Most of what I do everyday can be done with nothing more than a little brain juice and some elbow grease.
However, technology gives us tools and I think we would be wasteful to not use the tools. Just as long as you still train your brain and flex your muscles every once in awhile to stay in shape.
Here are some tools I use when doing my niche research. They help me see it in front of me instead of trying to grab at the millions of ideas spinning around in my head.
These are in no special order…
AsSeenOnTVNetwork.com
This is basically a melting pot of all the infomercials you’ve probably ever seen. They are not the only game in town so there are more but this is one of the biggest.
By visiting this site you can do two things in one. Find out what niches are hot enough that people would pay thousands for an infomercial in them.
Crazy Critter = Dog Training
Topsy Turvy = Gardening/Tomato Growing/Strawberry Growing/Hot Pepper Growing
Knifty Knitter = Knitting
And it goes on and on for hundreds of different products/niches. Plus you can become an affiliate and promote any of those products as well and you already know they are hot sellers.
I’ve actually done contract work for the company behind this website (Livemercial) and know that one affiliate was getting paid $20,000 per month because he had a blog about Snuggies and was #1 in Google for the main keywords. Everytime the infomercial would air he would get a rush of affiliate sales.
However, you should be warned that this company has been having some issues lately. I know the CEO well and I believe him to be a good man. I’ve eaten dinner in his house with his family and been slobbered on by his dog. However, the “company” is having some problems and I just want you to be aware of it.
I do not think they would do wrong by you but I feel I must provide full disclosure to any knowledge I have.
Magazines.com
Just about all the most popular and most successful magazines can be found here. The reason I use magazines to determine the quality of a niche is because 95% of magazines die in their first year. It is an EXTREMELY hard industry and only getting harder.
For a magazine to have run for 5, 7, even 10 years means that there are tons of advertisers who are doing very well. This means that the advertisers are selling lots of product aka there are lots of buyers in this niche.
Browse the magazines for niche ideas and then go out and pick up a copy at your local book store so you can see what kinds of things people are buying. If you buy several back issues as well you will see which ads are running over and over again which means hot product.
Pulse.Ebay.com
Keeping with the trend of finding niches where people are BUYING and what they are buying we move onto ebay’s pulse program. This area of ebay helps you study what the hottest selling items are on ebay.
Being that ebay is one of the largest shopping sites in the world, this information is worth gold.
When I just checked I saw video gaming, luxury purses, and scrapbooking were really hot niches.
CBEngine.com
This one I actually like a bit better than ebay pulse because this one helps us more as information marketers because we get to see what kind of INFORMATION PRODUCTS are selling the best.
With CBEngine you can explore the Clickbank ecosystem with much more power. My favorite is looking at the top 100 movers and shakers. Then filtering them by highest gravity which tells me a little more about who is selling more.
But honestly anything on that top 100 list would make for a great niche idea. Just make sure you are still using the red/green flag system to make sure the niche is right for you. Money alone doesn’t make people go the distance!
InstaCashKeywords.com
Skip all the niche research and just get spoonfed pre-researched niches and their hottest keywords everyday by email.
My only problem with this site is that I DIDN’T THINK OF IT FIRST!
Since I’ve been a member for quite awhile I can open up my email program, go to the folder with all my instacash keywords, pick from anyone of the hundreds of niches inside, and be on my way in minutes.
Every keyword they give you has been researched to not only have buyers but also to be easy to rank for in Google. Plus they give you some insight into the mindset and triggers for that niche. Along with all that you get killer training on how to make the most out of the keywords.
The End of Week One
This post marks the end of week one out of this 12 week journey we’ll be taking together. You should now have everything you need to know about niche research. You have graduated from niche research college and now it’s time to go out and apply your trade!
You have until Sunday night to find the niche you will move forward with. Come Monday morning we’ll be moving on and at that point you are either eating our dust or coming with us. If you have to just close your eyes and point at a niche to pick on Sunday, then so be it.
DON’T GET LEFT BEHIND! There is no need for it to happen…
Go Bigger,
Justin Brooke
P.S. Thank you to Liane Carmi for providing this niche research worksheet for us all!
“All It Takes Is Action And Action Builds Confidence”
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Killer resources. I’ve used AsSeenOnTVNetwork.com for researching niches and finding subniches as well.
Magazines.com is an awesome resource and I also use it to get headlines for my swipe file and to find hot topics in the marketplace. The ads are great for researching the niche, but the articles are great for finding out what to write about once in you’re in the niche & the headlines are generally really good, and if I’m stumped when writing a headline (especially with small ads like PPC) I check the magazines to get some great headlines I can swipe.
I was also a member of InstaCashKeywords (got an entire folder of pdfs from it) but after a few months I cancelled because I decided to stick with the fitness niche and I don’t need all the other niches. However, it’s a KILLER resource and the keywords & niches are awesome.
Great resources Justin,
Shawn
Do you have an affiliate link for InstaCashKeywords.com you earned it by telling us about it.
Thanks,
Wayne
Silly Wayne… The link I used is an affiliate link!
If this is the kind of stuff you’re giving away for free, I can only imagine how awesome your coaching program is
Hi Justin
Wow. Awesome stuff about finding a niche. I love the ‘Starving Crowd’ analogy. Signed up for ‘InstaCashKeywords’ and from what I so see far it looks like a great tool for finding keywords.
I think too many times in the past I have tried to force feed people that weren’t hungry. Not any more.
Steve
Wow what a stuff you are putting here its simply mind Blowing one. Its like a Spoon Feeding for a baby . Its really nice day for me to that i discovered this great blog today. will be More actively participate in this Challenge.
“one affiliate was getting paid $20,000 per month because he had a blog about Snuggies and was #1 in Google for the main keywords” – holy cow! – kind of a strange passion huh?
But getting paid is always good
Whats to stop someone from wiping you out?
I like the idea of instacashkeywords.com but i guess a bunch of top marketers will be using sites like that and an SEO battle can get very long and expencive….
I personally love CBEngine.com … i guess the trick is to find keyword angles that other people havent thought of, or specialise in seo for long tail variations that other people just cant be bothered with…?
I love this approach – i usually find the product first then research the market, but finding thirsty people and feeding them what they want sounds v.effiective… hmmmm
im getting ahead of myself… :-S
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