The Trick to Finding a Niche

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Walk into any store and say you are looking for a gift for someone, ask what is the new "big thing", do this all over your local mall, go home and do some keyword research and what kind of searches these things are getting. Try to either make a niche site about that stuff or find an affiliate program for it.

I've never tried this btw, just an idea of something to do while your wife/girlfriend is shopping.
 
I was about to suggest my thread as soon as I read this title but then I noticed you've already read it :)

Other than that...you can use Google Trends or like Miguel said, just walk around and keep your eyes open.
 
if you like techstuff, go to engadget.com and check out the news. Sometimes they talk about very very very new stuff. Could become the niche of tomorrow. For example, what about flexible lcd ??? ;)
 
Start with a topic you like, read a lot, and branch out from there.

If you are pulling up ebay pulse, google trends, or the yahoo buzz index that is possibly a signal that you are still in that "crawling in the dark" phase. You can make money jumping on the days hottest news story or trend, but its tough, especially if you have no real interest in it. In most cases, the traffic dries up quickly and you have to start all over again.

Shoemoney made a good point on his blog recently. I believe it was his Q&A post were someone asked what research tools he used -- he said they got the data from their own sites. This is something I do too. Wordtracker and the overture tools are nice but very limited.

If you want to register domains, or do large scale automated stuff then finding niches is very valuable. A good programmer could write a tool to automatically scrape publicly available data sources and auto-generate what they need off of that.

However, if you want to find some holy grail hot niche and build a real business around it or penetrate the market deeply (no pun intended) then you absolutely have to start with somewhere you like, know, and understand (in that order.)
 
Miguel said:
Walk into any store and say you are looking for a gift for someone, ask what is the new "big thing", do this all over your local mall
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As Andrew alludes to in the previous post, a survey or analysis of actual data is a lot more reliable and, therefore profitable (in that order)
 
I think new things are easier to find online at sites with tons of products or that track new trends.

The mall is for the standard consumers and those items are near saturation and the competition will be huge. Sometimes people ask for things at stores "pull" but often they dont even bother the teenage clerks.
 
Miguel said:
Walk into any store and say you are looking for a gift for someone, ask what is the new "big thing", do this all over your local mall, go home and do some keyword research and what kind of searches these things are getting. Try to either make a niche site about that stuff or find an affiliate program for it.
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Dumbest idea ever. Odds are, the minimum wage teenage clerk is going to give you an answer like, "Uhh, like, I don't know."

And then you're going to stand there, looking like a retard and feeling very awkward.

Internet best seller lists on sites like Amazon are the best. You don't need a list of a zillion sites to get a finger on the market. Amazon....and verify it with Google Trends.
 
Create a profitable website to make money online. Look at digg for example. Get some ideas, go apply them.
 
In a way your not asking the proper question because finding a niche is the easiest thing in the world, just pick something there are an unlimited amount of things you can get into, literally, no need to think about what to get into just get into a niche.

The question you should have been asking is what kind of niche markets are profitable right now, in which you answer would simply be find a niche, do some preliminary research, if it looks good, jump in, test the waters, if it shows some profits, hit it harder and harder until it slows down enough to the point that you'll find a new niche.
 
Here's my idea

I'd use Yahoo Answers. If I have a niche in mind, I'd do a search. See the questions being asked, build a site around it, monetize then answer questions that come up in the niche and direct them to my site. Use it wisely :rasta:
 
Aequitas said:
In a way your not asking the proper question because finding a niche is the easiest thing in the world, just pick something there are an unlimited amount of things you can get into, literally, no need to think about what to get into just get into a niche.

The question you should have been asking is what kind of niche markets are profitable right now, in which you answer would simply be find a niche, do some preliminary research, if it looks good, jump in, test the waters, if it shows some profits, hit it harder and harder until it slows down enough to the point that you'll find a new niche.
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I totally agree. Using eBay Pulse and other keyword tools helps you validate or at least size/estimate profitability of a niche. They shouldn't be used to find a niche. Wordtracker is cool on this front because it can also help you out with a view of the competitive landscape of a category or set of keywords.

To pick a niche, go with your passions and what you know. Not only will this help you keep motivated, but you should have a leg up by being able to dive deep into a subject and expand your keyword list much farther.

If you're looking at trends, don't be lame and do the obvious seasonality stuff - computers for back to school, flowers for mother's day, etc. Same goes for big product launches like iPhone, Harry Potter or the 300 DVD. Those are big markets, but may not be the most profitable because the costs are ridiculous and your content will not standout from the massive crowd. Pick up a trend idea that has less competition like an upsurge in sales of video games by id in line with this weekend's QuakeCon.
 
Go to bookstores and check out the magazine rack. Its not cheap to have a magazine circulation going so its been around for any length of time at all, chances are there's a sizable group of people who're interested in the niche.
 
Aequitas said:
The question you should have been asking is what kind of niche markets are profitable right now, in which you answer would simply be find a niche, do some preliminary research, if it looks good, jump in, test the waters, if it shows some profits, hit it harder and harder until it slows down enough to the point that you'll find a new niche.
Click to expand...

Damn good point. Profitability rules b/c you should assess ROI whether you're spending time on research or $$$ on PPC.

I would love to hire a personal assistant to research potential niches for me to expedite the money making process.
 
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