Market Research
Market research is looking for a “Target Niche Market”. It’s about finding out what kinds of people are out there and what these people are interested in. We are not looking for products to sell yet.
The Difference Between A Niche And A Market
A niche is a general area of interest, a hobby, a passion, stuff people do.
A market is a group of people who share similar traits and have common needs…
Niche = People that do stuff.
Market = People who need stuff, want stuff, want to do stuff or need stuff done.
Niche Market
Wikipedia: a focused, targetable portion (subset) of a market sector.
A niche market simply means a smaller subset of a large market.
By combining a market with a niche we hope to find a market that is not being addressed by the big players. The ideal niche market is one where there is an interest from a small but sizable group of individuals (niche market) and no one is fulfilling their needs. So we can serve them!
What a Niche Market Is Not
Any market you can paint with a broad brush:
- A large demographic group e.g. married women
- A product
- A service
- A regional group (residents of NewZealand)
- Dancers
- People on diets
- Australians
Topics to avoid:
- Dog Training
- Dieting
- Health Supplements
- Internet Marketing
- Real Estate
These Mega Markets are too tough to break into. Quickest way to success is to be a BIG FISH in a small pond NOT a small fish in a BIG POND.
95% of problems can be avoided with proper market research
The Getting Of Ideas – Noticing, Not Judging
This is the most important step in the process.
Where to get Ideas Offline
- Local Craft Markets
- Shopping Malls
- Local Paper
- Local News
- Television
- Local Libraries
- Yellow Pages
- Magazines
Where to get ideas Online
- 43 Things – A goal sharing site with lots of ideas
- HowToDoThings - similar to the previous two and very useful for ideas and inspiration
- Amazon Hot New Releases - See what products are newly released
- AOL Hot Searches
- Ask.com Top Searches - What answers are being sort after
- eBay Pulse – Look at Popular and Categories (What’s popular to buy & sell on Ebay?)
- eBay What’s Hot - What’s selling well on eBay
- eHow - another gold mine of problems and solutions.
- Google Analytics
- Google Groups - Look for Active & Large Groups (What are people’s hobbies and interests?)
- Google Hot Trends Report – (What are the hot topics of the day?)
- Google News - Most Popular - What’s making the headlines that people are interested in?
- Google Suggest
- Google Trends – (What people are searching for)
- Google Zeitgeist
- Googspy
- Lycos 50
- Niche Generator - random Niche idea generator
- Technorati – Look at Popular and Top Blogs (What are people talking about?)
- WikiHow - similar to eHow but it is a collaborative writing effort
- Yahoo Answers – (What do people want answers to?)
- Yahoo Buzz
- Yahoo Groups - Look for Active & Large Groups (What are people’s hobbies and interests?)
Right click each link to open in new tab then use Firefox Session Manager to set up a “Research” session
The Getting Of Stats – Checking for Interest, Not Judging
Check your ideas for search interest. Select a keyword or keyword phrase that describes what your market is looking for. You can use the following tools to check how many people are searching for it.
- Overture’s Keyword Selector Tool (ok)
- Wordtracker’s Free Keyword Tool (good)
- Wordtracker’s Gtrends Tool (Superb!)
- Market Samurai Keyword Research Software (Most Excellent!!)
Find your Umbrella Phrases
Identify an Umbrella Keyword Phrase for each of your markets, using the results above, by entering them “quoted” into Google. You are looking for the phrase that has less than 30,000 pages in the results. Keep checking all your phases until you have identified ones that meet this criteria.
Check for Affiliate Products
We are looking for a suitable affiliate product to “TEST” the market’s responsiveness. Search for products using your keyword phrase.
- Google: Search using your umbrella keyword phrases in quotes plus the word affiliate. That is, “your keyword phrase” + affiliate. Sign up to any affiliate programs that have the appropriate product.
- Clickbank (dedicated to digital downloadable products)
- Amazon
- Commission Junction (focus on physical products).
- Link Share
- Performics
- Share A Sale
- ClickXChange
- My Affiliate Program
- Clix Galore
- Affiliate Fuel
- Dark Blue
- Pay Dot Com
- Associate Programs
- Refer It
- Affiliate Guide
- Associate Programs
- Affiliate Match
- Earn Find
- Affiliate Programs Guide
- Affiliates Directory
“Gtrends” Technique – Finding 200+ Magic
Check your umbrella keyword phases in Google trends and note trend data in graphs (seasonal peaks and troughs) and trends for “regions”, “cities” and “language”
Using a keyword phase that you know has 500 searches per day; compare this phrase against each of your keyword phrases to determine number of daily searches for your keyword phrase. You are looking for phrases that have 100+ Daily Searches or a combination of similar phrases that add up to 200+ Daily Searches combined.
If you have umbrella phrases that have:
1. <30,000 pages
2. >100 daily searches
3. an affiliate product… You have a winner!
You can short-cut this process by using Wordtracker’s Gtrends Tool This takes the guess work out of the equation and cuts down your research time.
Check Web 2.0 Properties for your Keyword Phrase
We are looking for little or no Web 2.0 competition. Using the SEO Toolbar plugin for Firefox turned on, Google your “keyword phrase” and check blue highlighted properties under each result.
SUPER SIMPLE METHOD
Stage One
1. Focus on the first 10 listings of your search returns on the left hand side.
2. Look at the url’s/domains. How many of the following do you see already there? How many out of 10, have a domain name that includes any of these words:
a) Squidoo
b) Hubpages
c) Tumblr
d) Netscape
e) Ezinearticles
f) Myspace
g) Youtube
h) Ehow
j) USfreeads
k) Zimbio
Where are they on the page? Are they in the first 5 even? If no - YOU ARE HOME FREE
Stage Two
Is that web 2.0 Site optimized for the same keyword as yours that you will be seeking to be ranked for?
- Is the keyword phrase in the title?
- Is the keyword phrase in the body of the listing?
- Is the keyword phrase the Url/Domain?
They will appear bolded
If the answer to this is YES - then suggest it’s a no go - someone’s got there first and are doing a great job.
Stage Three (For Girly-Swots)
You can stop at Stages One & Two, in the most basic terms you have enough to go on. If you want to venture a bit further - at your own risk of confusion
Still focused on the first 1-10 listings on your page view.
1. Look at the Page rank section (PR) is there a number or a blank? If there is a number - that means simplistically that it will be harder job to get good listings.
2. Look at Y!Page Links (8 along) - does it have any back links? If so, how many?
This gives you an idea of how much they are working this keyword. If it has none - that’s great for you. If it has 100’s or 1000’s not so good.
Use Google News Feeds and Bloglines To Understand Your Topic Quickly
Search for your quoted “keyword phrase” in Google and click on News. Remove any extraneous words in your phrase if not getting any results.
If there are some promising feeds, add the RSS Feed to your Bloglines under a folder with the name of your niche. You can check these daily on your Bloglines to get ideas for articles and relevant content.
Apply Gary Halbert’s Golden Nuggets Strategy
Always carry a notepad around… Anytime you see something wow, or interesting record the note.
When online use Google Notepad. As you chuck all this stuff in there, your brain will start to work through and sort it. If you take a break from that material and come back to it, all of a sudden it just flows. And you can write.
The Steps
1. Google It Type your keyword (phrase) into Google and look at the top 10 sites! (20 is better).
Take heaps of notes. Write down anything (non pornographic) that makes you go WOW, hmm, aah and mmmmm.
2. Join Mailing Lists Set up a GMail (or Yahoo) account and join the mailing lists. This way you won’t get bombarded with mail.
3. Feed It Make sure you have your Bloglines setup. Subscribe to the feeds Read them & note them!
4. Join It Make sure you do a search on Facebook, Google Groups, Myspace, Yahoo for the keyword Join the groups. Actively read. Then take notes! Again, use your throwaway email address to avoid being inundated with spam.
In Summary
- Look at the top 10 sites (20 is better)
- Take heaps of notes - one idea per page Or use Googe Notebook
- Note anything that makes you go hmmmm or wow
- Join mailing lists (separate email address so you don’t get bombarded. Use Yahoo mail or Gmail or some other free service)
- Make sure you have Bloglines setup & subscribe to the blog feeds. Read them Take notes
- Look for groups on Facebook, Google Groups, MySpace, Yahoo and join them! Take notes!
- Reading is not enough. You MUST take notes.
