The Definitive Guide to choose a Niche Topic for your Site

What’s Niche? Niche is a special place within the scheme of things. It sometimes denotes the function or position of a thing within a structure. (Wiki) It helps you focus in one area and you’ll be an ‘expert’ as time go by. Do you know that Niche site earn more than site with broader appeal?

I recently happen to scout for some niche topic so that I can start a new site and made lot of research on this subject. I have already registered a domain and I’m all set to write contents. There is a thread at Earners Forum that has wonderful information on how to go about in selecting niche topics for your online venture. I have posted the contents of that thread here (with the permission of the authors).

Before you start - Do you have the burning desire and passionate about the topic?

Be aware and choose the topic of your niche wisely. Initially we might have train of ideas, but it’s essential that you post regularly (it might not be frequent). For this concept to take off, then it’s mandatory to choose topic that interests you. Otherwise you find yourself burnt out - you should have the burning desire to continue as long as it takes.

You need not be an expert in the area (though it’s better to be an expert in any area that you write), but you should feel comfortable in the topic and you should be fresh and bursting with energy even after working on the topic for over 9-12 months also.

People often go by niche which has high payouts than working on the topic, than they have passion and desire. Mesothelioma (I still have no idea what’s it about) might fetch you high Rate per Click (RPC), but long long can you sustain and add contents? The last thing you want is to plagiarize.

Here are the basic steps that one follows in identifying a niche topic and develop a site.

1. Find a Niche

Pick a few niche subjects - if you need help with ideas then visit directories like DMOZ, check Google News, Wordtracker’s top 1000 searches list, go to a yard sale or flea market, check a store catalog, go to the mall or some other things of this nature until you’ve found some interesting niche subjects.

Read the news consolidators daily, and look for highly topic trends.
Check Google News - Watch news counts - corroborate with Yahoo News, MSN News, Newslinx and similar consolidators.

Read Zeitgeists, Monthly search reports, and similar Search Engine information. Look at top books selling non-fiction on Amazon, for clues. Review spam content - they know more then you think what sells. Watch fashion (it tells more then just how long pants need to be), TV shows (examine the forest, not the tree), and review general mass-consumer interests.

Look for slow increase, and upward trending searches - not meteoric rises, as those also tend to fade just as fast. (Although if you have an existing infrastructure to deploy something fast - do take the ride!)

2. Check Search Volume

Check the search volume of the core keywords using your tools of choice. The core keywords are the most basic keywords that contain the essence of the niche - the more obscure the niche is, the longer these usually are). Collect a modest keyword list for the moment. Shortlist topics that gets 1,000 searches minimum a month (or 12,000 / year).

The following are tools I use to narrow my niche, and find just the right combination of key phrases with sufficient volumes.

i. Overture suggestion tool provides some estimated searches done for last month on a keyphrase and suggest others.
ii. Overture’s Bid information provides some idea as to what your income might be on key phrases.
iii. Google Zeitgeists shows monthly keyphrases used for searches.
iv. Yahoo! Buzz is similar but with more article oriented discussions.
v. Google Keyword Tool is the Adwords costs and clicks, but suggests possible Adsense income.
vi. The Lycos 50 Daily Report is similar to Yahoo!’s and Google’s commentary on searches.
vii. NicheBOT is one of the best interfaces (because it is simple, and fast), yet provides enormous amount of information for free. The paid service offers even more features (I have not tried it yet). It shows estimated traffic, total pages and total web sites in Google for a specific key phrase AND other related key phrases and combinations. It also offers dictionary, and lateral lookups on key phrases.
viii. SEOBook’s interface combines the Yahoo!, Google, MSN, Digital Point and NicheBOT results onto a single page - allowing drill down into the key phrases.

Although it is extremely hard to compete for the “core keywords”, it is not so for the “tail”. The expression “tail” refers to a curve of 1/x or x^-1, where x is the number of searches performed over a period of time.

Y-Axis = Number of searches.
X- Axis = specific key phrases/words sorted from most searched to least searched.

The core keywords are at the far left side, and get most of the clicks on a few keywords. Targeting the tail - everything to the right of 2 on the X-axis, can be as much or more profitable. The first reason is because the horizontal run of this curve can continue to infinity, theoretically. Second competing on the “tail” is much much simpler, and easier then on the “head”.

3. Check Competition

Perform some searches in the various engines for a few of your keywords to gauge competition:
I. A key phrase without quotes search to see what sites get returned in the top 10
II. A “key phrase in quotes” search to check for pages that touch on the niche
III. A Google allintitle: key phrase search to check for optimized pages

Checking competition includes not just searching by your keyphrases but by lateral, or “to the side” keyphrases. Use the tools mentioned in #2.

Visit the top 10 websites as said just before. Look at the source code of the index page. In Internet Explorer use [View] –> [Source]; in Firefox [View]–>[Page Source]. Search for the tag and . This is the area where key phrases are often placed in “metatags” by web masters. (This practice does help a web site, but not as much as most think.)

Take note of your competitiors’ keywords. They can be of great value to build your keyword list. Search for competition on keywords not on your list, but on the meta tag list for your competitior.

Run the competitiors pages through keyword density calculator. These tools will count the frequency, or the number of times, a specific key phrase appears within a specific page. SEOChat’s SEO Tools page offers such feature for free. Check 1 word, 2 word and 3 word density. Keyword density will reveal key phrases that do not appear in meta tags.

Search engines differentiate between quoted (”blue widget”), and unquoted (blue widget) searches. Most modern search engines translate quoted text as exact, while unquoted text as OR.

“blue widget” = exactly “blue widgets” within page (exclusive quotes)
blue widget = blue OR widget, any order and any distance from each other

Your primary target should be exact match (quoted), as OR-ed text is can be perilious.

All three major engines recognize “must include” + sign. This is important because in some instances, search engines decide to find lateral words for your search pattern. So instead of “blue widgets” it might return “blue whatchamacallits” (as every knows widgets and whatchamacallits are related, except one uses water and propelled from the bottom up)

To force search engines to find the exact match prefix your search with a + (plus sign).

+”blue widgets” will return only and only pages that contain the exact phrase “blue widgets”. (This can be extended to single words i.e. +widgets).

Check backlinks, or links to your competition from other sites.

In Google this is achieved using “link:competitor.com“. This will show all the sites linking to competitor.com. Check to see if the link backs are “nofollow” (telling SEs not to consider them), and if they are using appropriate anchor key phrases (anchor text or key phrase), or just the URL. MSN also recognizes the “link:” command, but not Yahoo!. (Use the “-site:” command to eliminiate the links of the competitor pointing to itself.)

For Yahoo, you can use linkdomain:competitor.com - site:competitor.com to find external links to the domain. Yahoo has the probably the best link index of the big three.

Search using related sites using “related:competitor.com” on Google. This is what Google’s algorithm thinks are related sites to your competitor. MSN & Yahoo! does not recognize the “related:” command.

Further checking on competition can be done on Alexa traffic pages. Although Alexa measures only a fraction (1 - 5% as far as I know) of the traffic it can provide a reasonable estimate of competitors’ strength. It also provides additional competitors you might have not found within search engines.

“Traffic Rank for…” provides a relative rank of the specified web site (not page). Right below this information is “People who visit this page also visit” with a list of potential competitors. Under “Traffic Details“, Alexa will provide traffic trends for several months, if your competition is sufficiently large.

Note that Alexa does not return true information for some niche market. You should always double check with other resources, such as Google PageRank, WayBack Machine, NetCraft’s What’s that site running and whois information.

PageRank is a Google ranking representing a web pages rank within it’s niche. In general, many people discount PageRank nowdays, but to verify Alexa’s traffic information a PageRank is invaluable.

There are many ways to “trick” Google PageRank, and Alexa traffic, but both require a lot of energy. Your chances of being “tricked” with both is less likely then individually.

Checking competition with the WayBack Machine will provide you an unusual lookback to a web site, of significance - how it looked months, even years ago! You can track month by month as they changed colors, meta tags, advertisors and more.

The NetCraft’s What’s that site running tracks what a specific server, even IP address a competitior was based at. This information can show you some surprising data. For example - moved from shared host for $5 month to dedicated $100/month server. What would that indicate? Insanity, new cash investment, or some major advertising success?

Although “whois” is not a specific web site per se, it is a treasure trove of information. The whois information can reveal when your competitor started, and if they are not too careful, where the business is physically located. A postal box verses a real address, a regular number verses a toll free, the same voice and fax number verses different numbers, etc. can define the size of the organization. (Un)fortunatelly this information can, and often is obfuscated.

At the end of these projects, you should have a list of competors, their general strengths, key phrases, approximate monthly volume of visitors, who they associate and do advertise with and where you fit in.

Remember those who are willing to link to your competitors’ site, might also be willing to your site.

4. Judge Monetization Potential

In this context, monetization is the process of making money with something - in this case the web site.

There are various solutions besides pay-per-click (PPC) such AdSense, Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN), MSN Ad Center. Earnings are based on visitor clicking on advertisement on your web site.

Affiliate marketing - Companies like Comission Junction, LinkShare, Chitika ClickBank and similar are called affilate marketing. Earnings are based on when visitor purchases service or product from vendor, and arrived to vendor site through advertisement on your site. Here the publishers earn money when a visitor makes a action (either a sale or a lead like filling out a form, email ID, etc..). Affiliate marketing is called Cost Per Action (CPA).

Both of the above solutions are truly companies who are consolidators of advertisers. You can find your own companies and vendors to advertise on your site, but these above companies have already built a network of vendors, provide accounting services, and manage, in general, the relationships — for a percent of your earnings.

Text Ads - Services like Text Link Ads that sell links (ads) on other higher ranked sites are getting popular. Visitors will not know the difference between ads and other links, so it’s win-win situation for the advertisers, publishers and the visitors.

Service - there are several unique niche areas where access to visitors is based on a fee, such as dating sites. This niche requires certain amount of recurring payment made.

Product - selling a product or “virtual product” is the most basic form of monetizing a web site. A virtual product can be an electronic book, or a software. Hard products can range from apples to zebras.

There are many other “interesting” ways to monetize web sites - such as pixel per dollar and spawns there of. New methods come and go, but the above seem to have stay for now.

Caveat Emptor - Make sure you understand when you sign up for any PPC or affilate programs. The contracts are different between vendors, and some are drakonian, and almost always enforced. It is not unheard of people loosing their livelihood at a whim of a marketing consolidator.

These contracts can include - prohibition of any other advertisers on your web site, or all sites owned by you; you have to incorporate; cannot advertise or have content of certain type (most often sin topics); cannot have certain political or religious affiliation; be on a shared server; be accused of being a spammer; and many others.

Again, read the contract with a very fine tooth comb - research and ask others who are part of the consolidator, and those who left them.

Finding the appropriate pricing for a niche can be accomplished by looking at estimated traffic and advertising rates. Both of these can be found at previously mentioned Google Adword and Overture Bid tools for pricing, and NicheBot for traffic.

5. Expand and Organize Your Keywords

Assuming you’re happy with the earnings potential now expand your keyword list using more diverse tools like MSN’s SRC beta, Vivismo’s Clusters, FindForward’s Yahoo Cluster, OneLook’s synonyms and take these new keywords back to your original tools to expand them some more. After you’ve driven yourself mad with keywords take the list and *guess* what surfers are really searching for based on the different combinations of keywords and arrange them into groups based on what you perceive their purpose to be. Some research into the niche may be required to get this part right – don’t be afraid to ask someone in the know what they think. After this you can decide how to attack the niche (a large informational site, mini sites, ecommerce site, etc.) and what the structure and ‘flow’ of the site should be like. For the sake of this example I will choose an informational content site.

Search through various dictionaries. Don’t forget about:

• foreign language dictionaries,
• don’t forget about British/American/Australian/NZ differences,
  miss-spelling by dropping a letter or two,
• transposing letters,
• plural or singular forms,
• past, present and future tense of the verbs,
• make nouns into adjectives (dirt - dirty, risk - risky, luck - lucky),
• add the noun suffix -ist ( plural-ist, royal-ist, copy-ist),
• make words into gerunds, verb phrases, present participles or adjectives ( teach-ing, learn-ing, sing-ing),
• and so on with -ism, -ment, -ness, -ogy, -sion/-tion, -ian, -er/-or, -ation, -ice, and others…

There are some very specialized “dictionaries” available. For example, Onelook has a concept search - where you provide a concept, and various related words are returned.

Some of the word resources are:
dictionary.com
thesaurus.com
webster.com
thefreedictionary.com

Then go back and rehash the values of the newly discovered key phrases. Should they be incorporated into your list, or dropped?

6. Let it Stew

At this point let the idea cook for a week or so in the ole’ noggin. Come back occasionally and add or tweak something. Write every idea you have down regardless of how dumb it seems at the time.

You might consider playing a “game” with someone who might fit your target market. A “word-association” gave - whereby you present your key phrase and they have to say the first three words that pops into their head. You never know what you might discover…

7. Refine

When you return to the plan, you now have a basic site idea along with a list of ideas and keywords. It’s time to sort through the ideas, generate some more, explore their possibilities and decide which are worth further investigation and which should be trashed. Use whichever idea generation methods you prefer.

Refinement not just allows reduction or concentration of a specific niche, but potentially change the direction how you approach monetization.

For example, if one find a big enough niche, with sufficient amount of key phrases, one might approach it through a single site with large numbers of unique content, appropriately optimized. Alternatively the same niche can be approached with multiple web sites, each dedicated to one or two key phrases with fewer pages, creating a small network of web sites, or neighborhood of web sites.

In some cases a forum is the best approach as the content grows with postings. A blog could be a reasonable solution - not exaclty a full blown forum, yet not a complete “static” site.

Read the news, listen to TV shows, specially pop-cultural ones, and watch for trends. They will all reflect what will be a topic searched.

There are a plethora of tools to review existing niches, but from my perspective, news resources are an excellent source. Many of them will even send you e-mail notification on specific key phrases. Google News, Yahoo News and MSN News provide a very good count that showsindication of interest.

Search DMOZ for compatitors, and news sources in the specific niche. RSS feeds are an excellent source, but one can get overwhelmed with too much background noise. Throw out a wide net for resources, then narrow it to a managable short list.

Avoid high paying but very high competition niches. It does not worth the effort to start in a niche nowadays from the begining. Any business model (either online or offline) needs time and effort. Earning the trust of visitors and search engines is very difficult. It’ll take a lot of time to establish yourself online and create a authoritative site. Unique model is always the way to go, I’ve seen many people who take the path unknown and road less traveled - all the way to the banks. If one is set on conquering such niche, it is best approached by “flanking” it. Find parallel topics, and create strength in there, then once those pages/sites have momentum, strike the center.

Now Choose the Niche!

The trick is to balance your interests with that of your visitors. Not all will be interested in the stuffs that you find interesting.

Take a whole hearted effort. You need to spend your time, effort and focus to aim to build a nice website. Always give your best effort every time you write articles, offer service, write codes, designing, etc.. raise the bar after every effort from your side. In my opinion, it’s no use if you’re interested in the project as there are hundreds and thousands who do the same as you, and work harder than you might do. You need to stand out among the crowd and not be part of the crowd.

Good luck to succeed in your online venture!

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The Definitive Guide to choose a Niche Topic for your Site

Note: As said earlier, I didn’t write the whole content myself. I wrote some things myself and made the original article better (I hope!) and exhaustive. The original content was posted here at Earner Forums. I have restricted this article to just choosing a niche, whereas in the original thread, you have insights on how to develop and create the site as well. Take a look at it. I have the full permission from the authors to repost and republish the content. All the credits to them, for their hard work and sharing good information.

[tags]Niche, Niche site, Niche Blogging, Choosing Niche, Choose Niche, Niche site, Niche Marketing, Monetization Traffic, Earn Online, Search Volume, Keywords[/tags]

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