This page is about one thing: How to Pick a Niche. If after checking out everything on this page and you still don’t have any idea what you can do, then to be honest, creating content isn’t for you.
After reading this entire report, not only should you be able to pick a niche or two, you’ll be a niche-picking expert. Just bookmark/favorite this page and come back whenever you, a friend, or a client needs help picking a niche. You don’t need to memorize everything on this page to be a niche superstar, you just need to be able to quickly and easily come back here whenever you need to do some research.
A niche doesn’t always have to be for an entire site. This page will help you come up with fantastic, useful and interesting ideas for reports, articles and blog posts too.
What is a niche?
There’s a variety of different definitions about what’s a niche and what isn’t. Recently I came across a discussion that said weight loss isn’t a niche, but rather an industry. However, I believe a valid argument could be made that weight loss is a sub-niche of the much larger health industry.
A rose is a rose, and it really doesn’t matter what we call something. For Internet marketing purposes, I’ll say a niche is a product or service or a group of closely related products and services, along with the keywords associated with them. Yes, I do consider keywords to be “niches” to a large degree when talking about online niches.
If you’re just starting out and trying to decide on a niche, here’s some quick advice. Your first attempt at creating a website should be about something you like instead of your best idea. Chances are, you’ll make mistakes and mess up a few things. Consider your first try as educational and practice. You will surely come up with more ideas as time passes, and as you gain more experience, those ideas may well be better than your first.
You’ll use the ideas, concepts and techniques below to come up with idea after idea for creating your own products and ebooks, free reports to use as bait to build your email lists, niche websites and blogs, Youtube videos and channels, plus more.
Considerations for Picking a Niche
I’ll go into some of these concepts more below…but when deciding on a niche, use a combination of some or all of these factors:
Your own experience and knowledge – What do you know about a niche or topic? You don’t have to know anything to start, but you’ll probably need to do more research.
Does it solve a problem – Some marketers suggest picking a topic about a problem people are desperate to solve, like snoring, acne or warts. Solving problems is very good advice, but these are not the only profitable niches. People also spend a lot of money, probably even more money on things they want instead of what they need.
Interests and passions – It helps if you really like the topic. But what’s really important is if OTHERS are interested in the topic and have a passion for it. An example is collectibles. If someone has a collection they are pretty much addicted to buying more things to add to their collection.
Popularity of the niche – Are they enough people interested in the niche or topic to make it profitable? You can’t scale a niche down too much or there won’t be enough people interested for you to make money.
Competition – Some niches are highly competitive and will take a lot of experience and hard work to see positive results. But don’t necessarily let competition scare you away. Competition is a good indicator that the niche is profitable. For example, take the topic of weight loss. As a newbie, promoting a weight loss product will probably be hard due to the competition. However, if you narrow the niche to something like “weight loss for woman over 50”, you’ll have a much better chance to get results. But you can’t narrow the niche down too much or there won’t be enough people interested. For example, “weight loss for women over 50 with one leg that ride bikes” is probably a little too narrow of a niche.
Revenue Streams – Can you make money from the niche? Specifically, what affiliate products are there? Is Google Adwords a possibility? Do actual research into possible revenue streams before taking serious action creating a site about a certain niche.
Available Media (images, videos, content ideas, etc.) – Many experts don’t mention this part. When you build a niche site or create Youtube videos, you’ll need content and media. What images, Youtube videos are available to embed on your own pages and ideas for writing content are available? You need to be away of the legalities of using images. For example, you can’t use images from Amazon in your Youtube videos, as it will either get your Youtube account red-flagged for copyright violations, or out and out banned. Not all images on Amazon are owned by Amazon, many are owned by the product seller. However, you can use Amazon images on your web pages according to Amazon’s TOS.
Tip: Use general clipart images of products instead of specific product photographs to avoid copyright issues. For example, you don’t need to use a photo of an iPhone, just use a clipart image of a cellphone, unless you’ve taken the photograph yourself.
How To Write an Honest Review About Something You’ve Never Bought?
First, let’s talk about writing reviews of products you don’t own and haven’t purchased. How do you maintain your integrity and trust with your readers? You use what I call “The Honest Review”. Simply tell your audience the truth that you haven’t actually purchased the product yourself, but if you were going to buy one, it would be this one (or one of these). Think of yourself as a shopper and which product would you pull the trigger and buy?
Then tell your audience why you chose the one(s) you did. Warranty? Brand name? Looks? Size…is it big or small? Capacity? Light weight? Heavy duty? Price? Features? Reviews?
Tell them what they can do with the features. This is selling the sizzle not the steak, like the sales copywriting pros always preach. What does a 2A cellphone charger DO for someone? Tell them it chargers their battery twice as fast as a 1A charger does. Who’s got time to waste charging their phone?
Be honest, open and upfront. Tell people you didn’t actually will add credibility and trust and you will probably make more sales. People can tell phony “reviews” anyway, there’s no need to BS them. Your research and honest comments add value for potential customers by giving the some things to think about and, at the very least, a starting point in their own research.
Brainstorming: Ideas, Tips and Strategies for Finding Niches
As posted above, problems and issues that people have are good explore when searching for a niche. Here’s some suggestions to get you going:
List Of Legal Problems
List Of Financial Problems
List Of Relationship Problems
List Of Health Problems
List Of Problems
List Of Life Problems
List Of Aging Problems
List Of Pet Issues
List Of Travel Problems
Just Google any of the suggestions above to gather info about potential niches, and make up your own similar search queries.
Special Occasions
Special occasions and events can be very good niches, especially for those occasions where gift giving is associated with the event. Think of ways you can narrow down some of the occasions.
I like birthdays because everyone has one and every day of the year someone has one. I’m sure there’s plenty of sites about “Birthday present ideas”. How about birthday niche sites along the lines of:
Birthday present ideas for men over 50
Birthday present ideas for toddlers
Birthday present ideas for mom
Birthday present ideas for teenagers
Birthday present ideas for music lovers
Birthday present ideas based on zodiac sign with a page dedicated to “Birthday present ideas for leos”, etc.
Each of these can be a niche of their own…or create a site dedicated to great birthday presents and use the suggestions above as sub-niches for different pages on your site. I’m sure you can come up with a few more on your own. You can also use them for another occasion like Christmas.
Here’s a couple of resources for lots more special occasions:
You know how every day it’s some kind of special day like “National Hotdog Day” or something? You can build niche sites around these. Granted, they only occur for a day/week/month each year, but often the press will get a hold of them and give them all sorts of free publicity, which sends demand through the roof.
Wild and Wacky Holiday Marketing Guide – This book has a number of “wacky holidays” you can build niches around. I bought an older version for $2.99 from Kindle.
Also see these sites that list “Today is”:
Hobbies, Collectibles and Activity Niche Ideas
Below is a big list hobbies and collectibles. I’m sure I missed quit a few and while scanning the list you’ll probably come up with some more of your own.
Many of them can be narrowed down even further. For example, “aerobics” could be broken down into sub-niches like aerobic clothing, aerobic equipment, music for aerobics, etc. Auto repair can be broken down in for each make and model, sports cars, trucks, etc.
3D Printing A Paper Fantasy Game Acrobatics Acroyoga Acting Action Figures Aerobics Aeromodeling African Djembe Aikido Air Sports Airbrushing Aircraft Spotting Airplane Combat Airplane Models Airsoft Airsofting Album Collecting All Materials, Unless Amateur And Ham Radio Amateur Astronomy Amateur Geology Amateur Radio Amateur Theater American Football American Revolution Memorabilia Animal Breeding Animal Related Animal Tracking Animals/Pets/Dogs Animation Antique Cars Antiques Antiques Collecting Antiquing Antiquities – Artifacts Aquarium Aquarium (Freshwater & Saltwater) Aquascaping Arcade Games Archaeology Archery Architecture Armor And Weapons Aromatherapy Arrow Heads Art And Drawing Art Collecting Arts Arts & Crafts Arts And Crafts Artwork Assassin’s Creed Association Football Astral Projection Astrology Astronomy Astronomy And Telescopes Astrophotography Audiophile Audiophilia Australian Rules Football Auto Audiophilia Auto Racing Auto Repair Autograph Collecting Automobile Restoration Backgammon Backpacking Backpacking Travel Badge Collecting Badminton Baking Ball And Jacks Ballet Ballet Dancing Balloon Art Banjo Bar Bets Barbecue And Grilling Bartending Base Jumping Baseball Baseball/Softball Basketball Bass Guitar Baton Twirling Batting Cage Beach Combing Beach Volleyball Beachcombing Beadwork Beadwork And Beading Beat Box Beatboxing Beekeeping Beer Brewing Beer Can Collecting Beer Tasting Bell Ringing Belly Dancing Bicycle Polo Bicycling Billiards / Pool Bird Watching Birding Blacksmithing Blogging Blues BMX Board Games Board Sports Boating Boating Bottle Top Collecting Body Art And Tattoos Body Building Bodybuilding Bongos Bonsai Bonsai Tree Book Collecting Book Making Book Restoration Bookbinding Books Boomerangs Bottle Cap Collecting Bottle Collecting Bottle Cutting Bottles Bouldering Bowling Boxing Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Break Dancing Brewing Beer Bridge Bridge Building Building A House For Habitat For Humanity Building Circuits Building Dollhouses Bull Riding Bungee Jumping Bus Spotting Business Card Business Cards Butterflies/Insects Butterfly Collecting Butterfly Collecting And Watching Butterfly Watching Button Collecting Cabaret Cake Decorating Cake Make And Decorating Calendar Collecting Calendars Calligraphy Camera Collecting Cameras Camping Can Collecting Candle Making Candles Canoeing Capoeira Car Collecting Car Racing Caravanning Card Collecting Card Games Card Tricks Cardboard Shield Cardio Workout Cartooning Casino Gambling Cast Miniatures Casting Animal Paw Prints Cats Cave Diving Caving CB Radio Ceramics Check Out Cheer Leading Cheese Tasting Chess Church/Church Activities Cigar Rolling Cigar Smoking Civil War Memorabilia Classic Video Games Classical Guitar Classical Music Cliff Diving Climbing Clock Collecting Clocks Cloud Watching Coaster Collecting Coasters Coffee Roasting Coin Collecting Coins Collecting Collecting Antiques Collecting Artwork Collecting Hats Collecting Music Albums Collecting Rpm Records Collecting Sports Cards Collecting Swords Color Guard Coloring Comic Book Collecting Comic Books Competitive Eating Compose Music Composing Music Computer Activities Computer Programming Computers Concert Posters Confectionary |
Conga Cooking Cosplay Cosplaying Couponing Crafts Creative Writing Cricket Crochet Croquet Cross-stitch Crossword Puzzles Cryptography Crystal Collecting Crystals And Rocks Curling Currency Cycling Dance Dancing Darkroom Darts Debate Decoupage Dice Games Die-cast Toys Digital Art Digital Arts Digital Photography Dioramas Dioramas And Miniatures Disc Golf Diving DJ Dodge Ball Dog Breeding Dog Shows Dog Sports Dog Training Dog Walking Doily Making Doll Collecting Doll Making Dolls Dominoes Dowsing Dragon Slayer Dragons Drama Drawing Driving Drum Set Dumpster Diving Eating Out Ebay Educational Courses Electronics Element Collecting Embroidery Enamels Engraving Entertaining Equestrianism Exercise Exhibition Drill Falconry Fantasy Art Fantasy Diorama Fantasy Swords Fashion Fashion Design Fast Cars Felting Fencing Ferrets Field Hockey Field Hockey Figure Skating Film Making Fine Art Collecting Finger Painting Fire Poi Fishing Fishkeeping Flag Football Floorball Floral Arrangements Floral Arranging Floristry Flower Arranging Flower Gardening Flower Pressing Fly Fishing Fly Tying Flying Flying Classes Flying Disc Food & Drink Food Gardening Food Related Hobbies Foosball Foot Bag Football For Customer Support Foraging Foreign Language Learning Fossil Collecting Fossil Hunting Fountain Pens Four Wheeling Freebie Collecting Freelance Writing Freshwater Aquariums Frisbee Golf Gambling Game Of Thrones Games Gaming Garage Sales Gardening Gem Hunting Genealogy Geocaching Ghost Hunting Glass Blowing Glow Sticking Gnoming Go Kart Racing Go Karts Gold Panning Golf Golfing Gongoozling Graffiti Greeting Card Collecting Grilling Grip Strength Guitar Guitars Gun And Pistols Gun Collecting Gun Smithing Gymnastics Gyotaku Gyotaku Hunting Hair Braiding Hairstyling Ham Radio Handball Handwriting Handwriting Analysis Hang Gliding Harmonica Harmonicas Hat Collecting Herping Hiking/Backpacking Historical Reenactments Home Automation Home Brewing Home Brewing Wine Beer Home Canning Jarring Home Repair Home Theater Home Brewing Mead Hookah Smoking Hooping Horseback Riding Hot Air Ballooning Hot Wheel And Matchbox Cars Hothouse Gardening House Plants How To Make A ______ Hula Hooping Hummer Collecting Pummels Hunting Hydroponics Ice Fishing Ice Hockey Ice Sculptures Ice Skating Illusions Impersonations Inline Skating Insect Collecting Insects Inventions Investing Jazz Jet Engines Jet Ski Jewelry Make Jigsaw Puzzles Jiu Jitsu Jogging Journaling Judo Juggling Jukskei Jump Rope Jump Roping Kabaddi Kabaddi Motor Sports Karaoke Karate Kart Racing Kayak And Canoe Kayaking Keep A Journal Key Chain Collecting Kitchen Chemistry Kite And Rocket Aerial Photography Kite Boarding Kite Flying Kite Make Kite Surfing Kites Knapping Knife Make Knife Throwing Knitting Knives Collecting Knot Tying Knotting Kombucha Brewing Krav Maga |
Kung Fu Lace Making Lacrosse Languages Lapidary Lapidary Mountaineering Larping Laser Tag Lasers Lathe Lawn Darts Learn An Instrument Learning A Foreign Language Learning An Instrument Learning To Pilot A Plane Leather Crafting Leather Crafting (Make A Knife Sheath Here) Leather Crafting Lego Building Legos Letterboxing Line Dancing Liquor Distillation Listening To Music Locksmith Locksport Lomography Loom Bands Lord Of The Rings Lucid Dreaming Machining Macramé Magic Magic And Sleight Of Hand Magic Tricks Mah Jong Make A Box Kite Make A Cardboard Sword Make A Catapult Make A Marionette Make A Paper Castle Make A Ship In A Bottle Make A Terrarium Make A Trebuchet Make A Video Game Make A Volcano Make Dioramas Make Dollhouses Make Military Dioramas Make Model Cars Make Models Make Musical Instruments Make Paper Make Telescopes Make Things Make Video Games Make Walking Sticks Manga Map Making Marbles Marching Band Marksmanship Martial Arts Mashups Massage Matchbox Collecting Matchboxes Matchstick Matchstick Modeling Medieval Castles Medieval Swords Medieval Weapons Meditation Memorabilia Memorabilia Collecting Metal Detecting Metalworking Meteorology Microscopy Microscopy Croquet Mineral Collecting Miniature Figures Miniature Figurine Collecting Miniatures Miniatures Casting MMA Mixed Martial Arts Model Aircraft Model Airplanes Model Boats Model Building Model Cars Model Diecast Cars Model Figures Model Kits Model Railroads Model Rocketry Model Ships Model Train Collecting Model Trains Modeling Modern Dance Moonshine Motocross Motor Sports Motorcycle Stunts Motorcycle Touring Motorcycles Mountain Biking Mountain Climbing Mountaineering Movie Memorabilia Movies Mushroom Hunting Music Music Memorabilia Musical Instruments Musicals Mycology Nail Art Nature Photography Nature Projects Nature Walks Needlepoint Netball Neuro Linguistic Programming Nordic Skating Novel Writing Off Road Driving Opera Orchid Raising Organic Gardening Orienteering Origami Paintball Painting Painting And Drawing Palm Reading Planetariums Paper Airplanes Paper Castles Paper Crafts Paper Dioramas Paper Games Paper Mache Paper Models Paper Projects Parachuting Paragliding Parkour Parrots Pawning Pen Collecting People Watching Performing Arts Pets Photography Piano Pigeon Racing Pilates Pinball Pinball Machines Ping Pong Pinochle Pipe Smoking Piñatas Planking Play Writing Playing Musical Instruments Poetry Poetry Reading Pogo Stick Poi Poker Pole Dancing Polo Polystyrene Carving Portraiture Photos Post Card Collecting Poster Collecting Posters Pottery Powerboking Prepping Private Investigating Protesting Psychic Puppet Theater Puppetry Puzzles Pyrotechnics Quilling Quilting R/C Airplanes R/C Boats R/C Cars R/C Helicopters R/C Planes Rabbits Racquetball Radio-controlled Car Racing Rafting/Canoeing Rag Doll Make Railfans Rain Forest Diorama Rappelling Rapping RC Boats RC Cars RC Helicopters RC Planes Reading Reading To The Elderly Record Collecting Reenactments Reflexology Register Reiki Relaxing Renaissance Fair Reptiles Rescuing Abused Or Abandoned Animals |
Restoration Restoring Antiques Rhyming River Rafting Robotics Rock Balancing Rock Climbing Rock Collecting Rocket Launcher Rockets Rocking Aids Rocks And Minerals Rodents Role Playing Roller Derby Roller Skating Rowing Rubik’s Cube Rugby Rugby League Football Running Russian Doll Collecting RV Traveling Sailing Sake Tasting Salsa Saltwater Aquariums Sand Art Sand Castles Sand Boarding Scale Model Building Scale Model Collecting Scale Models Science Projects Scouting Scrabble Scrapbooking Screenwriting Scuba Diving Sculling – Rowing Sculpting Sculpting Miniatures Sculpture Sea Glass Collecting Seashell Collecting Self Defense Sewing Sexing Shadow Boxing Shark Diving Shark Fishing Shed Renovation Shoe Polishing Shoebox Diorama Shooting Shooting Sport Shooting Sports Shopping Shortwave Listening Siege Engine Sign Language Silk Screen Singing Singing In Choir Skateboarding Skeet Shooting Sketching Skiing Skimboarding Sky Diving Skyrim Projects Slack Lining Slacklining Slingshots Slot Car Racing Snakes Snooker Snorkeling Snow Globe Collecting Snow Globes Snowboarding Snowmobiling Soap Making Soccer Songwriting Speed Reading Speed Skating Speed Walking Spelunking Spelunking Spiritual Spoon Collecting Sports & Outdoors Sports Card Collecting Sports Cards Sports Collectibles Sports For Dogs Sports Trading Cards Square Dancing Squash Stained Glass Stamp Collecting Stamps Stand-up Comedy Star Trek Star Wars Starting a Band Stilts Stone Collecting Stone Skipping Stop Motion Animation Storm Chasing Storytelling String Figures Sudoku Sun Tanning Surf Fishing Surfing Survival Sushi Making Swimming Swing Dancing Sword Collecting Swords Table Football Table Tennis Taekwondo Tai Chi Tango Tarot Tarot Card Reading Tattoo Taxidermy Tea Tasting Telescope Telescope Making Telescopes Tennis Tequila Tasting Terrariums Terry Bears Tesla Coils Tetris Textiles Texting Tie Dye Tole Painting Tombstone Rubbing Tool Collecting Topiary Tour Skating Toy Collecting Toys Train Collecting Trainspotting Travel Treasure Hunting Trekkie Triathlon Tshirt Printing Turtles Tutoring Children TV Watching Ultimate Disc Urban Exploration Vacation Planning Vehicle Restoration Video Game Collecting Video Games Video Gaming Videophilia Vintage Cars Vinyl Records Violin Vivariums Volleyball Volunteer Wakeboarding Walking Walking Sticks Waltz Wargame Terrain Making Warhammer Watch Collecting Watching Sporting Events Water Polo Water Skiing Water Sports Weapons/Armor Projects Weather Forecasting Weather Watching Weaving Web Design Web Referring Web Site Design Weight Training Weightlifting Whale Watching Whiskey – Scotch Tasting Whittling Wicker Weaving Wind Surfing Windsurfing Wine Wine Collecting Wine Making Wine Tasting Wingsuit Flying Wire Jewelry Making With Your Website Witchcraft Wood Carving Wood Working Work In A Food Pantry World Building World Record Breaking Wrestling Writing Writing Lyrics Writing Music Writing Songs Yo-Yo Yoga Ziplining Zumba |
More Collectibles:
Collectibles are great niches because people that collect things spend money, it’s almost a compulsion to spend. Quite a few collectibles were mentioned in the list above, but here’s a couple of more resources you can check out:
Tip: A good info product or giveaway is a guide telling people how they can make money from their hobby. Most of the marketing info will be the same from niche to niche, just do a little customization for each.
Keyword Research Tools to Help Niche Selection and Promotion
Exploit LSI Keywords
LSI keywords are words and phrases Google thinks are related to your “main” keyword phrase. For example, if Google found a web page about “dog training” it may assume that page should also have words and phrases like “leash”, “obedience”, “collar”, “how to potty train a puppy”, etc.
Below are some links to a free tools that generate LSI and related keywords and ideas.
Tip: Take a hobby or collectible from the resources above and enter them into one of the tools below to see what you can find.
- http://www.nichelaboratory.com – Start here. Niche Laboratory doesn’t give you the most LSI related keywords, but it does give you lots and lots of other niche related data including its “Website Competition Matrix”, suggested Amazon products for that niche and more.
- http://lsigraph.com – Just enter a keyword or phrase like “iphone” or “cell phone accessories” and the tool will spit out related suggestions that are often great for niche ideas.
- http://keywordshitter.com – Keyword $h1tter – Sorry about that, but yep, that’s it’s name. Enter a keyword or two and it “shoots” out lots of related keywords for tons of niche ideas.
- http://Ubersuggest.org – Another great tool that will pump out massive amounts of keywords and phrases.
- http://tools.seochat.com/tools/suggest-tool – Scrapes suggested keywords from Google, Bing, YouTube and Amazon.
- SE Journal Find Niche Questions Tool – Tip: Just enter a general one or two word phrase, then click the “Only Questions” filter to come up with content for the questions people are asking. Note that they limit you to just a few searches per day. However, if you sign up for a free membership that will increase your quota to 30 searches per day.
Tip: Use a special filter function in Twitter’s search box to find tweets that ask a question, but don’t have any links:
keywords ? -filter:links
Substitute your own niche keywords for “keywords”. The “?” will mean Twitter will only return tweets with a question mark. The “filter:links” will make Twitter only return tweets that don’t have any links. This is an excellent method to research the questions people have about a subject.
List of Buyer Keywords
Again, in many ways I consider keywords and phrases to be part of an online niche. When deciding on a niche or optimizing your sites and pages for the search engines, strongly consider uses these words and phrases that the person using them is looking to buy something and isn’t simply searching for information.
Achieve Affordable Affordable (Product/Keyword) Alleviate (problem keyword) Auction Avoid (problem keyword) Bargain Bargain (Product/Keyword) Bargain (Product/Keyword) Bargains Benefit Best Best Deal Best Deals Best (Product/Keyword) Best Of (Product/Keyword) Best Price For (Product/Keyword) Best Price (Product/Keyword) Best Reviews Of (Product/Keyword) Best Savings For (Product/Keyword) Best Selling Best (Product/Keyword) Best (Product/Keyword) Big (Product/Keyword) Biggest (Product/Keyword) Bonus Brand Name (Product/Keyword) Brand New (Product/Keyword) Budget Budget (Product/Keyword) Build Buy Buy (Product/Keyword) Buy (Product/Keyword) Online Buy One Get One Free Buy One Get One Half-off Buy Online Buy (Product/Keyword) Buy (Product/Keyword) With Check Buy (Product/Keyword) With Credit Card Buy (Product/Keyword) With PayPal Buying Cash Back For (Product/Keyword) (Product/Keyword) Rebate Cheap Cheap (Product/Keyword) Cheap (Product/Keyword) Online Cheapest Cheapest (Product/Keyword) Cheapest Price For (Product/Keyword) Clearance Clearance (Product/Keyword) Closeout Closeout (Product/Keyword) Code For Compare (Product/Keyword) Compare Prices For (Product/Keyword) Comparison Coupon Coupon Code Coupon Code For (Product/Keyword) Coupon Codes Coupon For (Product/Keyword) Coupons Cure (problem keyword) Deal Deal With (problem keyword) Deals Deals For (Product/Keyword) Dependable Factory Direct Direct Directions for (Product/Keyword) Discontinued (Product/Keyword) Discount Discount Code Discount (Product/Keyword) Discounted (Product/Keyword) Discounts Economical Eliminate (problem keyword) End (problem keyword) Expensive (Product/Keyword) Find A (Product/Keyword) Fix For Children For Couples For Girls For Kids For Men For Newbies |
For Sale For Sale (Product/Keyword) For Seniors For Students For Women Free Shipping Frugal Get A (Product/Keyword) Get Cheap (Product/Keyword) Get Rid Of (problem keyword) Get The Best Price For (Product/Keyword) Get (Product/Keyword) (Online) Gift Gifts for Good Price For (Product/Keyword) Great Buy Guide Half Price Half Priced Heal (problem keyword) Healthy High Price (Product/Keyword) High Priced (Product/Keyword) How How Can How Do How Do I How Do I Get (Product/Keyword) How Do You How To How To Build How To Create How To Cure How To Get Rid Of (problem keyword) How To Make How To Stop (problem keyword) Improve Improving Increase Inexpensive (Product/Keyword) Install Instructions for (Product/Keyword) (Product/Keyword) Best Price (Product/Keyword) Cheap (Product/Keyword) Compare Prices (Product/Keyword) For Sale (Product/Keyword) For Sale Online (Product/Keyword) On Amazon (Product/Keyword) On Line (Product/Keyword) Reviews (Product/Keyword) Sale (Product/Keyword) Under $50 Learn Learning Lease Low Cost Low Cost (Product/Keyword) Low Cost (Product/Keyword) Low Price (Product/Keyword) Low Priced Low Priced (Product/Keyword) Lowest Price For (Product/Keyword) Luxury (Product/Keyword) Model Numbers New (Product/Keyword) Now Offer On Sale Online Coupon Online (Product/Keyword) Online Promo Order Overcome Password Personalized Payment Plan Premium Prevent Price Compare (Product/Keyword) Price Comparisons (Product/Keyword) Program(S) Promo Promo Codes Promotional Code Protect Purchase Fast Shipping Express Shipping Overnight Shipping Shipping Included |
Rebuild Reduced Outlet Reduced Price Reduced (Product/Keyword) Refurbished (Product/Keyword) Relieve Remedy Rent Repair Reasonably Priced Restore Review Reviews Incentive Incentive Program Reviews(S) Sale Sales Sales-priced (Product/Keyword) Save Savings Second Hand (Product/Keyword) Secret Codes Secrets Shipping Software Solution Solve Specific Brand Names and Model Numbers The Cheapest (Product/Keyword) Online The Ultimate Buyer (Product/Keyword) List Tips Top 10 (Product/Keyword) (Year) Top Of The Line (Product/Keyword) Top Selling Training Used Used (Product/Keyword) Value Versus Video Videos What Is The Best Price For (Product/Keyword) Where Can Where Can I Where Can I Buy (Product/Keyword) Where Can I Buy (Product/Keyword) Where Can You Buy (Product/Keyword) Where To Buy Where To Buy (Product/Keyword) Where To Buy (Product/Keyword) (Online) Where To Find (Product/Keyword) (Online) Where To Shop For (Product/Keyword) (Online) Who Sells (Product/Keyword) Who Sells (Product/Keyword) Cheap Who Sells (Product/Keyword) The Cheapest Who Sells The Cheapest (Product/Keyword) On Line Wholesale (Product/Keyword) Bonus (Product/Keyword) Coupon (Product/Keyword) Coupon Code (Product/Keyword) Discount (Product/Keyword) For Cheap (Product/Keyword) In Stock (Product/Keyword) On Sale (Product/Keyword) Overstock (Product/Keyword) Pre-owned (Product/Keyword) Promo (Product/Keyword) Promo Code (Product/Keyword) Review (Product/Keyword) Special Factory Direct Factory Clearance Liquidators Liquidation Lot of (Product/Keyword) Gross of (Product/Keyword) Pallet(s) of (Product/Keyword) Free with purchase Rent Rent to Own |
Exploiting Amazon for Niche Research
A tremendous resource for niche research is Amazon.com.
A good place to start is by simply starting with the magazines listed on Amazon and just clicking and browsing, looking for ideas.
http://www.amazon.com/magazines/b?ie=UTF8&node=599858
In addition to Amazon, here’s three more sites to find magazines:
Magazines.com http://www.magazines.com/
Speedy Mags http://www.speedymags.com/
Zinio http://www.zinio.com/
Browse Amazon “Nodes”
http://www.browsenodes.com/ – This is an excellent tool for browsing Amazon. Instead of using categories, it uses Amazon’s “nodes”. Don’t worry about what a “child” or “node” is, it’s not important for our niche research purposes…just click on stuff to keep drilling down.
Amazon’s Lists of Best Selling Products
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers/zgbs – The directory page for Amazon’s best selling products in a variety of categories.
Special Google search technique to find best selling Amazon products.
This using a special Google search feature called “Range”. What it does is find pages that contain a certain range of numbers. In this case, we want Google to find products on Amazon.com that have a lot of answered questions and/or customer reviews. The thinking is, products that have a lot of questions and a high number of reviews are very likely to have sold very well.
Keywords + “10…10000 answered questions” site:amazon.com
-OR-
Keywords + “10…10000 customer reviews” site:amazon.com
In each of the above, notice the 10…10000. That’s the “range”. We want Google to find pages on Amazon that have at least 10 reviews or 10 answered questions. You can change 10 to anything you want, like 99, to find products with a minimum of 99 reviews or answered questions. You’ll probably need to adjust the first (minimum) number for individual product servers. This is an effective way to find popular products on Amazon, which are probably much easier for you to sell.
Amazon Quick Tips
These are general tips and not laws chiseled in stone…but when researching a potential niche, consider the following factors:
- If you plan on selling products can the product be bought at a local store like Walmart or Home Depot? In general, it’s better to sell things that aren’t easily available in popular retail stores.
- Is it small enough to ship inexpensively? Shipping expenses factor into the over-all cost of a product. Harmonicas are easier and cost less to ship than pianos.
- Does it have any appeal to commercial or industrial buyers who may buy multiple items? For example, one possible niche is something like the sub-niche “bathroom towels” in the bed and bath niche. Another possibility is also “bathroom towels”, but this time target the hotel/motel supplies industry selling towels.A typical home-maker will buy one set of towels, while a hotel purchasing agent could buy hundreds of sets of towels.How about glassware? A person may buy a set of 6 cocktail glasses for their home bar. An owner of a bar may buy 100. Amazon has an entire section dedicated to industrial and scientific supplies.Because of the huge potential, check it out first whenever you’re looking for niches and niche product ideas. Why sell one set of towels when you may be able to sell 100 sets?
http://www.amazon.com/industrial-scientific-supplies/b?ie=UTF8&node=16310091
Travel Destinations and Local Areas Are Niches
If a destination is popular enough, it can have multiple sub-niches. For example, Las Vegas has weddings, conventions, dining, casinos, shopping and more. Also, pretty much any city, state, country or town over 5000 people is a “niche”. Countries, states and large cities will have multiple sub-niches.
Local guides can also be great resources for coming up with niches. Skiing is a niche with plenty of sub-niches like skis, ski resorts for specific locations, even things like ski googles and ski gloves can be considered niches.
Here’s the Google search results for Big List of Travel Destinations.
Check for Possible Niche Ideas, Products and Revenue Streams Using Affiliate Networks
Affiliate networks offer insight into potential niches. Sometimes it may be better to find a product or service, then determine the niche market.
In addition to Amazon, eBay and Adsense, check the following for niche ideas and to make sure you have multiple product possibilities and revenue streams.
- http://Cj.com
- http://Shareasale.com
- http://www.Pepperjamnetwork.com
- http://Offervault.com
- http://Odigger.com
- http://Clickbank.com
- http://JVZoo.com
- http://Alibaba.com – Is the leader for importing products of all kinds. Not only can it give you some ideas for product niches, you can import and sell products.
- http://AliExpress.com – Owned by Alibaba, Aliexpress is a source for affiliate products. Unlike most things on Alibaba, you can buy single items on Aliexpress. A couple of issues with Alliexpress…one is that since most of their products are shipped from overseas, it can take a while for orders to arrive in the US. Also, commissions are often low, but comparable to Amazon’s.
There’s a number of additional affiliate networks I didn’t list above. Plus not every affiliate program is posted in an affiliate directory…do a Google search for “niche keyword + affiliate” to search for independent affiliate programs.
Misc. Tips for Finding Niches
Categories of products, as well as individual products can be niches, do a search for:
List of best selling ______
Here’s an example of breaking down a niche.
Electronics > Mobile Devices > Cell Phones > Iphones > Iphone apps > Iphone image apps
-or-
Electronics > Mobile Devices > Cell Phones > Iphones > Iphone Accessories > Iphone Batteries
Instead of attempting to create a site about the niche “Iphones”, you may want to create a site about Iphone accessories. There’s batteries, cases, ear phones, chargers, etc., all relevant to the Iphone accessories niche.
Select 8-12 products or so and dedicate a page to each.
To find products to create a page about, do a Google search similar to:
list of best selling iphone accessories
list of best selling iphone batteries
list of best selling iphone chargers
By finding the best selling products for a given niche, you’re giving yourself the best chance of selling products people actually want and are willing to spend their money to get.
Special Forum Search Technique
Find “tag clouds” of popular forums for your particular topic/niche. This is a good technique to do niche market research for affiliate products, or creating your own info products and reports.
A “tag cloud” is a group of the most popular words or tags used in vBulletin forums. Sometimes the clouds are based on searches or in common words used in the forum posts. It varies from forum to forum how they work. Notice that the bigger the word, the more popular the word or phrase is. This can give you a good indication of what topics and interests are most popular on the forum.
Here’s three variations of a tag cloud search. Just go to Google and enter one of the following, substituting “main keyword” for your niche’s most general keyword(s). Check out the tag cloud and pay special attention to the larger words in the cloud. Again, the larger the word/phrase, the more popular it is on that forum.
Tag Cloud + vbulletin + main keyword
Search Tag Cloud + vbulletin + main keyword
Search Tag Cloud + main keyword
You can also use these two forum search engines to find forums to use for niche and keyword research:
FindaForum.net
Boardreader.com
Use Reddit For Niche Research
There’s a couple of ways to use Reddit for niche research. One way is to search or browse Reddit and check for sub-Reddits and the topics in each sub-Reddit.
To really drill down, read some Reddit threads about a niche idea. Look for keyword phrases people are using.
Here’s a site dedicated to all sorts of Reddit stuff, including a word cloud when you do a search.
http://metareddit.com/
I used MetaReddit to search for “iphone”. I clicked on the cloud and then clicked on IOS6. When I went to the sub-reddit for IOS 6, I found this thread:
Wireless Charging Question
Even though it only has two posts, I found these potential niches:
Wireless charger
wireless charging case
Qi charger
USB Wall adapter
1.0A (iPhone charger)
2.1A (iPad charger)
If people are discussing this on Reddit, there’s a good chance other people are interested in these things too.
How to Use Wikipedia for Niche Research
Brian Dean of Backlinko has an excellent tutorial on keyword research that includes a guide on how to use Wikipedia to uncover niches. Scroll down until you see the section called “Wikipedia Table of Contents” for a “how to”.
http://backlinko.com/keyword-research
Also See:
http://boredpanda.com
http://craiglist.com
http://etsy.com
http://learnstuff.com/
http://Listverse.com
http://Top10Buzz.com
http://udemy.com
Last But Not Least:
Browse the eBay list of categories…drilling down to narrow the niches.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/allcategories/all-categories
Find the most asked questions on the question sites:
Quora
Yahoo Answers
great article Kurt. And lots of other good posts here on this blog.
StumbleUpon is a good resource for finding niches. Here’s their page of all the Stumbleupon interests, over 500. It also shows the number of followers for each, giving a little bit of an indication to how popular each niche/interest may be.
Consider that popularity isn’t the only factor in picking a niche, you also need to consider the revenue potential, if people are spending money and more importantly, if there are services, products and/or affiliate programs that fit that niche.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/discover/interests/all
“Title Builder – eBay keywords generator algorithm will suggest you with the best eBay keywords to use for your item title, so you can pick them from the list of most popular keywords, which are being used by eBay users.”
http://title-builder.com/title-builder/
“Find What To Sell On eBay! Over 2,500,000 popular items from 5 eBay marketplaces.”
http://www.what-to-sell.com/ebay-us/?s=0
Here’s another excellent site for finding questions people are asking and very useful for niche research:
http://answerthepublic.com/