Blog Niche: Waaaay too dense

[Fraser]

Ok, I've been procrastinating starting up this "make money online" shtick for a while, and the other day I was like "Crap, I have to start this, it's now or never!"

So I started researching, and I'm going through the SBI! Action Guide. On Day 2 right now, and I've hit a pretty major stumbling block.

I was originally going to devote my blog to guitar playing, offering value through my experiences with some awesome (and some AWFUL) teachers and materials. How to practice, how to find a decent teacher, the theory you do/don't need to know, the stuff that has helped my playing the most, etc. Then I read a paragraph which is pretty much a summary of the entire reason I've been putting this off for so long. This is a HUUUUGE niche. Like, massive.

Is this still visable, or should I realistically look at something else?

Cheers,
Fraser

[Aleksander Krstic]

Dunno, Steve handled PD.

[Canadian]

I'm not an expert, but I would think it's more important that your information be unique rather than just the topic itself.

[90802]

Fraser,

Just wanted to say I feel your pain. Not sure if I can offer much advice, but I can feel your pain, for sure

How is guitar playing too big of a niche? Remember, you want enough material to be able to write hundreds of pages. If you just limited yourself to guitar theory (or any other really narrow niche), you'd probably run out of solid, original material after 20-30 pages.

What other ideas are you bouncing around? What are your areas of expertise?

How about a guitar review site? Review learning material, guitars, amps, the works. I don't know if that is a good niche or not, but reviews do seem to generate a lot of traffic (there's someone from SBI named Tomas that has a site about vacuum cleaners that makes over $5,000 a month. )

Have you done any brainstorming yet (with the SBI keyword tool)? Are you planning on having "guitar" as your overall keyword, but finding that too big? What else is happening?

Maybe with more info I could offer something semi-useful

[Holistic Star]

You could narrow it to a particular type of guitar music

classical
spanish
rock
indie
blues

etc


What do the numbers say?

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by Fraser

I was originally going to devote my blog to guitar playing, offering value through my experiences with some awesome (and some AWFUL) teachers and materials. How to practice, how to find a decent teacher, the theory you do/don't need to know, the stuff that has helped my playing the most, etc. Then I read a paragraph which is pretty much a summary of the entire reason I've been putting this off for so long. This is a HUUUUGE niche. Like, massive.

Is this still visable, or should I realistically look at something else?

Cheers,
Fraser

1. SBI is not for making a blog. It has a blog-like feature, but that is mainly just a "bonus feature" that you can be successful with or without.

2. I have seen at least a few guitar-related SBI sites. Of course every niche has its own supply/demand and unique flavors and all that stuff, but if you follow the Action Guide, you will be able to make a decent prediction of success or failure.

My advice would be to do a guitar-related website that starts out targeting very specific keywords that you can win (relatively high demand, VERY low supply).

By targeting very low supply keywords that have demand, you can get some traffic immediately and that will give you the "boost" of motivation to help you create more content.

With SBI, the only "straight path to failure" is to choose a niche with very low demand, or to choose a niche with insanely high supply that you will never be able to compete with.

If you choose high demand/low supply keywords and keep making unique content the way SBI teaches, it is not really a question of "if" it will be successful, but just "when?"

[Fraser]

thanks for the advice guys, theres been some really awesome posts in here.

I've only been using the SBI free action guide, I don't actually have SBI, as it's quite a bit of money right now (will get it over the summer when I'm working again). Instead i'm using market samurai. just going to make some breakfast and then I'm going to sift through for a decent keywords on there for a bit.

Definitely going to go ahead with this (going to focus mainly on reviews and a lot of "conceptual" ideas rather than actual technique or theory, as thats sucha bit niche its crazy), got some great ideas for articles forming (and a couple of small ideas may eventually become part of an e-book).

[MyEyeIsOpen]

The trick to getting into a niche like this is to be the best at something really specific. Like, if you're the best damn blue grass banjo player in the world, people will come to you to learn blue grass banjo. Pick a niche--or create it--then own it.

[codefreeze]

First off I would forget all about worrying that the niche is overly dominated. There are very few worthwhile niches that won't already have people probing them. I think if you keep looking for the mythical "untapped niche" you will be stuck in a loop forever.

I think it's far more important to find something that you feel really passionate about. Then write about that. Your site will be unique, because there is only one of you, and nobody is the same as you, has had the same experiences, and has exactly the same techniques and skill set. So if you write from your heart, and bring in your true personal experiences, I think that will represent something unique.

There's a tougher problem to consider though. How can you really, really help people? If you were learning the guitar again what kinds of things would you find useful? Is there some additional service or tool you could provide that would really help someone rapidly develop that skill (guitar). You might need to team up with one of the techies that lurk in this site to produce a unique software product or multimedia product. I think teaching guitar will lend itself to a multimedia approach, say videos. Could you produce a video course? Not a unique idea, but you could perhaps bring in a unique flavour. Here's a hint - go and watch how Bob Parsons livens up what would be the most boring speech imaginable. Some decent bluegrass music and a couple of raunchy cow girls could be just the thing to liven up a video. OK perhaps not

Basically, you need to ask yourself "how can I really help someone here".

p.s. You are not alone, I am going through that process myself right now. I am not focusing on commercial issues - I'm focusing on trying to help people, using my own experiences.

Hope that helps.

[aiyori]

MyEyeIsOpen:

I read about your patch and feel very sorry for you coz you're really a good looking guy.

Fraser:

Have you heard of the selling shoes in Africa story?
Two salespeople are assigned to sell shoes in Africa. So they go there to do market research. After one month, they report to their boss.
Salesperson A: "We have a big potential market because people in Africa have not bought any shoes yet. We'll fill their demand like crazy."
Salesperson B: "We'll not have any chance in Africa because people over there don't even wear shoes. Forget about it."

Do you get the point?

[aiyori]

Fraser:

Again, the best way to make educational materials, in my opinion and experience, is that you ask a total beginner to learn only by reading your things and check the progress.

You'll immediately have the spirit and energy to work on your project once you find out that you're actually making something that can change others.

[Fraser]

The replies here have been absolutely phenomenal, honestly great.

I've decied I'm definitely going to go ahead with the Heavy Metal Guitar niche (something I absolutely love, and I've found a certain keyword with Market Samurai that seems to be pretty solid). A couple of questions now:

Domain name
I'm having real difficulty coming up with a domain name. I think I'm getting closer to the "right" name for my website. Is it advised to be pretty much the same as the keyword, or more memorable (I know eventually I'd like to be promoting my own music & products, so would even including my name in the domain name be a good idea?)

How Far Ahead To Plan
The last couple of days, my imagination and creativity has been on hyperdrive! Like I was pretty sure this was mainly going to be an affiliate thing until I got some of my own music and a couple of backing tracks released, but I've been coming up with (I've got plans for an e-book, a DVD project, merch like shirts posters and stuff, a podcast, and maybe eventually a printed book). The question is, I know you'll want to be taking this one step at a time, but do any of you have a plan to take this pretty big??

[codefreeze]

Can't help you on domain names. I've done it twice and screwed it up both times!

I wouldn't plan too far ahead at this stage. Just take baby steps. It's the best way. As you start moving forward you'll see opportunities to adapt and tune your offering to the market. The main thing is just keep moving forward.

As you mentioned this is a pretty big "niche" you are getting yourself in to, so there should be tons of scope for expanding the business in the future. It should be able to take all you can throw at it.

By the way, Good Luck!

[AaronA]

Originally Posted by Fraser

... and maybe eventually a printed book). The question is, I know you'll want to be taking this one step at a time, but do any of you have a plan to take this pretty big??

Just wanted to point out that with self-publishing sites like Lulu and Issuu, the printed book piece is a lot more doable than you might think. I know there's all sorts of politics at the big publishing houses regarding self-published folks, but that might change with the advent of electronic readers and lower cost self-pub sites.

Anyway, my 2 cents. This is a great thread, because even though I don't know a thing about guitars, this is all practical stuff that I (and I'm sure others) can use. Once your guitar site hits it big, you can do a "build your web biz' site as well!

Aaron

[90802]

Originally Posted by Fraser

The replies here have been absolutely phenomenal, honestly great.

I've decied I'm definitely going to go ahead with the Heavy Metal Guitar niche (something I absolutely love, and I've found a certain keyword with Market Samurai that seems to be pretty solid). A couple of questions now:

Domain name
I'm having real difficulty coming up with a domain name. I think I'm getting closer to the "right" name for my website. Is it advised to be pretty much the same as the keyword, or more memorable (I know eventually I'd like to be promoting my own music & products, so would even including my name in the domain name be a good idea?)

How Far Ahead To Plan
The last couple of days, my imagination and creativity has been on hyperdrive! Like I was pretty sure this was mainly going to be an affiliate thing until I got some of my own music and a couple of backing tracks released, but I've been coming up with (I've got plans for an e-book, a DVD project, merch like shirts posters and stuff, a podcast, and maybe eventually a printed book). The question is, I know you'll want to be taking this one step at a time, but do any of you have a plan to take this pretty big??

Domain name...

From my very limited experience, I'd say you'd be best digging around for a catchy and memorable domain name instead of something loaded with keywords. ZenHabits, ProBlogger, StuffWhitePeopleLike, all sites that have HUGE traffic and aren't loaded with keywords.

I mean, I think a domain name like "rockout.com (I"M sure it's taken, but you know, something shourt and catchy) would be much better than a title like "best-heavy-metal-guitar-lessons.com" Make it something your fans can mention to friends in casual conversation.

How far ahead to plan?

I don't know what your style is, but, I tend to suffer from analysis paralysis. If this happens to you, don't worry about the future and start writing. You will probably make a few mistakes along the way, but that's just the cost of doing business

Perhaps worrying about getting an audience first, then test them out and see what they would be interested in.

GOOD LUCK!

Chris

[iDreamCatcher]

If you plan for long term business with your site - create brand name domain.
If you plan to make a quick buck - create keyword-ish domain names - they'll be quicker to rank.
Do what you love. This will keep you inspired.

Gleb

[cacheborn]

I have been thinking about finding a niche. One trick is what I read in one of Scott Adams's blog posts. (Dilbert creator) Take two quite different topics in which you have some talent and try to combine them. In his case, he knew corporate culture well enough to be able to joke about it and he could draw well. He combined the two things and out came Dilbert.

I know that's not much of an advice, too abstract to implement perhaps. It has been on my mind a lot lately.