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A Simple Method To Picking The Right Niche (for newbies mostly)

by Gclunis
6 replies
Okay so I can't speak for everyone but I get the feeling that one of the main issues newbies deal with is finding the right niche to get into.

I know for a fact that I have trouble with this even to this day but I do have a simple method that I have been using recently in order to really speed up the niche picking process and I wanted to share it with some of the newbies here in an attempt to give back to this forum for all the help it has given me.

*Note: This information is NOT new, I am sure there have been posts on this forum that outlines this exact idea but I have not seen any in a while so I felt it might be useful to repost the idea so that newbies can see it.

I am going to do this guide in three separate parts. Part one is a general checklist, part two is my personal step by step process, and part three is a list of useful tools


Part One: General Checklist

Okay, when it comes to niche research I always take a few things into consideration before I pick a niche:

  • Personal Interest - I have always found that I am much more likely to enjoy promoting a niche and enjoy my work if I am in a niche that I find interesting. It doesn't have to be something that I have always found interesting, just anything that I can find something to get excited about. (This is not necessary in order to find the right niche, it is completely possible to promote niches that you have no interest in. However, (for newbies especially) it is often easier to stick with one method and one niche for a long time if you have an interest in it and in order to really be successful you have to be willing to stick with something long term.
  • Excitability - Lets face it, you can have the most profitable niche in the world. However, if people are not excited about it then chances are you will not be able to build a long term business out of it. When people are excited about a niche it is often much easier to get consistent traffic month after month.
  • Profitability - Okay so this sort of goes hand in hand with excitability as one of the most important factors when picking a niche. Remember, your goal is to help people or give them something that they value. But, at the end of the day you want to be able to make some sort of profit don't you? Well if people are excited about your niche but are not willing to spend any money in that niche then guess what. You WILL NOT make any money. You can have as many subscribers or visitors as you want. But if your niche is not profitable you will not make a dime. It's as simple as that.
  • Competition - I include this in the general checklist very hesitantly. A lot of people are misinformed about the amount of competition that a niche should have in order to be profitable. However whenever I pick a niche I usually don't take competition into consideration very much. The thing is that we are looking to build long term businesses. The longer you stay in a niche the less competitors you will have. Think about it how many times have you entered a niche and ditched it after a month or two claiming that it wasn't profitable? The truth is that almost everyone has done this at one point or another and it is a common thing for EVERY niche you enter. So although when you enter the niche you might have 200,000 competing sites for that niche/product. Chances are that half of those competing sites will drop off within the first 6 months. Now obviously you want to be able to make some sort of profit in that time so the key is to find a niche that has a few different keywords that you can rank easily for while you wait for your backlinks to build up and your competition to drop off.
  • Possible Marketing Methods - Decide what marketing methods you are comfortable doing BEFORE you pick a niche. The reason I say this is because some niches just aren't suited for some marketing methods. For example, I don't see video marketing being very effective for certain niches (sorry can't think of one off the top of my head right now). If you have a list of your marketing strengths before you start looking at niches then you can rule out certain niches based on its available marketing methods.
  • Possible Monetization Methods - If you have no way of monetizing a niche then you have no way of making money. It's really that simple. When doing your niche research it is 100% necessary to make sure you can find at least 2 different methods of monetizing on it. This can be anything from adsense to affiliate marketing to product creation. If there are at least 2 methods that people are actively using for that niche then you can pretty much assume that the niche is at least somewhat profitable.

That's it for part one. Just some basic things to look at when looking for a profitable niche.

In part two I will go through my exact steps to finding a good niche to promote.

In part three I will list some useful tools for finding a good niche (both free and paid)

Keep reading :]

To Your Successes

G
#method #newbies #niche #picking #simple
  • Profile picture of the author Gclunis
    Part Two: Step By Step Process




    Step 1: Brain Drain


    The first thing I do when looking for a niche is get off the computer. Sound counter productive? Just hear me out.


    I get off the computer and I get a blank sheet of paper (or a few sheets) and a pen or pencil. I then turn off all distractions (including music) and sit in a nice well lit area. This is my brainstorming session and personally it can sometimes take me a half an hour to an hour or so just to get all of my ideas down on paper.


    The goal of this step is to organize a list of ideas. They don't have to make sense, they don't have to be profitable, just put them down. Here is how I start my list:


    • List my talents
    • List things I already know about
    • List things I would like to learn more about
    • List any niche ideas that I currently have
    • List any crazy ideas that pop into my head
    • List anything else you can think of...


    It seriously doesn't matter what it is. Just list it and keep moving forward in the process. Once you have completely drained your brain of any ideas take your list and read through it.




    Step 2: Delete


    It is time to delete some ideas from your list. (Some may argue that you can combine this step with step 1 and save time. However, I like to keep them separated so that I can stay on task and not get sidetracked. If you try and do too many things at once your mind will lose focus.)


    Go through your list again and look for a few things:


    • Absolutely far fetched ideas
    • Things you have no interest in
    • Things you have never heard or seen others express an interest in



    Now don't get me wrong, it is totally possible to make money on all of these things. However, it is much easier to make money with something that people are already interested in than it is to create an interest in something new.




    Step 3: Checklist


    Take your current list and ask yourself if they fit the general checklist that I outlined in part one. Remove any ideas that do not fit your personal criteria EXACTLY. You are trying to find a niche that you will be promoting for a very long time so there is absolutely no reason to make exceptions and cut corners. Those tiny things could cost you thousands of dollars overtime.


    The only two things on the checklist that they do not have to fit is the competition and personal interest checks. The reason for this is because those are based on my personal beliefs. This project is 100% yours so they should match your personal beliefs. However, you are free to use my beliefs if you so choose.




    Step 4: Research


    This is the longest aspect of your niche picking process. What you need to do is take each idea and physically run them through the general checklist.
    Establish a criteria for yourself on what a niche has to match in order to make the cut. Remove any niches that do not match your criteria. By this I mean that you need to look for products, competition, long tailed keywords, excitability, profitability, marketability and a public interest. Record all of these statistics for each niche that makes the cut.




    Once you have gone through those 4 steps properly you should be down to just a few niche ideas. Every time that I run these steps I end up with anywhere from 1 to 5 niches that I know are all profitable and that I know I can run a business in. Once I get to that part of the process I simply pick the niche that had the best statistics OR I pick the niche that I have the most personal interest in.


    However, it is a good idea to save the rest of your niches for the future. Once you have dominated the niche that you pick you will already have a few other niches to choose from in order to establish multiple sources of income.




    That's it for part 2.


    Look to my next post for a list of useful tools and website in finding niche ideas


    To Your Successes


    G


    PS: A very good tip from Veit

    "the *only*;-) thing I would add is this: allocate a fixed amount of time for the research phase, a fixed amount for KW research etc. Once time's up, you HAVE to move on.
    Some will fall in love with niche-research, others with KW research etc etc etc.
    and then procrastinate on the next part that needs to get done.

    it's usually when we don't know what to do next that we begin to procrastinate.

    if time's up and you simply don't know what to do next and you're tempted to just do some more KW/niche/whatever research. Stop it! Go to this forum, ask the question and then do something that will move you forward.

    unfortunately most newbies get stuck at some point and then hop from dream to dream, make sure you're not one of them. I can tell you from personal experience, there's nothing better than earning your first $ online. (and when the first $600 check comes in, ... it's time to take the family out for pizza;-)

    and that only happens when you move forward. Took me two years to move all the way, don't let it happen to you

    Veit"
    Signature

    Cheers,
    Gregg

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    • Profile picture of the author Gclunis
      Part Three: Tools


      There are quite a few tools that can help in the niche research process:


      Free:


      Yahoo! Answers - Home


      Look for frequently asked question topics.


      Market Samurai


      The keyword research tool is 100% free forever and provides valuable data on a daily search basis.


      Google Keyword Tool


      100% Free keyword research tool. Provides data on a monthly search basis (great to use with market samurai)


      43 Things


      People basically go there to tell the world what they would like to do. If you have a good eye for niches this could be a gold mine for you.




      Ebay Pulse



      Great resource if you are building an ecommerce site or dropshipping.


      Niche A Day


      Not sure who runs this but I have been subscribed to it for quite some time now and it delivers very well. They provide you with a general niche and some keywords. Your job is simply to find a sub niche to dominate.


      Niche Article A Day


      Not sure who runs this one either but it is also really great. They provide you with a niche idea and PLR articles in order to jump start the promotion process.





      Paid:


      Micro Niche Finder


      Never actually used it myself but I have heard great things from others.


      Market Samurai


      The paid version comes with ALOT more features. All are very useful in niche research and keyword research.




      Additional Links:


      A thread that I have found very useful in giving me ideas for useful tools is


      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...g-toolbox.html


      It is posted by a fellow warrior Kim Roach and I believe that it would be useful to ANY new or current marketer.



      Well that's it. I hope someone out there found this guide useful. If anyone has any suggestions for the links section or the method section please let me know and I will include them.


      Also, please feel free to disagree with anything that I said in this thread. It is 100% my opinion and a method that works well for ME. It is not the end all be all of methods to find good niches.


      I hope someone finds this information useful and is able to benefit from it in some way.





      To Your Successes


      G
      Signature

      Cheers,
      Gregg

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  • Profile picture of the author VeitSchenk
    very good stuff, thanks G.

    the *only*;-) thing I would add is this: allocate a fixed amount of time for the research phase, a fixed amount for KW research etc. Once time's up, you HAVE to move on.
    Some will fall in love with niche-research, others with KW research etc etc etc.
    and then procrastinate on the next part that needs to get done.

    it's usually when we don't know what to do next that we begin to procrastinate.

    if time's up and you simply don't know what to do next and you're tempted to just do some more KW/niche/whatever research. Stop it! Go to this forum, ask the question and then do something that will move you forward.

    unfortunately most newbies get stuck at some point and then hop from dream to dream, make sure you're not one of them. I can tell you from personal experience, there's nothing better than earning your first $ online. (and when the first $600 check comes in, ... it's time to take the family out for pizza;-)

    and that only happens when you move forward. Took me two years to move all the way, don't let it happen to you

    Veit
    Signature

    Connect with me on FB: https://www.facebook.com/veitschenk

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  • Profile picture of the author Gclunis
    Awesome addition veit. That actually didn't even cross my mind for some reason.
    Thanks alot

    G
    Signature

    Cheers,
    Gregg

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  • Profile picture of the author mrmoonlight
    Thanks to both of you. As a new marketer I can really use this information.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gclunis
    Your very welcome mrmoonlight. I am going through this exact process right now to find a new niche to blog in and its working out very well for me.

    If you have any questions (about the process or about marketing in general) please do not hesitate to ask. I love helping if I can :]
    Signature

    Cheers,
    Gregg

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