How do you decide what site to start?

[MortimerJazz]

A lot of the advice on here seems to be to start up a site on a subject that you're interested in as you'll be more inclined to write content for it.

However, I've noticed that alot of people also decide to start up sites based on niche subjects which, in some cases, they don't know a whole lot about.

So my question is, what makes you suddenly decide to start up a site selling garden furniture, or caravan holidays? How do you know that there's a market for it?

Thanks alot,

[gadget]

One thing I look for is a low level of competition. Clearly no competition is likely to mean no business. The next thing I look at is the quality of the competition. Thereafter it's the usual suspects of traffic estimation for the chosen keywords.

[tbp]

I started creating sites I had a personal interest in, such as my bank charges site, but now create a lot of sites I know nothing about when I start. I research each topic fully before I start, to learn as much as I can about it, I find this really interesting and have learnt a lot that I never knew before!

How do you select sites? I generally start by looking at keyword tools, to find sites with a lot of searches. I`ll then look at the search engines and see how much competition there is, and see whether i`ll be able to dominate the market and go straight into the top 3 in google. If i`m pretty sure I can do it, i`ll go ahead and create the site. In about 90% of cases I have managed to get to the top 3, sometimes going as far as knocking established sites off the number 1 spot!

Generally select keywords by starting in a subject I know a little about, and from the new related keywords returned, i`ll find links to other markets, and i`ll look into those as well.

Sometimes, i`ll work in reverse and select a merchant that appeals to me and that I`d like to promote. I`ll then think of connected keywords and go through the list and see in which areas I can dominate, and often find new areas at the same time.

Quite enjoy the niche finding process, and have to stop myself spending all my time looking for new ones, rather than building the actual sites. Have a back log of about 30 sites now I need to build, but use the odd 5 minutes here or there to find new niches, and the backlog gets bigger and bigger! If I find a really solid niche, i`ll buy the domain name straight away so it doesn't get snapped up, and then sit on it until i`m ready to build the actual site behind it.

[John Jupp]

Well I was thinking of (it's available) registering doctorschlong.com to promote Viagra.

I can just see the advertising promo. "Doctor Schlong Can Do It All Night Long".

Then I thought to myself that it's a bit sad to crawl down to that level.

If anyone wants the domain then get it now and btw I want a marketing claw back if you use the promo.

[MortimerJazz]

Thanks alot for the replies.

I generally start by looking at keyword tools, to find sites with a lot of searches.

Do you mind me asking which tools you use?

Well I was thinking of (it's available) registering doctorschlong.com to promote Viagra.

Superb

[tbp]

At the moment I use a mixture of Overture, wordtracker and google.

I`ve designed my own custom pages that pull in the results, so I can see everything on one page, and also add my own custom skews to the data to produce more reliable results.

[MortimerJazz]

I haven't heard of WordTracker, but I'll look it up.

Do both overture and google have their own tools then? Sorry - very much a noobie here!

[tbp]

Heres the relevant links:

SEO Book (Overture) - SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool
Wordtracker - Free Keyword Suggestion Tool from Wordtracker
Google External Keyword Tool - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

None of them can be taken as 100% accurate, the results differ between tools, theres no one definitive tool available unfortunately, but it does give you an estimate of the number of suggest, suggest alternative keywords or products you might not of thought of, and shows which keywords work better than others.

Its best to use all three tools together, to get a combined result, which gives you a decent overall impressions.

Note that Google and Overture results are Monthly, whereas Wordtracker results are daily

All the above are free!