IISFS Experiment Part 1: Niche Selection

Well I did the first thing in my IISFS Niche Marketing journey today… (haha, sounds so funny saying those words)

(if you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, read this post…

I chose a niche and registered a domain name!

Here’s how I did it:

I chose a broader niche.

I chose a niche which is a group of products, for example, (this isn’t it but it’s illustrative) Pencils.

I researched and found that there were alot of specific types of this product available and getting searched. (if you bought my Plug And Play Niche Marketing you’ll find this strategy familiar)

For example there was “2B Pencils, Red Pencils, Black Pencils” etc, all being searched. I could see at least 6 products within this category or keyword group that I could later promote NMOC style.

Not only that but the main term, (keeping with the Pencils example) got searched at a good enough ratio to be a decent enough niche in it’s own right – maybe I could attack that later once I had some leverage from existing rankings.

I know we all love numbers, so I’ll share with you the exact numbers I saw… (oh btw, I just used free wordtracker and Google to get this info)

Keyword 1: 96 searches per day vs 8000 Google results (term in quotes)

Keyword 2: 90 searches per day vs 36 000 Google results

Keyword 3: 87 searches per day vs 1500 Google results

Keyword 4: 57 searches per day vs 177 Google results

Keyword 5: 33 searches per day vs 500 Google results.

It might be helpful to note that each of these phrases are brand names like 2B pencil. Also, they all have phrases under them that also get searched, for example, 2B Pencil Review, also gets searches so there’s plenty of depth to the search engine potential of this little niche.

NOW…

What I thought about far more than these numbers however was the psychological and demographic profile of my niche.

I knew something about them because it’s a subject I did have some interest in in the past (who knew that old advice could ACTUALLY be helpful) so I knew.

The kind of people who buy this kind of product have disposable income – it’s an expensive “hobby” you could say – so I know they have credit cards and could potentially make a purchase. Not only that but I know they FREQUENTLY buy this kind of item.

I also know they are compulsive as a market. You know the kinds of people that have to have every new thing related to X? Yeah, one of those markets.

Another factor I looked at, and one to consider when you’re doing your own niche research is WHY they buy – what’s their motivation. Some things motivate us human beings more than others and it’s important to know what’s behind the buying impulses of a niche both so you can know whether it’s a good one to enter AND so you can know how to push their buttons after you DO enter.

The thing that drives this group of people is significance, or “keeping up with the Jones’ ” they want to know that when they talk to their friends who also have this hobby, that they’re the most informed, the most equipped, and have the best chance at being the most significant at it. (If it feels like I’m tiptoe-ing around what the niche is, I AM, I don’t want competition!)

And when you’ve got a little money to throw around, and a big desire for some significance, you’re a GREAT buyer! The kind of people that us marketers are looking for.

What else?

The product is a high priced item – the average one goes for $150 to $200 – and the affiliate commission is ok too – 10% or more if I can make more sales of these things.
Furthermore, once I’ve connected with the people in this niche, there are a lot of related product niches that I could potentially expand into. Other products that, knowing they need THIS product, can deduce that they may also want THAT product, I mean. Lots of that.

For me, this was enough to determine that this niche might be worth entering.

So next, I bought a domain name.

I went for a new rather than an old domain – I could’ve given myself a head start with an old domain but probably wouldn’t have gotten something relevant, and wanted to go for keyword relevancy instead.

I registered the domain (sticking with the example again – this isn’t actually it) pencilspencils.com

I thought that it was both catchy, and anyone searching any kind of pencils would see it highlighted twice in the URL on Google search – something I believe will be helpful for SEO.

That’s about where I’m at so far – I’ll post about my next part of the adventure soon!