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

      Nice to hear from you. To answer your question, it’s hard to say without knowing more specifics. Usually when I do initial keyword research, I’m only trying to determine whether it’s a viable and profitable niche. If there are some strong CB products already, then it sounds like it’s a profitable niche, and if you’ve found some untapped keywords, then that may be a good indicator that you’ll be able to enter the market and successfully compete.

      You could test the market by promoting the existing products as an affiliate, and if you find it to be profitable then you can create your own product and scale up your business.

      Reply
    2. Jerry W. Williamson

      Spot on what I’m am needing TODAY. I am just building a new site and this Eric was perfect timing. I am a consultant for business networking and looking to provide a site and products that teach people how to build their networks with videos and social media. This will help tremendously. I am really looking forward to walking step-by-step with you through this process. Thanks for all you are doing.

      Reply
    3. nicolas Tan

      Hi Eric,

      If a niche has strong CB products already,it’s a profitable niche and you had estimated that there are hundred of thousands of internet marketers, they have been in this business and some of them maybe for more than 10 years. Do you think there are still good niches left for newbies to explore or maybe I just don’t understand the real meaning of the word niche?

      Reply
    4. Eric Post author

      Yes I think there’s plenty of opportunity for newbies to enter niches. Perhaps it’s becoming less likely that you would find an “untapped” niche, but there’s plenty of room for competition. Also there are new niches being born all the time, as a result of technology and socio-economic changes around the world. If you’re having a hard time finding a niche with low competition, then I’d recommend choosing a profitable niche that you want to compete in. I recommend watching Marlon Sanders’ session on The Secret Classroom for good tips on competing.

      Reply
    5. Eric Post author

      Actually his server was down, but it should be back up now. (That’s my affiliate link for Brad Callen’s Keyword Elite). There are several other good tools, which I recommend in lesson #73.

      Reply
    6. Therese

      Louise, take a look at PACE by Al Sears, and their is great info out there about how the government allows really bad addivitives go into our foods. High Corn Fructose Syryup (HCFS or corn syryup) and asparatmine in Diet foods both block the ability of the body to deal with sugar…hence you store it.Try not eating any fast or processed foods, look at the interval exercise that “PACE” promotes and you will find a new you. Best Wishes!

      Reply
    7. Sylvia

      Hi Eric
      I have found the comments useful after your lessons. It appears I was not the only one who was having trouble with the free SpyFu, just as well I read the comments.
      Enjoying your lessons, thank you

      Reply
    8. jose lezama

      After going through your recomendation on a SpyFu.com recon file report, I came into deep panic!.
      This is not something we can digest. Would we on lesson 100th? Or should I run away while I can?

      Reply
    9. Elizabeth

      Eric
      Happy New Year. You are simply amazing. Awesome information in real time, easy to understand. I am extremely optimistic 1 billion percent that i can truly succeed. Oh my gosh. I am excited. God Bless you and your lovely family.

      Reply
    10. Deborah Van Dusen

      Hi Eric,
      I purchased X Site Pro and wish I could use it! Its NOT easy for me with all the extra “stuff” on it. And I just don’t know what to do first on it. Seems like I have to spend more money on their video tutorials to LEARN how to use it. I dislike when the back end upsells are the things that you really need to make it work! BUT it forces you to spend more money! It was hard enough to put together the $200 to buy it. Can you help? Or suggest anything?

      Reply
    11. Eric Post author

      Hi Deborah, I do recommend XSitePro as I think it’s one of the easiest web authoring programs for people who don’t know HTML. But there are a lot of features, which can make it a bit tricky at first.

      However, you do not need to buy any upsells to use it. You just might need to take some more time to study and learn how to use it. There are comprehensive user manuals included with the software that you purchased. You can also find an online version here.

      You may also find this demo video to be helpful. Additionally, many 3rd party affiliates and teachers have created various XSitePro tutorials that you can find on Youtube or if you search on Google.

      Also be sure to check out the “technical” forum on XSitePro’s messageboard.

      Lastly, XSitePro does offer this in their guarantee:

      “Pledge #2 If you have ANY trouble building your web site, or need any advice, we will be happy to help you for a full ninety days – at absolutely no cost to you. No premium phone lines, no expensive support contracts to take out – just good old fashioned help. We want you to be overjoyed with your purchase, so you can rest assured that we will always be there to help you, which is more than you can say for the big guys who are happy to sell you high priced software and then leave you stranded when you run into a problem.”

      Reply
    12. Lloyd Hrdlichka

      Hi Eric, I am not trying to complain, but I cannot access the free version of SpyFu as you show on your screen shots. I am seeing a page that has a video on it, and some testimonials, but no box for doing research as your example shows, and they want $70.00 a month membership…I have an idea for a niche, but I would like to access this tool free like you are able to for the needed research. I cannot move forward until this is resolved. I did resolve the http://www.FreeWordTool.com problem, and I can use that tool free now…Friends, Lloyd.

      Reply
    13. Lloyd Hrdlichka

      Actually Eric, I plan on building the business using free organic means like article marketing, blogs…etc as I am on limited funds at the moment to do PPC, and will I need SpyFu for free, article marketing means?…Friends, Lloyd.

      Reply
    14. Lloyd Hrdlichka

      I just found the free SpyFu link from your earlier blog posts(I feel guilty for bugging you about it!!)…Thank you for the help!! But why couldn’t I find it at their site directly?…Friends, Lloyd.

      Reply
    15. "Digital" Don Hill

      Hi David,

      PADGen is a software that creates a PAD file which contains information about your software, arranged in a format that software directories can handle. (In the REALLY old online days, most ZIP files would contain a file called “FILE_ID.DIZ” which was a text file with info about the contents of the ZIP.)

      By submitting your toolbar to software directories, it will be made available for people to download and to pass to friends, thus triggering the “viral effect” you’re hoping for.

      I’m not surprised at the anti-MLM bias, considering the fact that almost everyone engaged in it is doing it completely WRONG, selling the “opportunity” and not the product(s)!

      Most MLMs with real products and services that have real value in their own right (and aren’t bought only because money can be made selling them to others) AREN’t being built in keeping with the original MLM model – learn how to sell the product to a relatively small number of customers, and then recruit others to do the very same thing.

      In my opinion, until an MLM distributor is showing a net profit from their own retail sales, they really have no business recruiting others on the promise that they’ll teach them how to make money with the product or service.

      And that’s before we even touched on the subject of “networking,” which VERY few people get right either!

      Actually, I wonder how much longer keywords will be used the way they are now to steer people to the information they’re looking for. Google has poured a LOT of dough into building “psychic” algorithms that try to predict in advance what the user is searching for (“Google Instant”).

      It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same!

      Thanks for the great content, Eric!

      – “Digital” Don –

      PS – If you happen to be in the market for affordable webinar service, you may be interested in what clicking on my name will bring before your senses!

      Reply
    16. Bob McCormack

      To Eric, This I think was the best lesson so far [for me]. You brought a few really good directions for the research portion of the finding a niche to work with. I liked to see the very methodical method used and how you are keeping the job of searching for the topic of the business very real and also showing that you do not have to break the budget to find the topic of a business venture. Thank you for these fine and well thought out procedures that are being put in place for us.
      Bob

      Reply
    17. brenda

      You have the patience of a saint Eric. So many people ask you the same question over and over again. I found it monotonous. If these same people taking your course read what some of the other students wrote they would get some valuable information and I would have 10 less minutes of multiple abuse. I love your “please feel free to leave a comment” section though and like I said, some of it is as educational as your courses.

      Reply
    18. Mario

      Hey Eric, Cool site and service you are providing. One thing I have picked up so far is the JV comment you made about creating affiliates with say a law firm by providing leads. When time permits can you touch on what software you use or how you manage the lead generation and payment. thanks

      Reply
    19. Eric Post author

      I’ve actually not personally sold leads directly to buyers, I’ve only gone through CPA networks. So I’m not sure what lead capture system is best for lead sellers. But I do know it’s fairly simple, and I know people who have done it. As far as payment, you would just negotiate the payment terms. Monthly would probably be the easiest (you invoice them and they pay you by XX day each month for all the leads delivered in the previous month), or weekly if you’re delivering a lot of leads.

      Reply
    20. Karen M.

      Hi Eric,
      Doesn’t look like SpyFu has a free version anymore. Maybe you have to subscribe before you can view that particular page.

      Karen M.

      Reply
    21. Joe

      Hi Eric, seems this video is not responding properly (ie: it does not play all the way through). Anyway you can help?

      Reply
    22. Kenny

      Eric, I can’t thank you enough for your fantastic lessons. I have a possible niche but am somewhat concerned about the profitably for many of the reasons you mention in your video re inventions. There is a lot of traffic for this niche but there are virtually no info products available. Nearly every single paid ad is for a consulting firm. However, there is one consulting firm that appears to be selling an info product and there are tons (and when I say tons I mean pages and pages) of books available on Amazon and Ebay on this topic, which makes me think there is some potential. I know I haven’t provided much detail, but do you have any thoughts based on what I have already mentioned?

      Again thanks for the free lessons and the free help (here in t he comments). I look forward to being able to return the favor in some way once I’ve gotten things rolling.

      Kenny

      Reply
    23. Micah

      Hello Kenny,

      It sounds like a win/win if it’s a popular topic, with very few info products in the market yet.

      Reply
    24. Jefvz

      Wow what a lesson for me as a newbie here, interesting and challenging. I got to bury my head deeper in this topic about niche.
      Many thanks Eric.
      Your great job will rewarded.

      Reply
    25. zubi

      Hi! Eric, can I have lesson #19, from 18 it skip to 20.Thank you.

      Reply
    26. Prue

      Hi Eric,

      I am so grateful for the lessons. You actually mentioned two topics I am considering for my niche.

      Well, what can I say? I shall definitely pursue both.

      Kind regards,

      Prue

      Reply
    27. Richard W. Darnell

      Eric, Thanks for the tips. Each has something useful and valuable. At present I am stuck with the Real Guys thousands of pieces and no idea how to get a site together with the product or what to give away to entice the signup. Any ideas?????

      Reply
    28. Yvette Samuel

      A heartfelt THANK YOU Eric, for a comprehensive look at network marketing. Thanks for you patience and attention to detail for internet maketers regardless to if they are “newbies”. I advertise a vacation rental on a leading website but with all your free training I will be creating a product with your help and incorporate the knowledge I am gaining to both as I see relevant. You can go to any limit by just believing in yourself. It starts with you. Thanks once again for sharing this wealth of information. From time to time I will let you know if I encounter any problem areas. For the first time I was able to keep up with you and add my comments. I congratulate myself! You are dynamic. Please do not ever feel you are not appreciated. Take Care and I look forward to Lesson 21.

      Yvette

      Reply
    29. Nicolai(Nick) Struan

      Hi ”Digital” Don, Yes Don, I agree with you in many ways, except I feel that you should not generalize and also perhaps be open to the fact that before we actually express an opinion on a subject that we know little or nothing about a little research is in order. Yes, in all product marketing it’s important to understand all benefits and features and promote it correctly. However, there is nothing wrong with organising people in a group to create a platform for learning that invites novices into this industry and teach them how to become successful. The problem with ”network marketing”(I think) is as you are hinting towards, very little actual ”marketing” is taught. To say that the products are ”so good that they will sell themselves” is as you know pure bs, as no one’s perceived value would ever be the same. However the industry has as yet unfortunately not caught up to this fact and is still trying to solicit people to ”flog a dead horse”. On the more positive side, I for one am now engaged in creating opportunities for people to become successful in their home business endeavours providing them with a solid emphasis on learning how to actually market their products successfully and honestly. So my point here is that, the concept of ”doing good” for people is not dead yet and some of us are still putting people before profit. Like for instance Eric here. So a great big ”THANK YOU” to Eric for providing this opportunity for me to learn so so much. The concept of “paying it forward” is such a powerful strategy I wish that many more “Guru’s” would learn the value of. How would you feel, being instrumental in enhancing the lives of millions of people around the world?

      Reply
    30. Ron Mahan

      Eric. love the tips. I am using googles adword keyword finder to find global monthly searches for specific keywords. I notice you didn’t mention this resource. Anyway, the question is what do feel the minimum global monthly searce should be for a profitable keyword.

      Reply
    31. Micah

      Hello Ron,

      When it comes to Google AdWords, there aren’t any hard or fast rules with minimum bids for keywords. That is because every keyword will have a different level of competition for it!

      That’s where testing comes into play. As you adjust your bids up and down, track the number of clicks you receive. Also, track your AdWords costs, and commission profits!

      As long as you aren’t losing any money, your bids should be just fine! I’ve paid a penny for clicks on very niche campaigns before, and several dollars for clicks in more competitive markets successively!

      Reply
    32. Richard

      Hello Eric
      I have found so far your videos informative and interesting. I do have a problem with your use of the cursor ….you point something out so fast that by the time I find where you are, you are pointing somewhere else. You also refer to free tools that really are not free. Don’t know why you do that.
      Listen, you are giving information and that is a valiant thing and valuable. But the art and skill in communicating is a niche you might investigate.

      Reply
    33. Micah

      Hello Richard,

      Good Points! You don’t always have to keep your eye on the cursor. Sometimes Eric is merely moving between slides, or is actually cueing something for the next part of the video offscreen!

      Freebies really are free, but they often have an upsell offer! Freebies are a great incentive to get customers to sign up for your list, or buy your full featured product, because they get to taste what they might be missing out on, by not owning the full featured version!

      Reply
    34. Joe

      Eric,Thank You and God Bless for your professional knowledge and experience it has made me more effective in learning new technics and save me a lot,lot time.

      Reply
    35. Sherri

      Need some extra help! I can not find my niche. I guess I am just stuck but everything I have researched I find something wrong with for example positive dog training is something I know and enjoy but it seems to be too saturated…when look up other things I think people need…I have no interest! I think I am trying too hard, am I the only one? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

      Reply
    36. Micah

      Hello Sherri,

      You might want to see if you can get even more specific. For instance, you could focus on training certain breeds of dogs.

      Or, you could incorporate another twist to help you stand out from others in seemingly the same niche.

      Reply
    37. Edward T Cole

      Eric, I seem to not get very many visitors to my hosting site which
      is resonable for everything. Would you take 5 minutes to check out the sales
      page and see if it should be shortened up.
      Ed Cole
      hosting5dollar.com

      Reply

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