Should you choose a niche you're passionate about, or choose a niche that will be profitable?
When starting an online business, many people will advise that you to do what you love and the money will follow. But what if it doesnt? Or what if you want to capitalize on a profitable niche, and dont happen to be an expert on the topic? Is that even necessary?
No, it's not. I'm an expert at being a non-expert, and so in this tutorial I am going to show you how you can make money online in a niche market you know absolutely nothing about...
Passion is great, and you'll have tons of fun starting an online business doing something you truly enjoy. However, not everyone has a passion... and maybe your passion just isnt profitable as a business model. And let's face it - sometimes its just cool to tap into a niche and make some money...
As you probably recall, I just set up a new niche affiliate site for musical instruments. I do not play. I do not own an instrument. I have no personal experience and have ZERO knowledge about the products.
Ana asked: Lynn, you just mentioned that you started a site on musical instruments without any knowledge … How are you handling the credibility thing if you know nothing about the topic? What qualifies you to run that site? source
Credibility is an issue if you are offering professional advice, answering questions, or otherwise working directly with your target market.
With most niche affiliate sites, you are not doing any of those things. You are simply creating web pages that lead them to the products they are looking for online. My musical instruments site being a good example.
Rosalind Gardner has many dating affiliate sites, for example. Whether or not she is an expert in online dating, I dont know. I imagine she's learned a lot about the industry along the way, as an affiliate, though! But her sites are very successful, and she sends her visitors to authority sites within that industry (via an affiliate link, of course).
Where To Start, When You Know Nothing About The Niche
Once you have researched and chosen your niche, its time to develop your website and marketing strategy to deliver exactly what your target market is looking for online.
Obviously I am not familiar with the products or the market, so I wouldnt even know what all falls under the category of "musical instruments". Flutes, for example, or the different kinds and the various brand names.
Fortunately, eBay does. And that is why I chose to work with the BANS method of creating a niche product-based affiliate site. BANS works directly with the eBay RSS Feed and Affiliate Program and imports all of the products - and product categories - automatically for a chosen niche.
eBay can be a great research tool when it comes to products or markets you are not personally familiar with. They have a What's Hot section on eBay's Seller Central where you can get a breakdown of the "Hot Items" by category and subcategory.
Using this chart, you can get a good overview of the types of products that are selling well on eBay, and a good general look at specific niches. Using the products shown in the chart, you can compile a base keyword list to work with for further research as well.
Here is a screenshot of the category I was looking at in the "Hot Items" report on eBay, to show you an example:
So now you know what eBay buyers are interested in, and buying the most, in those niches. Next, you want to find out how that same target market (in this case, people who buy musical instruments) searches for products and information online - at the major search engines.
For this, you can use the WordTracker Free Keyword Tool. You can put in your general keyword (ie musical instruments) and also put in keywords you found in the eBay report (ie: amplifier, acoustic, cornets, clarinet).
Guitar Amplifiers are in the Very Hot section on that report, for example, so that's just one of the things I'll look into to get a better feel for my market.
You can take the keyword phrases your target market is searching for, and perform those searches on Google yourself. This is a great way to educate yourself on the market and the products.
Since I already have a product site powered by BANS and eBay (view), I am most interested in what kind of content I can add that would be of great interest to my target market. I want to add content pages that will rank well in the search engines and bring in the type of visitors that like to buy the products featured on my site.
{HOT TIP}
Simply take the keywords you have found so far, and add the word "how" to them in your keyword research.
Going back to my example of "guitar amplifiers", which is a hot product in my niche, I add the word "how" to that phrase to see what kind of content I can publish on my site. Here are the results:
Bingo! This is how you start mapping out content ideas for your new site, even if you started out knowing nothing about the niche - or what your target market is looking for. You simply continue to research the keywords and micro-niches within your niche until you have created a good solid list of content ideas - and are getting a good feel for your market.
Now obviously I dont know "how guitar amplifiers work", so I am not going to be able to magically sit down and whip up some great content to put on a web page that answers this question...
How To Generate Content On A Topic You Know Nothing About
My next step in the research phase is to see if I can locate PLR Content. PLR stands for Private Label Rights and is basically content that is already written, that you can buy cheap and then use in just about any way you like.
I just did a quick search on Google for "music plr" and immediately found sources that were around $1 per article. I even found a huge source for free content. I'm well on my way to gathering plenty of raw content at this point.
So my first step is to locate all of the free articles, PLR content, and even websites that already offer the how-to content themselves (I'll link to them as resources, or use them to learn).
The next step is to get busy editing that content, rewriting the content, or otherwise preparing it to use on your site. You can outsource the task of making the content unique and useful, or you can work on it yourself. You can also hire writers to write unique content for you at very low prices, since you have the topics in hand from your "how research".
Another great idea is to spend some time in niche forums. Find out what your target market is asking, and also look at the answers. Is there a member that devotes a lot of time to offering useful answers and seems very knowledgeable on the topic? Perhaps you can request permission to reprint some of their tips - or maybe even hire them to write a few how-to articles for you!
With the power of the internet at your fingertips, there really is nothing holding you back from creating an awesome website on just about any topic...
P.S. If you want to do more in-depth market research on your niche, or potential niches, I highly recommend studying Easy Niche Blueprint. This series of video tutorials will show you ways to find hot markets and also figure out where your target market IS online - easily!
Who Are Begging For Products To Buy
For an interesting continuation on the topic of Passion vs Profit, see: Follow Your Passion? The Blogger Roundup. Then return here and put these ideas into motion 😉
Like this tutorial? Blog about it! If you link back to this page in your post, using this URL: http://www.clicknewz.com/1225/passion-vs-profit/ , a link to your post will show up below so everyone can check it out!
About Lynn Terry
Very nice information. Thanks for letting me know about these tools. Trying to build up my eBay business with these.
Hmm...
Welcome to the Internet, where you can find millions of domains by folks who know nothing about the topic of their site!
I dunno. It's possible to be too clever.
It's possible to undermine the credibility of a marketplace to the point where it is branded in buyer's minds as nothing more than just one more cheap gimmick.
If I'm not passionate about my site, why in the world should you be?
Darn it Lynn, stop sharing your fun personality and real world business experience on this site.
Give us PLR instead!
No no - that's what I do on my other sites - not this one 😉
Heh 😀
Good response, Lynn. But I also agree with Phil. I can't help thinking that if you're not qualified to run a site, why should anyone take you seriously enough to buy products from you? Somehow ... I'm able to tell pretty fast if a site is run by someone who knows about that niche.
I'm thinking seriously on this one especially now as I'm ready to put up my first site, and at the moment money absolutely must be my priority. So here's my next question on this:
Do you communicate with your customers on that music site? Does anyone ever write you on there to ask your opinion on something? I'd find it hard to believe if they didn't. What would your responses be?
I've heard that when people buy from websites -- as opposed to buying directly from eBay or Amazon -- they buy primarily from so-called "authority" sites, where the site owners are experts and can answer any questions they may have.
And, now that some time has passed since you first mentioned your non-expert-run music site ... how is it doing? Honest, please ... I'd really love to know and so, I know, would others.
Hi Ana,
The musical instruments site was set up as a case study. I am not able to actually work the sites I share here in case studies, so it is current inactive. It's unfortunate that is the case, as I used to willingly share my sites as examples. It turns out that some readers just prefer to copy my work than use it as creative inspiration. A shame for everyone else (me included), for sure. I may revive this one at some point, but it got stalled shortly after the original case study for this very reason.
That said, I have plenty of affiliate sites and promotions for products on which I am not an expert (that are up and running). The way I set my sites up, I get very few questions - they are usually on the merchant site before they have product questions, and contact the merchant directly.
When I do get emails, and I do, there usually isn't a question I can't answer with a simple google search. Or by searching the merchant's website.
Example: Do you carry the XYZ Elvis Bobblehead? - A: No, I dont carry the XYZ Elvis Bobblehead on my site, but ABC Company does have this one in stock: *link* (affiliate link if I have it, otherwise direct link).
Example 2: What are the exact dimensions of this product? - A: (look it up on the merchant's website, give them the exact dimensions as stated there, along with a direct link to that product on the merchant's website.
It's really not that complicated.
Hope that helps 😀
You'd be surprised that sometimes this is just a case of bad communication or lack of writing skills. A great writer can seem like an expert or enthusiast in something their not, and vice versa.
My first really successful site was built for fun then realised it could generate an income it now funds my hobby and I am the leading authority in that niche.
However I do have a lot of sites in subjects I have no interest in until they start making money funny how interesting mortgages get when you see the first affiliate cheque drop in.
I started off using BANS worked well for what it is but I use drupal and PHPbay now which works perfectly and the sky is the limit to what you can acheive and best of all the search engines seem to love drupal.
Great post Lynn you a star
Danny Cutts
Thanks Danny 😉 Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks, for the useful information.
I was looking around for information about how to monitize a niche i know nothing about and have been able to learn a lot from this post. About BANS, i'm going to look up on it and see if i will use it. Also i think that it's better if you write unique content, rather then using PLR as you will have a better chance to rank higher in google. Finding the right niche also means lots of research and hard work. If you've produced nice unqiue content and have a good traffic then you'll start to see some money roll in.
But, Do you use PLR on many sites? If yes, how do they do? don't you get penelized by Google?
thanks,
I'm not sure if BANS is still the best option. It's been awhile since I reviewed it (a few versions ago) so do your research on that one.
As for PLR, yes I use it - and no I don't get penalized. PLR means you have Private Label Rights to edit the content, so I use that content as a base and rewrite it (or outsource the rewrites).
You can also repurpose PLR into video, audio, use it for content in your autoresponder series or email messages, to create free reports for your opt-ins, etc. There are a lot of ways to put PLR to good use in any niche.
Lynn
thanks for the information in this article, it has openned a new door for future niches that I thought about persuing. However I still believe that if you follow your passions or intrest you can still become profitable. I have writen an article about this very thing and I think it may benifit some of your readers who may want to use their passions as a niche for it will make it easier for them to come up with content and to monetize their site.
All they have to do is click on my name and it will take them to the article "Turn Your Passion Into an Internet Business You Love!"
Just a suggestion.
Hi Lynn,
I was curious as to what you would do with the PLR/Content in this case if you have an affiliate store set up? Do you create a separate site with these articles and then re-direct them to the store? I guess I'm not clear on how the two are integrated because in the store example above, there's not much content just products.
Please clarify.
Thanks!
Hey Kimmoy,
I am not actively marketing that site, so it was used as an example only. That said, I would add some content pages that each had a call-to-action leading back into a specific product page. I would also use content in Article Marketing, guest blogging, on a Squidoo Lens, etc.
Also see: http://www.clicknewz.com/1479/how-to-optimize-an-ecommerce-site/
Thanks for the prompt response Lynn! Now that makes sense. With a gazzillion swing sets for example, you will have LOTS to talk about using this content marketing model vs having a static e-commerce store. I think it's all coming together for me :)Off to get a copy of SAH...
You'll LOVE the Super Affiliate Handbook - it is chock full of real live site examples and step-by-step processes. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it!
I am a big fan of WordTracker's Free Keyword Tool. It has guided the success of everyone of my sites. One of my websites now welcomes 150,000 visitors each month - and it's less than two years old.
Really great blog post!
And now, I also want to make a blog. But I have 2 topic for selecting. Can you help me?
First topic: Excel tutorial, this topic I have more experience, but currently I don’t feel comfortable or passion with this topic, exactly about 1 year I don’t find and research them.
Second topic: I’m beginner, but I fall in love with that, I read every day (books and news) and mass passion about it – “self-improvement”.
(2 topics I write by Vietnamese)
So with 2 topics like that, how do I choose one for blogging?
I also ask other facebook group, but they don’t have any advice clearly.
Do you have any advice for me?
Thank you so much