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Step 1: Market Analysis

by perryny
18 replies
I'm just getting started with my first project, which I intend to develop into a strong and profitable business.

I've owned an offline business for almost a decade. My idea for a new product (guide) came about as an idea to help others in my market to succeed. As I began to research how to develop and market this guide, I was quickly introduced to the world of IM. Wow, I have a lot to learn.

I've found in WF a common sentiment that the first step to a successful campaign is to identify a niche and then make sure that niche has customers willing to spend.

I'd like to do some free, initial market analysis before I continue to develop a product that I BELIEVE there is a market for. I have every intention into investing financialy in this project, but I've learned from previous business experience to spend wisely. While I evaluate Market Samurai, AWeber, WSOs and various other products and subscriptions that members have recommended, would someone be able to recomend a free or low cost way to see if my niche might possibly have leggs?

Thanks all.
#analysis #market #step
  • Profile picture of the author Gallo
    Perry-
    if you have identified similar websites and need help with demographics and such try this website, quantcast dot com. its free, helped me understand my target market better.
    hope this helps!
    Best of luck
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    • Profile picture of the author perryny
      Thanks Gallo. I can find only one website that has a product similar to mine, marketed in a similar way to how I intend to. I've used several different kw searches and really can't find much competition. There's plenty of articles on the same subject as my guide, but so far, not many actual product sites.

      Quancast says that the one site I've found reaches approx. 38k visitors monthly. Assuming this is near accurate, I can't help but feel very encouraged.
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      • Profile picture of the author perryny
        Hi all.


        I still need some help with Market Analysis. I'm still unclear of how I go about finding:
        • How many people are doing KW searches for my product/market?
        • What kewords are they using?
        For example, lets say I want to write a guide on how to start a catering business. How do I determing (before investing too much money) that there are loads aspiring caterers out there, looking for help in starting their business. Let's also assume for the sake of this example that I can find only one or two guides on the subject already out there.

        Thanks for your help.
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        • Profile picture of the author digitalproductreporter
          Originally Posted by perryny View Post

          Hi all.


          I still need some help with Market Analysis. I'm still unclear of how I go about finding:
          • How many people are doing KW searches for my product/market?
          • What kewords are they using?
          Thanks for your help.
          if there were a simple answer to that everyone here would be rich

          the best way I know how is to design something free, or an info page, or small and for a small fee, or some guide or something, then buy adwords traffic to it, get some real visitors and see what they like, don't like etc.

          there are many benefits to doing this,,

          shoot, just split testing your ads this way will, based on click through rate, will tell you what a niche is interested in clicking on etc. and maybe even help you with product titles
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          • Profile picture of the author perryny
            Originally Posted by digitalproductreporter View Post

            if there were a simple answer to that everyone here would be rich
            This answer confuses me greatly. From what I've read (and I've read a lot here over the past week), the very first thing I should do is find out what the Traffic Factor is for my intended product. In a guide I've downloaded from the War Room, a member stated, "You need to have a niche that will be searched upon. However, how do we find this information out?" The member provides some links to tools, which unfortunately in the printed guide are trunkated.

            I assumed this was an easy one, to which the responses might be, "enter your list of kw related to your products into the webmaster-toolkit site and then use the tool Overture Keyword Search to check the traffic factor of your selected keywords (I've tried using these tools but I'm still confused, hence this post).
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            • Profile picture of the author digitalproductreporter
              Originally Posted by perryny View Post

              This answer confuses me greatly. From what I've read (and I've read a lot here over the past week), the very first thing I should do is find out what the Traffic Factor is for my intended product. In a guide I've downloaded from the War Room, a member stated, "You need to have a niche that will be searched upon. However, how do we find this information out?" The member provides some links to tools, which unfortunately in the printed guide are trunkated.

              I assumed this was an easy one, to which the responses might be, "enter your list of kw related to your products into the webmaster-toolkit site and then use the tool Overture Keyword Search to check the traffic factor of your selected keywords (I've tried using these tools but I'm still confused, hence this post).
              I did give you a response, use google adwords to do get some real, live data, on your niche. all the other tools use historic data with other peoples info.

              there's no better tool imho for market research in the world than adwords
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              • Profile picture of the author perryny
                Originally Posted by digitalproductreporter View Post

                I did give you a response, use google adwords to do get some real, live data, on your niche. all the other tools use historic data with other peoples info.
                I didn't mean to sound unappreciative. Sorry if I came accross as such. It's just that in your original response, the suggestions you made "design something free, or an info page, or small and for a small fee, or some guide or something, then buy adwords traffic to it, get some real visitors and see what they like, don't like etc", will take me longer than I'd like to get the basic answer I'm looking for. I only first heard the term "Internet Marketing" about a week ago. I've got lots to learn.

                I'll try using the Google Keyword Tool + Quantcast and see if I can figure this out.

                Thanks for your help.
                -Robert
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                • Profile picture of the author digitalproductreporter
                  no problem,

                  I disagree with most about the keyword external tool though, that advice usually follows with some nonsense magic formulas to use to find competition and other nonsense, it gives you keywords that tell you next to nothing other then where to start (and thata's where all the competition starts also!)

                  once you start buying traffic is when you see real data, what do people do when they get to your site, what ad text do they prefer to click on, split/test what urls do they prefer (test different destination urls if you've got a few extra bucks), do some different things on your landing page to gauge interest, what do they click on AFTER searching for the keyword, etc. this data is way more useful than finding out people search for "catering" a bunch, well no duh

                  adwords is also instant, the other methods require weeks to get some traffic to analyze

                  good luck on your travels
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                  • Profile picture of the author Bill Guthrie
                    Originally Posted by digitalproductreporter View Post

                    no problem,

                    I disagree with most about the keyword external tool though, that advice usually follows with some nonsense magic formulas to use to find competition and other nonsense, it gives you keywords that tell you next to nothing other then where to start (and thata's where all the competition starts also!)

                    once you start buying traffic is when you see real data, what do people do when they get to your site, what ad text do they prefer to click on, split/test what urls do they prefer (test different destination urls if you've got a few extra bucks), do some different things on your landing page to gauge interest, what do they click on AFTER searching for the keyword, etc. this data is way more useful than finding out people search for "catering" a bunch, well no duh

                    adwords is also instant, the other methods require weeks to get some traffic to analyze

                    good luck on your travels
                    Good point here...PPC definitely tells you a lot more about people's buying tendencies and the demand that drives people around the internet.

                    If I understood the initial question, though, this is someone new to online marketing who wanted to do first step market analysis. I don't think you have to pay Google for that privilege.

                    Best of luck!
                    Bill
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                    • Profile picture of the author perryny
                      Originally Posted by Bill Guthrie View Post

                      If I understood the initial question, though, this is someone new to online marketing who wanted to do first step market analysis.
                      You're exactly right, Bill. However, the info being provided in this thread is most certainly going to be helpful to me.

                      Thanks everyone!
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                      • Profile picture of the author perryny
                        Got your PM, Bill. I can't PM you back until I get 15 posts (one more to go. Woohoo.)

                        Thank you so much for that info. Sounds to be exactly what I need to get going. I'm on my way to check it out right now. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

                        Thanks again,
                        -Rob
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                        • Profile picture of the author perryny
                          Bill,

                          I just spent the most productive hour of the week so far listening to your interview with Mark Ling.

                          You've really pointed me in the right direction.

                          Thanks so much,
                          -Rob
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                          • Profile picture of the author Bill Guthrie
                            Originally Posted by perryny View Post

                            Bill,

                            I just spent the most productive hour of the week so far listening to your interview with Mark Ling.

                            You've really pointed me in the right direction.

                            Thanks so much,
                            -Rob
                            Glad I could help, Rob! Set aside some time to go over the other interviews and keep an eye on your inbox for more interviews...I post them as soon as I can after the call.

                            All best,
                            Bill
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                • Profile picture of the author jasonl70
                  Originally Posted by perryny View Post

                  I didn't mean to sound unappreciative. Sorry if I came accross as such. It's just that in your original response, the suggestions you made "design something free, or an info page, or small and for a small fee, or some guide or something, then buy adwords traffic to it, get some real visitors and see what they like, don't like etc", will take me longer than I'd like to get the basic answer I'm looking for. I only first heard the term "Internet Marketing" about a week ago. I've got lots to learn.

                  I'll try using the Google Keyword Tool + Quantcast and see if I can figure this out.

                  Thanks for your help.
                  -Robert
                  what he recommended is about the best and quickest way to do this.

                  A KW tool will only point you in the general direction - it won't tell you what kw's actually convert, etc. Take those kw's, and start running some ppc on them. Put together a free report, and see which kw's drove the most downloads (which will also build you a list of prospects). Or offer the free report for those who take a small survey.

                  If you can't sell them a free report, then you certainly will have problems selling them something that costs money. The sooner you can scratch the kw's that don't convert off of your kw list, the better.

                  The kw's that remain will be the ones you want to concetnrate on. And my own experience says this still isn't the end - when you start trying to sell something to them, you will find more kw's that may be willing to opt-in for a freebie, but whom will not buy. Scratch those off your kw list. Now take what's left and either use them for ppc or seo.
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                  -Jason

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  • Profile picture of the author digitalproductreporter
    try this article from 2004, it gives thee idea pretty well
    Google AdWords as a Research Tool and Focus Group - ClickZ - Print Article
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  • Profile picture of the author Micheal Perkins
    First go to the Google Keyword Tool. Type in a keyword that people in your target niche would use to find your kind of information. It will return a good list telling you how many searches were done on Google in the most recent month they have results for, and also the average monthly searches over the past 12 months.

    This will give you a good idea of how many people are searching for your kind of information every month.

    You will also find keywords you had not thought of.

    Hope that helps.

    Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author JMLebeau
    The google keyword tool + quantcast should definitely do the job. If you can find an URL scraper or use a free trial with Keyword Spy, you should be able to identify if the market is good or not and who are your main competitors.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bill Guthrie
      Hi Perry,

      I would start with the Google External Keyword tool. Plug in your broad idea...to use your example, "catering." See what's happening in there. If it's about starting a catering business, then plug that in and see what Google tells you.

      Also here, if there are competitors' site, which you said you hadn't found any...anyway, if there were, also plug their URL into the tool and have it spit out the keywords associated with that site.

      Another nice resource is http://kwbrowse.com. Again plug in your main idea. This tool begins to make connections for you...how catering relates to food and restaurants and parties...and catering equipment...you get the idea.

      Another idea--again using the Google keyword tool--is going to a mega directory site like dmoz.org or dir.yahoo.com, finding the category that your business falls under, identifying a site and running that URL through the Google tool.

      If after all that you're not finding adequate competitive sites...run, don't walk, away from this thing. If there's no competition it's not because the market is waiting for you.

      Best of luck!
      Bill
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