Forum Project Step 1 - Niche Pickin' - Page 3

MrBlue · #21 10-31-2006, 10:33 AM

Hm...eh, i'll go w/ it anyway. I might try a 2nd one too.

farang0 · #22 10-31-2006, 11:15 AM

I didnt mean something NEW as in non existing. But going after competitive niches is a waste of time for a project like this. When adsense first started and financial keywords were paying $5 a click EVERYONE started making hundreds of sites in every little category you could think of. You should target something with less compition obviously

hummusx · #23 10-31-2006, 11:18 AM

This probably would have been good to discuss when we were picking "Finances" as the general topic. If all of these sub-topics are well covered already, maybe it's not a very good topic.

San · #24 10-31-2006, 11:32 AM

I have two ideas I could run with...

One is similar to the budgeting title already proposed, whereby I would simply write numerous techniques for money saving. I know a fair few of these.

The other is to write a quest site, similar in concept to the $15k in 30 days challenge, but on a smaller scale. I'm thinking £20k (just under $40k) in 10 months (as I will hopefully be starting a real job next September, but until then would like to make money). I imagine one thing better about it than the $15k in a month thing would be that I'm a total novice, so a total novice could better relate to it. I'll probably go with that one.

I am also happy to write a few articles for any budgeting/money saving websites you guys all come up with. I do wonder how useful techniques for saving money in the UK would be if we are dealing with a predominantly US based website but we shall see.

UncleSalty · #25 10-31-2006, 11:44 AM

[ QUOTE ]
This probably would have been good to discuss when we were picking "Finances" as the general topic. If all of these sub-topics are well covered already, maybe it's not a very good topic.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree that this category is probably oversaturated. This is really just a learning experience for me, and I intend to start several more sites on my own based on the methods and techniques we'll be learning together on this project, so if the group wants to stick w/ it that's fine by me.

That said, I would again like to offer up "Health/Wellness/Fitness" as an alternative category. I do believe there are more untapped niches and greater flexibility here.

Black & white topics such as Investing, Budgeting, and Debt Reduction all have pretty specific, scientific information associated with them and have been well explored, whereas there are hundreds of more subjective ways to present health and wellness issues. (Diets that integrate a specific life philosophy or religion, specific sports training regimens, very obscure medical conditions that may be largely untapped, Eastern medicine vs. western, mental vs. physical health)

However, it is possible that this category is SO broad that our niche choices will be TOO far apart to be of any use to each other in terms of cross marketing and linking. Not sure how big of a factor that might be.

Anyway, this project is Max's baby and I'll leave it up to him if he wants to re-poll the group for a possible focus change before we get too far into this. If we decide to stick w/ Finance et al I'm still happy to participate.

hummusx · #26 10-31-2006, 11:56 AM

[ QUOTE ]
This is really just a learning experience for me, and I intend to start several more sites on my own based on the methods and techniques we'll be learning together on this project, so if the group wants to stick w/ it that's fine by me.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT

San · #27 10-31-2006, 12:02 PM

[ QUOTE ]

I agree that this category is probably oversaturated. This is really just a learning experience for me, and I intend to start several more sites on my own based on the methods and techniques we'll be learning together on this project, so if the group wants to stick w/ it that's fine by me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Indeed....I've got one idea in particular which is sports related which I am already running with. There's just the problem that I have no idea how to really market it, and so learning along here would be very useful. And besides, even if the websites ens up losing money, it's all good experience, and the amount of money it can lose is finite.

That said I wouldn't object to a repoll, I personally did not vote for the making money niche [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

scotty M · #28 10-31-2006, 12:42 PM

Well, assuming we're still going with money makin', I'm going to set up a loan officer training site. I used to be a loan officer myself and actually have some pretty good knowledge of how the game works that could help out some of the struggling lo's out there.

maxtower · #29 10-31-2006, 12:55 PM

I am willing to organize around any of the topics that we polled on.
Personally I believe that any topic we chose is going to have plenty of competition. The key to being successful here is to pick a niche that isn't dominated by some larger sites. For example if we had picked sports, and someone wanted to do a page about the Carolina Panthers, they would be in just as much competition as the guy who wants to do financial planning info. The topics are just too broad. You really have to be focused. I liked "tipping" as a choice. There aren't going to be nearly as many pages out there on tipping as there will be for financial planning. I still haven't decided what I want to do yet. I think I will wait and see what everyone else comes up with.
What I want you guys to do when you pick a niche is type in your target keywords into a search engine. Take a look at the sites that pop up. You'll be in direct competition with those guys. The front page of google gets a lot of clicks. You can check out how many links each site has by using the google search "links: sitename.com". If there are a bunch of links, then you might have trouble competing. Also its not just the number of links, but some of those sites are going to have quality links from other high ranking sites. Page rank calculators are available on the internet, and I think google toolbar will tell you as well. I believe that a page rank of 4 is attainable, and if every site on the first page is a 5, you have your work cut out for you.

huber117 · #30 10-31-2006, 01:21 PM

For a long time ive been interested in making a review site. It would have several categories, such as cars, money, gambling, tech, etc. Instead of getting detailed about any one category, the site would offer basic information and unbiased reviews and links to goods sites that do specialize in that particular area, as well as links to everyone else sites thats on board with this project. this is just the general idea i have, but please let me know what you guys think.