How do you find a profitable niche to build a website on?

[justhopingandsearching]

Does anyone know of any ways to find profitable niches? And, also does anyone know of a way to tell in general how much a given niche can generate in income per month/per year?

For example, I remember reading somewhere (unfortunately, I can't remember where) to look at ClickBank and see which e-books are the best sellers on the site. How do I find the best sellers on the site?

Another, is to look at Amazon in the book section to see the best-selling books there, and basically skim through the list and pick one you know you could write about.

I have a monetary goal in mind for my future website, now I just need to find a subject that I can and am willing to write on that will deliver me to that goal.

[Rebecca800]

I don't believe there is a way of predicting, for instance, that a hypnosis website will deliver you $2000/month. Or that a diet website will deliver you $5000/month. There are too many factors at play.

When choosing a niche I always begin with the same two questions:

1. What am I passionate about? Because ultimately this is what's going to keep you motivated to work on your site.

2. What do people NEED? Because that is where demand is highest.

So, I write a long list of topics based on my hobbies and interests, books that I've read, TV documentaries, things that I keep returning to in conversation, and new potential interests. I study this list and keep adding to it for at least a week.

Then I pick my favorites and research them in terms of profitability. I do this using Site Build It's keyword research tool and by building a monetization plan. I research the best quality products in that niche and assess whether I want to sell them. Or whether I can create my own product and sell that.

Check out affiliate networks like ClickBank, Ejunkie, Commission Junction, Share a Sale, etc. Remember many publishers run their own affiliate admin too, so they are not listed on any marketplace. You will find them by searching for the terms your potential customers would search for.

Remember that a topic can be red hot (say... getting a flat stomach) but that doesn't mean it's profitable. The market could be over saturated. So understanding supply is just as important as understanding demand.

If there is a website or formula out there that taps into the supply and demand and profitability of a niche, based on all the available affiliate products - that would be a real gem for internet marketers.

Hey maybe that could be your niche

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by justhopingandsearching

Does anyone know of any ways to find profitable niches? And, also does anyone know of a way to tell in general how much a given niche can generate in income per month/per year?

For example, I remember reading somewhere (unfortunately, I can't remember where) to look at ClickBank and see which e-books are the best sellers on the site. How do I find the best sellers on the site?

Another, is to look at Amazon in the book section to see the best-selling books there, and basically skim through the list and pick one you know you could write about.

I have a monetary goal in mind for my future website, now I just need to find a subject that I can and am willing to write on that will deliver me to that goal.

Well one way to make money is to find something that people are searching for, and use your own time/money/energy to provide it for them. As Rebecca said, "what do people need?"

In my case, I found out that there are thousands of searches a month for the keyword "acupuncture charts" and similar terms related to finding acupuncture points on the body. I started looking online and found out that there were very few available images of the human acupuncture points for people to look at online for free.

So basically, I invested my own time, money, and energy in creating a free resource for people. I paid a freelance artist something like $175 to create a bunch of the images that people were searching for, then I used the methods taught in SBI to put the images up on my website and get traffic to them.

Even though I started out risking my time and money just to make the resource to begin with, the site has paid me far beyond what it cost me to set up. I like to think that the amount of money it brings in is directly related to the amount of value that it is providing to its thousands of visitors every month.

So that is my advice: Find something that people need, and use your own time/energy/money to create it for them. But as Steve said in one of his blog posts, "make damn sure it's profitable!"

(Also, if you are just starting out, use SBI. They teach you everything you need to get started)

[justhopingandsearching]

Originally Posted by Rebecca800

Then I pick my favorites and research them in terms of profitability. I do this using Site Build It's keyword research tool and by building a monetization plan.

I'm using SBI as well, how does looking at profitability work for you? After all, profitability isn't based on how much money you could make in a niche, but rather if the reward is worth the risk, which by the way I still don't get. I honestly don't understand what the point of profitability is! The other two: Value and Supply, I get at least.

Originally Posted by Rebecca800

I research the best quality products in that niche and assess whether I want to sell them. Or whether I can create my own product and sell that.

How do you know if a product is a "quality product?" Do you buy it and try it out?

Originally Posted by Rebecca800

Remember that a topic can be red hot (say... getting a flat stomach) but that doesn't mean it's profitable. The market could be over saturated. So understanding supply is just as important as understanding demand.

Oh, I know I've been reading the SBI forums, and I don't want to make the mistakes some of them on there have made. For example, I don't want to pick a niche that I'm absolutely passionate about, but there's no real way to make a profit off of it because the traffic is too low and/or the niche itself doesn't lend well to being monetized. On the other hand, I also don't want a niche with tons of profit potential, but I'd have to work 80 hour days for 2+ years just to start to see some income. That's why I'm taking my time, and trying to get this right (or at least right enough).

SBI gives a guideline of about how much time you can be expected to work on a niche depending on the Supply the niche has, so I was kind of hoping someone had figured out a general guideline for income potential as well, oh well.

Originally Posted by Rebecca800

If there is a website or formula out there that taps into the supply and demand and profitability of a niche, based on all the available affiliate products - that would be a real gem for internet marketers.

Hey maybe that could be your niche

Now, THAT is a good idea! Do you know of any place or web owners who regularly post how much money they make per month/per year?

This is given me much food for thought. Thank you!

[justhopingandsearching]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

In my case, I found out that there are thousands of searches a month for the keyword "acupuncture charts" and similar terms related to finding acupuncture points on the body. I started looking online and found out that there were very few available images of the human acupuncture points for people to look at online for free.

You know I never thought of seeing if I could actually monetize a specific keyword! Why didn't think of that?!

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

Even though I started out risking my time and money just to make the resource to begin with, the site has paid me far beyond what it cost me to set up. I like to think that the amount of money it brings in is directly related to the amount of value that it is providing to its thousands of visitors every month.

If you don't mind me asking, how much money do you make off of your website? Is it in the hundreds (per month or per year), in the thousands, above that?

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

(Also, if you are just starting out, use SBI. They teach you everything you need to get started)

Yeah, I'm using SBI to do this.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by justhopingandsearching

If you don't mind me asking, how much money do you make off of your website? Is it in the hundreds (per month or per year), in the thousands, above that?

Currently in the hundreds every month. Not bad considering I stopped adding content to my site a long time ago

[Rebecca800]

Here's what SBI means by:

Demand - number of people searching for a keyword.

Supply - number of websites actively catering to that keyword.

Profitability - is a Supply/Demand ratio. So it gives you a clear picture of the potential of that keyword - just as Curtis found with Acupuncture Charts.

Here are a few examples of keywords with their D,S,P ratings according to SBI (back when I first researched them in 2008):

Meaning of dreams
D = 5395, S = 9, P = 599444
Demand in the thousands is nice, supply that low is pretty shocking, so the profitability is immense.

Compare that to:

Daydreams
D = 3382, S 10721, P = 315
Again, demand is decent, but it is way over supplied, so profitability is low (P = <1000 means supply outweighs demand so it's very competitive)

In short, you dont want to spend any time going after keywords with profitability under 1000, unless they are integral to your niche.

I export all my SBI keyword lists and sort them in Excel. First I sort by demand and then sort the cream of that by profitability. That's my red-hot list. Then I work down the list, taking the demand column in chunks (say 50k-100k, then 10k-50k, then 5k-10k, then 1k-5k) and sort them each by profitability. And so on. I do this because it's more important to have a high demand keyword that is also profitable (under supplied) than a low demand keyword that is also profitable (simply because no-one else supplies it).

I'm left with a keyword list of, say, 500 words all sorted by potential. I think the more you like to play with lists and organize the keywords, the more efficient your site plan can be. I'm making sure I'm going after the most under serviced, high demand keywords FIRST.

Once you get a feel for the relative numbers, you'll start to see patterns that tell you when a keyword is hot or not. SBI says DON'T become numberbound, because you can obsess over it and end up distorting your niche going for crazy keywords. And you can get bugs in the data. But overall some simple organizing like that is a fantastic way to plan your site about keywords you know are going to generate traffic and therefore potential profit.

[Rebecca800]

Originally Posted by justhopingandsearching

How do you know if a product is a "quality product?" Do you buy it and try it out?

1. The sales page. Does it look scammy to you? Overpriced? Amateur? If so, ditch it.

2. The product. Yes, you buy it. Or you join the affiliate program and buy it with an effective discount. Or you ask the publisher for a free review copy (easier once you have an established website). After a while people will be throwing their products at you to review.

[Mcoroklo]

The niche isn't that important, as long as it has the following requirements furfilled:

• It has some generic problems which can be solved
• They search for a solution
• They are willing to pay for it (try selling to young students and you will learn why this is important)

The real problem lays in content. Making a profitable blog/website is not easy. People will tell you it is easy and charge you hundreds of dollars for their unique systems.

Chances are you will spend some years before getting the first hundreds of dollars, then some years before we are in the thousands.

If you want something profitable, you just have to make sure it is pretty damn unique and good. Problem is, not things are not. Most people are lured into thinking they are unique and have unique content, while they really haven't.

So if your only focus is earning money, take a business education or get a job. If you have some unique knowledge which people seek, write about that.

[Emini Trading Expert]

One thing that I feel everyone missed is focusing on other interests that the prospect would be interested in. Let me explain.

While I am not looking to make this post to be a lesson in affiliate marketing, I think I can give a few pointers that can make your work more profitable. Focus not just on a niche but also related niches.

As you build your website and people either opt-in and purchase from you, you have a buyer. Most people are going to make their website about a specific product. My thoughts, you are leaving quite a bit of money on the table. The product they purchased from you makes them a qualified buyer. Basically they are saying they are interested in this type of product. There are many other offers that can be promoted to them.

Take for example World of Warcraft. While this is one of the most popular games at the moment. One day there will be a WoW killer. Rather than lose your buyer who was interested in WoW, there will be other games to promote to them.

Moving a step further, there are many related topics they might be interested in as well. By building a buyers list of related interests, you have an endless amounts of products that you could give someone. Thus you have built a push button affiliate business.

Don't worry about is the one product or keyword going to be profitable. Look at the industry as a whole. That is where the money is really made. IMHO

[Requiem]

Originally Posted by justhopingandsearching

Does anyone know of any ways to find profitable niches? And, also does anyone know of a way to tell in general how much a given niche can generate in income per month/per year?

For example, I remember reading somewhere (unfortunately, I can't remember where) to look at ClickBank and see which e-books are the best sellers on the site. How do I find the best sellers on the site?

Another, is to look at Amazon in the book section to see the best-selling books there, and basically skim through the list and pick one you know you could write about.

I have a monetary goal in mind for my future website, now I just need to find a subject that I can and am willing to write on that will deliver me to that goal.

I'd suggest that it may be better to find a subject you deeply care about that can also be profitable, and write about that, rather than find a profitable niche and write about it. Maybe that's just me. For some, business is business.

I found my niche (dividend investing) because I was reading existent blogs in this niche, and they provided value to me. Fortunately, the top blog in the niche also posts how much he makes from his blog (roughly), so it helped show the potential of traffic and income. I decided I could work with them, and in a way, have friendly competition with them. That is, I can add my own style to the niche while also learning from them, and trying to ensure my articles are better than theirs, or at least different and useful. Since then, I have built my blog into one of the leading blogs in the niche- not at the level of the original 2 or 3, but rather high up there, even though traffic is mediocre. And a cool thing is, other quality (and some not so quality) blogs in the niche have sprung up, and used my site as a reference in a similar way I used some of the first sites as a reference. It makes for a pretty good network.

[janicelou]

I would make sure you find a "niche" that you like to write about... Since content is really king of making a website.. if you do not have any interest in what you are writing about you will become very bored and discouraged if you are not writing about something you like

[mypcandi]

1. Find what interests people!
2. Find high paying keywords.
3. A combination of 1 and 2 doesn't necessarily yiled automatic profit. You need passion and hard work to create a lot of interesting pages.

[Eryn]

This is a great question. There is no quick solution, but start by doing research, using Google keyword tools to find out if people are interested in your possible niche ideas and another good place to look is on flippa.com and ClickBank. Go with topics that you are passionate about and start the research to find out if you can make it profitable. Its not always easy to find exact numbers in terms of income, but I found some great information on flippa.com about niche ideas I had for websites. Hope this helps.

[gene2009]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

Currently in the hundreds every month. Not bad considering I stopped adding content to my site a long time ago

Curtis, how much time did you spend on that project?

[WarrenG]

Originally Posted by Mcoroklo

The niche isn't that important, as long as it has the following requirements furfilled:

• It has some generic problems which can be solved
• They search for a solution
• They are willing to pay for it (try selling to young students and you will learn why this is important)

I second this. Most important thing is that your target audience is willing to spend money on the solution to their problem. Take it from someone who has also tried selling to young students!

Originally Posted by Rebecca800

If there is a website or formula out there that taps into the supply and demand and profitability of a niche, based on all the available affiliate products - that would be a real gem for internet marketers.

Hey maybe that could be your niche

It exists, it's called Demand Media Studios, and they make hundreds of millions matching content to advertisers through a complex automated system that some refer to as "The Mill," and Wired (I think) called the "Sweatshop" of writing. And no you don't get to use their algorithm to do research for your own sites, however you can apply to work for them, and it's a good thing to do alongside your own online projects as a more guaranteed source of income when you need it.