The 'Survival' niche

My son certainly got interested in that. He wants to purchase all survival books on the subject. More like military/gear type of stuff, not end-of-the-world panic though.

Gleb

Pop up a squidoo lens and give it a test. You just never know. I found my niche purely by accident.

2012 is a good angle for this niche as well.

Love,
Shannon

Yes, this will always have its highs and lows for traffic. It definitly is a safe audience to target in my opinion with the way the world is shifting continually. Great idea, let us know how things start to pan out for you.

yeah, but i would think that customers in the survival niche are probably the same kind of people that have po boxes because they dont want people knowing where they live

*cough*UnaBomber*cough*

Here's a related piece of weirdness. I sell amazon products on a few of my sites, and since the financial crisis hit, I've been making sales wherein the customers who purchased also bought books on survival, SAS wilderness training, e.t.c...

First time it happened I was just thinking it may have been some Unibomber type had gotten his hands on a credit card. However, that has been a pretty consistent trend since about November of last year. I've even had people not buy my advertised products but purchased survival training manuals through my links. My niche' is nowhere near related to survival training.

I think since January I've noticed it over a dozen times. You may have something there.

Things that make you go hmmm...

Michael,

Best way to get a feel for this niche right now is to pick up a book called, "Patriots - A Novel of Survival In The Coming Collapse" by John Wesley Rawles. It's about $15 I think.

It's a powerful how-to guide written in fictional narrative. Very accurate. Inside, you will find almost every survival topic, sub-niche, LSI keyword, etc. that you can think of.

-Jeff

My buddy Neil Strauss just release a book about Survival called "Emergency"... Amazon.com: Emergency: This Book Will Save Your...

Back in late 1999 we sold "Amazing Y2K Dynamo Flashlights" on eBay like you wouldn't believe and I'll tell you, the people who bought them were the best customers ever. Almost all of them paid with cash by mail and all of them paid within a matter of days. It was the only item we ever sold where we didn't end up having to hunt down the bidders. We shipped hundreds of those things a week, sometimes hundreds a day. It was awesome.

Michael,

You should have a look at an e-book called "Surviving Terrorism", which I believe did extremely well when terrorists were hiding under everyones bed for a few years after 9/11. The site is long gone, but you can still see it on the Wayback Machine at:

Surviving Terrorism: Is Your Family Prepared to Survive the Next Attack?

It might spark a few ideas.

Tommy.

I am very involved in this niche. I can tell you that the people that are interested in survival are also not so easily separated from their money... mostly very conservative people who are super frugal... in fact, one of the biggest survival forums run by a survivalist himself is called frugalsquirrels.com. Another big one is the survival forum on AR15.com, the largest firearms enthusiast site on the web.

Go spend some time on prepping (that's what it's really called) forums and do some real homework in this niche. Additionally, you compete against a lot of free and very cheap information. Backwoods Home magazine, Mother Earth News, etc.. are already very well entrenched publishers. Plus, some of the biggest preppers, Mormons, have their own system and resources in place, and also give away their publications to people.

Not saying that it can't be done, but having a lot of experience in this market, it's not one easy to penetrate from the hardcore, real prepper market.

Now if you're selling survival stuff to suburbia soccer moms, and can scare them into something, that might be a different story. Maybe tie it to one of the silly shows that the real prepper market laughs at (Survivorman or Man vs. Wild).

FYI... I take my toys to these things called machine gun shoots where 3000 guys with fully automatic weapons get together in a big field and blow up minivans all weekend while a couple of nervous ATF agents chain smoke in their van across the road. Knob Creek, etc... This is where wealthy guys who can afford these kinds of toys like to hang out. This is the very real prepper market.

There is a machine gun gathering in Oklahoma every year and one in Nevada I believe.

Semi related, look up "I like guns steve lee" on youtube. Lots of guns going viral.

Cool... I foiund something I can comment on authoritatively here on WF LOL

I am not a "prepper" or a "survivalist", but when I was younger I received some quite extensive combat survival training courtesy of the RAAF which led to some civilian world wilderness survival instructing on my part.

I have studied up on these issues and played in their online communities for probably a decade.

Your so-called "Survival" niche is not one niche but several. Some of these niches overlap, but regardless, I'll lay em out for you in no particular order... Note I am not passing judgement on any of these groups, just calling it how I see it.

1. Libertarians. These are folks who may or not be related to niche #2 below, but their main goal in life is to live their lives as free of government interference as possible. They are interested in gold as an investment in lieu of fiat currency. They are interested in local bartering systems to avoid taxes. They are interested in information on tax havens. They are interested in firearms for self-defence and "food harvesting". They are interested in off-grid power to break their reliance upon the "system". They are interested in growing their own fruits and vegetables and raising their own livestock for the same reason. They are interested in privacy software because they will not tolerate being tracked by government or corporate interests. They believe in being able to do business without having to give a cut to a bloated, too-complex governing body and seeing it squandered. They do not generally agree with social security or government healthcare. They are the epitome of "capitalism" and see most the current US Obama Administration as a slippery slope to full-blown socialism. These guys are John Galt from the book "Atlas Shrugged".

2. Conspiracy theorist survivalists. These are the ones who you think of when you hear the word ""Survivalist". In my experience some of them have a good point when they speak of the various government conspiracies. On the whole they have deep pockets and short arms. Every major purchase is considered and evaluated against current and future needs. These guys may have a stockpile of weapons for self-defence and hunting and maybe 10 years worth of ammunition. They do not trust authority at all and feel that the established order (NWO, Illuminati, TPTB) is out to enslave all of us and maybe kill us off. They are interested in combat skills, wilderness survival, weapons, self-sufficiency and protection from nuclear, biological or chemical attacks or accidents. These guys are Burt Gummer from "Tremors", or Todd Gray from the novel "Patriots: Surviving the coming collapse".

3. Preppers. These are folks who strive to be prepared for a crisis whether it be a nuclear war or a local ice storm or flooding. It is the largest niche in "survival" arena. These guys basically take a leaf out of the book of the Latter Day Saints (Jehova's Witness) and try to have maybe a year's worth of supplies on hand. They are interested in bulk storage of grain, freeze dried foods, oxy absorbers, mylar bags, barter goods such as junk jewellery (because most know that a bar of gold bullion will just get you killed if TSHTF) and pre-1966 coins (due to the high silver content). They are prepared for a short term (one year or less) disruption to the global supply chain and financial system. They will also most likely have "bug out bags" designed to get them home to their stockpile if they are at work or visiting relatives when the crisis hits. They look at 9/11 and Katrina as examples of disruptions which may impact them and their families and they plan accordingly. Google "LDS food storage" and "economic crisis in Argentina" for an insight into this niche.

4. "Primitive" survivalists. These guys are disciples of Ray Mears, Bear Grylls, Les Hiddens, and Survivor Man. They are interested in procuring food, shelter and water in the wilderness with minimal equipment, maybe just a knife, a canteen and a tarp. IMHO these guys will be the most difficult to market to unless you have obscure indigenous survival knowledge. Search youtube for "Primitive Survival" for an insight.

5. Greenies. These guys are eco-warriors, if only in spirit, who would love nothing more than reducing their footprint on Mother Earth. They are into renewable energy such as alternative fuels for vehicles (biodiesel, ethanol, etc.) as well as solar and wind power for household electricity. They are interested in homesteading, permaculture and may or may not agree with raising animals for food. They are mostly community-minded and may purchase produce from farmer's markets or co-ops. This niche is becoming more and more fashionable as folks try to get away from genetically modified foods and they usually adhere to the "global warming" kool-aid. This niche was especially active during the period of stupidly high gasoline prices a few years back. Economic crises also bring them out of the wood work. For an insight into this niche, run a youtube search on the following terms "permaculture cuba", "earthship" and "biodiesel".

So there you have it. As I said before, there is some overlap between these niches, but you probably can't lump them all together and expect to do well because the basic philosophies behind them are so different. In my opinion, the "Preppers" and "Greenies" niches will be the most fertile ground.

I've given you guys enough keywords and research terms to get started on checking out each of the niches.