New internet marketers, entrepreneurs and small business owners are often misled or not properly taught on how to conduct market research that uncovers a profitable niche. Odds are the first thing many folks do is jump right into using a keyword tool or database to start their search. You need to understand, while keyword tool can be a valuable if used correctly, it’s not the be all end all of locating a profitable niche. The thing is most keyword tools or databases can only predict the real majority of searches that are being done on the larger search engines likes Google, MSN and Yahoo which holds the lion’s share of keyword data. Most importantly, keyword research only shows what specific phrases people are using in the search engines which means it’s not actually relevant to what people may be actually purchasing. People may search for a specific brand or product but that doesn’t actually mean that’s what they’ll purchase.
So when looking for profitable niches, your main focus should be on finding actual proof that this niche holds buyers that are ready and willing to exchange their money for a product or service. Basically, you can have a legitimately great product, but the reality is that you need a customer base to sell it to. So let’s look at a number of sources which can help you get a running start to discover if a profitable marketplace exists within your chosen niche(s) before you start investing and building the groundwork for your online business and products. Once you found a niche that looks like it has signs of lots of money moving through it, now you can introduce the keyword research tools and further expand upon keyword phrases. See, you use the keyword tools as an extension of your research, but not as the sole shebang. Let’s begin looking at how to identify a profitable market. There are three incredibly huge marketplaces that are massively trafficked, move a lot of product and are great places to find what people are really buying. eBay At eBay, you can look through a list of the most popular products people are buying through auctions or from eBay stores that vendors have setup. Amazon Another really big marketplace is Amazon and it’s not just for books. You can find just about any product and name brand that is a mover and shaker. Again, look at the most popular products in those categories that catch your attention. Clickbank If you wish to sell products of the digital nature which does not require inventory and which usually carries high profit margins for affiliates, you’ll want to check out the Clickbank digital marketplace that ranks product sales from highest to lowest sellers in each category. It also features a sorting system that lets you rank products through each of their categories for additional research and features a wide variety of the most popular digital product niches. Once you gather the adequate market research, you can do one of the following:
While I recommend using at least two methods to get a better idea of how strong your niche is, obviously since you’re looking for proof that this niche is profitable period, one is good enough. The main thing again, is making sure what you’re looking to sell, people are actively buying. You can then quickly build a non-complex site with a simple product offering, find some low cost keywords to use in a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign with a minimal spend of about 50 bucks to test the market and see if you have a winner. If the test worked, meaning you pulled a profit, you can start to invest more and scale up meaning more extensive keyword research and additional advertising dollars. If the test didn’t work, you move on and test another market. Don’t forget to make use of the vast free tools out there to help you in your advertising so don’t throw lots of money down the toilet. If you have anything additional to share, feel free to leave a comment. |
Frank Sheppard
NOTE: all opinions/views represented here are my own and do not reflect on any third party that I am affiliated with. Archives
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