LESSON #20: How to Choose a Niche (Part 2)
In the previous lesson, I talked about some important things to keep in mind as you choose a niche market.
I ended the lesson by asking you to brainstorm some possible topics for your information product.
Today we’re going to do some research to help you determine whether your topic has good potential for success…
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
- How many results?
- How many paid ads?
- What kind of sites are in the top 10?
(This shows you how hard it will be to compete with their listings from an SEO standpoint)
If you plan on launching many niche sites, you should consider investing in a tool that will help you automate most of the above processes. I recommend Keyword Elite
Look at:
- How many advertisers?
- How much traffic they are getting?
- How much they are spending daily?
- What are they advertising?
- Do any related advertisers have an affiliate program? (potential back end promotions)
Action step:
1) Go through the research process I used in this lesson, and answer these 4 questions for each topic that you are considering.
- How big is the niche?
- How competitive is the niche?
- How potentially profitable is the niche?
- Is there potential for back end products?
2) Choose a niche that seems to have a good balance; one that you want to pursue. We will be further refining it in the next lesson.
Once you’ve identified a potentially lucrative niche, you need to go the extra mile and dig deeper. You need to zoom in on the market and find out EXACTLY what they want.
There are some simple ways of surveying the market and focusing your topic to give it the best chance of success, and I’ll be detailing those strategies in the next lesson.
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below 
Have a great day!
Eric,
I respect the fact that you are providing so much valuable information for FREE. Your video tutorials are great. It is refreshing to find an internet marketer and guru who is willing to provide informative content that we can all use.
Eric, I agree with you 100%. You have to do your research when you are deciding to choose a particular niche. I know that you should direct your efforts toward niches that have interest and traffic. I would also suggest that people take a look at niches that they might have some interest in. If someone picks a niche that they really don’t like, then they probably will get tired of it real fast and won’t want to promote it.
If you can find a niche that you have passion for and has a lot of interest, this would be a perfect match.
Tom Curran
http://www.vipmarketingsecrets.com
I agree Tom, Not only pick the right niche, but the right methods of promoting as well. If you do not like to write then outsource article marketing, same with video or audio, I did a post recently on Knowing your reality. What you want to do and what you actually get done.
Thanks Tom
Hi Eric,
I’m Nicolas from Costa Rica, I have been following your lessons for a while and well I didn´t have any idea of how to make my own web page or anything related with internet, by coincidence I found out like 1 month ago a site who host domains etc, the thing is that I design my own web page by myself, and started my online bussines that is linked with my physical bussines, I got more exposure in my country and my brand is getting more value.
My site is in spanish so I don’t know if you are going to understand it.
Have you heard about the spiderweb system, I would like to know if it is a scam, the thing is that is related with the company that is hosting my domain and it seems very interesting but as you have said we don’t know what is out there…
this is the link
http://nicovelz.ws/spiderweb/
Saludes Pura Vida!!
I am very leary of anything that sounds like mlm or grq (aka get rich quick). I’ve seen many safelist ads for the spiderweb system, and just looking at the sales page gives me the feeling that it’s some sort of get rich quick scheme. The reason I get that feeling is because the video (which is quite annoying) gives off the vibe that something is wrong with you just because you haven’t bought into their system yet. If you’ve given them any money, I would suggest finding their phone number and calling them to ask for it back because I don’t believe you’ll ever make it back by spamming your referral link in message boards and blog comments, which I’m not accusing you of doing in this case since you’re asking for advice, but most people I’ve seen promoting get rich quick schemes are spammers who spam their so-called opportunity everywhere and get upset when people don’t buy into them, to me, that seems like a pretty miserable form of marketing. It’s best to promote products of real value and the best way to determine if it has real value is to ask yourself if you would buy it as a consumer rather than a marketer (i.e. would you buy it if there was no money making opportunity attached to it?) In my opinion, the spiderweb system is nothing but a money making opportunity, no product attached to it at all, so if I were you, I’d stay as far away from it as I can.
Nicolas, glad to have you on board down there is CR
I am not familiar with Spiderweb. I took a quick look at it, and the thing that turns me off is the exaggerated claims. They say “we will do all the work for you.” and 1 minute into the video it says they “eliminate every problem that entrepreneurs face today.” They are claiming a zero percent chance of failure. That’s not possible if you really have your own business.
Pura vida!
yeah, that’s what turns me off too, that’s why I don’t feel bad about calling it a get rich quick scam
RE: LESSON #20 (Choose a niche Part II)
This is so, so important. After much research, I chose to get involved with a company that sells products with an 80% market penetration and profit margins of 50% to 100%. The products are better quality AND cheaper than the best mainstream product in its industry, even when sold at full retail! You can’t beat that!
Sounds like a good deal!
hi eric. i’m puzzled that you would spend 34 minutes rehashing old news about keyword research using anything but googles new keyword free tool which gives you word counts. i assume you’re getting commissions from the callen brothers for keyword elite and also from wordtracker. i’m amazed at all the people out there that do a research on a product that has no audience at all. like area 51. you would think the person would at least do a research on a paying product that does make money for affiliates through clickbank, amazon, ebay etc. now that google has in a way replaced yahoo’s keyword tool overture with their own version, which is free, why would anyone use a keyword tool that costs as much as $80.00 a month? i’m constantly looking for more information on the keyword tool at google. it will probably be perry marshall who comes out with a step by step guide for using this tool in the near future just like he did with adwords.i’ve deleted most of my keyword tools since google came out with this tool. i really enjoy your articles so keep on writing i read them all.
As always, constructive criticism is welcome
Technically anything I can possibly teach about business is “old” news, because someone has done it before, and someone has probably taught it somewhere. But that doesn’t negate the value of the information for people who are learning it for the first time.
As far as researching a product with “no audience”… Actually my example of “area 51″ had a very big audience as I showed in the video. It just doesn’t seem to be a profitable audience.
I can guarantee you that there are profitable niches that have not yet been tapped into on clickbank, so if you go off of that alone, you could be missing out.
You are right, it is not essential to buy a keyword tool, and that’s why I focused on and used free resources throughout the video.
As for google’s free keyword tool, you bring up a good point. The main reason I didn’t demo it is because I haven’t used it very much and I figured I’d teach what I already know.
But keep in mind the disclaimer I made at the very beginning of the video:
“My way is not the only way!”
So for anyone reading this, feel free to check out Google’s free keyword tool, and perhaps I will do a supplemental video about it in the future (hmmm, or maybe I can squeeze it into lesson 21). You can find it at:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Hello Jerome:
Since you seem to “know it all”, I can’t help but wonder why you are bothering to read these lessons!!!
Eric is providing extremely valuable information using a fundamental approach to a VERY LARGE and varied audience whose experience level for the most part appears to be elementary (no offense intended).
The readers, myself included, are most appreciative of Eric’s efforts.
Generally, he tries very hard to provide FREE resources, but for those at a more advanced stage who have the inclination and ability to BUY additional tools, he recommends what he feels are good investments based upon his own experience.
I HAVE NO QUALMS WHATSOEVER WITH THAT.
Eric DOES NOT use high pressure tactics or try to make you feel inferior if you don’t buy his recommendations. If you do buy anything … cool, if not that is fine as well - no hard feelings. The choice IS ALWAYS yours to make.
P.S. Eric feel free to correct any assumptions I may have made about you.
Great Video. Justin Brookes SiteFlipAcademy.com goes by all these same processes that you are going over. Which means both of you use the same process. I like your video, because you go into more depth into gravity and information products. Outstanding. I enjoy all your videos and look forward to listen to all of them. Once you have your website up create a toolbar on Conduit.com, Download Pad Gen, and then go to software directories and post your toolbar. This is an effective technique to get back links. I know this is off subject. But just sharing information with the other internet marketers out there.
Feel free and leave me a comment on my blog at:
http://ebooksforsale.blogspot.com
Take Care,
Ray.
Thanks Ray, glad to hear it
Ray …
thanks for the idea … I think??
I went over to Conduit and messed around with it. I created a toolbar rather quickly. Here it is: http://audiobookdownloadsunlimited.MyStoreToolbar.com
Not sure what to do next and not sure what you meant by, “Download Pad Gen, and then go to software directories and post your toolbar.”
Also, visited your blog and didn’t see any further comments on this and didn’t notice if you were even using it there.
Love to hear more.
DS
Hi Eric -
Yeah - there is a fine line between a niche that is too competitive and not competitive enough. The ultimate find is when you come across a niche that gets great traffic but where there aren’t too many competitors. Those are the niches that you should “mine”.
My website host is sitesell.com (and it’s website building system called SiteBuildIt, or SBI for short). They have a GREAT feature that tells you how much traffic a keyword gets, how much competition there is, PLUS a formula for combining those 2 to tell you how PROFITABLE the keword/niche is.
I highly recommend it!
Exactly!!
Hi Eric
I am enjoying your lessons.
It is funny that your niche you picked was invention’s because i have a paten on a toy and made a lot of mistakes. If I had it all to do over again I would just hire a paten attorney and just go from there. The big money is in the service’s that the marketing companies provide.
If you need any information on your product just ask. Thanks for the lesson’s.
Charles
Thanks Charles, that’s good to know
Hi Eric,
I was like watching your videos and your advice is great. I became interested in the Keyword elite after you recommended it and went to check it out. Im interested in getting it, but they are also offering SEO elite. Thats where I get confuse cause Im still very new to IM and especially to SEO. Its better to get both products or just stick to Keyword elite since Im wanna stick to article marketing first. Is it as good as they say it is? I hope you can help me out. Looing forward to your next video!!! CHEERS!!!
Thanks Chen. For article marketing, I would actually recommend SEO Elite over Keyword Elite if you had to choose one or the other. You can use the free keyword tools I talked about to do your keyword research for your articles, and then use SEO Elite to get search positions and back links. It also has a built-in article submitter.
Hi Eric thanks for the great information on niche marketing your insights on research is on point you been a great help. Until next time Successful Trader
Hey Eric,
You’ve put together a great one page reference for research. (Everybody, heads up -this is a “Bookmark This / Add to Favorites” lesson.)
Some of these best practices I do routinely when evaluating new ideas. But I’d never thought of looking through Clickbank, Ebay and Amazon to evaluate revenue potential. It’s a piece of the puzzle to projecting profitability.
You’re worth your weight in gold Eric. (All 130 pounds of you
Keep up the good work.
Sabrina
Thanks Sabrina.
(Hey… I haven’t been 130 since high school. Heck I’m sure I’ve gained at least 30# since the last time you saw me
At this pace I could eclipse the 200 barrier for the 1st time in my life, LOL)
I totally agree Eric. I myself went into a niche that gets promoted almost everywhere you go but I actually personally knew nothing about the niche. I had great intentions because I felt very strongly about promoting that niche but in the end I finally had success when I did something fun then taught others how I did it!
Eric,
You’re providing a great systematic approach to venturing into an online business.
I agree with your 4 step approach and encourage any and all to go about it in this way.
I only wish that I would have known to do this BEFORE jumping into things over a year ago with several “ideas” I had. I have become familiar with all the tools you are recommending, unfortunately I didn’t know of them back when I jumped into the pipe dream of becomming an internet marketer.
You see, I took you up on a great offer, long ago it seems, on a domain/hosting acct. It was and still is and has been a great deal.
At that time I purchased what I thought and still think is a killer domain name. I thought I’d create a one all stop/shop portal for new and even seasoned marketers and business success seekers.
I worked day after day creating web pages from scratch. Created articles, played the article marketing game, included ads and affiliate products on all pages of the site, bought a spoken word audiobook site, custom-built it and included links to it for specific business and internet related audio products, and I monetized the site and all pages with adsense.
Man did I think I was on a roll especially when I got the site indexed fairly quickly, got my S.E.O. cooking and got top ranking in Google, Yahoo and MSM out of over 20M searches which I’ve held this position now for close to a year. Plus I’ve actually obtained some decent page rank.
All sounds good right?
You’d think … but …
The site doesn’t make the cake and I’m drawing a blank as to why or as to what I should do besides give it up and start fresh with a new niche. I’m very familiar with and rtealize PPC is one avenue, I really don’t want to do that and would rather rely on organic traffic.
It’s just hard to give up on a site that you’ve worked on so long and so hard and one which seems to have such a position in the searches. Maybe I’m just missing a huge unseen opportunity here that I can’t seem to see … or maybe I’ve ventured into a dead end situation. I don’t know at this point and it’s become a frustrating situation which has lead to me doing nothing at all.
Any help would be much appreciated here.
I think I’m mainly writing this to support what you’re trying to teach here Eric and to save others from going the LONG route that I’ve now created for myself.
LISTEN … Fellow up and coming internet marketers: If you will do what Eric is suggesting here, you will shave and save SO much time off the learning curve.
Thanks Eric!
Best regards,
Net Business Ventures
Editor in Chief
David
Thanks for sharing your wisdom, and if you want to give us a link to your site (not sure if its the one linked from your name), I could take a quick look and see if I notice any blatant reasons for it not making money.
Thanks, Eric
Yes it actually is the site in question.
That would be great and it might shed some light for others.
D S
David, I looked at your site and in my opinion the biggest reason your site is not making money is because it is not focused on achieving one primary action.
Also, if you’re sending any traffic to the home page, the home page is VERY slow to load. It was just a blank yellow screen for a full minute before anything appeared. I refreshed it several times, and the same thing happened each time, and sometimes it didn’t even load any content at all! It is not due to your hosting. It is because of something being loaded from elsewhere. It loads fine in Firefox, but is choking in IE (I have IE6). In FF it loads most of the page, but then at the bottom it continues to say “transferring data from googlesyndication”, while attempting to load the google search box, so I think there is a problem with the code of the search box or perhaps the ad above it.
I would test it in IE, and remove the search box to see if that fixes it. Or it might be the banner ad just above the search box. It’s being loaded from someone else’s site, so I would be suspicious of it.
Next, you need to decide, what is the primary objective of the site?
Based on the way it is now, I would have to assume the objective is to get people to click the Adsense ads and affiliate banners.
Maybe you’ve seen the “golden triangle” heat maps, of where people look when they look at a website. The first thing people will look at when they get to your site is the ads in the top left hand corner. When they see that on the home page, they may assume that this is another “made for Adsense” site with useless content on it, and leave the site.
If your goal is to be an AdSense driven site, that’s actually great placement of the ad block for the articles, but I wouldn’t put it on the home page.
Beyond the Adsense ads, you’ve got a mix of various “make money” banners for affiliate products. In my opinion, the combination of the Adsense ads and all these banners make the site look very spammy. I think a lot of new marketers think “hmmm… the more stuff I can cram onto my site, the more chances some of it will get clicked.” However, it has the opposite effect. Visitors get overwhelmed, and they don’t know where to click so they will leave the site.
There are some famous marketing bloggers who plaster their sites with ads and seem to get away with it (although I suspect it actually hurts them too), but unless you’re a famous blogger it’s probably not a good idea.
As you’ve learned, content is king. You’ve got some good content on your site, and that’s a big part of how you’ve been able to get some search rankings. Therefore, I think you need to make sure you are showcasing the content more than the ads.
Here are my recommendations…
1) Change your business model. Instead of trying to make money up front from visitors clicking on stuff, you should try to get them to subscribe to your newsletter and return to your site. If they find your site, and click on an ad they will probably never come back to your site (you make 10 cents or $10 or whatever). But if you can get them to opt-into a newsletter, and give them a high quality experience on your site, they will come back again and again (you make $100’s from them).
In other words, the PRIMARY objective of your site would be to get people to opt into your newsletter. The way you do it is by providing great content for free and making it a good experience for them.
It looks like maybe you are planning a newsletter? There is a place where it says “Sign Up Now - it’s FREE”, but there’s no opt-in box.
(I recommend using Aweber and I will be teaching about it in future lessons)
2) Take most of the ads off your site unless you’re making decent money from them.
3) Make sure there’s no dead links in your navigation. I found some, like the audio ebooks. If visitors click those, they will leave your site and never come back.
4) Consider switching over to WordPress (I’ll be teaching WP around lesson 33). It will make it a lot easier to grow your site and update your navigation. You can easily add new articles any time, and they can be instantly added to the navigation menu of every page. WP also will give you the interactive features of a blog (like comments, etc), which can improve repeat traffic.
5) Establish credibility, and give some personality to the site. Again, this is a very competitive niche. Why should anyone pay attention to your site? The intro letter on your home page is kind of the right idea. I wouldn’t break it into 2 pages. It’s a good overview, but who are you? You may be surprised to learn that most people would rather pay attention to someone who is a “real person” just like them.
Hope those tips help
Eric,
nice of you to take a quick look. You have brought many things to my attention that I have overlooked.
I’ll get busy on these suggestions and thanks again!
D
David,
I tried to look at your site, but after it took a while to load, it appeared in my browser (IE6) as a totally blank page with yellow background — the status line says “Done.” I could see the HTML in view source, but nothing in the browser. I suspect this is a major reason for your results.
– Thought you would want to know…
Great work Eric,
Things are starting to come together. I did like the area 51 pictures. They were taken in Roswell NM at the UFO museum. I took several myself and have an entire library of pics from there. And you are right, no money to be made in aliens for the most part! See you on the next show!
Ron
“no money to be made in aliens”
Yup, I think they’re going through a recession too. I can’t remember the last time an alien bought anything from me
jk
I decided on a niche and I’m wondering if it is too broad. I decided on trying to help people earn extra money working from home. Would you tighten that down even more? It seems a majority of your readers are doing the same thing.
I’d like to find out what other people are choosing for their niche.
Thanks for the info Eric!
Matt, the how to make money (HTMM) niche is one of the most profitable on the internet. It’s what I’m in primarily. I don’t think it’s too broad, but it is VERY competitive. I suggest focus on creating a unique selling point, and building credibility for yourself by establishing yourself as an authority.
It might be easier to become an authority if you specialize in a smaller facet of HTMM from home, but you wouldn’t necessarily have to.
Eric, thanks for the info. I think I have figured it out. I have narrowed it down to what I am offering specifically. I am trying to become an authority in unique niche that relates to HTMM@H.
Incredible information! Thank you for sharing.
Have you had a chance to review any of the MassControl stuff by Frank Kern? Did not know if you had any thoughts on it? He is doing the free thing as well to promote more continuity membership revenue.
Frank Kern is an excellent marketer, and you should watch WHAT he does. Like I said in my review of the original mass control, you can learn a lot of his techniques just by observing his methods. He’s doing it again. I’m personally not promoting it because I’m not promoting many launches these days, and because his stuff is relatively expensive (compared to say, Traffic Secrets 2.0). But do watch his videos (the 3 tips for selling in his new one are great), just be aware that your brain is being mass controlled
Eric,
As both an indealist and a pragmatist, I appreciate the dual nature of your approach.
And am right now beginning the nuts-and-bolts that is a logical followup to the philosophy and strategy you’ve been promoting.
Thanks… immensely!
John
Author of the book “Radical Excellence”
Thanks John, I like the title of your book
Great resource and step-by-step guide to select niche market. Proper planning is vital to compete in the internet marketing arena.
To your success
Bryan Hee
Eric,
Analytics, which lies at the heart of internet marketing, is still mysterious to me. However, I followed your “search” lesson and added a Google “allintitle” search to determine the actual number of pages using my keyword. (That reduced the number of results from 30 million to 23,600.
I searched on Clickbank and eBay as well as Amazon with good results. I first searched my primary keyword back in June and got real excited when I calculated the R/S ratio at .0007878 and found Google was unable to give me any Trend statistics. Likewise, SpyFu didn’t produce any results, even though there are a number of studies, white papers and pdfs on the subject.
I also have my keyword plugged into Google Alerts, and get oodles of fresh news articles and study analyses sent to my inbox daily.
I did not select a niche I am familiar with. Initially, I chose it because I wanted to learn about it. There were no pdfs on the subject when I first researched it around the beginning of June; now there are. Because of my background, I’m confident I can put together a book that other small business owners will find useful.
From this description, you can conclude I’ve targeted a “trend” market.
From the beginning I’ve wondered: how do I market it—what’s the best way to get it to the market (should I publish through Amazon, for example), how do I keep it from being stolen, and who will buy it from me–an internet unknown?
I’m wondering what the chances are of approaching other ebook publishers and getting them interested in forming an affiliation to market the book? I’ve also considered a product launch, interviewing a few leaders in the field. But I really don’t know any of the technical details of putting something like that together.
As you can tell, I’m extremely interested in your upcoming lessons.
Glad to hear about your progress. Google Alerts is a good idea, thanks for the tip.
As for approaching other publishers… it’s a great idea. The key there is to focus on what you can do for THEM, rather than pitching them your book. If they have an affiliate program, you could promote them in many ways…
-links within your ebook
-on your thank-you page
-emails to your customer list
Then they will be more likely to reciprocate, especially when you show them how they can increase their income by doing the same things that you’re doing for them.
Interviews are great, and I’ll be talking about how to do product launches later on in the lessons.
Eric,
These lessons are great. I am a person who is stuck on the niche question. The niche I’m interested in would probably be considered too broad. There are also a huge amount of competitors. However, if I zoom in on a tighter niche I’ll lose volumes of content, all written from personal experience. Products I would review would all be things I own or would buy again. Almost all of my suppliers have affiliate programs. This has been a major part of my life for 30 years and I don’t have a clue what else I’d have a site about. Any comments would be appreciated.
If you are an authority in the field, I would not hesitate to recommend tackling the broader niche. It may take a lot longer to establish yourself as an authority online and make it profitable, but it will pay off in the long run. It may also be possible to build a business for the entire niche, but then create various micro-niche products within it.
Eric;
Thank you, Thank you. You’ve made me feel so much better and I WILL go ahead with my plan. I should have thanked you sooner but I had to replace my modem.. Thank you again.
Amelia
Hi Eric:
This lesson was a godsend to me as I found out I wasnt’ using clickbank properly.Maybe now I might make some headway. Your lessons are always astounding, informative, and to the point. I can’t thank you enough for sharing your knowledge and support, you are truely an outstanding person.
Enjoy your day Eric,
Gus
Hi Eric,
I have to say (at least for me) that between lesson 19 & 20 and also trying to fully absorb the great ebook you made available…I’ve been a little overwhelmed(well…maybe anxious is a better term) trying to take everything in. It’s not so much that its hard to understand, I think it’s more just trying to get use to the research process and flip back and fourth between all the great tools you make available.Its like riding a bike before you really know how(I’ve seen all these website tools before but never really utilized them until now)
I just sat back and took a deep breath and remembered two things that you mentioned earlier!
1) You must think like a marketer
(even went back and reviewed your
video)
2)Whatever niche you choose.. it’s
not like your married to it!
I know that once I get use to the repetitive cycle of doing this with future info products it will get easier and easier. So, for now I will go with a niche I’ve chosen and if I make good money….GREAT! But if not, I realize that the experience learned from this starting point will carry over to the next and the next until I’ve achieved the ability to easily select a niche, research with better accuracy, and produce an info product that sells like crazy. I don’t give up easy
Best Regards,
Gary
Great comments as always
Hi
Eric H. This fareed form pakistan iam so inspired from your all lession .Becouse i put they in my daily life . Thanku you Eric sir
Please update my skills with your extra ordenary tipos.
Have a good day….
Hi Eric:
How are you doing today? would it be possible for you to direct me to where I can learn to build a website.I am trying to set up a nitch but don’t have a website to give.
Thanking you in advance,
Gus
I will be teaching how to set up a website very soon (within the next 5 lessons)…
Hi Eric,
Thank you for your video. It is very helpful for a beginnner. I have a question.
I searched freewordtracker.com for the keyword “above ground pool installation” and found 45 searches. Then I searched the same keyword in Spyfu.com and the top advertiser was shown to have a budget of $1K to $7K per day with total clicks being 3K to 5K.
It also shows that the keyword is pool installations which has a search volume of only 25 in freewordtracker.com. It is interesting that when I put the keyword “pool installation” into Spyfu that this advertiser does not even show up.
This does not seem to jive. How can there by 3000 to 5000 clicks when there are only 45 searches?
I don’t understand it.
Could you please explain a little.
Thanks,
Dave
I’m not sure why Word Tracker is showing that. Try Google’s tool:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
If you type in “above ground pool installation” it won’t work, so just type in ’swimming pool’ (no quotes).
Down the list you will find many related keywords like “pool installation” with 27k searches a month, etc.
My guess is that the Spyfu results are for a broad match, which includes related terms, not just “above ground pool installation”.
Hi Eric,
After reading all the comments, I’m beginning to think I’m the only one with this problem. I was listening to lesson#20 and it goes as far as the 19:30 counter mark and stops. Can’t get it to continue. Help!! Thanks.
I suggest try closing all other programs to make sure your PC has enough memory available, close your browser, and reopen it and try again. You might also want to try a different browser, such as Firefox, which is a free download.
Hi Eric,
Of course, I went through your research proccess and I ask you:
1) How will us determine how many advertisers and how much traffic they getting and how much they are spending daily?
2) Which are criteria to determine how a niche is bigger or less?
3) Which is the method to determine if my niche is competitive and profitabile as well?
4) What is a back end product?
Thank you for your answers.
Sincerely,
Petre Tudor
1) that’s basically what I cover in the video. Use Word Tracker, Spyfu, and/or google’s free keyword tool
2) How many search results are there? How many paid advertisers? How many existing infoproducts?
3) Look at existing advertisers as well as the top organic search results, and see if they are making money.
4) Products you sell to your customers after the initial sale
hi great videos , i watch till 20 , when you post the others?
I’m currently posting them as I make them. #21 will be up in a couple days.
What niches are we finding? Health is a huge topic. When I’ve looked at “sleep” I found tons of searches being done and lots of good information. I haven’t found that niche yet.
When I blogged on GrandmaPeg.wordpress.com about a sleep lab test I immediately got some feedback from one of the sites I had checked out.
I keep recommending your site to all the newbies I meet. Your reply to comments is very valuable, as well as others sharing. Thanks for the individual help for Net Business Ventures as it applies to a lot more of us, too.
Thanks for recommending my site
Hi Eric,
This could be interesting for everyone & absolutely for us. Checking ‘keywords’ or ’searching’ something to do for businesses Online as the way you do, always given us the confident on your experiencing on this business. We have alots to learn as to achieve our vision.
Ths, regards.
hi eric i found a nice niche but i really want to tell you what is it , how can i do it privatlly? thanks eayl
Just Post It….Ha Ha…. Just Kidding!
Currently I don’t have time to do any private communications. However, I am considering a private coaching program sometime in the near future.
Thanks for pointing out the need to look at what kinds of products are being sold on the ads/sites that show up in searches. I guess I mistook popularity and competitive keywords to mean that a niche has a good market, but it looks like for my niche, people want the info for free, and the money is being spent on “real” products. I found only 2 info products and neither looked to be doing well. So I’ve wasted some time writing half an ebook, but better to figure that out sooner than later! Your lessons are great!
Popularity and competitive keywords usually means there’s money to be made in the niche. It’s possible that you can do better than the existing infoproducts. Maybe they have a bad marketing plan, or bad sales copy, etc.
Also if it’s a profitable niche in which people are looking for freebies, it’s possible that you could build a good list by giving away your ebook for free and then monetizing it in other ways on the back end.
If people are spending money on “real” products, find out how you can make money selling those products or recommending them as an affiliate. Use the free info to build the list, and then sell them what they’re willing to pay for.
Good overview. How should Clickbank grav scores be interpreted, then, going beyond the fact that if the products all have “-” it’s a strong indication the niche isn’t profitable for infoproducts…….. what, for example would scores ranging from 17 downwards tell you? Cheers.
There’s a lot of variables there. My advice in that regard is just spend a little more time studying the CB marketplace over a period of time and see the rise and fall of various grav scores. Some people probably make killer money with a high volume of products with relatively low grav scores. For example, maybe there’s someone on there with 10 products in the 5-10 grav score range, and between their 10 products they’re making a great living. The other thing to keep in mind with grav scores is that they are driven largely by affiliate activity. So it’s possible that someone is selling a lot of their own product (without many affiliates promoting it) and making money even though their grav score is relatively low.
Hi Eric,
Very basic,useful and detailed information on niche selection and reasearch.
Thanks for sharing.
Best wishes,
Kannan Viswagandhi
http://www.growing-self.blogspot.com
the problem is that your lessons so good that we all want to hear more, and to wait few days for new lessons its hard becuase you all exicted to learn more
Hi! Eric, it took a lot of time to write this because I was doing… key research! My brain is in flame now.
In a nut shall:
1) I find a niche, very popular, but using a long tail key, in which I am interested, I get Google competition 12,200
2) A lot of adv for the large niche, but medium adv. for the long tail key niche
3) Just 3-4 eBooks on Clickbank, a little more on eBay, some are selling some are not
4) Gravity is between 3-4 in Clickbank
5) In SpyFu: cost/click is 0.48 – 1.33; click/day is: 3.95 – 5.00 (but when I search on SEOBOOK, I got 21 clicks per day), and cost/day 1.89 – 8.00
6) Huge possibilities to create OTO/back end sells
It looks a little as your “invention” but it is not invention.
I think it has potential and risk as well. I’ll do it, why I am risking?
Because this niche is at a border of 2 important subjects, and always when you are a pioneer at the border of 2 disciplines - it is a real potential, this is my theory, what you think?
A question which is important for me: if the eBook has a limited popularity because of a long tail key I am using, the OTO/Back end sells has to be a general subject or a even narrower subject then the eBook itself? What is the general wisdom on this?
You are a terrific teacher! I am glad I am part of this!
Thanks Michaela
There are various strategies for back end marketing. If its an upsell at the time of the intitial purchase, it should be as closely related to the original subject as possible. for example, if I’m selling an ebook about how to become an inventor, the upsell might be an inventor’s workshop on DVD. But as you build a customer/prospect list, you can test all sorts of related back end offers. Some of your customers may be interested in purchasing additional materials related to a certain aspect of the niche, and other customers may be interested in something at the other end of the spectrum.
Thanks Eric,
then it isn’t really a rule, except to be close with the initial subject of the eBook. Perfect! this means that at the border of those 2 major topics really will be a lot of other back end topics to consider. I am happy about that. I have a big entusiasm about my new eBook, but I promise I am not going to fall in love with it. And I have to find out realy quick if it is a good choice… I want to keep my milestons.
Now some considerations about long tail keys, it is good to use them or is better to use the large topic. I am sure, you are not going to call your eBook “inventions”, probably in the next lesson we will learn something about long tail keys and where to use them:
1) eBook title
2) Website title etc
All the best
Michaela
Eric
It has been a while since I have commented. I am enjoying your lessons and I am learning much!!!
My information product is Inventors. After three months I am making some progress and I am following your lessons. I have a business model that I feel will help me.
My first adventure in direct marketing was 1979 Popular Mechanics as will as one section of T.V Guide. Poplular Mechanics was a small 1/12th of a page with a circulation of 2 1/2 million paid subscriptions with a reader ship of over six million. The results from a 5.95 plus postage and handling information package was incredible and I was unable to keep up with all of the out croppings of additional business avenues. Inqueries from around the world. What an adventure from my brick and mortar. Cautiously excited and awaiting your next lesson……
Hey Eric,
Another great lesson and notes for me to follow through. Just for example sake,I’ll be putting a link below, is this a good way to cloak affiliate link?
http://www.dbookworm.com/recommend/aweber.html
I used in frames to load my affiliate page, is this a common technique used by Internet Marketers?
Thanks
Hey Edward, Eric made a post awhile back on affiliate link cloaking:
http://www.ericstips.com/tips/cloaking-affiliate-links-and-avoiding-the-tiny-url-syndrome/
Great lesson!!! i will take it by heart^_^
hi Eric i must ask you something, you talked about scam in one of your lesson plwase look at this :http://www.sixfigureyearly.com is it a scam? thanks so mucn
Thank you for the data on niche searches I learned a lot! Some of the steps I already knew but this really helped me get the whole picture of the niches.
Another great Lesson Eric!
Continue with the good work.
Thank you for impacting knowledge unto us.
Together we shall win!
Adesegun Akitoye
http://www.repeatrichrelief.com/pips.html
I just bought SBI site and don’t know what kind of topic I should go with.This video is very helpful.
Thanks Eric
Hi Eric
Thanks for this lesson. I noticed you said more than once “My way is not the only way”. To me as a beginner, it seems that your way is a basis for any other way, at least, because it is about supply and demand, which is essencial part of any economy.
I have some keyword research, but it seems that what I am interested in is high in demand, but also has a high competition.
I will be interested in a private coaching program when you start it.
Regards.
Hi Eric
Great material as always.
I have Keyword Elite and I’ve been getting stuck on interpreting the results. Do you have any point that you would interpret the R/S Ratio or the KEI figure as indicating that a niche is likely to be profitable for selling an info or software product?
I know the lower the R/S figure the better, but its all relative! ie would a R/S ratio of 2,000 indicate a potentially profitable niche or is that still to high?
Don’t get me wrong I recognize Keyword Elite as being very powerful, problem is “its in my hands” and that could be dangerous! at least for my bank balance if I don’t get a handle on interpreting the results.
What sort of R/S Ratio or KEI do you look for?
Thanks for your help
I would also be interested in your private coaching program when you start it. Do you have any idea the cost at this point?
Thanks again
Ray
Thanks Ray. Honestly I don’t have a targeted R/S or KEI to tell you. There’s other factors involved in determining the profitability of the niche, so I would try to keep the big picture in mind and couple the Keyword Elite data with additional research if it is not clear whether it’s a good niche. Perhaps Brad’s support team could provide you with some direction in that regard. I do not really have any idea of the cost at this point. Of course my subscribers will be the first to know once I decide to launch it…
another very important and impressive lesson - I know my competition forgot the importance of this one which certainly worked out in my favor over the years. The additional links for ongoing research was priceless.
Thanks again Eric!
God Bless
Karan Kinder
Hi Eric,
I have to start by saying that I look foward to reading (and Applying) your tips as soon as I get them. Excellent,Excellent, keep up the good work. I was wondering, do you have an affiliate program in place for your tips or anything else that you have going or in the works? I am an up and comming affliate marketer and would like nothing more than to be able to link to your page for my customers, especially the “NEWBEE’s” because there is a wealth of “GREAT” information in each of your articles. Compensation is not the issue. I just think you have the info that all persons in, or thinking of getting into any kind of internet marketing should read/have.
Thanks again for the great work.
Tom Lewis
tflewis@dslextreme.com
As always, a good lesson (#20). I am little behind as you can tell.
Well, I chose a niche and it turns out it is very similar to area 51 except it has lots of sites (1.8M for one and a slightly more defined niche has 5400) but only a few sites are monetized, and there is nothing in Clickbank. Ebay has lots of items with zero bids or just one. Definately a disappointment because it is my passion. While I would definately want to develop the niche, I don’t have the time or money to develop a niche that is not profitable.
My second niche choice is overly competitive but has lots of product on Clickbank with good gravity. Looks like I am stuck between a very profitable competitive niche and a hobby site. Since the profitable niche is the way to go, what would you suggest? conectrate on affliate marketing or build my own product?
I opted to receive Stompernet. But, I cannot open the DVD’s. Where do I go to find “index.html”? I guess I will have to unsubscribe if I can’t open it.
Hi Eric:
My question regards ethics. Say for instance I subscribe to various health related articles and magazines. Is it unethical to condense some of this material I’ve read and include it in my info report? I checked and don’t see copyright information anywhere. Thanks for all
your good work and assistance. Kathy
Hello all, Eric
I was watching the videos so far, and i would like to comment on this one vid#20 niche, part 2 you choose two subjects who are no linking with money.
That’s why you got those results. I think you puposely chose those
I would like to ask
1. if some of the lessons will target affiliate marketing i think this area is for me, but i lack experience and advices on how to do aff marketing!
Thanks
Dear Eric,
You are the bomb. The first time i came across your tips, i was overwhelm and i made up my mind to sign up with immediate effect. Your Lessons are very simple and easy to implement. You are a blessing to as many that will make up their minds to earn legitimate cool cash on the internet.
I love you Eric!
Hi Eric,
am I the only one having problems playing the video(s) ? Some work and some don’t. Now I am at number 20 and it stops after 3 min.