LESSON #20: How to Choose a Niche (Part 2)

By | August 14, 2008

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…)

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Main points:

  • Google your topic (in quotes) and look at these things…

    – How many results?
    – How many paid ads?
    – What kind of sites are in the top 10?

  • Regarding number of search results: If it’s too few, your niche may be too obscure. If it’s too many, you may need to zoom in on a tighter niche.

  • Regarding number of paid ads: Lots of ads equal proof of money in the niche. But keep in mind that more ads also means more competitors.

  • Analyze the top 10 results. What kind of sites are they? Does it look like the sites are making money? Are there any information products, or direct competitors with your product idea?

  • Check the PageRank of some of the top listings. You can use Google Toolbar, or a free PageRank lookup tool.
    (This shows you how hard it will be to compete with their listings from an SEO standpoint)

  • Find out how many times the topic is being searched for each day. You can use this free keyword tool

    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

  • Spy on the competition using the free Spyfu search tool

    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)

  • Search the ClickBank marketplace to see if there are similar information products, and how popular those products are. (Look at the grav score)

    UPDATE: The CB site has changed, and now you have to be signed in to see the marketplace. You can sign up for a free CB account here:
    https://accounts.clickbank.com/public/#/signup/form/key//cid/AffiliatesDIY

  • Search Ebay and Amazon for your topic to see if people are buying related products. (Are they hot sellers, or are they mostly getting 0 bids?)

  • Don’t ignore your gut feeling (if your gut is often right)

    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!

  • 376 thoughts on “LESSON #20: How to Choose a Niche (Part 2)

    1. kaleo

      this is and old lesson on your autoresponder. the spyfu tool is not a free tool, maybe you can change that so people are aware of it instead of clicking and finding it is not free.

      Reply
    2. Kevin

      the page rank checker link doesn’t work. I have tried searching for another tool with no success. Any ideas?

      Reply
    3. yuval

      Hi
      google is no more showing ads in the side of the results.
      how do you look for sponsored ads without google?

      Reply
    4. tony

      Hi Eric,
      I am a little lost when you start to go through the top 10
      result on google, what are you searching for

      Reply
      1. Micah

        Hello Tony,

        I would recommend that you check out Eric’s summary points beneath the video player.

        This lessons focuses on what to look for when choosing a niche.

        Reply
      1. Micah

        Hello Jos,

        Spyfu still works, but works a little differently now.

        You can enter a competitor’s website in their search bar to pull up a great deal of information.

        Reply
    5. Jos van Doorn

      In your video you mentioned a web site. where I could get a lot of information. The web site is:

      http://WWW.SPYMARKETER.COM

      But the web site is not working. When I go to the web site, then there is switched to the web site:

      http://WWW.SPYFU.COM

      There I cannot enter a keyword or so. I can only enter a web site and information about the web site is given.

      Your videos are from a long time ago. There have been some changes. Don’t you not check your videos on what is said in the videos? Do have have an alternative web site for http://WWW.SPYMARKETER.COM.

      Oh. You don’t answer comments. I should not have made this comment.

      Reply
      1. Micah

        Hello Jos,

        Spyfu still works, but works a little differently now.

        You can enter a competitor’s website in their search bar to pull up a great deal of information.

        Reply
    6. Linda

      What is a good number range for Google searches and sponsored ads?
      I have niched down 3 levels as suggested and have a result of 160,000 Google results and only 1 sponsored ad.
      So does that mean the niche is not profitable if everything else lines up correctly ?

      This is very good training.
      Thanks,
      Linda 😀

      Reply
      1. Micah

        Hello Linda,

        160,000 results is sizable. Yes, it may be that the search query is unprofitable. But, it may also mean that you have discovered an untapped niche. It might be good to do a quick test campaign.

        Reply
      1. Mike Bartlett

        I just want to thank you for all the free lessons, this is an incredibly generous undertaking. Links & products change often for various reasons and its quite an undertaking in time and money to keep it updated.

        I just wanted to post a big THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU AND YOUR TEAM DO!

        Reply
    7. Marc M. Demers

      Hi Eric,

      Event if this is an old video, the theory is amazing.

      There is a lot of stuff surrounding “Niche Research”.

      This Video is just the tip of the iceberg, there is a lot of things to learn to get an average skill in “Niche Research” Niche.

      Congrats for your great job.

      Marc

      Reply

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