Where Interest Intersects with Income
Now that we know what interests you, we need to find the niches (and product lines) that are going to put money in your pocket.
In other words, it’s time for some market research.
Now there are two main methods for conducting market research, and a good strategy will incorporate both of them:
1. Find out what your market is already buying. Big hint: if they’re already buying something similar, then that’s a big green flag telling you that they’ll buy it from you too (if you carve yourself out a piece of a niche).
2. Find out what your market wants. In other words, find out what they’re talking about in the niche, and ask them what they want and need.
Heads up…
Sometimes marketers figure it’s easier to skip the first step and just ask the market what they want.
But here’s the thing… What your market SAY they want and what they’ll actually buy can be two different things. So that’s why you want to see what people are actually actively buying today, because that’s a good predictor of what they’ll buy tomorrow.
And then you can survey the market for two reasons:
1. To confirm your research. If your market is telling you they want something AND you see evidence that they’re already buying it, that’s excellent! You got a profitable product line on your hands.
2. To discover ways to improve on what the competition is doing (such as designing a unique selling proposition that will hook your market).
Okay, so let’s go through these two steps of finding out what people are buying, and finding out what they say they want…
Follow the Money: There are two ways to follow the money when it comes to your market research:
1. Find out where your prospective customers are laying down their money. In other words, what are they buying?
2. Find out where your prospective customers are laying down money for advertising, because savvy marketers don’t investment endless sums of money in unprofitable product lines.
Here’s how to figure out what your market is buying…
Search marketplaces. Simply enter your niche keywords into top marketplaces, and see which products are selling well.
For example, if you’re looking at organic rose gardening, then you’d search the various marketplaces using the keywords … (wait for it)… “organic rose gardening.”
TIP: Keep your keywords broad for now, as it will help you uncover products you may have never considered before.
You can search marketplaces such as:
· Etsy.com.
· eBay.com
Take note that several of these marketplaces give you an indication of what’s selling well.
For example, Amazon lists products according to their ranking in the marketplace, so it’s easy for you to pick out the top sellers in a niche.
TIP: Not only should you look for bestsellers, but also look for similar products which are all selling well. This shows you that a bestselling product isn’t a fluke. Instead, it shows consistency since similar products are selling well too.
Search Google. Now go search for your niche keywords in Google or Bing.
Take note of the following:
1. What are the top sites in your niche selling? If several sites in your niche are selling similar products, that’s a good sign that the product is popular.
2. What are the top sites in your niche advertising? In some cases, a top site might not directly sell their own products. Instead, they may accept advertisers. Take note of what these advertisers are promoting – if you see similar ads across sites, that’s a sign that a product is in demand.
3. What do you see being advertised in the sponsored results? You’ll find these sponsored (paid) ads next to the organic ads in Google or Bing. If you see similar products being advertised across ads, that’s a sign that it’s something popular in your niche.
Check out print publications. Here’s what you’re looking for:
1. See what niche catalogs are selling. In particular, pay attention to what is promoted on the front and back covers. These are the big items that tend to be popular, and those who print catalogs do a lot of research and testing to determine which items to put on the front and back covers.
For example, if you’re looking to sell gardening supplies, then check out what the top gardening supply catalogs are positioning as their big sellers.
2. See what’s being advertised in niche magazines. Popular magazines (with large circulation numbers) charge a lot to advertise, so advertisers pick their products and offers carefully. Check out the ads scattered through these magazines, as well as the classified ads in the back (where applicable).
Find Out What Your Market Wants
This is the part where you eavesdrop on your market, do a little investigative work to figure out what your market wants, and outright ask them what they want.
Again, take note that you shouldn’t use this method in insolation, as what people say and what they do can be two different things.
Walk through these three steps:
Eavesdrop on your market. In other words, simply spend some time listening to your market talk amongst themselves, which can be very revealing.
You can find these discussions in the following places:
· On niche blogs (check the comments).
· In communities, such as Facebook groups or forums.
· In product reviews on sites like Amazon.
TIP: Check the discussions on product review sites to see what people are saying about products in your niche.
Use keyword tools. The next step is to enter your niche keywords into a tool such as Keyword Atlas.
Then pay particular attention to the keywords that revolve around specific products and product reviews.
For example, if you’ve decided to sell shoes to marathon runners, then take note of what types of shoes are getting a lot of searches, which ones have plenty of searches for product reviews, and which types of shoes people are looking to outright buy.
Survey your market. Finally, you can ask your market what they want. One way to do this is by using a tool like SurveyMonkey.com. Another way is to simply open the discussion on a big platform, like in a social media group, in a sort of focus group. Or, preferably, you can do both.
Either way, don’t constrain answers to fit into some narrow category by using multiple choice questions. Instead, use at least some open-ended questions to get answers that you may not have even thought to include.
At this point, you’ve figured out what interests you. You’ve taken the steps to determine if a niche is profitable. And in the process, you’ve also seen, specifically, which products get your prospective customers’ hearts racing.