Niche Research Manifesto – 20 ways to research your niche, understand your prospects better and own your competitors – Part 1

Introduction:

You probably know this by now, but niche websites are a great way to create multiple revenue streams online. If you want to earn a living online, you need to stand out from all the others who are also trying to make money online.

If you can do this, you have a very good chance of making some serious money. No matter what niche you have decided to build a website around, if you can build a website that is better than the others in your niche, you are going to be successful.

While some people spend a lot of time on finding a particular niche to go into, few spend adequate time researching the niche after that point. This is a very crucial stage of the process, however.

It’s like saying you want to bake a cake, but then decide you aren’t concerned about finding the right ingredients to put in.Can you imagine the type of cake you would end up with!? Probably not very tasty. :-)

Building a niche website without researching the “ingredients” will leave you with a mess that will cost more money than it makes. This is NOT what you want.

Researching a niche isn’t rocket science by any means, but armed with this information, you’ll be able to quickly find out what type of content you need for your website to attract visitors – and eventually customers.

We will start with ways you can stay organized. Then, we will go into some of the more popular research tools that you can use to speed up the process. The next section deals with ways to use Google to find juicy niche information.

While all the above information is great and will be enough to keep you busy for hours and hours, I also have some other sources of information on whatever niche you are getting into – which are very valuable.

Finally, I have some parting words of wisdom about doing niche research. While this guide is not the final word on researching a niche, it’s a great “recipe” that will help make sure your “cake” isn’t a flop.

If you’re ready to go, prepare to get excited. Some of these ideas that you didn’t think about can make the difference between you being successful and a failure when it comes to making money online.
Staying Organized

If you haven’t noticed this by now, it is VERY easy to get distracted on the Internet. You can start searching for the best questions related to golf clubs and end up with 20 tabs open for who knows what…

To help avoid this – so that you can find information and content that will keep visitors on your website – you need to stay organized. This cannot be stressed enough. While you may be able to “get by” without paying attention to the details, if you want to excel, you need to take good notes.

Here are some basic tips to help keep your niche research organized:

Use a Spreadsheet to keep you organized:

If you are whining that you can’t afford Microsoft Excel, stop. :-)

Go get a copy of OpenOffice.org, which is free and has spreadsheet software included (named “Calc”). If you are not familiar with spreadsheets, spend some time learning the basics – adding new “sheets,” setting up columns, etc.

Create the following columns:

Website URL Column: Use this to keep track of all the websites that you find in your niche. From competitors to ones you can use to “borrow” ideas, this is a good list to have.

Good Ideas Column: As you visit these websites (I’ll show you how to find them later), simply jot down your ideas so that you won’t forget them.

Mistakes Column: In this column you will be noting down all the obvious mistakes your competitors make. That way, you can make sure you avoid them.

Sometimes we can see the errors in other people’s behavior, but not in ours. You need to become conscious of what mistakes to avoid. For example: “this site is woo wide and doesn’t look properly in all screen resolutions.”

Keywords Column: Get ideas for some “themes” your competitors use. For example, if you start with the keyword “jump higher”, you may come across a term like: “increase vertical.”

Products / Offers Column: Keep a running list of products and offers available for your niche. These are basically affiliate programs that you may be able to promote.

Don’t get “stuck” in one type of product either. Be open minded. Digital products and physical products. One-time sale and recurring memberships. Information and software. Text, audio and video. Just note down what you come across.

The more organized you are, the easier it is going to be to track progress. This is one of the key tips to being successful with your niche website efforts.
But what if I ain’t a spreadsheet type of dude (or dudette)?

Some people feel weird, when they are about to use a spreadsheet. They don’t want to feel like they are being “too organized” or “not intuitive.”

The fact of the matter is that our brains can’t hold all this info – unless you are some kind of genetic freak with a photographic memory. If you happen to be, I envy you :-)

The rest of us need a way to “store” our thoughts and ideas. Use spreadsheets, Notepad files, pen and paper or whatever else you want. But get organized and don’t keep all this info inside your head.

The Benefits of Being Organized:

We have briefly gone over some of the benefits of tracking data in your niche, but here are some more.

Accessibility – When you are better organized, information is easier to find and access. This makes it easier to actually use the information to your advantage. There is so much info available online that it can be overwhelming, if you don’t break it down into bite-sized chunks.

Ideas – If you ever run out of ideas, you will have a source of inspiration to draw from without doing more research. Let’s say that you regularly create content around your niche. You should never run out of subject ideas. If you have a list of ideas that is carefully organized, you can more easily access them and use them to your advantage.

Progress – By keeping track of changes, mistakes, and other information, you can better track your progress over time. This allows you to see what is working and what is not working.

In Part 2 of this series, we’ll get to the “meat.” For now, create the spreadsheet and look out for the next part…