Choosing a niche

[Jon236]

Hi All,

I have been reading these forums with interest over the last few weeks, and I have decided to take the plunge and post a question of my own!

In terms of researching a market niche for a new affiliate site you may wish to launch, what methods do you find best to carry out your research? Are there sites that will give you stats about how many people buy certain products or product groups for example? I am aware of how to conduct keyword research and the like for building the site and content, I would just like your advice and opinions on how best to ascertain the feasibility and potential profitability of targetting a market niche. Is there a tried and tested set of steps you go through to investigate a market, or do you go by common sense, or just take a gamble and go for it?

I look forward to hearing your ideas,

Cheers,

Jon

[chrismockford]

Hi Jon,

I would day the best way to find a niche is to keep your eyes open all the time. If you look around you now someone somewhere has made money from everything you see from the paperclip on your desk to the streetlamps outside.

Try thinking of things that maybe you yourself are interested in and whether you can see a previously unchartered area of this sector you could work within.

Another possibly way of identify niche areas is reading gadget and technology magazines and see what products maybe big in the future, first movers on a particular product are likely to have big advantages over bandwagon jumpers.

I think once you identified your niche it is all about research research research and then research some more

Cheers

Chris Mockford
Senior Affiliate Development Manager
buy.at

[Jon236]

Thanks for your reply Chris, it certainly gives me things to think about. Once the niche is decided upon, what sort of research are you suggesting? Research into the product so I know all about it, the keywords used to search for it, the type of content needed to support these products etc etc, or are you suggesting other things that maybe I've not considered?

This is all quite new to me and I'm keen to soak up as much knowledge as I can before I launch my first site.

Thanks again,

Jon

[chrismockford]

Hi Jon,

I think everything you have mentioned above is imprtant, if you look to being an expert in that niche it will only help the success of your site.

Keywords are important also depending on your method of promotion of the site (i.e paid search). unique high quality content will reap benefits on the SEO stakes.

You should also be researching how you are going to monetise your niche, i.e. what networks offer programs in this area and what are the respective payouts. Speak to the networks (buy.at first obviously ) and try and find out as much info from them as possible such as EPC etc.

With this kind of info you will be a lot better qualified to realise whether the niche you are intending to enter is going to be one that is financially viable

Thanks

Chris Mockford
Senior Affiliate Development Manager
buy.at

[Jon236]

Brilliant! It was the link between discovering a niche and deciding on its feasibility which was baffling me, you seem to have helped clear this up for me, all I need to do is speak to the networks and they will have the information I need!

Excellent, thank you for a very informative response. it is very much appreciated!

[prepaid365]

Hi Jon,
It may be worth checking out Google Trends as well.

It is still in Beta so the stats may not be great but along with Google's suggestion tools, it may give you an idea of what people are looking for.

General advice would be that look around you to find a niche. You should look at niches for products you can mass market

Example - we do prepaid cards .

Credit crunch means less credit, more prepaid. However, that is not the end of it. We have a product on our site called BabeeCard. BabeeCard is for young and expecting mothers for all their purchases.

However, new scenario - credit crunch, mothers going back to work, mothers need nannys, so is the BabeeCard now also a nanny card? See where I am going with this.

Choose a product/service you know loads about and then learn about it and develop a niche as you go along.

Thats my two bits anyway.

All the best

Ash

[Jon236]

Cheers for the tip on Google Trend Ash, that sounds ideal, and I also like your thinking about developing and evolving niches, it certainly gets the ideas flowing!

[amisuggests]

For newbies to affiliate marketing, my advice has always been to choose a niche that you are familiar with and have some passion about

In the beginning, the learning curve can be really steep and it can seem like a long slog, especially because all the initial activity is not supported by the dollars rolling in.

If the niche you are in to start with is something you are genuinely interested in then all the hours you spend learning the ropes and taking your project to financial productivity is not so tedious

The thing to do is list things you already have some authority on and then research how proitable they are using you google trends and other methods mentioned above

After you have done the first project and have agood grip of the concepts involved in taking your affiliate marketing business to profitability, you can go into other niches that you may not be so hot about but which your research has shown to be potentially profitable

[Jon236]

That's a very good suggestion Amisuggests, I was thinking along the lines of doing something I was particularly interested in, and would enjoy building content for and have a couple of ideas around this. I can now hopefully use the suggestions in here as a starting point to see the profitability or otherwise of the niche I have in mind.

Is google trends the main tool people use, or are there other things I may have overlooked?

[amisuggests]

I know people use keyword tools seobook keyword suggestion tool to check demand but places like ebay pulse and amazon are said to be good for research on what's selling.

There was overture in the past but this is all but gone now

You also have to check out the competition, just do a search engine query, to see how many websites cater to your niche

Good luck

[LemonPromotions]

Overture may be dead and buried, but Google appear to have done the business:

just a little something for all people who get stuck for ideas.....

[jamie07051975]