This is my Biggest Roadblock!!

Hello elmo,

first of all i really suggest to select one which you will like to make a product. internet is huge and you can select what ever niche you want. there is not only one golden path.....

But try to focus on big niches like dating,weight loss, fitness , internet marketing in these huge niches selecet the one you like... so enjoy while you are making your product.

Also dont forget to have a look trends... search for new trends. if a topic is going to be famous soon you will get some more chance to succeed...

Take care

I started blogging about one of my hobbies and it did well.

What do you enjoy?

Airplane swag and photoshop?

I'd start off like this.. pull out a notepad and jot down as many of your hobbies as you can. Stuff YOU REALLY ENJOY DOING. Riding your bike, swimming, going on vacation.. whatever it is that you like. Then take a look at those activities and do some thinking about how you could create a site and monetize it around those hobbies that you currently have.

That's what I did and how I was recommended to get started.. from there things expand.

Niche selection is actually fairly easy. It should be something you are extremely interested in.

There are different 'Tiers' of niches...

Very broadly, you might be able to say they range from desperate down to just interested.

Eg

Desperate - people with problems they are desperate to solve and need information to solve it - make money, lose weight, relationships/dating,etc...

Passionate - people with keen interests they would like to learn more about - dog training, playing golf, cycling, alternative energy, electronics, etc... (but some of the people who are interested in these topics are just that - interested, without any particular passion for the topic and others actually know a lot about the topic so they'll expect you to be very knowledgeable as well!).

If you're not mad keen on a particular niche yourself or have any particular insight, I'd focus on the desperate niches.

To work out some narrower niches, I'd be doing some keyword research to see what kind of information a lot of people are looking for.

Eg

Lose weight
lose weight dieting
lose weight from exercise
lose weight for women/men/kids/teens
lose weight for wedding/prom/summer

Good luck!

Hey Elmo,

I do more or less agree with all said above, I use some of these approaches, so I won't repeat it.

However there is a way to find a good niche, or rather steal it, so to say, by doing research on sites like CB, CJ, etc.
To put simple, it's reverse engineering.
As you probably know, when product has good gravity it means, people are promoting it, which means, there's money.
If you find something you think fits you, do a thorough research of that product and its components, think what you can do better, either in terms of creating better product or doing a better marketing.
Before I started creating my own products from the scratch, I've used this approach, and it's paid off.
So just use your head, guts, and make a ton of money!

See ya,

Veo

You're making it WAY harder than it actually is. There's no magic formula or resource guide. Pick something you know and enjoy. I can't tell you how many threads I've seen here where people have selected a product or service to market and then find it nearly impossible to get busy doing it every day because it bores the crap out of them.

Since you're going to be intimate with this niche while you develop your business it makes sense to pick something you enjoy.

I started out years ago selling a stop smoking guide. I picked it because I know there's excellent money there. And I started doing well. But it wasn't long before I dreaded sitting down to do my marketing.

I don't smoke. I don't like being around cigarette smoke. I don't understand why people choose to do something so harmful to their health. People pay a lot for cigarettes that are slowly (or quickly) killing them. In other words, I found that market made me frustrated. I eventually went on to something I liked and never looked back. If you really need a guide to help you with ideas get a big city Yellow Pages. Good luck.

I don't imagine it would be too hard to find a college student in need of a little spending money that would let you use their credentials to access the SRDS.

after selecting your niche, choose you domain name that is related to your niche as well. then work on your content and traffic. if you gain reasonable amount of visitors, you might want to monetize your site by then

Here's a little story for you...

I dabbled in IM for ages... nothing really worked for me, so I just gave up. Pretty much any "niche" I found that could have been profitable, "bored me" out of business...

So I gave up IM a long time ago, found new hobbies, found youtube, started making gaming videos (gaming has been my passion since forever) and guess what? I'm now making money, and I haven't put half the effort or spent a tenth of the money that I have spent years ago...

So my advice, based on personal experience, is to start with your hobbies and passions: list them all and try to find one that is profitable (keyword research etc) among those. This way you'll have more fun working and it's more likely you won't burn out as easily as doing something that could be wildly more profitable (on paper) but that will be so boring and uninteresting you'll give up after only a little fail.

If you do something you enjoy you'll keep on going despite a few fails (that are bound to happen) just because you're... having fun doing something you like!

Around 1998, when I started getting interested in internet marketing, I read this advice. More than once. From very reliable sources (Jay Abraham for one). And god knows why -or the Devil more likely- I've always ignored it trying to follow "the money".

I ignored it for over ten years of investing time, money and efforts... and boy was that a silly thing to do!! lol...

Hopefuly you'll find a profitable niche in your hobbies. If none of your passions and hobbies look to be anywhere near profitable (too much competition, not enough searches, etc) well it sucks to be you and you'll have to go the classic way of researching a lot and getting bored working a ton only to make not so much money on either a really weird niche no one has touched yet or with the classic competition-rich usual niches :-P

ciao!

Ps. I made that last part a little darker than it needs to be, it won't necessarily be that bad - if you have enough grit and endurance you really can make it online, and the more you learn (DOING stuff, not reading about it!) the easier it gets :-)

Pps. also, stop procrastinating :-P

For me personally I went into a Niche that I Love and one that I know about and could teach my methods and strategies to other people... That should be your number 1 priority when selecting a niche to break into...

Also another part to your number 1 priority is to make sure the niche that you go into is profitable and that there are other people promoting products in your niche...

Now alot of GURU's will tell you if a Niche has alot of competition to stay away.. I Call BS on that as Competition is a Great thing because you know that the niche your delving into is a profitable niche, You just got to work smart to out do the competitors...

Clickbank is a good place to go to see what NICHE'S they have you can go to the marketplace on CB and just scroll down and you'll see what niches are there and you can go a little further and go into those Niche's to see what types of products are being sold and If there is no products or very little products to be sold then I suggest to stay away unless you know without a shadow of a doubt you can make it profitable...

Hope this helps

Niche selection doesn't need to be that complex.

Following a passion or interest is a great starting point. You need two things for your niche to provide you with real opportunity. You need the market to be passionate and you need the market to be one that spends money.

You want to find out if the market can support you? Go start your research. Who else is in that market on Google? Who is ranking 1-5, and how have they monetized their sites? Who is spending money on Google ads, and how are they monetizing? What related books and products are being sold on Amazon, and what sort of volume of reviews do those books or products have?

That sort of thing will give you a starting point... HTH

Hi ELMO, some GREAT advice in here for you.

Adding to all that ...

Massive markets (weight loss, dating etc) are typically hard to get noticed because there IS so much competition. You can burn cash on advertising (PPC etc) like there is no tomorrow so be careful ... so it can be hard to get people to see your offer.

IMHO far better to produce a 'better than what's out there' product on a sub-niche. Weight-loss for [sub-topic]. So, weight-loss for truck-drivers. Now you can target you market better for less cost. The market is still HUGE and they will still PAY.

Hope this helps and good luck!

I second Dmeirx on focussing on the big niches like health. This, for example is a $600+bn per year industry globally of which $200+bn per year comes from the US alone. Focussing on something obscure like "How to build a patio vivarium" would get you ranked #1 in Google, sure, but wouldn't be half as profitable as "Natural tinnitus remedies"

Travlin, Dee & Robbie,

Thanks so much for those brilliant insights on this important part of my marketing for the niche I want to pursue. I just want to make sure that I don't spend a ton of time chasing a niche that won't pay. The thing that I have noticed in Internet marketing is that people tend to make it sound easier than it really is and at the same time a person could also spend too much time trying to figure things out that they never get started.

Anyway, thanks so much for your awesome advice on this, I really appreciate it.

God Bless!
ELMO