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Phil Tanny · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2003 1:41 am Post subject: Niche Finding Specialist?

Hey all, will welcome comments on the following:

After reading many threads here and elsewhere regarding SBI,
AdSense and affiliate program marketing in general, the
subject of finding a good niche for a new site seems to come
up repeatedly.

My general impression is that finding a profitable niche
might be the biggest obstacle facing many would be
publishers, and that this challenge will get larger over
time as competition for all the niches continues to heat up.

With that in mind I'm wondering if anyone is offering
professional level niche research services.

You know, you could hire a specialist to do your html, your
graphics, your SEO, your CGI, your content etc etc. Can you
hire a consultant to find you a good niche as well?

What's a "good niche"? Well, that's in the eye of the
buyer of course. As a place to start a discussion I might
try to define a good niche as one where 20 keyword optimized
pages (using SBI for instance) of original content would
generate a couple hundred dollars a month or more of income
for at least a year.

It seems like a lot of folks need help finding niches. Is
anybody who actually knows what they're doing selling this
service?

If no, what services would you expect from such a specialist?
What would you be willing to pay for them?

Any and all brainstorming along these lines will be read
with interest here. Go for it!

Phil

Guest · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2003 8:11 am Post subject:

Have you seen "Strike it Niche"? It may cover what you are talking about.

AllanGardyne · Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 10:35 pm Post subject: The free publicity factor

Here's an often overlooked factor which I think is extremely important when you're trying to define a good niche, or decide on a topic for a site...

If you build a site based on this niche, will other people voluntarily mention your site in newsletters, in email discussion lists and on their web sites?

I've been fortunate enough to dream up a couple of sites like that - http://www.AssociatePrograms.com and http://www.PayPerClickSearchEngines.com - and it's played a huge part in how successful those sites have been.

Come to think about, even my first site, about gluten-free recipes back in 1996, received a lot of free publicity, too.
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Phil Tanny · Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 11:59 pm Post subject:

Allan,

Great to hear from you buddy. Thanks for the health updates you post, we're all glad to hear of your progress. As always, best wishes!

OK, I bought my first copy of SBI yesterday and am now officially in the web publishing rat race. I've learned a lot from Allan's, and a number of others, great posts on niche research. I'll surely continue to learn more about this important skill.

That doesn't stop me from wondering when we'll start to see niche research become a professional speciality for hire like SEO, or Perl programming, or any number of other web development services you can purchase.

I can do a little Perl programming, enough to do little things here and there on my own sites. But if I was going to build a site that depended completely on Perl I'd hire a pro like Will Bontrager to make sure it got done right. In the long run this expense would save me a lot of money.

Does anyone else find it interesting that, as best I can tell, no one is selling this kind of consulting yet? Or am I just uninformed?

Is there a business opportunity here for someone?

Phil

Phil CA · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 8:10 pm Post subject:

Hi All,

Thought it would be an interesting time to restart Phil Tanny's thread regarding niche research become a professional speciality for hire like SEO. (Hi Phil) Wink

How many more niche sites and SBI'ers are there now? Is it really getting more difficult or easier

As Phil Tanny originally questions were...
Does anyone else find it interesting that, as best I can tell, no one is selling this kind of consulting yet? Or am I just uninformed?

Is there a business opportunity here for someone?

Actually, there are some offering this service But nowhere near the saturated market of SEO competition.

Your thoughts and opinions?

All the best
Phil CA

speedguide · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 9:42 pm Post subject:

Phil,

Interesting post....

I'll say that I have 20-25 niches I'm looking at. I do some research and then let them sit... do some addition research and I then if they look like going after ... off I go. But it has to be my gut and not someone else.

A lot of the BIG areas are too competitive - I'll preach a little here. Look for areas that you will have little competition - they are there 1,000's of them - but you have to spend some time looking and thinking - it takes more than 20 minutes or 1 SBI brainstorming session.

That's why I brainstorm with a couple of other people and we come up with ideas we like and help each other. What may work for me may not for you.

It's like drilling for oil... there are some dry wells and then you hit a good one ---- then lots of little wells can produce all around.

Remember - ONE is to small of a number for success

All the Best,
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Jeff Smith · **Joined**: 25 Sep 2003 **Posts**: 8

Phil - interestingly enough, I end up offering these services even though it's
not something I specifically market. Here's why...

I offer products and services that help people create profitable products,
and that inevitably leads to issues with my clients having identified
niches - but more importantly, identified a highly desired, emotional
opportunity within a clearly identified niche.

After helping individuals and companies design everything from successful
software products, books, courses, seminars and consumer products -
lack of profit almost always comes down to a failure in either identifying
a niche market or addressing a hot desire within a niche market.

There are a growing number of "Creativity Banks", "Innovation Banks" and
Idea Banks that are growing to servce corporate America, however not
many people are doing this down to the small or individual business level.

Is there a business - YES. Trick is, can you market it strictly as a niche
finding business - maybe not. Likely part of overall service to startup a
business, market a business or other category people are used to paying
money for.

Cheers...

Jeff
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Phil Tanny · Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2004 12:07 am Post subject:

Thanks for kicking this one up again Phil.

I've solved this one for myself temporarily by going the "follow your bliss" route for my first site. But I don't expect it to be wildly profitable, and will have to enter other markets as well, so the challenge remains.

Gary's point that you have to work at it and expect some failures as the price of doing business seems like good advice. I'm hearing that.

I guess working at niche research diligently within a proven system is the way to go. Who has done the best of job of explaining such a system? Martell?
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speedguide · Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2004 12:54 am Post subject:

Phil,

Read this thread and between the lines on building a niche... we can talk next week again ... Laughing

http://associateprograms.com/discus/viewtopic.php?t=3686&start=15
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Electronic Perceptions · Guest

Guys,

I was going to offer "niche consulting" in a sense - more in the form of detailed market specific research report in a membership site. Things happened though and instead, I wrapped everything I had up in one niche report and it's been for sale since March 5th: The Hot Niche Market Profit Report.

I also leave little niche gems scattered here and there throughout The Guru Gazette Niche Marketing Blog (http://www.gurugazette.com).

I'm glad circumstances made me go this way with things too. I've done consulting for a solid 7 years now and didn't realize how tired of it I was until I started blogging and creating my own niche sites. I think that's the case with a lot of the more experienced people online today too - they're busy tapping the niche markets themselves, and creating hands-free income. Much more fun IMHO Wink

Hope it helps a bit,
Kathy