Help finding a niche

[Adammo]

Hi Linda,

Honestly, you are not bursting my bubble at all. Again, i'm just trying to wrap my head around all of this stuff. If I went out on my own, I would have found out eventually this wouldn't work. You are saving me much more time and grief, much appreciated .

I think the best idea for me to do is to tell you a little bit about the life of AdamMo and maybe a nice profitable niche will come about? I hope you don't mind me asking.

I'm a pretty simple guy and i'm not lying when I say I like sports! This list was also sent to ArizonaJay:

1 - Sports (hockey, football, baseball, basketball)
2 - Sports collectibles (autographs, memorabilia, cards)
3 - Betting on sports through provincial lottery
4 - Fantasy Sports (hockey, football, and baseball)
5 - Sports statistics and analysis
6 - Sports news web sites.
7 - Sports radio
8 - My two cats
9 - Swimming (I swam competitively for numerous years and do have knowledge in the area...ust not very popular)
10 - Watching TV shows
11 - Occasionally reading
12 - I bike alot at home and outside to keep in shape.
13 - I work in the IT field (Quality Assurance) during my non leisure time.

I'm thinking that the sports equipment stuff that ArizonaJay mentioned earlier would be a good idea for me. The only issue for myself is I won't be able to test the products myself. Below you mentioned help people 1t, profit 2nd. If I can't properly evaluate a product, will I be able to help people properly? Perhaps it is possible, I just want to check .

Something I do know more about and can get my hands on easier is the collectible industry. But again, not really sure how to profit from it.

Thanks again! I really do appreciate the advice and know that I am being a bother.

A couple thoughts...

1) FOCUS on helping people 1st, making money 2nd. It?s the helpful content that YOU would want to read if you were looking for info about a niche, that's going to attract people to your site. You need the traffic before you can make any money. So write good helpful content to attract them.

If you had a cat site you'd want to write about problems cat owners have, diseases they may need to look up, topics cat lovers would be interested in.
"Cat Food...my cats love Brand X, you can find Brand X here." isn't exactly compelling content. Although you could get traffic from people looking for a review of cat food brand X I suppose.

2) Think about the potential money you could make realistically. I buy my cat food and litter locally. I'm big on online shopping, but I think like me, most people buy their pet basics at their pet store, grocery store or Walmart.

Now there are pet supply affiliate programs that have all kinds of pet products that you could market. Things other than food and litter that people may shop for online. Things they maybe can't find at the local grocery store.

Also think about the cost and commission. If the bag of cat food is $15 and commission is 10% you'd make 1.50 per sale. Average conversion rates are 2% (but are often times much less). So that means 2 sales per 100 visitors if you are lucky. Which means you would need to get at least 1,000 visitors to make $30.

So I'm not trying to rain on your parade (or niche). Lots of affiliates focus on the pet niche, so it's competitive but doable again IF you focus on the more long tail keywords. I was just trying to teach you some of the logic as far as how to evaluate niches and the types of products to focus on.

 

[Adammo]

Sorry to add more to this. I think I almost see the light at the end of the tunnel and think I have figured out a few different types of niches that could see some types of returns. I also wouldn't mind discussing any of these items:

skates (hockey skates is low)
hockey sticks
hockey jerseys (123 too low?)
nfl jerseys
exercise equipment
golf equipment
golf balls
ladies golf clubs (golf clubs seem to popular)
sports memorbilia
above ground swimming pools (too expensive to ship online?)
swimming pool supplies
swim suits
mens swim trunks
volkswagen parts
triathlon bikes (too low?)
triathlon gear (too low?)
baseball bats
baseball cards
baseball hats
sports tickets
football tickets
cat health

Do any of these stand out and say "stay away", or do most seem generally doable?

Thanks

 

[Alex85]

Most of the advice above is good and I would like to add something about competition.

I was very concerned about it when I was starting out, as well.

But you do not have to be afraid of it so much. Or let me say it - at all. Internet is HUGE, and even for the most competitive niches, you will have your auditory. You will just have your traffic, and don`t worry about all the competitors. They might be getting traffic in other ways than you, and they will just get another people.

There are millions of new people coming every day. You will just get a piece of that cake, so don`t worry about what the GURU`s are doing in your niche.

Just my advice

 

[Adammo]

Hi Linda or anyone...

I wanted to ask you about a specific niche based on the criteria you explained on Page #1. Something I didn't think of thaT I enjoy is the Canadian Football League. When I plug that into the WordTracker, I get a small number of 133. But when I plug it into google I get 227,000,000 results (way too many!). But when I use all quotes it comes out to 353,000 (phew!).

I was very surprised by the results in Google as the league is not that popular. My thought was I could easily set up a Word Press blog and have keywords like the team names, players, etc to help attract traffic. This is what I was hoping with my general sports idea.

Anyways is 227,000,000 google results without quotes still ok since they are searching football, and league seperatly as well?

hope that makes sense!