Tip: How to find a good niche and generate lots of traffic with very little effort

23 replies
I want to share some personal experience on how to find a niche. It's the first hurdle that many new marketers stumble on. The mistakes I made are common, and they can be the deciding factor on whether or not a new marketer succeeds, or gives up on Internet Marketing.

I must also point out that I currently do not make any money from the niches I work under. I'll explain why soon. But, if I wanted to turn my writings into revenue it wouldn't be difficult to do.

Years ago when I first started out I remember thinking for days "I need a niche, what can I write about?". Most beginner courses, guides, books, articles etc will tell you to find a niche you feel comfortable working in before making any plans.

Finding a niche was certainly the hardest step for me and it took me many years of failure to realise the 2 niches I am actually an expert in were sitting right under my nose the entire time. I literally wasted about 2 years hoping from one thing to the next until I got bored and gave up.

Before I stumbled on my revelation I tried writing articles and blogs under many different niches such as: dating, health products, toys, bingo, dog food etc. I had no experience in any of these niches but I thought I could pull through it by rehashing content from the web. I hated it!

I had tunnel vision at the time. I was focusing on the most profitable niches thinking it would be easy to make a couple of conversions a day yet I lacked the experience and knowledge to work in any of those niches. It's obvious now that my plan was going to fail.

It wasn't until I actually stopped thinking about money, and marketing, that I really started to make progress and see huge amounts of traffic coming from Google, social media and email. I could write an article now and within 12 hours have over 1,000 reads.

So, how do actually find a niche that you're comfortable working under?

It's really simple. It's going to sound cliche, but you must find an area or subject topic you feel comfortable working in. You must also have experience in that niche. It's no good writing articles on dating if you're a hopeless romantic. It's no use writing about muscle building, or health and fitness, if you have no experience with those subject areas.

You need to find something you ARE good at. It could literally be anything. Don't think about conversions, or money, or marketing. You only start thinking about that stuff when you have the traffic and userbase to convert that into $$$ should you want to.

Finding a niche should require very little thought. You should already know what your hobbies are, or what experiences you have, or what you're good at.

Let me show you the areas where I have the most knowledge:
  • I've been a professional programmer from over 10 years. Studied Software Engineering at University.
  • Over 5 years practical experience as a professional hacker. Have worked with Facebook, Yahoo, Soundcloud, EE, TalkTalk, BT and more.
  • I've made music both as a hobby, and professionally, for over 15 years. I play the piano. I study classical and jazz theory.
  • I've had sever anxiety and depression for over 15 years
  • I've smoked, studied, and grown, cannabis throughout most of my life. I don't grow anymore, but I have. Illegal in some countries, but it's something I know a lot about and there's a market for it.
  • I'm a parent.
  • I'm a smoker, who has experience quitting numerous times.

That's just 7 of the things I could say I'm very experienced with. A lot of them could be further broken down and more niches could develop. But see how easy that is?

Today I write technical programming articles. I never intended to make money from them, or to gain any traffic. I never even thought about "how do I get traffic". It all happened by accident.

During my time out of Internet Marketing I was programming. It's my day job and a life long passion. As I learned new things I'd write an article about whatever it was I learned, and publish it. It was mostly for personal use so later in life I can look back to get refresher notes.

You see, working as a programmer using multiple languages is tough. Staying on top current trends and new technologies consumes at least a couple of hours a day. I could be writing ReactJS applications for 3 months, and then be creating a custom Linux distribution for an IoT device the next month. Coming back to ReactJS after not using it leaves gaps in my knowledge. I'm human, I forget. So this is why I write articles for myself. As a journal/scrapbook. It just so happens other people enjoy them.

Writing programming articles for me is a breeze. I rarely have to think about what I write and it just flows from my brain onto the page. I have practical experience, backed by code examples. I know as a developer what articles I enjoy reading so I try to structure the articles based on my experience of reading thousands of other peoples articles in my time.

I don't have to go off researching before I write an article because I already know the problems people are trying to solve. In fact, most of the time end up having to shorten my articles because I go into a great amount of detail. I've now learned those huge detailed articles can be cut down into multiple articles. More content. More traffic. Plus, most people hate reading super long articles (except in cases where it's required).

It works. I could write an article now in less than 30 minutes, post it on a few relevant reddit subs and get over 1,000 reads in less than 12 hours. My Reddit posts get lots of upvotes. My referral stats show a lot of traffic initially come from Reddit, but over time I start getting good traffic from Google.

I literally don't focus on SEO at all. I ensure my article has a good keyword density, and my headers are well formatted, but that's it! Which is crazy, because I get a good amount of traffic from Google.

The secret is purely quality content that is informative and interesting. If you're rehashing content you're doing it wrong. If an article takes you hours to write you're doing it wrong. An article takes no longer than an hour for me to write, and that includes proof reading.

So yeah, I hope this helps someone.
#effort #find #generate #good #lots #niche #tip #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author Gambino
    Pretty good post. I tend to agree with your point about selecting a niche that you have knowledge and expertise in - it certainly makes it easier.

    I think there is a 'me too' pattern that a lot of new marketers fall into. Where they see a successful site or product and try to replicate it as opposed to focusing on how they can provide the greatest value.

    The only thing I really disagree with is not having a plan to make money before you start working - if you're here to make money. If you're just out as a hobby, as you are/were, then sure - don't worry about it too much. But, if your plan is to build a viable online business then I think having a plan to build, monetize and scale is very important before you start building an online business.
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    • Profile picture of the author JamesJeffery
      I agree that a plan is a must if it's a business idea that you plan to make an income from. I could have worded that a little better.

      For the beginner who has time to spend learning I'd tend to say it's better they learn to generate traffic, and write well, before attempting to monetise. Monetisation will always be possible if you can pull in good traffic.

      Many thanks for the comment and useful information.
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  • Use the keyword in google with close bracket [ ] and see how many number of pages you can see. this is one of the method to know the traffic.

    .
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    • Profile picture of the author JamesJeffery
      Interesting! I just tried that with a keyword I included in my recent article ... it was #2 in the results lol.

      I tend to not follow traffic estimations. In my experience they're off by a lot. I don't even do any keyword research anymore. I just write and that seems to work well.
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  • Profile picture of the author laurenleblanc
    Start with your own personal interests and do market research, research and research! Eventually, you'll find a niche you like and has good traffic. Win-win. It's basically like finding and doing what you love while also finding a way to get paid for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author spartan14
    Agree many people fail because they dont have patience and they want fast money instead building theyr pasiion .After that money will come
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    • Profile picture of the author celente
      Originally Posted by spartan14 View Post

      Agree many people fail because they dont have patience and they want fast money instead building theyr pasiion .After that money will come
      so true, GARY VEE says, the millenium kids want everything with a swipe of a finger, you must be patient with all this. NO one was made into a milionaire over night, takes time.

      once you do this with passion, the money will come, if you are patient enough I agree.
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  • Profile picture of the author davidfern76
    agree, I've just started to write something that I feel comfortable with. it is like effortless, but at least it's fun doing that.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    i always find that its not about what you do, its how you to do it.

    I recommend to my clients to hunt the HIGH quality clients. Go to where they hang out on the internet and suss them out, and then somehow get them on your EMAIL LIST, this is the fastest way you will WIN online.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rajat Tyagi
    Truthly speaking, I just read only your question part and some 2-3 starting lines. So, I'm sharing my personal experience on based on your question only. If you want a high volume of traffic in very less time, then start writing technical product reviews like new and upcoming phones, gadgets, laptops, etc. Write about different DSLRs and their features, but don't go for writing a review. Because review writing has a very high competition.

    I mean to say, provide that information to Internet on through your individual web pages which people are searching but are no one has provided.

    Their are different niches for writing, but almost all have a very high competition and if the competition is not high then there is no traffic on that niche. It is only the technology niche where traffic is high and also the competition is also comparatively less.
    So, go for Technology writing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Arvind Kumar
    great post...really one should write and choose a niche in which you are really good and expert...if you are comfortable in your niche, you can write and share as much information as you can...!!
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  • Profile picture of the author jamie3000
    Very insightful post man. And btw I couldn't agree more about how tough staying on top of multiple languages is. It's like having a second job sometimes!!
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  • Profile picture of the author cybernext
    Quality contents are always a good way to get better traffic stats. Google gives weight age to informative and unique contents. Good contents can engage the users and make them to click on the links for more information.

    So I totally agree with the point.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tushar bhosale
    Nice post. It is very informative to me and others..Thankss
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  • Profile picture of the author Katy Perry
    Hello James,

    From observation and experience, I cannot say that I agree with you. I agree with Gambino. I think that most people need to have a plan if they want to actually make money or generate a substantial amount of traffic with their content. I do not believe that simply writing content (about which we have experience) will generate lots of traffic with little effort.

    1. It takes effort to write content


    For the average person, it actually will take some effort to consistently write content. Some people can write a 500-1000 word article in an hour if it's a topic in which they have much experience. However, not everyone write that many words. Just like reading, writers also write at different speeds. Furthermore, the content that we write might not even be any good no matter how much effort we put into it. People can improve their writing if they write every day for a year. However, consistently writing daily for a year is not really "just a little effort", and in many cases, they will not generate lots of traffic anyway.

    2. Content needs to be interesting, unique, or compelling to attract a large audience if you are not sending the traffic yourself by using organic or paid traffic methods (Search, social media, or otherwise). However, simply writing about subjects in which you are experienced does not mean that one will create good content.

    I have dealt with many forms of anxiety for many years. I am an agoraphobic. I did not leave the house for over ten years. I was also a smoker off and on for over twenty years, and have had experience quitting twice. I stopped smoking for five years so I do have experience with quitting smoking. I do have experience in a variety of other areas.

    According to your statement, I can write about these experiences and generate lots of traffic.

    However, I have written about these experiences, and I have generated very little traffic. Even when I take steps to optimize my page for search, I do not always see lots of traffic. I have let most of domains expire for this very reason. But these results are not only my own. There are more empty blogs on the internet than ones with lots of traffic. My articles will not get 1K reads by simply posting to a few relevant reddit subs. I would argue that most people wouldn't achieve those results even if they they actively wrote and posted articles.

    You can go on Youtube and find thousands of people who upload videos regularly but have less than 20 subs. You can find this same phenomenon with empty Facebook pages, subreddits, instagram profiles, and any other platforms people use to promote their content.

    I've seen the websites and social media accounts of so many people who produce unique, and in many cases great, content for years, but have nothing to show for it but hundreds or even thousands of unseen articles, videos, or images. Seriously, you can go on any search engine, or social media site. Just use certain filters to find recent posts and content etc. . .You will see the same thing. And many of these people are actually producing interesting and unique topics.

    So what's the problem? Why can't I (and thousands of other people) simply write about the shit that I love, about which I have passion, and in which I am experienced?

    Because maybe I suck at writing. Maybe the actual content that I produce is not that good even though the topic may be interesting and unique. Maybe, I'm just a boring writer. Maybe my articles are too long or too short. Maybe they are too formulaic. Maybe I am too articulate. Maybe I am not articulate enough. Maybe my stuff is unreadable. Maybe I use the word maybe too much. Damn, maybe that's why I have such high bounce rates. These are some of the reasons, anyway. There are many others.

    The "if you build it, they will come" mentality just won't really work for most people. Not everyone is a good writer. In fact, I might argue that the average person is not a good writer.. .

    Further, there is no guarantee that one's content will generate a lot of traffic even if they are good writers. Good writers, who create unique content that actually interests people, will most likely generate more traffic with less effort than writers who do not.

    Still, as I mentioned, there are many good writers who produce good content that only gets a handful of views. I think that success in IM requires patience, planning, and perseverance of the average person.

    That being said, I know that you aren't really trying to say that one simply has to write a bunch of cool content and traffic will come. I know that you just created that title to catch peoples attention. I know that the point of your post was about how to write better content. And I agree that it is much better to write on topics about which you have experience. I just wrote this long ass response because I know that a few people who read your post might actually believe that all they have to do is write and submit articles for a few months or years in order to generate lots of traffic.

    They will then become disenheartened when there are still only one or two people reading their article every day. The average person is going to have to take some time to actively promote their articles in addition to continually updating their site with fresh content.

    And if they want to make more money with their content they are also going to have to optimize their content for better conversions. In other words, most people are going to have to work hard if they want to write for more than just a hobby. And their work will entail many different jobs rather than just producing content.We must remember that content does not generate traffic. Good content may attract traffic, but even good content cannot generate traffic. Advertising and communication generate traffic.

    The various media platforms that facilitate communication and advertising are what generate traffic to your articles.

    Great post, however.
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    • Profile picture of the author JamesJeffery
      I agree with a lot of what you said.

      I'm just going by how it's going for me at the moment. I'm very happy with what I'm seeing and how things are going. Things just take time. I find you have to latch on to what's working and try and improve yourself to squeeze more out and provide more value to the customer/reader etc.

      Lots of useful information your response though and I value your opinion.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jackbuddy
    wow superb post
    As I read find new tips to generate more traffic.

    thanks for sharing experience with us.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ealiche1967
    Before the start, you should do more and more research and get some good keywords and start your campaign with them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Profit Traveler
    Banned
    It really is not that difficult in my humble opinion. You do not even have to be good at it.

    For example if you have an embarrassing problem and you researched the heck out of it in and out and upside down from every angle.

    You would probably have some pretty decent Content that others would be willing to pay for for saving them the time to do that research.

    Same for if you did the research because a loved one or general acquaintance was experiencing a specific topic. You can turn that into a resource.

    And you can get paid right away if you set it up properly.

    Your neighbor loves motorcycles and taking them apart and customizing them. But YOU know nothing about them.

    But you know about Internet Marketing!

    You could create a resource around your neighbors expertise maybe even create a video of him customizing a bike from start to finish.

    Boom. A product others would be attracted to.

    There are opportunities all around us all the time but we do not always pay attention.

    My last Product was on Case Studies of others accomplishments. Was fun to create and I am sure I sent lots of leads to those case studies websites and they deserved it for sharing their experiences in the first place.

    Each of us has unique opportunity in the people around us and the locations we live or work.

    I bet there is somebody right now planning a Trip to where you live or the closest main City to where you live and they are looking for anything and everything they can find on that location.

    What if you had a website of your local area, city and all the landmarks, great places to visit and or shop. Merchants may even pay to advertise on it upfront.or later after they saw it completed and the potential exposure.

    So this is just the tip of the iceberg as they say so much more you can do each day we wake up. It is just a matter of keeping your Internet Marketing Entrepreneur eyes open .

    Art
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    It's the energy. As you get clearer on your niche - leaving doubt and confusion behind - you develop the skills and build the network and do the work to allow in more blog traffic. Inner game. Which leads to outer actions, and success.
    Signature
    Ryan Biddulph helps you to be a successful blogger with his courses, manuals and blog at Blogging From Paradise
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    • Profile picture of the author JamesJeffery
      You're right. When things are going well, you get more positive energy, and more confidence in yourself. You start to believe you can actually do this and you will make it work
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  • Profile picture of the author talentiptv
    I am agree with you . i was did same work for my website too now i am getting 1000+ real traffic each day
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