Niche selection

[ImLearning]

Hello all, i am new here and new to IM/blogging. I am very eager to learn what this is all about and have been enjoying Lynn's website here. If you have the time could you please let me know your thoughts and advice on the following three ideas i have came up with so far.

1. I initially thought it would be a cool idea to start a blog kind of like a follow me on my journey to making money online where i am trying to learn something everyday and i would write a blog post about what i learned that day whether it be SEO, email lists, niche selection etc...However i do plan to make money with this blog, although i know it takes a while. My concern here is that this market i already overly saturated and i would have little to no chance ever being able to make money in this area.


2. My second idea was to create a blog or some sort of website dealing with golf. I love golf, however i am no expert at it and am not qualified to teach people how to golf. As well with the making money online idea i feel that this niche is maybe to broad and as well overly saturated? Does anyone have any ideas for something in the golf arena that might work out well?


3. Another idea i thought about would be to make a website or blog on well websites and blogging. Where i would try to learn everything about wordpress at first and write about it, then eventually create niche blogs with some starter content and sell the ready to go blogs on flippa, ebay, or where ever i could. Then eventually get into talking about html and css and in the long run offer a web development service possibly. Again i would like to obv monetize this site as well as the other two.


Like i said i am completely new to this and am looking for any advice whatsoever. I am a little confused on just exactly where to start, so if anyone could review the 3 ideas above and take the time to give opinions, advice, tips, or experiences on each i would greatly appreciate it.

[Kai Druhl]

Hello ImLearning, from my own experience, the best way to find out is to get started with it. I'd guess that you have two areas of interest: golf and blogging. Both are broad and competitive, but you may be able to find a good niche. Could be your age group, job or professional background, for example golf for IT professionals, or for sales professionals. Do some market research, at forums, article directories and Facebook. Get started with reporting your findings in a blog. Get a low cost web hosting account and host your own blog. As you learn more about your market, you can create your own free report or video, and build an email list. For that, you should have a separate opt-in page, aka squeeze page. You can add that as a template to most wordpress themes.

Main thing, do something that you really enjoy. For some hands-on instructions, you can pick up a free starter kit at my blog below. Have Fun!

[angienewton]

As a beginner I would recommend that you NOT start with the blogging or IM niche. You would be much better off starting with the golf niche and growing that site since it's something you enjoy. Read Lynn's blog post on how to choose a niche (http://www.clicknewz.com/2281/how-to-choose-a-niche/) and that should help you with your decision.

[Lynn Terry]

Definitely check that post ^ out first :)

I would love to hear your thoughts after doing the exercise!

[ImLearning]

thanks for the replies.....i have read Lynn's niche post before posting here, and i have went back and re-read it as well. I see some people feel the golf niche would be better, but the more i think about it i am not sure what i would write about since i am no expert and not in any type of position to teach people how to golf. So im not really sure what angle to take there....

To Lynn and the exercise...well right now if i could do whatever i wanted i would buy a huge nice RV, hire a driver, and travel around the country going everywhere...golfing, eating out, sight seeing, just being free with no worries lol.....


I do have a degree in Information Technology, and have built computers in the past, which i am interested in..as well as computer gaming....i would have to brush up on my knowledge a little since that area is constantly changing...maybe there is a niche in this arena?


again thanks

[ChristineCobb]

If you have an interest in a subject like golf but don't consider yourself an expert, that's ok. You can create content by interviewing experts. Perhaps team up with a local golf pro in your area. You could have a series for beginners, women, baby boomers, exercises to improve your golf swing, etc. Video would work well with the interviews also.

[Kai Druhl]

Agreed with Chris. You are not the only one who loves golf, but still has a long way to go to mastery. Golfing for beginners could be a good niche market; get into it and share your experiences, shortcuts, tricks you learn. Become an expert at being a beginner in golf.

[Lynn Terry]

Just keep in mind that whatever niche you choose... is going to consume a lot of your time and energy. So choose something you'll enjoy researching, discussing and writing about! ;)

If the RV life really appeals to you, I would say that's a great niche to look into...

[Infinity]

Being passionate about the topic is definitely necessary. :)

If you choose something that bores you, you're going to become a boring person over time. :P And you don't want that to happen, especially not in your writing. ;)

[Sheri Dresser]

Hello!

In answer to your question #1, here is the Smart Passive Income (http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/) blog created by Pat Flynn. He shares his very interesting story of starting this blog after his layoff in 2008 and letting readers follow his journey and journal of making passive money online. He is a very smart marketer and generously shares a breakdown of ALL his revenues and how he earned them for each month since he started in 2008. You may want to follow and get to know him, get some ideas from the site, and maybe you could do a joint venture with him on a product or service on the future.

Best wishes in finding your next great opportunity!

Sheri

[murph]

Just joining in this discussion about niches. My question is how do you go about finding out if there is a market for your niche? The niche I am looking at is middle aged people who have a need to supplement their pensions or replace their income by starting a business from home but have no idea where to go to find out their options - how would I research that?

[jgant]

Regarding the OP:

I agree that choosing something you're passionate about is key.

I also agree that if you have some basic golf knowledge and enjoy it, blogging about it will get you on the golf course more often and in no time you'll be an expert. In my view you don't need to golf below par to write effectively about it. There are many perspectives on which you could blog about golf - equipment, travel (combine RV'ing and touring your country's golf courses), putting, driving, chipping, golf course design, golf for "pick a demographic", fitness for golfers, caring for golf courses, etc.

I'm in 3 niches, two are very related (similar content, different target markets). All 3 are my passion. I've researched many niches and started various niche sites when starting out, but over time I naturally focused on 3 projects due to my interest and passion. I ignore the rest now and focus on 3 projects.

For example, I fell into IM because I needed to learn how to build a website and do SEO for my offline business in a profession (which I still operate part time). I loved learning how to build a website and my SEO for my business website was tremendously successful. Therefore, I started blogging about building websites targeting small business owners such as myself. Yes, it's a competitive niche, but I'm making decent money in it because I work at it hard and have real-life experience doing online marketing for an offline business.

To murph about determining whether there's a market for a niche. Many people recommend looking at the amount people bid for keywords. If money is spent on Adwords, then there's a market. You'll have to be a little creative determining your keywords on which to base this method. That said, and without doing any research on it, I really like your niche idea. I think there is a viable market for pensioners looking to supplement their income with an online business. After all, they have time and living on a fixed income (unless a golden parachute from a Fortune 500 company) is not fun.

That said, I'm in a niche that is a relatively small market and my main keywords don't attract much Adwords bidding. I went into it because I liked the niche. I've built up an audience and found one very good product that I promote to this market. It's an excellent product and offers recurring commissions. So, I don't make tons of sales, but because it's a lifetime commission on a recurring subscription (earning me recurring commissions), the entire project is working out very nicely.

[murph]

Thanks for that really good response. One of my challenges right now is landing on the most useful keywords fort hat niche - but I'm working on it! Thanks again