Niche Research Manifesto – Part 3

Niche Research Manifesto – Part 1

In Part 2 of the Niche Research Manifesto, we talked about different tools that can help you research your niche. Let’s see how to use another free, powerful and underutilized tool: Google Search.

Finding Niche Gold with Google:

Beyond websites that have been set-up to research niche topics, there are many advanced searches you can use with Google to “dig up” information about your niche – whatever it might be. Here are some ideas that you may or may not have thought about before.

TIP: As with the other methods, make sure you keep that spreadsheet handy and compile the data so that you can study it when you’re done finding all the information you need.

Study Google Adwords Landers

By looking at the “landing pages” or “landers” for Google Adwords ads, you can quickly get the best ideas from your competitors while at the same time avoiding their mistakes. Look closely at the particular products they promote for your niche.

This can tell you what is working and what products you should concentrate on for your own niche website efforts. You don’t want to simply copy the landing pages – but you can definitely gat inspiration from them.

Look at ten to twenty (at least) landing pages and compile a list of “best ideas” from each of them. At the end, tally the results and take the best of the best ideas and make them your own. Again, a spreadsheet will help you keep track of all this information.

TIP: After you look at so many landers, you are going to be able to quickly glance at them and know what’s what. When you look at hundreds of them, you will be really good at finding the little details that really make a landing page work – converting and profitable.

Search Top Google Results:

Search for your keywords when you are logged out of Google (so you don’t get results tailored to you, based on your search history).

Closely examine at least the top five to ten websites that are ranking for that keyword. Again, remember that spreadsheets and compiling this data for later analysis is important, if you want to make the most from the information.

Google Images Search of Popular Banner Ad Sizes:

You can use Google Images to find banners that have “advertising dimensions.” I especially like looking for those that are 250X250 and 300X250. These are some of banners with the highest click-through rates.

Here’s an example of 250X250 banners related to the keyword “lose weight.”

This can give you great ideas for angles to use in the marketing tactics you employ to get results.
Search Google for: Newsletter + Keyword

Typing the word “newsletter” plus your keyword or phrase into Google will allow you to see the “lead magnets” in your niche. Take careful notice of what the “squeeze pages” say about the niche.

Look closely at what is sent to you in each and every email. Start up a spreadsheet and start noting the similarities between all the emails.

After you do this for a while, you will have compiled a list of even more “undercover” products that your competitors promote. You will also get ideas to use in your email marketing.

TIP: To get even more information, sign-up for an email account somewhere (like Google or Yahoo.) After you have this “throw-away” email address, simply sign-up for as many email lists as possible in your niche.

Search Google for Queries like…

Here are some sample queries you can type into the Google search box to find what you need:

intitle:”main keyword” intitle: “demographics”
intitle:”main keyword” intitle: “main problems”

This may allow you to tap into research others have already done. There is no need to spend all the time researching, if others have done it for you already. And no matter what mid-level or big niche you are in, someone has likely done the research by this point.

The trick is in knowing how to create Google queries that return only the data you want. As you play with Google Operators and construct complex searches, you will become better at it, which will enable you to tap into a lot more research. As you might imagine, this is going to radically increase your chances of success.

TIP: Don’t be afraid to spend the time to learn about Google Search operators. The more you know, the better crafted queries you are going to be able to create…

In Part 4, we’ll talk about other places to get valuable niche research data from. Stay tuned :-)