Niche Research is the third article in our How To Find Niche Markets series. The first article in the series goes over some niche market fundamentals.  The second article helps you develop an initial list of niche ideas.  This article is all about Niche Research– or evaluating your short list of niches to find the one that you can succeed with.  If you have followed the steps in the first to articles, you should have a short list of about 10 potential niches that you  need to research.  The detail research phase consists of: market sizing, competition, and potential to add value to the niche.

Niche Market Sizing

There are a variety of ways that you can measure the relative size of a web market opportunity. Two relatively easy ways to evaluate a market size are to research the number of searches (search volume) and to determine a relative sales volume.  The easiest way to determine search volume is to use Google’s own keyword tool.  There are other tools on the market (including my favorite- Market Samurai), but Google’s tool is free, and the data source is Google’s search engine which will most likely be your number one source of traffic. [Read more…]

Niche Ideas is the second article in our How To Find Niche Markets series. The first article in the series goes over some niche market fundamentals.  The third article will explain how to research and evaluate your niche ideas.  This article is all about “Brainstorming” – or coming up with your initial list of ideas.  Coming up with an initial list of niche ideas is easy for some people and harder for others.  If you are struggling with developing your list, use these tactics to help you get started.

Amazon

Amazon is a treasure trove of useful information about what people are interested in and what they purchase.  In particular, the following Amazon goodies can help you develop your initial list of niche ideas or topics.
Amazon Best Sellers  – is a list (updated hourly) of what sells on Amazon in various categories from Appliances to Video Games.  If a product is a best seller on Amazon then you can be sure there are devoted fans and thousands of people searching for information about the product. [Read more…]

How To Find Niche Markets For Your Website is a three part series that leads you through the steps of generating and evaluating niche ideas for your website.  In the first part of the series I will go over some of the fundamental considerations that you must understand.  In the second part of the series I will help you brainstorm niche ideas.  Finally, the third part of the series will show you how to evaluate your niche ideas and determine whether you can succeed in the market.

Finding a profitable niche for your online business is the most strategic decision you will make for your new venture.  All of your other decisions (website design, hosting, traffic generation, monetization approach) pale in comparison.  If you choose a market that has low demand, your site will never get traffic because no one is interested in your niche.  On the other hand, if you choose a market with strong demand, but intense competition, you risk being hard to find or irrelevant.  Lastly, if you choose a market that has the benefits of strong interest and weak competition, but no income potential – then you will have a highly visited website that doesn’t make any money. [Read more…]