You’ve been thinking about starting an online business and don’t quite know where to start, sound familiar? That’s completely normal and part of the process, everyone starts here. There are some important things that you need to take into consideration when choosing a niche for your online business.
So what’s a niche and why do I need one?
A niche is just the topic that your site will focus on. Your specialty. In order to gain topical relevance with Google, you need to let them know that you specialize in something. This way they will start trusting you more when you right about certain things.
If you have 100 articles and each one is about a totally different topic, you very likely will never gain any traction. However if all of those 100 articles stay laser focused in the same category, you’ll have a much better chance of success.
Ok, but what’s an online business?
There are endless types of online businesses, but we won’t get into all of them. For the context of this article I am talking about a niche website monetized with affiliate offers and display ads when I say online business. A content website or blog that generates passive income.
So that’s exactly what I’m going to cover in this article, where and how to start. It all starts with niche selection. So many people get hung up in the “research phase” and never actually make it to starting. Niche research should actually not take that long.
The answer to the question “what niche is best for me” has probably been right in front of you all along.
Choosing a niche for your online business (9 helpful tips)
1. Look at your own interests
Before you do anything else you need to look at your own interests and hobbies. Your niche site needs to be about a topic that you won’t quickly get burnt out on, you’re going to be doing a lot of writing about it.
Consider your own personal hobbies. Does one stick out above the others? Something that you could talk about all day? If so then that’s a solid niche candidate, but also list out a few more of your own interests. Ask yourself if you could write 50 articles about that topic and not get tired of it. What about 100, or 200?
You need to be able to live and breathe this niche for 6 months to a year before you’ll see much success. So do yourself a favor and don’t choose the microwaves niche or something like that.
Remember, look to personal passions and hobbies first.
2. Gauge overall interest
Just because you are interested in something, doesn’t mean that enough people are to make it a viable choice for a niche. There needs to be plenty of search volume.
However if it’s a hobby you have, you are likely already involved in some online communities and maybe even local meetups. So you probably know if there are lots of people interested in the hobby.
Here are a few ways to check the level of interest.
- Look at Facebook groups
- Reddit subs
- Number of Quora posts
- Yahoo Answers questions
- Popular forums
- Local meetups
- Search volumes of relevant keywords (step 4)
3. You don’t have to be an expert
Many people doubt themselves and think “why should anyone listen to me? I’m not an expert..”
So? That doesn’t matter, and I’ll tell you why.
You only have to know slightly more than your readers to be successful. Remember that.
I’ve researched a topic that I knew nothing about and written a well thought out and highly engaging article that made it to the first page of Google many times. Just because you aren’t an expert doesn’t mean you can’t research the topic, learn what actual experts are saying, and produce a great piece of content that will be useful to your readers.
In fact, my biggest site that gets over 100k visits per month I knew nothing about when I started it. Now my partner on the site was involved in the hobby, but still I learned as I went. I was writing articles about how to do this and that and I barely knew what I was talking about. I made over $1700 last month from that site.
4. Do some preliminary keyword research
You don’t have to dive too deep here just yet, but get a lay of the land. Sometimes a niche can look great from the outside and check all of the boxes until you start doing keyword research, then you realize it’s super saturated.
This step can help you tell a few things about a potential niche including interest level as well as competition level.
Here are just a few tools I recommend for checking out keyword search volumes:
- Keywords Everywhere Chrome Extension (Paid but cheap)
- WMS Everywhere Chrome Extension (Free)
- Uber Suggest (Free)
- Keyword Shitter (Free)
- Keyword Keg (Paid)
- Ahrefs (Paid)
- SEMRush (Paid)
Keep in mind when you’re looking at search volumes that none of these tools are 100% accurate, use them as a guideline only. Just an estimation.
5. Does your niche have products?
Are there products that people buy in your niche? If your niche is camping then there are tents, sleeping bags, campers and on and on. If your niche is gardening then there are gardening tools, soil, fertilizers, seeds, and whatever else gardeners use.
You don’t necessarily have to write about these products as long as you are attracting the same people that use the products to your site. Advertisers will be happy to advertise on your site and pay you to do so. You’re just attracting a targeted audience.
Sprinkling in affiliate links and recommending products is also a great way to earn, but you don’t have to go that route.
One easy way you can check out the popular products in your potential niche is to simply browse the Amazon category and see how popular the top products are.
Another tip when researching products is to look at price range. If all of your products are under $20, your commissions are going to be super low.
The best price range in my experience is around $75-$200, although you can certainly go for high-ticket items if you want. But that range is low enough for impulse buys and high enough for decent commissions.
6. Check affiliate programs
Most of us are aware of Amazon Associates and it’s almost certain that your niche will have related products on Amazon, but what about other affiliate programs?
Here are some affiliate networks and in-house affiliate programs to check out while doing research:
- Amazon Associates
- Shareasale
- Avant
- Commission Junction
- Awin
- Target
- Walmart
- Home Depot
- Ebay
Here’s a more comprehensive list of potential affiliate programs if you want to look at some more.
7. Are there problems to be solved in the niche?
If so then great, that’s what we’re looking for. The ability to help people solve their problems, because that’s where we can recommend products and so can advertisers.
Almost all hobbies have questions that go along with getting started or doing them. If they are non-skill hobbies and just leisurely there will still be questions on surrounding the interest.
The what, where, how, why, and when. For the first 3 you can usually recommend a product and the last 2 you can at least get ad revenue.
Person searching on Google: “What is the best type of x for y?”
Your article that answers their question: “Z is the best type of x for y, here is a good option [your affiliate link] on Amazon that I recommend”
You’ve just inserted an affiliate link that you can get a commission from. See how that works?
8. Look at your competition
This one’s pretty important. Search for some of the main keywords in your niche and evaluate the first page results, make sure that there is room for you.
Also keep in mind though that competition can be a good thing because it means there is money to be made. There’s just a line where it’s too competitive and saturated for small fish and probably not worth the effort. A few examples are personal finance, fitness and health, cooking and recipes. These are so competitive I wouldn’t recommend attempting them, especially as a beginner.
There are many ways to determine competition, but a lot of it is common sense. Don’t try and go up against massive websites, that have been around for many years, that have a team of people dedicated to getting the number one spot in Google.
Even in saturated niches, there is low hanging fruit. By this I mean low competition keywords that the big sites don’t care to target. You can make money off the crumbs that no one else wanted.
9. Look at the big picture
Is there money to be made not just in the short term but the long term? Is there potential for you to become an authority website? Don’t create a niche site on a trend that has a shelf life, unless you really know what you’re doing and have a solid plan.
A long term online business should be in a niche that isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
Where do you envision this site going in a year or two, do you see long term opportunities? If so then that’s good, you may even want to put out your own products one day and keep all the profits for yourself.
Wrap up
Anyway, I just wanted to throw out some tips to help you choose the good niche for your blog or niche website. Choosing a niche for your online business the right way can help you see some early wins and keep you motivated. Choosing the wrong niche, or an over-saturated niche can make it near impossible to succeed and leads to burn out.
I hope you’ve found some value in this post, good luck!