A Checklist To Help Find Niche Markets

Once you have your list of ~1000 key phrases associated with a broad market use the following checklist to narrow down your top 100.

JD’s - How To Find Niche Markets - Checklist

Start by looking for a keyword/key-phrase to build your site THEME around
I am already staring at a spread sheet of 1000+ key-phrases related to my Broad Niche now.

1. Pick a small niche sized market.
   One that has between 10,000 and 15,000 competing websites (results on a Search Engine Results Page).
   • The bigger targets are possible to dominate over longer periods of time, whereas faster results are important for your confidence and commitment.

2. Pick a key-phrase that people are searching for.
   One that has a steady stream of organic (search engine) traffic?
   • Keep in mind this is just the main targeted key-phrase, you will also want to target a wide net of phrases (CATEGORIES and ARTICLE titles) each bringing in its own traffic.
   • With niches around this size estimate traffic:
     • over 1000 per day are Diamonds
     • over 500 per day are Gold
     • over 100 per day are Silver
     • over 10 per day are Bronze

3. Is there any money in the niche?
   • You can do this manually by:
     • Looking at the number of Google Ads that appear with the keyphrase as the search query.
     • Using the Free Adwords - Keyword Tool
     • Running a mock Adwords campaign
   • If you used my $8 dollar service, the ‘Adwords Cost’ column shows the highest bid for that keyword by advertisers…
     • Anything over $1 is great, over $5 is Awesome and once I have stumbled across a niche paying ~$30 and over 20 categories for the site were paying ~$20 so I built a site for it designed to just to make money off the Adsense (placing Google Ads on my site).

4. What are the readers looking for?
   • Once you have narrowed your list down to 100 using the above 3 - Low Competition, Traffic and Money - its time to take each keyword or phrase and copy it across to the Google Search Engine. What products, formats and assets are attached to the niche?
     • Create a new column and just summarize this in one or two words.
     • Amongst my shortlist for ‘weight loss’ I found Diets, Diets and Information, Workout DVDs, Ebooks, Ebooks and Information, Exercises and Information, Freebies, Over counter style products, Patches, Pills, Supplements and Diets, Supplements and Recipes, Tools and Accessories, Healthy Solutions and Local Businesses.

5. What will be expected of you?
   Again this is a matter of looking at the top ranking sites for each key-phrase and looking at what kind of site you will be expected to provide to that market.
   • What kind of research work you will have to do
   • What kind of information you will have to provide
     • A directory of local businesses
     • Well researched information
     • Buy and review every product

   Do you want to work hard or easy?
   Will you have to continually work on the site?
   Can you just work for 3 months then relax a bit?

6. How can you monetize each niche
   Are there any affiliate products you can sell or will you have to rely on Adsense and sponsorship?
   • Add one of the following after your keyphrase:
     • Affiliate
     • Affiliate program
     • Affiliates
   • Search on Google for “affiliate programs directory” and then search amongst a few of those site.
   • Take a look on Clickbank.com - CJ.com - Linkshare.com

   I keep records of everything you find and also note the cookie expiry and % of commissions

7. Calculate the earning potential of each niche.
   Lastly come up with a quick and dirty formula to calculate the daily potential of the top ten niches.
   My formula assumes you will do the 3 months work to get ranked for your keywords on 3 levels - Main Page - Categories - Articles - and you will convert 2% of your visitors into a sale.
   Based on a 15 page website of one main page, three categories and three articles under each category + two pages for those really useful resources like charts and tools.

   A = Estimated traffic of your broadest targeted keyword/phrase (main page)
   B = ¼ of A (represent your keyword targeted categories)
   C = ¼ of B (represents your keyword targeted articles )
   D = Average commission on an affiliate sale

   Potential = ( ( A + ( B x 3 ) + ( C x 9 ) ) x 2% ) x D )

   Example:

   • A = 300
   • D =$20
   • Potential = ( ( 300 + ( 75 x 3 ) + ( 18.75 x 9 ) ) x 2% ) x $20 )
   • Potential = ( ( 300 + 225 + 168.75 ) x 2% ) x $20 )
   • Potential = ( 693.75 x 2% ) x $20 )
   • Potential = ~14 x $20
   • Potential = $280 per day

So to sum up:

1. SIZE = Pick a small niche sized market.
2. TRAFFIC = Pick a key-phrase that people are searching for.
3. MONEY = Is there any money in the niche?
4. NEEDS = What are the readers looking for?
5. EXPECTATIONS = What will be expected of you?
6. MONETIZE = How can you monetize each niche
7. POTENTIAL = Calculate the earning potential of each niche.

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