Finding A Profitable Niche 4
Finding A Profitable Niche
Now before I get too far ahead into this article, I wanted to go over something real quick. No matter what you do or how hard you try, you may end up picking a niche that just does not do well when it comes to making money. This isn’t to say that every niche won’t make money because in fact a lot of them do make money. But there is also a chance that it will make very little money because there could be too much competition or it could just not be something that people are interested in buying.
With that out of the way, let’s get into finding a possible niche.
When it comes to finding a niche, you can go about it 2 ways. One way is to write about something that interests you and the other is to find a niche that has a chance to make money. I, along with most people, will tell you to go after something that you are interested in. Why exactly do you want to do this?
- It will be far easier for you to write about something that you already know about
- You will be a lot more motivated to write about it
- You won’t perceive it as “work” but instead something that you enjoy
- You already know the terms and any possible slang words within the niche
As you can see, there are some really great points as to why you should pick something that you are interested in. Essentially you want to make this as easy as possible because the more you work at it the more you will make. But, it just may so be that your interests are already in a crowded and oversaturated niche. Of course you can make money in anything, it will just require a lot more work to achieve the same results.
But before you go ahead and start writing already, we need to do some keyword research to make sure that the niche is worth getting into. There are many tools online that you can use to aid you in finding keywords. Some of them are paid while others are free.
Keyword Research Tools
Micro Niche Finder - This is one that I personally use and recommend. It uses Google’s data for it’s numbers so you don’t have to worry if it is grabbing data from lesser used search engines. Considering Google holds about 60% of the search engine traffic, using data from Google is your best bet. One of the features that I like most about Micro Niche Finder is the Brainstorm button. If you are having a hard time trying to think of a keyword, all you have to do is hit the button and it will generate a list of 25 random keywords for you. From here you can dig further in and find out a profitable niche. I have found quite a few niches using this method and it is one of the core reasons why I continue to use Micro Niche Finder.
WordTracker - WordTracker is an extremely popular keyword research tool used by thousands of people. Full use of their program and features requires a monthly subscription but they do provide a free keyword tool that anybody can use. I typically will find a keyword using Micro Niche Finder to find a keyword and then plug it into the WordTracker tool to gather further statistics. WordTracker also offers users a free 7-day fully functioning trial of their software. This allows you to use every feature that regular subscribers use for 7 days. Once the 7 days is up you can then decide to purchase the monthly subscription or continue using the free keyword tool.
Google AdWords Keyword Tool - Completely 100% free and come straight from the horse’s mouth. Google’s Keyword Tool was recently upgraded a few months back to show the estimated number of searches for the previous month along with the average number of searches for that keyword each month over the past 12 months. You can also view the estimated CPC (cost per click) that advertisers are paying for that keyword. If you plan to use Google Adsense as a monetization method, this can give you a general idea on how much money you could possibly make. After entering your keyword into the input box, Google will give you a huge list of related keywords along with thier data.
While the keyword tool is only an estimate of the number of searches per month, I always use it as the data is coming directly from the search engine I am trying to capitalize on. There are other online keyword research tools that people use, however these are the ones that I personally use when researching and I would recommend them to anybody.
Judging The Competition
In order to find out whether or not a niche is worth getting into we need to take a look into who you are going to be competing against. Micro Niche Finder and WordTracker both provide algorithms that try to determine the level of competition for a certain keyword. Both of them provide pretty accurate comparisons and can generally be trusted. How do they judge how competitive a keyword is?
They first look at the number of searches done for that keyword per month or per day. Typically you want to find a keyword that has more then 100 searches per day or about 3000 searches per month. While you can certainly make money with a lower searched keyword, 100 searches per day should give you a good indication of it’s overall money making potential. Secondly, the tools look at how many results are provided for the exact phrase match of the keyword. The exact phrase match means your keyword placed within quotes when you search for it. When you search for the exact phrase match, only results that have those exact words in that exact order on the page or in the title of the page will show up. This along with the number of searches is used to determine the possible potential of a keyword.
It can be debated on the numbers with what you should be judging upon. As an example I personally look at the number of searches per month and times that by 3. If the results that show up using the exact phrase match are close to 3 times the amount of searches per month or less then I proceed further with that keyword. But we also have to look a bit further into the results listed by Google. 2 things that you are going to want to look into within the top 10 results are the PageRank of the pages listed and the number of incoming links.
There have been many debates on the effectiveness of PageRank but I believe that it does have an influence on position. You will typically see higher ranked pages dominating the first page results, but this isn’t to say that a page with no PageRank at all can’t beat them out. That is the beauty of niches, even a page with no PageRank whatsoever can still beat out a higher ranked page. What is most important is the back links that are pointing to your page and the anchor text used in the links.
Notice I mentioned the anchor text used within the links. Unless you can grab a domain with your exact keyword that you are targeting you are going to need people to link to your site using your keyword. As an example if you have www.pizzapielovers.com and your main keyword is pizza pie lovers, there is a pretty good chance that a few people will link using your domain name. However, if the keyword you are targeting is pepperoni pizza lovers on one of your pages, a domain back link isn’t going to be as relevant. To bring out the keywords full potential and have a better chance at ranking higher, you would want a link pointed to your pepperoni pizza lovers page using pepperoni pizza lovers as the anchor text.
What is the anchor text?
Simply put it is the words that you see that you can click on that point to another page or website. You want these kind of links pointing to your pages instead of random click here or visit this page links. Those type of links explain nothing what the page is about and Google will not credit your page as relevant when those links are used. This is why it is important to get have you keyword used in the anchor text within a link. Google will see the anchor text, will proceed to your page and see that it is relevant and will give it a boost in authority.
When researching your competitors you are going to want to find the number of keyworded links that are pointing back to their page. Get more links pointing back to your page that use your keyword then they have and you have a good chance at ranking higher than them. Of course, on page search engine optimization and other factors help, but back links are considered to be the biggest determining factor in how well you will rank.
Don’t forget to always be trying to get more links back to your site and pages. While you may find that you rank extremely well after only a few links, search engines are constantly improving and refining their algorithms. The more links you have pointing back to you, the better chance you have at remaining in a higher position unless a drastic change is made in which you have to rethink your entire linking strategy.
