How To Find Profitable Niches…

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The past few weeks I’ve received several questions about selecting niches and niche marketing plans. And that’s a good thing. It means you’re serious about starting your business.

What should your market niche be?

Most first time entrepreneurs choose something in which they have an interest or knowledge, and just start marketing. This would be great, but seldom works because if it’s of interest to them it many times is of great interest to major manufacturers’ that can produce and market much faster and cheaper. Or, which is generally the case; there are far too few potential customers to support a business.

Now, having said that, the fact that your niche is popular is not a bad thing. You need a lot of customers to make your business successful. Maybe you have a micro niche, a small unique part of a much larger niche.

Try this; search abs, fitness, health, etc. The health and fitness niche is monstrous, but there are thousands of smaller, complimentary micro niches surviving very well within this huge market.

Not long ago it was possible to throw just about anything on a web/sales page and you’d find buyers. This really isn’t the case any longer. The internet, internet businesses, and internet buyers have become extremely sophisticated.

The internet is so fast that web sites, products, and services are identified and evaluated almost instantaneously. With this kind of information internet buyers have a wealth of information right at their fingertips within seconds on any number of competing products.

Just think of the last time you were looking for a product, service, or information. You went right to Google didn’t you? And the Great Google gave you a list of items specifically for what you requested, a few of related items, a few items related to some of your earlier requests, AND a list of businesses that were anxious to assist you, all within seconds!

WOW! Is that specialized marketing or what?

Now…you should understand why it’s important to do your homework and have a plan if you want a successful online business?

“OK…but how do I find a good niche, you’re still asking.”

Niches aren’t like puppies and baby ducks. Likes and dislikes, interests and non-interests change constantly. I can tell you a story about starting a wedding speeches niche and ending up with how to make koi fish ponds! There was a lot of learning along the way. My point here is that selecting a niche should involve a process of search, research, analyzing, evaluating, and luck!

Where many marketers fall short is that they select a niche in which they have an interest, have resources, passion, and enjoy. If you can have a niche like this it’s fantastic! But most soon realize that there aren’t enough other people that are as excited about the niche and willing to spend their money. So it fails.

Your first and biggest dilemma is simply narrowing the field. Look at your list of potential niches. Type one into Google and just look at the dozens more variations of that one simple niche. Where do you go? Which one do you chose? Where do you start? How do you know?

There is no magic pill, no software, no simple here it is process. Yet, every successful entrepreneur has their own, tried and proven (to their satisfaction anyway) process of niche selection they feel is the best!

Yes…I do have one, and I’ll share it with you. Can I guarantee it? No. Will it help you narrow the field of niches you have on your list? Yes. Will it give you a basis to build your own? I hope so.

Is it the best plan? It works for me, and I’m constantly fine tuning it to keep up with changing buying attitudes, Google and Amazon advertising methods, etc.

I’m happy to share it with you but offer no guarantees! Fair enough?

Let’ get started:

I set up a simple Excel spreadsheet just so that I have a format in which to keep and view the data. Notepad works just as well.

Select a niche. 3 words max. Go to Amazon: select Books, type in your niche, and every variation of your niche title. Count the number of books directly related to your niche.

• 1-3 = Poor
• 4-6 = Fair
• 7-10 =Good
• 11+ =Excellent

Click each book title and scroll down. Under Product Details, count the book reviews

• 0 = Poor
• 1-5 = Fair
• 6 -10 = Good
• 11+ = Excellent

Also under Product Details, what is the ranking?

• 500K + = Poor
• 100K – 499K = Fair
• 50K- 99K = Good
• 0 – 49K = Excellent

ClickBank, Marketplace: again type in your niche. Scroll down and count the number of direct competitors.

• 0 = Poor
• 1 = Fair
• 2 – 5 = Good
• 6+ = Excellent

ClickBank, Marketplace: write down the Gravity of each direct competitor and average the total.

• 0 = Poor
• 1 = Fair
• 2 – 5 = Good
• 6+ = Excellent

Google: type in your niche. Count the number of direct competitors in top 10 (first page).

• 0 = Poor
• 1 = Fair
• 2 = Good
• 3+ = Excellent

Google: type in your niche and the word ‘forums’. Count the number of directly related forums in top 10 (first page).

Note: Open each and make sure they’re really forums.

• 0 = Poor
• 1 = Fair
• 2 = Good
• 3+ = Excellent

Google: scroll down to the bottom of each forum and note the Users Online.

• 0 – 9 = Poor
• 10 – 19 = Fair
• 20 – 49 = Good
• 50+ = Excellent

Adwords.google.com: this is a keyword tool, use it. Type in your niche root word. Note the many Global Monthly Searches.

• 0 – 2499 = Poor
• 2500 – 4900 = Fair
• 5000 – 9999 = Good
• 10K+ = Excellent

Yea, all done. Enter the data into a grid and BAM…a niche!

NO.

Everyone has a different process for evaluating niches so there isn’t nor will there ever be a ‘Master Evaluator’. But, what you have is a tremendous amount of valuable information. You should be a lot smarter about the niche you’ve chosen.

Just clean up and review your research. Now is ‘stop and evaluate’ time. Count the number of Poor and Fair verses the Good and Excellent and you will have a remarkably simple yet effective “niche finder.”

It’s not magical, it’s not even scientific, but it works for me when trying to reduce the number of niches on my list.

What you’re trying to do is isolate a niche within its market.

How many other sites are there? How many people are searching for this niche? If there are a lot of books written then there must be sufficient customers to support book sales, right? Book reviews and people on-line in forums tell you that there are people passionate enough about the niche to be talking about it publicly.

How-To manuals tell you that there are people looking for details (possibly a micro niche?) Google searches tell you how many others are interested in this niche, and is there room for you? Are they buyers or shoppers? If a book ranks high then people are buying, right?

TIP: The folks at books ‘For Dummies’ do some exhaustive research before they publish a book, check Amazon!

This research process usually takes me about 2 – 3 days to complete. My average is about 1 in 5 researches are keepers. “You’re kidding?” “That’s a lot of work for something that might work?”

Sure is, but compared to the work and money to set up a web site and marketing plan for a go-nowhere niche, it’s worth my time. It’s extremely frustrating but pays big dividends. Trust me!

It’s decision time now.

Have a winner? Need to start over (glad you found out now), adapt, micro niche?

Remember…your ideas can be as good as anyone else’s.

This is NOT a time to trust your gut! Trust your research.

Talk soon!
-Jonathan Right

P.S. – Always keep your data. That niche may be on fire next year!

P.P.S – Was this post helpful? Please leave a comment below.