Determining Niche Demand

Monday, March 24th, 2008 | Niche Sites with No Comments »

While your knowledge and passion or excitement makes a big difference in how successful your site will potentially be, they are not the only factors that matter. You need a site concept that attracts visitors too. Something that makes them excited and want to learn more about what you’re trying to teach or sell. You can have the BEST blog out there, but if no one is interested in the topic you won’t make any money.

So, how do we tell what will be a good niche with enough interest (or demand). Quite simply we take a look at what people are searching for. You should have a good number of searches not only for your main keyword, but also for related keywords. We call these keywords long tail keywords and while each might only have a few searches each day when you put them together thaey can add up to hundreds of visitors a day.

When I’m doing demand type research the first place I check is Google. There’s a pretty good chance that 80% or more of your search traffic will come from them so let’s make sure that people are actually searching there for your niche keywords. Well you’ve actually already done this research if your following my guide. The post Developing a Keyword List should have given you a good starting point to determine if there is demand for your subject area.

Another good way to determine how much interest there is in your subject area is to check out the competition. Search for forums and blogs related to your subject. Yes, these will be competition, but some competition is a good thing. It tells you that there is a demand in your niche and it also gives you some like minded people to network with as your site grows. Never underestimate the power of networking with others, even if they are competitors.

You can find forums easily by going to Google and searching for ‘keyword’ + forum. Scroll through the first 20-30 results to see what type of information people are talking about relative to your niche. Then go to Blog Catalog and/or Google Blog Search to get an idea of what blogs are already out there covering your niche. When using Google Blog Search I like to filter the results by the past 12 hours to get more relevant results.

Now, I would never be one to hold you back, but let me caution you here. When you search at Google filter by daily results. If you see more than 2000 daily results you’re getting into competitive waters and may want to refine or rethink your niche. Likewise if you see less than 500 results you may have a niche that’s going to be too narrow. Or you’re lucky and just found a niche that’s under served.

Do this for all of the niches you’ve identified and score the niche demand from 1-10 in your chart. Tomorrow I’ll be back to talk about everyones favorite subject – monetization. After all that’s why we want to start a website isn’t it, to make money. After that we’ll finalize our niche choice and move on to the development of a complete keyword list as well as the structure of your site or blog. Until then have a great day!

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