I hope it’s abundantly clear to you that a lot of people fail to make money online because they don’t know how to pick niches the right way. They end up building the wrong kind of business Regardless of how much time, effort and money they put into their business, nothing seems to work. At best, they’re forced to settle for cents on the dollar; at worst, they don’t make any money at all.
Picking a niche the smart way involves several filters. You have to make sure that you go through this process. You can’t skip a step. You can’t assume that you know what’s hot, and you can’t wait to just build a website and get going. I’m telling you your impatience will ensure the early death of your business, guaranteed.
Step #1: Start with Your Personal Interest
The first thing that you need to do is to be clear about your personal interests. What kind of topics would you love to write about? What kind of topics would you like to build a business on?
What makes this difficult is that a lot of people think that there is some sort of right answer. This is personal. Some people might be excited over certain topics other people couldn’t care less. What’s important is that the topic subject category is attractive to you.
Here’s a shortcut. Ask yourself what would you talk about all day every day even if you were not getting paid for it? Give yourself a couple of hours to write down everything that comes to your mind. No need to edit it. Just write it down. Even if it’s just half an idea or it’s just a faint glimmer of an idea, write it down.
Step #2: Filter Your Topics by Search Volume
If you don’t already have an account at Google Ads, go ahead and set one up. You can access this by typing in AdWords.com.
Log in with your existing Gmail account and set up an AdWords account.
Once you’re set up, look at the tools section and select Keyword Planner tool. Type in the topics you’re interested in. Do this one
by one. When you do this you get a list of keywords related to that topic.
Look at those keywords’ average monthly search volume. This is an indirect way of getting a rough idea of the overall demand level for those niches. Once you’ve found the keywords for one niche and have listed their search volume numbers, move on to the next keyword and then the next one after that.
Once you have gotten the numbers for all these keywords, pick the niches that are in the middle. You don’t want niches that have too much search volume because
they most likely have a lot of competition. On the other hand, you don’t want niches that have too little search volume.
Step #3: Filter by Commercial Value
On Google Keyword Planner Tool, next to each keyword’s expected monthly search volume is a dollar figure. This is the estimate AdWords gives you regarding how much advertisers will pay per click on ads that show that keyword. This gives you a rough idea of the commercial value of each niche.
Again, line up the CPC value of the keywords, come up with an average and then compare all the niches’ average values. You should focus on niches that have a decent search value. We’re talking at least $1 or more per click. Again, this is the average click value.
Step #4: Filter by Competition Level
By this step, you have shortened your list quite a bit. The next step is to enter each of the keywords related to the niches that are still on your list into Google’s main search box.
When you do a search on Google, t will tell you how many websites ranked for that keyword. Take note of this. You will then see how many competitors you have on average per niche.
With this information, eliminate niches on your list that have too much competition.
Step #5: Filter Your List by Search Trends
Finally, go to Google Trends and enter the keywords related to the remaining niches on your list. Look for a trend line that is going up or at least is flat with a slight tilt up. This trend line tells you that your niche is not dying over time.
This is very important because you don’t want to build your business on a niche that’s actually on its way out.
Optional Filters
While the five filters above should be enough for you to develop a viable online business, if you want to turbocharge your results and increase your likelihood of success, apply the following additional filters.
Optional Filter #1: Filter by Social Visibility
Enter your keywords on major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram. Can you tell if there are a lot of existing accounts on those places that talk about your niche? If there isn’t, delete the niche from your list.
Optional Filter #2: Filter by Content “Virality”
For this filter, look at the group’s pages and accounts that target the niches that target the niches that you have left on your list. Look at the engagement levels of the content in those accounts.
Does it seem like there’s an organic active community built around these niches? If the answer is “yes”, keep the niche. If the answer is “no”, you might want to get rid of that niche.
Keep all these in mind, because if at least the main five selection factors are present, there’s a strong likelihood your business will be successful. However, keep in mind that niche election accounts for 90% of success. You still have to take care of the remaining 10%.