?ould you compete in a niche that didnt have many competitors but the ones in it completely OWN it?

welcome to the $$$ level. if you're not after one of ours (wink), I might be able to help.
my background is in competitive analysis, and in general you need to do a lot of that to uncover each aspect of their strategy before you start and have answers ready when they retaliate. no secret, some of my investments are in locksmithing, car rentals and garage doors - very much the kind you seem to have encountered.

meh, even if they completely own it, you can still settle with second place u know? :p

I do actually have one major competitor but none the less, I mean theres enough space on the internet for both of us right?

When I do my keyword research, which by the way I consider finding my niche the same thing.

One of the things I do is once I find my keyword is see who is ranking in the top five. Is it .org sites, real .org, is it .gov or .edu.

If it is I move one.

Now lets say its computer related and microsoft, ibm and apple have the first page.

Yeah I'm moving on. Not chicken just smart is all.

There's a difference between "completely OWNING" a niche and simply "dominating a few choice keywords."

Even the smallest niches have LOADS of keywords associated with them. After all, language and the way we use it (even while we search) is pretty infinite.

You can pretty quickly establish just how "owned" a given niche is by doing a little manual work and analysis.

First, analyze your keyword set. Thoroughly.

Next, establish how much traffic yield does Google say each keyword "should" get monthly.

Then, see what percentage that represents of the "total". Additionally, you must remember that keywords which supposedly have "no yield" actually DO have a yield, but it's just that it's too small for Google to bother reporting. (You can fire up Google Analytics and see how many keywords found you which have "no yield").

Next, type in the first keyword into Google; open up your spreadsheet and type in the top 10 results under the first column which contains the keyword.

Then, do the same for the next keyword. And next, and next.

Cover the top 10 keywords in that manner.

Now do the same for 10 "mid-range" keywords.

And then the same for 10 low-yield keywords.

And then apply the percentages and extrapolate your results. You will find that VERY FEW (if any) of even the most powerful players "own" their niche.

And that's GREAT news for you. It means that NO NICHE IS IMPREGNABLE.

You can start eroding it from the bottom up by optimizing pages first for the easiest, then gradually stronger keywords. It takes a little time and organization, but you can "totally" dominate any niche using this approach within 2-3 months. And, of course, by "totally" in THIS case, I mean that you'll be well represented in EACH keyword group.

(Based on my upcoming KeywordAikido Niche Domination System, as well as my SEOlater Deep Keyword Research System)

Hope this helps
cheers paul

i pwn my niche and kill competitors routinely, it's fun. tho now I tell them to just give up with their sites and become affiliates of mine, i suppose that's playing a bit nicer.

You seem to have things backwards. Competition is a measure of the profitability of a niche. You want high competition niches.

If there isn't much competition, that means there isn't much money.

Would you rather go to a crowded restaurant and wait for a table to get great food -- or would you prefer to go to an empty restaurant and get a table right away so you can eat awful food?

It is the same with competition. If there isn't any competition -- there is a reason for that!

thanks for all the replies guys and girls

so far so good

created the forum 2 days ago and its already indexed and at #26

now just need to get members in there

hopefully if i can get it active enough and in the top 3 by the time this niche becomes big i should stand a chance

It sounds like your focusing only one one medium: authority sites. As MYOB already alluded to, there are plenty of other ways to compete in virtually any market. Granted, there are some micro-niches or specialized niches that are literally owned by a handful of players, but those are the exception, not the rule.

If you were to ask 1,000 successful marketers on how they do market research you would get 1,000 different answers, with a few, basic commonalities between them. Why? Because market research is as much an art as it is a science. And market research is critical for increasing the chances of any campaign succeeding.

Believe it or not, many companies and marketers don't focus on getting on page one on any of the search engines because they BUY their traffic or have other ways of obtaining eyeballs (Joint ventures, leveraging networks, affiliates, free publicity, using software and apps, etc.).

Also, how do you define "low competition"? Are you basing this on a few select keywords? How many advertises there are? I'm curious how you define it because that could be part of the problem.

RoD