Cindy Szponder’s Tips

photo credit: myuibe

Good question. According to Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11^th edition, a niche is a specialized market.

Hmm, interesting but not all that helpful. Plus, we’re interested in identifying profitable niche ideas for a blog. Let’s add a little to that definition. I think a profitable online niche has three essential qualities:

1. It already exists.
2. It can be easily identified.
3. Members of the niche are looking to solve problems or gain information and are willing to pay for the solution or information.
   

First, a profitable niche is one that already exists. It takes an incredible amount of money and effort to develop a market where one doesn’t exist already. I’m assuming you don’t have those kinds of resources because I sure don’t. You may have an absolutely wonderful idea, but if a market doesn’t already exist, you’d be wise to move on.

Second, a profitable niche is one you can identify easily by performing a little online research. You can use sites like Magazines.com, Amazon.com, Clickbank, and others to help identify niches to target.

Third, a profitable niche has people looking for solutions and/or information. But, most importantly, those same people are willing to pay for the solution or information they’re looking for. The internet is a wonderful source of information of all kinds. Untold numbers of people are searching the internet 24 hours a day for information and solutions to problems. However, not everyone is willing to pay for information or solutions. We want to target those who are hungry for information and willing to pay to get it. Again, using sites like Magazines.com, Amazon.com, Clickbank, and others will identify information people are willing to pay money to get. You’ll also be uncovering the keywords and search terms people use to find the information and solutions they’re seeking.