Free Niche Research: Flash Drives

Inspired by a sale I made yesterday on a niche mini-site, today’s niche research will be just a little bit different.

A couple of years ago I purchased Info Product Killer, also known as IPK and put up a few sites. I never used the entire method: just part of it, which I modified to suit my style. I never touched these sites after the initial week they went live. At that time, I wrote one article, and built a few back links (maybe 10). That’s yet! Yesterday one of these sites made a large  sale (commission over $75) from just one click: that’s the power of a very specific keyword. Anyway, let’s get on to today’s niche.

When I am creating a niche mini-site, I research differently. I first go to Amazon.com, pick a category, and off I go looking for that nugget of gold. Today I picked the Electronics category (BTW, most people look there, so you may want to choose a different category).

Once I picked my category, I dug deeper into the subcategories and decided on the “Memory Cards & External Storage” sub-category.  Once in there, at the top of your page you’ll see several tabs: I picked “Most Wished For”.

I scrolled through the items people wish for, and found something that looked interesting.

Some of the criteria I am looking for is:

• good price: I usually look for $50 or more, but I made an exception for this one.
• must be a popular item
• 4 starts or more
• several customer reviews (the more the better)

My next step was to click through to the item I picked and get acquainted with it. One of the more important thinks I look for is a part number specific to that item (see below).

Nest, I start my keyword research: not for “flash drive”, but for the pat number: SDCZ6-016G-A11

Google shows no searches for the part number, but I know people are buying this stuff. So after a little more looking around Amazon, I see that there are a lot of part numbers starting with SDCZ6. Now I do another Goggle search for the shortened search, and here is what I get:

That first keyword gets 6,600 exact searches a day, and the domain was available: BINGO!

Now, you’ll still need to do some more keyword research to come up with some good topics for your articles. Here are the top searches keywords, as well as the top paying AdSense for the niche, in case you actually want to use AdSense on your site (WOW, with those payouts you may want to ):

Possible Affiliate Programs

Amazon.com has all types of flash drives: you can’t go wrong with it.

Monetization Suggestions

AdSense payout is amazing! If you enjoy writing, and you know the technical side of flash drives, you ‘ll amazing money in this niche.

This type of site doesn’t need  a lot of content pages. Create your site with the mail product on the home page, and a few carefully selected complimentary pages. You’ll need to write some articles, do some guest posting, create some back links  and you are good to go. If you want to learn step by step how to create these sites, you can learn all you need to know from the  Info Product Killer ebook.

Check out my keyword research offer here
if you need help with your niche research.

Free Niche Research: PRK Eye Surgery

Guess what? Today’s niche was again, inspired by something that happened in our family. A couple of weeks ago, I presented research on Road Trips the day after my son arrived home form Canada. Yesterday, he had  PRK Eye Surgery (photorefractive keratectomy), a type of laser eye surgery used to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and/or astigmatism. I think it’s an awesome niche, so let’s dig in.

Resources

I would say the best resource for this is a local ophthalmologist: offer him a free listing  on your site, and pick his brains about all there is to know about this surgery (and others, especially lasik )

Another resource are people who went through the procedure, and family members of those who went through the procedure.

Possible Affiliate Programs This is one niche where Amazon.com doesn’t have too much. but you can get creative and still use it (keep reading and you’ll find out how, under the monetization).

Monetization Suggestions

Adsense has very good payouts, but there aren’t a lot of advertisers for the specific key phrases. But, if you expand into lasik surgery, as well as other types of eye procedures, there are plenty of ads, and the payouts are even better (as high as over $10).  Would you like to attack the lasik niche? Use my keyword research service.

There isn’t much affilatae monetization for this niche, but you can be creative and come up with some offers for the people who went through this surgery. Think about it: someone wearing prescription glasses, could never wear sunglasses. So  once they have this corrective surgery, they’ll be looking for some fun, cool, trendy sunglasses. Create an affiliate sunglasses store on your site.

What are other things these people weren’t able to do? Snorkeling, swimming, etc. Come up with an angle to introduce all these things they weren’t able to do before and offer it to them.

You can also have a section for contact lenses: many people are researching this procedure, but are not ready to do it yet, or can’t financially. Offer them an alternative until they can get the surgery.

The best monetization for this niche would be to create a very informative site that attracts potential candidates, and then create a directory of doctors who can perform the surgery. Offer them a listing in your directory for a price.

Here are some domains available to buy today: they are all lower searched for phrases, but very specific.

costofprk.com

prkcomplications.com

prkhealing.com

prklasereyesurgeryrecovery.com

prklaservisioncorrection.com

prkprocedure.com

prktreatment.com

prkversuslasik.com

Niche Market Research

Do you have trouble researching new niche markets? It doesn’t have to be difficult: you just need to apply a little common sense and a few practical tips.

Here are some good places to start your online niche market research:

Forums and Discussion Boards – These are great sources for finding out what people want and need. Read through a forum related to your topic and see what people are discussing. Look particularly at what problems and issues they may be having.

You can even join in and ask questions to learn more about your market. It’s important that you read the rules of each individual forum and apply proper forum etiquette to avoid being banned. If in doubt, just remember the basic rules of etiquette: don’t take more than you give, be polite and courteous to all members, don’t use someone else’s space as your advertising medium, and just be nice.

Amazon.com – I highly recommend this website as a good starting point for research. Take a look at all the different categories on Amazon – do you see your potential niche listed? Look through the books and products for each niche and take a few minutes to read the customer feedback and reviews.

Amazon is a fantastic source of knowledge and spending just a few minutes there can provide many answers about your potential niche market.

Ezinearticles.com – This is another great website for getting to grips with different niche markets. You’ll find a number of niche markets to choose from. Take time to look through the different author websites to get an idea of what products or services they’re promoting.

Magazines – Magazines are great for market research. If a magazine is on the stand it means it’s being funded by advertisers. And we all know businesses don’t continually advertise unless they’re making money.

Take a look through the advertising section in your niche magazines. What products are on offer? How are they being promoted. This will give you a good idea for the viability of your potential niche.

Take a poll – If you already have a website and/or subscriber base you’re one step ahead of the game because you can directly ask your readers and visitors what it is they want to see. People are always happy to provide feedback so don’t miss this opportunity for tapping into potential further products and services for your market.

Do you use any other methods to research niche markets? Please share your thoughts.

Market Research 101

You probably know the importance of choosing a niche for your online business. The benefits of choosing a tight niche market are many, and they include:

* Knowing your market fully so that you can provide solutions to their problems.

* The ability to speak directly to the core of your target market and connect with them on a deep level.

* Being able to niche all of your advertising efforts to target one specific market – this means a better return for your advertising dollars.

* Constructing a business system that is completely tailored to one specific market – this means you waste less time on unrelated projects.

But just how do you effectively research a niche market?

A good starting point for any online business owner is to first start with a topic they are familiar with. This doesn’t necessarily mean all markets/topics will make you money, but it gives you the option of possibly finding a niche you are familiar with and also makes you money.

This is important because you will potentially be spending a large amount of time building your website, writing content and promotions for your niche market. The more familiar you are with the topic the better.

So start by writing down all of the things you know something about and may enjoy writing about. This could be anything from a special hobby you have to a practical skill. Don’t worry just yet whether the topic will make you money, simply jot down all of the things you are familiar with – the research part will follow later.

Once you have your list ready the next step is to narrow it down. Ideally, you want to end up with 3 or 4 topics you’re more passionate about.

Finally, when your short list is ready, it’s time to research each topic for profitability.

Here are a few niches to give you some ideas:

Ice Cream Makers

Job Descriptions

Wedding Favors

Golf Club Sets

More Niches

Free Niche Research: Wireless Keyboard

I just got back from Jamaica at 1AM this morning, and found I couldn’t get online. Not only was my DSL broken, my son started to update my computer just before we left, and didn’t finish, so I have no access to my documents, where I have my list of niches to tackle here.

So, I went over to Google products to see what people are looking to buy now, and Wireless Keyboard stood out. Let’s see what opportunities we have in this niche!

Resources
Check out some of the more popular electronics forums, and see what questions people are asking: then, give them that information on your blog/site.

As for where you can find information about this niche, I would subscribe to some industry magazines and stay up to date on everything. Merchants are also a good source of information: just ask them and they will be more than happy top help you sell their products.

Possible Affiliate Programs
Yes, Amazon.com has offers for this niche too: wireless keyboard with touchpad, Logitech wireless keyboard, Microsoft wireless keyboard and more.

Make sure you check out CJ.com & Shareasale.com for a wealth of affiliate programs.

Monetization Suggestions

Computers are popular these days, and as the Technology advances, people need information about how to use the new technology, where to find it, etc. This is where you come in: create a blog with lots on information  about these wireless keyboards, and include the beta places to buy them from (with your affilaite links embedded, of course)

Here are some domains available for this niche now:

WirelessKeyboardTouchpad .net, .org, .biz & .info get 4,400 exact searches a month.

WirelessKeyboardWithTrackball.net, .biz & .info get 2,900 exact searches a month.

BestWirelessKeyboard.biz & .info get 1,900 exact searches a month.

MiniWirelessKeyboard.biz & .info with 4,400 exact searches a month.

WirelessKeyboardMouseCombo.com, .net, .org, biz & .info, with 1,300 exact searches monthly.

WirelessKeyboardWithTouchpad.biz & .info have 9,900 exact searches a month.

WirelessKeyboardWithBuiltInMouses.org, biz & .info have 6,600 exact searches a month.

WirelessKeyboardAndMouseCombo.net & .biz, with 6,600 exact searches monthly.

LongRangeWirelessKeyboardAndMouse.com, .net, .org, .biz & .info, with 1,000 exact searches a moth.

Some great possibilities! If you need help researching  further, or keyword research for your own niche, give me a shout!