July 25, 2007

Choosing a Niche Topic (Part 3)

In the first part of how to conduct niche topic research, I searched through various affiliate networks for site ideas. Got about 12 ideas.

In the second part of this topic, I did a household inventory using a method championed by James Martell. Turns out this was a bigger project than I thought. It took me a couple of hours!

In total, I wrote up a 13 page inventory, with each page containing two columns of items! In total, there are over 670 different products on my lists . Granted, there is some duplication, but there have to be at least 500+ possible niche site ideas. Obviously, I’m going to have to narrow this down, and Martell’s suggestion is to pick 25 topics that look interesting on the list.

Before I do that narrowing down, though, I’m going to keep generating niche site ideas.

Topic Selection Method #3: Browse Top "Most Popular" Lists and Sites

In this third part of my topic research, I was going to write about the resources that Dr. Andy Williams writes about in his free ebook, "Building Fat Affiliate Sites." However, while I was browsing around looking for ideas, I came across a link for a great YouTube video on how to research niche topics! The video is by Steven of AffiliateMarketingDiary.com and is very comprehensive.

In this video, Steven highlights 10 websites you can go to in order to find ideas for website ideas based on the "most popular" topics that people are actually searching for. The video lasts about 10 minutes. Below, I’ve listed the links to the sites he references in the video.