Following on from where we left off a few days back in our niche research discussion…
I received an email with some very pertinent questions.
(For those of you who didn’t see that post, you’d be wise to check it out.)
I’m pretty well going to copy and paste from my email response, note the questions highlighted in bold…
=============
What would be the best way to determine what a hungry niche is hungry for?
A: That’s the thing – if you find the NICHE first, then you have to try and work out what they’re hungry for… if you find the PRODUCT first… then there’s no doubt. Because a high selling product is a product, AND it’s a market.. if that makes sense – it’s a product that you KNOW there’s a group of people after it OR there’s a group of people who if you put this product in front of them, you can be confident they’d want it…
Where would you recommend looking for products to satisfy their hunger?
A: If you take out the phrase “to satisfy their hunger” thats a good question, since when we find the high selling product, we know it satisfies the hunger of a certain group of people…
Where to find them…
I’m still in the thinking phase on this one too but here are some ideas…
You know how you always get that advice to go to sites like shopping.com – froogle.com, ebay and amazon to search for “niches” that are selling…
Well I’d use the same idea but forget niches and look for PRODUCTS that are selling…
Say you find a particular kind of baby stroller that seems popular on Amazon… I’d do some searching for Baby Strollers… look for some models that seem to be popular – see if they’re being mentioned around the web and if they have affiliate programs.
In other words, you’re not necessarily looking for products there, but you’re using those sites to stimulate IDEAS for products that will sell well… and hey if you find a great product while you’re there it’s a bonus!
Furthermore, remember the advice to go to newsagents and magazine racks to look for niche ideas? Or that niches with magazines on them are good to target? I’d say instead, go buy a bunch of popular magazines and flip through them to find what PRODUCTS are being advertised… they’ll often have a URL For the product too which is perfect for us.
What search criteria would you recommend for me (especially the amount of search per day or per month & number of competitors / keywords in “”)?
A: Honestly, forget it – if it’s got low competition and high search volume, you’re in luck, but as long as you’ve got a high selling product and are willing to be creative and keep thinking of new ways to promote it, you’ll end up a winner.
==============
Before you shoot me down in flames for that last remark, remember I’m talking in the context of our recent niche research talks. I don’t espouse throwing out the idea of search competition and volume altogether – I’m just opening you up to looking at niche markets in a new way 
Post to Facebook
Share on Twitter
Digg This Article
Save on del.icio.us
Andrew,
Nice tips on finding the niche.
I liked the newsstand tips… never thought of that one before.
Anish
Good post, Andrew. I read anything I can find on niche research and selection. Please keep posting…
I just tried to read your post translated to Russian (my native language) with one of those icons on the right… It’s just hilarious!
Nice idea, I have nothing against it, but you can’t even imagine how funny machine translations to Russian can be! 
A thought. I would also look at trends as they relate to various products, and how those trends could breathe new life into a product that might not be so “hot” or “new” anymore. For instance, the current green trend could be used to spin a product in a completely new direction. This concept occurred to me the other night when I saw a late night commercial for a product that was really hot a few years ago, but is somewhat boring by now. (No, I’m NOT going to name the product
) Anyway, the spokesman said something that caught my attention, and my first thought was, “Dude, if you put a ‘green’ spin on that statement, you’d probably clean up”.
Wally,
Interesting thoughts mate – that’s the kind of thinking I’ve been talking about, when related to method of promotion.
Andrew
You really hit the nail on the head here – you seem to have great foresight.
Love the magazine idea – Cheers Mate