Sources of Inspiration

August 12, 2009 – 11:39 am

Even with a good site idea, it is sometimes difficult to find research and inspiration regarding your site content. Instead of trying to forge a new path, research and critique your competitors and colleagues to find inspiration for content.

Blogs

Blogs can be a great source for inspiration, especially blog posts that receive a lot of comments. Search for ["niche topic" blog] in Google, replacing “niche topic” with your topic of choice. Look at the blogs that operate in this niche and the type of content and topics on which they focus.

Social

Review the table of contents for your niche’s magazines at a local bookstore or library. Note down the articles they publish, and look for FAQ columns or similar features that may highlight relevant, popular information. In addition, check out online forums to review the type of questions people post and talk about. These can help highlight areas in which people are hungry for content and information that you can provide!

Commercial Products

Search for your niche in Google and note down the commercial products listed in the sidebar advertisements. This can show whether there is a large need for affiliate products in your respective niche, making for yet another money-making venue.

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With a little research and digging around, you can find sources of inspiration all around you.

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By Joshua Duvauchelle | Posted in Websites | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Harness Your Passions

July 31, 2009 – 10:59 am

Running a bunch of niche web sites is all fine and dandy, until the day you stretch yourself too thin and burn out. One of the main motivators for many work-at-home entrepreneurs is the urge to do something they like, on their own time and without a boss hovering over their shoulder. It’s all about becoming self-sufficient and self-sustaining and doing something interesting.

One way to prevent burn out, or just plain boredom, is harnessing your passions. Establishing niche markets and doing mundane tasks like keyword research can quickly become old. But it’s much easier to do when you are involved in a niche market that involves something you’re interested in. Use your passions to direct your vision for your home business.

The best niche market is something you are keen on learning yourself, or something you already have an interest in. Have an interest in your niche will help drive you forward. I could easily make a site about any topic under the sun, but it is easier to maintain my interest in running the site if it’s something I already care about.

Grab a sheet of paper and write out five things you are passionate about. It could be anything, even non-tangible interests. Then, think of a niche that applies.

Passion / Niche

1.Puppies / Organic Dog Care Products

2. Food / Raw Food Diets for Weight Loss

3. Chickens / Backyard Chicken Coops

4. Collecting stamps / Online Stamp Hobby Resource Community

5. Knitting / How-To Knit for Money

Identifying a niche that is related to a natural passion of yours will make setting it up and maintaining it that much easier.

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By Joshua Duvauchelle | Posted in Websites | Tagged | Comments (0)

What is a niche market?

July 30, 2009 – 10:31 pm

For many who are new to the world of online marketing, the concept of niche markets may seem foreign. However, it is critical that you understand this concept to be successful in niche online marketing.

According to Wikipedia, many online markets go about seeking “smaller segments of larger markets” so that “a website can be developed and promoted quickly to uniquely serve a targeted and usually loyal customer base, giving the affiliate a small but regular income stream. This technique is then repeated across several other niche websites until a desired income level is achieved.”

A niche market offers several advantages to a website.

First, it cuts down on the competition and gives your web site the potential to achieve higher rankings on Google, Yahoo!, Bing and many other search engines. For example, the term “armani” has 32,600,000 results on Google. This drops to 4,300,000 if you search for “armani suits”. That’s a reduction of 87%! Narrow the search term to “armani mens suits” and you get 599,000 results.

Now, for which search term is it easier to get onto Google’s first page of results? Would you rather compete with over 32 million sites or less than 600,000 sites?

Besides making it easier to rank high on search engines, specializing in a niche market can boost your return on investment. The more you target a niche, the greater your chances of landing a sale or meeting the needs of the reader. Let’s use the Armani example, again. Let’s say you’ve created a web site selling Armani suits for men. If you are targeting the “armani” keyword, readers who somehow find your site out of the 32 million potential results may not be looking for suits. Thus, your bounce rate will likely be very high. However, if you target “armani mens suits,” you’ll get higher search engine visibility and will attract readers who are directly interested in your content.

Don’t waste time trying to corner your entire field. Focus on a niche and expand from there.

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By Joshua Duvauchelle | Posted in Websites | Tagged | Comments (0)

Best Inspirations for Niche Markets

July 29, 2009 – 10:54 pm

Identifying a niche market can make all the difference when launching new web brands or targeting new audiences for your latest affiliate product. Many well-known “niches” are no longer niches, and entering those respective markets would require just as much work as going into an established market. Examples of niches-that-are-no-longer-niches include diet and weight loss, personal finance (a literal plethora of personal finance blogs have sprung up thanks to the apocalypse recession), and pets.

Thankfully, you are surrounded by potential sources of inspiration for your next niche website or marketing campaign. The top eight are…

1. Magazines

2. Technology (there are enough specialty electronics and new products to provide lots of room for competing sites)

3. Newspaper headlines

4. Google Hot Trends

5. Best-seller book lists (e.g. the New York Times book lists)

6. Classified ads

7. Celebrities (surprisingly, most people haven’t realized the money-making potential behind celebrity fansites)

8. TV shows

Now go forth and multiply! Your niche sites, that is.

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