The CB site has changed, and now you have to be signed in to see the marketplace. You can sign up for a free CB account here:
    https://accounts.clickbank.com/public/#/signup/form/key//cid/AffiliatesDIY

  • Search Ebay and Amazon for your topic to see if people are buying related products. (Are they hot sellers, or are they mostly getting 0 bids?)

  • Don’t ignore your gut feeling (if your gut is often right)

    Action step:

    1) Go through the research process I used in this lesson, and answer these 4 questions for each topic that you are considering.

    – How big is the niche?
    – How competitive is the niche?
    – How potentially profitable is the niche?
    – Is there potential for back end products?

    2) Choose a niche that seems to have a good balance; one that you want to pursue. We will be further refining it in the next lesson.

    Once you’ve identified a potentially lucrative niche, you need to go the extra mile and dig deeper. You need to zoom in on the market and find out EXACTLY what they want.

    There are some simple ways of surveying the market and focusing your topic to give it the best chance of success, and I’ll be detailing those strategies in the next lesson.

    As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below 🙂

    Have a great day!

  • 376 thoughts on “LESSON #20: How to Choose a Niche (Part 2)

    1. Eric Post author

      Yes I would try the other research tools, and check out the Clickbank marketplace, etc.

      Reply
    2. Eric Post author

      The Rich Jerk was a persona created by a marketer named Kelly Felix (which is now public knowledge). I’ve met Kelly a couple times, and he seems like a nice guy. I do not agree with all of his marketing methods (nor do I condone the Playboy parties, etc), but interestingly he has recently changed his ways and is promoting a “cleaner” method of marketing.

      Reply
    3. Dave

      Hi Eric,

      Question about the free keyword tool. When you search for a term what is the number of results you would “sanctify” as a good search. For example, Area 51 example it returned 4000+ results, is this good or bad? Or put another way if the result numbers were lower how would this affect your decision? Hope this question makes sense 🙂

      Reply
    4. Eric Post author

      That’s a good question, but I don’t really have a specific number in mind.

      If there are only 100 results, but there are 10 paid avertisers, it might be a viable niche because it’s obviously a profitable one.

      But if I had to pick a number, I would say there should be “thousands” of results.

      Reply
    5. Dave

      Hi Eric,

      Great feedback, thanks so much. So am I correct in thinking a correlation (to some degree) exists between the number of search results and paid advertisers?

      In your example you stated 100 results is so-so, but 10 advertisers (read: low competition) is good which acts like an “offset”; therefore if you find a niche with a keyword search result between 500 and 1000 and a handful of advertisers you could be on to something.

      Rock on!!!
      -Dave

      Reply
    6. Eric Post author

      Not necessarily. For example in my video I showed a result for UFO’s which had tons of results but no advertisers.

      The total number of results gives you an idea of how big the niche is, but no idea about how profitable the niche is.

      The number of advertisers gives you an idea of how profitable the niche is.

      I think I mentioned in the video, it is possible that you could find an untapped goldmine (a profitable niche with little or no advertisers), but that is becoming less and less likely. It is much more likely that if the niche is profible, there will be some advertisers.

      There is no specific ratio of search results vs. advertisers that I look for. It’s kind of like a sliding scale.

      A niche with millions of results and only 5 advertisers may be a moderately profitable niche with relatively low competition. Perhaps it’s a niche with a smaller profit margin, yet the opportunity exists to come in and get a lot of customers due to the lack of competition.

      On the other hand, a niche with only 100 results and 10 advertisers is clearly a very profitable niche, but is fairly saturated because it’s such a small niche. Yet an opportunity may exist to enter the niche and make money selling a highly profitable product to a relatively small number of customers.

      There’s a zillion variables, but hopefully that explains it a little more.

      Reply
    7. Dave

      Hi Eric,

      Yes, it does. Guess it all boils down to taking a shot 🙂

      Thanks for all your hard work and doing all the heavy lifting… mad props!!!

      Reply
    8. Bill

      Hello Eric, I think I understand the basics on identifying a niche. My question is how do I develop a quality product(s) to fit the niche?

      Reply
    9. Jack

      Why don’t you try to resell the domains? You could become a domain reseller throught Wild West Domains (GoDaddy) or Namecheap.com so you won’t be stuck renewing them.

      Jack

      Reply
    10. Jack

      Here are some other trouble shooting techinques:

      1. Remove all of your tool bars you’ve installed like mywebsearch, google or yahoo–these are often installed by free/shareware programs unless you opt out during the install–and they often prevent or stop video.

      2. Do a COLD reboot of the machine–make sure you turn the power OFF and wait five seconds before rebooting.

      3. Remove any add ons, if any, from your browser.

      4. Try a different browser as soon as you install it, e.g. don’t install anything else like an ad or flash blocker.

      Reply
    11. Yanis

      Hi Eric,
      Thank you for the lessons, they are helping a lot. I visited http://www.spyfu.com, but it does not have a free version anymore, do you know of another site i can use to get the same information.

      Reply
    12. Dave

      Hi Eric,

      Thanks for all your hard work! Question about Keywords. Are you planning to delve into keyword refinement in future lessons?
      The reason I ask is that you hear a lot about the importance of finding great keywords (key phrases)integrating them into your site content and articles.
      That said I see the relevance and agree with the concept to a point. I feel people can get too caught up in finding the “ultimate keyword phrase” that it hinders them to the point of never starting a site. Analysis-paralysis for lack of a better phrase.
      While I’m thinking of it, do you personally invest a lot of time with keywords in order to drive free traffic, or is this not an area you focus on/ worry much about?
      Thanks,
      Dave

      Reply
    13. Eric Post author

      Thanks for the heads up. There are some “spy” tools which will still show you all the advertisers. Short of that, the easiest way is probably just to click thru several pages of results and try to gauge whether there are a lot of unique advertisers.

      Reply
    14. Eric Post author

      First its important to note that choosing a good niche is totally different from using keywords.

      Keywords are used for SEO, and yes I will be discussing it when we get to the traffic lessons.

      I do not invest much time into keyword research or SEO, as I will explain when we get to those lessons.

      I do get a decent amount of organic search traffic to this blog due to keywords/phrases, and that is with minimal SEO effort.

      As you will see, SEO can be a great strategy for those who choose to invest time/money in it, but I do not believe it is the best nor the easiest way for information marketers to get web traffic.

      Reply
    15. Eric Post author

      It still has free data if you just go to the home page and do a keyword search.

      Reply
    16. Dave

      Hi Eric,

      Fantastic and interesting in the same breath. That helps lift a huge burden. Looking forward to it.

      While I’m thinking of it are you familiar with the Money Word Matrix, and if so are you willing to comment?

      -Dave

      -Dave

      Reply
    17. Eric Post author

      Thanks. I have not used it, but I’ve heard that it’s a good tool. Feel free to comment on it if you’ve tried it 🙂

      Reply
    18. Presentacion dela Cruz

      Hello Eric,
      I think the hardest to find is the niche because it has to be something you are at home with or else you lose interest and fail. Everything else
      can be sourced in the net if you are resourceful.
      I find myself very limited regarding niche ideas.
      Good lesson today, looking forward for the next one. Thank you very much.
      Presentacion

      Reply
    19. dave

      spyfu is not free i cant get it and clik bank ant the same as yours is this your way of selling stuff so now to follow you i need to get this stuff not right

      Reply
    20. dave

      well i was going to practice what you are doing but i am not buying into spyfu you should check these thing out before you say its free or tell us how to get it for free

      Reply
    21. Nnamdi

      Hi Eric, your lessons have indeed been very helpful and expository. Thank you for that. Could you please give me a brief summary of this ebook (Your Own Information Product in 30 days). I need your counsel on an issue; I want to buy this ebook (Your Own Information Product in 30 days) which you talked about in the previous lesson (with resale right) and give it out for free for a couple of months in order to build a strong list of affiliates and later recommend a product for this list. OR do you counsel I go ahead and put the book off for sale directly in my blog and try to drive traffic to it so as to convert immediately. What’s your opinion?

      Reply
    22. Eric Post author

      That ebook goes through the process of researching a niche, creating the product, and getting it online.

      That particular ebook does not include “giveaway” rights though. So you would need to find something else to use for your freebie. I talk about squeeze pages and freebies in lesson #62. In that lesson I also talk about whether you should prioritize your squeeze page or your sales page. In most cases, you should prioritize the squeeze page.

      Reply
    23. Eric Post author

      Spyfu still has free search as of the moment I am writing this comment. Just go to:

      http://www.spyfu.com/

      Clickbank has simply updated their platform, it’s still the same.

      Reply
    24. Eric Post author

      See my above comment. Also, there are some things that I recommend that cost money. We’re talking about building a business here. While you should avoid making unecessary purchases, there are some necessary expenses, and some tools that will make your life easier.

      Reply
    25. saso

      Hi Eric;
      First thank you for all of these lessons. Truly it’s very useful and helpful. I appreciate your effort too much. Regarding to my niche, I decided one which I’m expert in it since childhood and I have a lot of books and magazines and i took many courses in this field. It’s (fashion and designing pattern for night gowns). My question is: which model should I use, and which one is the best in the beginning? I’m confused and it’s a big niche. I’m afraid, and needs your help. Thank you for sharing

      Reply
    26. Eric Post author

      I’ve not researched it, but it sounds like a decent niche to me. The question is… what is the desire/problem within your niche that you can fulfill? Designs/patterns are certainly something that you can sell as a digital product, which is the business model that I’m teaching in these lessons.

      Reply
    27. Jackie

      I am interested in the Niche of FAMILY , MEN and Watersports.
      Do you all think this ia aa good niche?
      Any have affiliate Products or predone Blogs I can purchase on the above topics

      Reply
    28. Eric Post author

      I think that’s a good start, but you’ll need to zoom in on a particular need/desire that you can fulfill in that niche.

      Reply
    29. Chris Doane

      I went to spymarketer.com…I did NOT find the “try it for free” search bar…Did I miss something, or did they change? And, if they changed, any other suggestions? Thanks
      Chris Doane

      Reply
    30. Mobeen

      Eric you are simply great so much information for free I hope and determined to make these work for my advantage and then share with others as well

      Reply
    31. sord87

      Thank you eric for all the information about niche.For the time being i got traffic but my problem is to attract viewers to do a click-is there any solutions?or should i change the template or maybe write more article about the niche?

      Reply
    32. Eric Post author

      I’m not sure what you mean. Are you trying to get more traffic, or to get them to click a certain link or something?

      Reply
    33. line

      I was doing on this object , before looking at your lesson , i have a lot difficulties to finish well done the job. But since i start to follow your useful lesson i could make better job on searching for page rank

      Reply
    34. delores

      eric,
      I have been following your lessons and really enjoying it.I have wanted my own website for a while now and like you say at the beginning,I have completly become overwhelmed with all the info and still dont have my website.Now I am following you.I am on lesson 20 and following all your action steps as if I am in a classroom doing homework. I do have one thing to say though and that is you say spymarketer is free. well its not. it is 69.00 a month.I know I am behind your lessons by a couple of years but maybe your lessons need to be updated for the new readers you are gaining.keep up the good work though and I will catch up with you before long.
      delores

      Reply
    35. delores

      eric
      I want to tell your readers one thing!I know now you are the real thing cause you answered me in less than 24 hr.Like i said I have been wanting to do this for so long,which means I am one of those people that has spent A LOT of money trying to do this.There has been times when i would ask a question and it might be days before I would hear from them.To really top it off they would answer me with something that didnt have anything to do with my question. okay eric you have won me over! I am here to stay.On lesson 21 now,so here goes!

      Reply
    36. delores

      eric,
      i an following your lessons. I have a ideal.
      there is no one doing what i have in mind. 0!!!
      but there is a lot of backend potental. should i really go for it. I will be going from scatch to get it there,but i know im not the only one in this situation. i have checked the sites containg to what i want to do and there is none and very few to none paid ads. You say to go with our passion and what we may know. well apparently there isnt many people advirtising or showing how this can be done. i cant say exactly what im talking about because apparently there is a market but there is no one doing it. there is 249,000 searches for what i want. you know as well as i do if you are not on the top 2-3 pages then people dont go any farther. well if they dont hit my subject on those pages ,do you think i may have a chance. what i want to do is my passion. if you dont believe me you can ask my son. lol. im thinking maybe a blog with affillate sites.am i going in the right direction!

      Reply
    37. Joseph

      Eric, if I can call you by your first name :),

      I am so glad that a local guy here in Fort Collins told me about your lessons. It is coming to me at a perfect time, soon after I moved here.

      I was going through the process and the keywords I used for one of my niches has little to no competition, but a fair amount of people are using these search words. Also, in CB there are already strong and popular infoproducts for this topic.

      It seems there is a gap I could take advantage of if I focus on those keywords and offer existing products. But I am new, so am I overlooking something or is this a possible opportunity (aside from my own infoproduct in another niche)?

      Thanks, and by the way – I think people are saying Spyfu doesn’t work anymore because after a dozen or so searches it prompted me to subscribe and didn’t let me do anymore searches.

      Reply
    38. Joseph

      Eric,

      I politely asked a question and I have checked back here everyday to see if you would respond, but you have deleted this question.

      Why? 🙁

      Reply
    39. Ben

      Looks like your question is still there. Maybe you saw a cached version of the page.

      Reply
    40. Eric Post author

      I don’t always answer in 24 hrs, but I try to answer as many questions as I can 😉

      Reply

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