Niche Selection Update

As you can see by the date of this post, it has been quite a while since my last post on August 3. As I indicate elsewhere on this site, I promise to post updates here when I make the time, but I can’t promise a regular publishing schedule.

I’ve had a busy August with my other commitments (full time job, volunteer activities, family), so I haven’t made as progress as rapidly as I would have liked. However, here’s an update on what I’ve been working on.

I’ve started plowing through the list of potential topics that I detailed back on August 3 . On each topic, I’ve been doing the following analysis:

1. Look for Affiliate Programs for Each Topic

First and foremost, my goal has been to generate income from a new site. Sure, I could make money from a Google Adsense perspective, but I’m looking for larger sums of money. So, I’ve been taking each topic and searching for affiliate programs on each.

Basically, I’ve taken each topic and added the phrase “affiliate program” to it, and typed it into Google. So for example I would type futon affiliate program or rechargeable batteries affiliate program or whatever into Google’s search box and investigate the results.

As I analyze each merchant, I’m looking for several pieces of information:

• Does the merchant site look reputable, professional, and trustworthy?
• Is the site easy to navigate?
• Is the merchant part of a network (Commission Junction, Clickbank, ShareASale, Netshops, etc.)?
• What is the commission percentage they pay out on a sale?
• What is the average amount of a sale?
• How long does the cookie referral last? (Ideally, I’d like a 60-day cookie.)
• What is the Earning Per Click over 3 months? In other words for each “click” (visitor) to the merchant’s site, how much is that click worth? It’s kind of like a “conversion ratio” measurement. In general, the higher the EPC, the better the site does at converting incoming visitors into paying customers. I am personally looking for EPC’s over $10.00.
• Does the site provide good creative I can use? (Banners, text links, articles, keyword lists, etc.)
• Can I link directly to product pages (ideal), or can I only link to the home page (not so good)?
• Is it easy to contact the manager of the affiliate program?

In my word processor program, I created a table for housing this information. I printed it out, and I just fill in the information by hand for each of my topics. I’m averaging about five (5) affiliate programs for each topic, so it’s not a lot of writing.

2. Check if People are Searching for the Topic

Here I’m talking about keyword research. I don’t want to pick a topic that no one is searching for, no matter how passionate I am about it! There are lots of ways to perform keyword research. Here a few:

A. Use the Overture Term Suggestion Tool. This tool is not preferred since the numbers haven’t been updated since January of 2007. The site got abused by lots of automated keyword tools made for the internet marketing industry, so it’s not as useful as it once was. However, for getting started for potential profitability, it’s a good start. It should not be the only tool you use.

B. Use Wordtracker. This tool is much more accurate as to searches done in the last 60 days. You can get some limited information through the free trial, but it’s more advantageous to signup for a week to get the full benefit. Wordtracker is the preferred source for keyword information these days, and I can highly recommend it, being a subscriber myself.

C. Use NicheBot. This tool has all kinds of pieces that make your research so much more accurate and powerful. You can extract from Wordtracker here. You can tap into “Keyword Discovery” and see yearly popularity for terms. You can even crunch down the numbers by pulling from Google’s database. This is a seriously comprehensive keyword tool that is available on a subscription basis. I have the $9.95/month subscription and that works plenty well for my needs.

There are plenty of other sources to use for keyword research, but I’m not trying to be all-inclusive here. I’m telling you what I’m personally using or have personally found useful.

3. Sit Down and Analyze the Results

After I’ve generated a list of affiliate programs for each, and printed out some keyword lists, I sit down and apply some good old fashioned thinking power. I look to see if I can narrow down each topic even further based on the types of products offered, and the keywords people search for … and … by asking myself am I still interested in building a site around this topic and sticking with it over the long term?

So far, I’m only done with the first five topics on my list. As you can probably guess, this is a slow process given other priorities in my life. However, I’m working to build a sustainable business out of this, not a model built on “hit it fast and furious, then leave it alone to die out”. Therefore I want to be thorough, and I’m taking my time.

That’s the update for now. Your comments are welcome!