by ct_roy
19 replies
Hey all,
right picking a niche is proving to be a stumbling block for me.

I'm a relative newbie to IM but have a lot of web dev experience and currently manage a lot of web design/development projects in my day job.

I've been doing a lot of niche research of late and have come down to 2 niches I think I could be good at exploiting

1.) project management (related to web projects specifically)
2.) fitness/weight loss

My issue is that I'm finding it hard to pick one to focus on!

I would be considered an expert web project manager with a lot of experience in this area. The market though for generating revenue online doesn't look great. (i.e. not a lot of high paying keywords/phrases, market size looks limited) Even though I reckon I could run a great blog on all things related to managing website projects - I'm not sure if there is a market worth going after.

The alternative, weight loss/fitness is obviously a very profitable but extremely competitive niche. I'm not so much an expert here but have had success myself losing weight recently and think I could add value to the market by sharing my story with the world and delivering good quality content. I'm concerned at the time and effort it would take to build any kind of profile in this market.

I'm sure lots of people have this issue and am wondering if anyone can share their words of wisdom and advice based on their own experiences.

Which niche should I target? Should I look elsewhere completely?

Thanks all,

Ed
#niche #pick
  • Profile picture of the author ElectricChili
    You can pick your Friends, you can pick your Niche, but you can't pick your friends Niche (or something like that)

    Rich Scherlitz
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    • Profile picture of the author ct_roy
      Originally Posted by ElectricChili View Post

      You can pick your Friends, you can pick your Niche, but you can't pick your friends Niche (or something like that)

      Rich Scherlitz
      hey Rich,

      i know what you mean

      i suppose I'm just looking for advice from those who have been down this well trodden path before and who will have learned from their mistakes.

      Is is better to go after low competition, specialist niches which have a lower earning ability (relatively speaking) or to chip away at a bigger niche and hope to get lucky!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jared Alberghini
    Originally Posted by ct_roy View Post

    I would be considered an expert web project manager with a lot of experience in this area. The market though for generating revenue online doesn't look great. (i.e. not a lot of high paying keywords/phrases, market size looks limited) Even though I reckon I could run a great blog on all things related to managing website projects - I'm not sure if there is a market worth going after.
    Ed, I would go with your expertise. As for not being sure if there is a market worth going after? LOL... just take a look at the recent 'offline gold rush' here at the WF. I'm sure you could help a ton of people just right here manage their web projects, and provide your expertise in the field.

    Jared
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    • Profile picture of the author ct_roy
      Originally Posted by Jared Alberghini View Post

      Ed, I would go with your expertise. As for not being sure if there is a market worth going after? LOL... just take a look at the recent 'offline gold rush' here at the WF. I'm sure you could help a ton of people just right here manage their web projects, and provide your expertise in the field.

      Jared
      Hey Jared,
      thanks for your advice. that's kind of the way I was thinking.
      Web projects touch on so many "micro niches" (i.e. design, development, testing) I guess I'm concerned it's too broad to be considered a niche in itself but I guess it's really just about how you position yourself and target your market.
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      • Profile picture of the author jaijav29
        Originally Posted by ct_roy View Post

        Hey Jared,
        thanks for your advice. that's kind of the way I was thinking.
        Web projects touch on so many "micro niches" (i.e. design, development, testing) I guess I'm concerned it's too broad to be considered a niche in itself but I guess it's really just about how you position yourself and target your market.
        That is so true. You just have to know your competitors and look for a strategy to be on the top list.
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  • Profile picture of the author J.Knight
    Ed,

    First, forget about money.

    Second, You might be an expert in web project management, but can you write about it?

    Sit down and brain storm categories under web project management umbrella. You should get about 6-10.

    Then take those categories, and come up with article ideas relating to the topics. If you're an expert, you should be able to get at least 10/category, giving you 60-100 article ideas.

    If you can do that fairly easily, you've found your topic and passion.

    After that, the money is there. There are a good number of aff products for web developers, and if you build traffic, there are heaps of web design/development business who will want to advertise.

    Once you get authority, make a web project development course and sell it.

    Hope this helps,

    JK

    P.S. Grab an Aweber account and build a list from the start.
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    • Profile picture of the author ct_roy
      Originally Posted by J.Knight View Post

      Ed,

      First, forget about money.

      Second, You might be an expert in web project management, but can you write about it?

      Sit down and brain storm categories under web project management umbrella. You should get about 6-10.

      Then take those categories, and come up with article ideas relating to the topics. If you're an expert, you should be able to get at least 10/category, giving you 60-100 article ideas.

      If you can do that fairly easily, you've found your topic and passion.

      After that, the money is there. There are a good number of aff products for web developers, and if you build traffic, there are heaps of web design/development business who will want to advertise.

      Once you get authority, make a web project development course and sell it.

      Hope this helps,

      JK

      P.S. Grab an Aweber account and build a list from the start.

      Hey JK,

      I'd say I could easily come up with 200 article ideas if I sat down and jotted them down (adding it as a task to my todo list!)

      excellent advice JK - much much appreciated!
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  • Profile picture of the author George Chernikov
    Ed,

    What are you thinking of doing with the market once you've made up your mind? Depending on whether you want to release your own product, build a list or build a blog, the answer would be different. For example, while extremely competitive markets may not be a good idea for releasing your own product, they could be a great fit for a blog or an affiliate marketing list (the market being competitive tells you that there are a lot of products out there - products that you can promote as an affiliate and make money with).

    Quite frankly, I don't believe that any market is too competitive. I've worked with people who are happily spending thousands to enter ultra-competitive markets such as Internet Market, and I can assure you that they know what they're doing. They're spending that much money because they're certain it will pay off in the long run.

    In short, just because a market is competitive, doesn't mean that there's no room for you in it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Peter John
    I think picking a niche is by far the hardest part because after that its all about refining the campaign, but so far in my limited experence what ive typically done is find a leyword thats a trigger keyword like "find" or 'learn" etc then used the google keyword tool to find a subject with the keyword in it that gets more than say 500 searches a day or there abouts.

    For example one that is not got any competion is "cookie recipes" ,might cost u 2-7 cents a click and whilst all the info is free you could have a zip submitt or email submitt offer in there on your web page , so if they fill that out you send them some free recipes, or something along that line.

    Point is theres boat loads of stuff out there with zero competion because some people out there that dont put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

    People make the mistake they need to hit a home run on their fist go, but you only need a couple of web sites pulling in 5 to 50 bucks a day and then you can build on that and do very well.

    Hope that helps a little
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  • Profile picture of the author alankay
    Just make sure your passionate about your niche.

    I have found that if I don't have passion for a specific niche, it's hard to motivate myself to get it done and make it happen.
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    • Profile picture of the author CurtisN
      Originally Posted by alankay View Post

      Just make sure your passionate about your niche.

      I have found that if I don't have passion for a specific niche, it's hard to motivate myself to get it done and make it happen.
      That's funny, I learned the something that's kind of opposite. If you only work in niches in which you're passionate in, you're severely limiting yourself. The motivation should be the cash, not about having the inspiration to write about something.


      There are niches which are too competitive, but they're broad: Weight loss, golf. (If you don't like golf or losing weight, does this mean you should avoid them? NO!) But as soon as you narrow down these niches (I recommend KwBrowse.com - A Keyword Map For the Whole Internet), you suddenly have the opportunity to get a foothold in the main niche while having less to little competition because maybe not too many people are targeting "weight loss for men over 60".
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  • Profile picture of the author queenofdreamers
    This has been another great topic for me to read. I have signed up with two affilate programs and am not happy with either of them. But.....I did not know about the Warrior Forums then. I am learning soooo much here!
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  • Profile picture of the author bballer23
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author Danny Keegan
      google.com/products , loads of niches displayed every time you refresh the page
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    • Profile picture of the author Aare
      what about going to G adwords, using their keywords tool, find the biggest CPC and increasing trend??? you can choose one of the keywords as ur niche???
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  • Profile picture of the author Dave777
    Food for thought!
    Enjoy...
    SEOmoz | Popular Searches

    Dave
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    • Profile picture of the author rafaelapolinario
      Most Americans are having a problem with their weight loss program, I'm sure there are couple of thousands which are searching for articles and write ups concerning how to loss weight and have a healthy lifestyle. This could be a more traffic driving niche. Good luck.

      Rafael
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  • Profile picture of the author stephenh
    Mate.

    A better question is to ask yourself " what is a market that is desperate to spend money to get what they want?".

    LOng term hungry markets are plentiful and provided you give the quality they will be profitable


    Stephenh
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  • Profile picture of the author pyrmontvillage
    Profit and Passion are Not Always related. I have never believed that concept, however reality is a bitch....Making cash in places, that are unexciting to say the least....law/accountancy...not sexy but they pay on time, regular as clockwork....
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