Part 2 of 5 Steps to Find a Profitable Niche: Compare overall Demand and Supply

Our objective is to choose a theme that is meaningful to you, has good demand (over 20 000 searches) and where the competition is not too great (high supply).

If you haven’t completed step 1 where we found ways to brainstorm for niche topics, refer to 5 Steps To Find a Profitable Niche:Part 1 Brainstorm Possible Niches

Once you’ve come up with about 10 possible niches or themes, here’s what you do:

Do Keyword Research and Assess the different Niche Topics  Overall Demand and Supply

Demand

We will first find the keywords that people use to search for these niches.

Go to Google Adwords Free Keyword Tool and choose the descriptive keywords option. Type in your niche’s main keyword.

Now you’ll get a list of related keywords- keywords people are typing in to find out about subjects related to your niche.

Do this for each niche and compare the 3 top  sites/niches keywords data.

Notice the actual search volumes for the main keyword, as well as the number of keywords that the tool returns, for each niche topic.

You want to make sure your niche main keyword has over 20 000 searches. If it doesn’t, disqualify it as a niche topic- it won’t generate enough traffic.

Also make sure your main word generates a lot of related keywords (over 15-20) and that there are a lot of searches being done on a lot of these keywords!

Once again, compare your three niche keywords/themes.

The Google Adwords Free Keyword Tool is great for assessing preliminary search volume (demand)- but SBI’s Brainstorm It! Tool gives Value Demand with the click of a button- i.e. it returns only words that have high value (monetary value) and high search volume associated with them!

Supply

Now you need to check that there’s not too much competition in the niche. If there are too many good websites on this topic, you are too late- the competition got there first!

This can be done by going to Google and doing a search to see how many returns you get.

Check that there are not too many Adwords campaigns running on the same phrases related to the topic.

At the end of this process, you’ll have a table that looks like this:

Initial Niche Comparison

Ideas	GlobalSearches (per month) (Broad)	Competition	Ad Campaigns	No of related words (exact)
Green Issues	14 800	148 000 000	High ad competition	24
African Travel	27 100	120 000 000	High ad competition	63
Constipation	1 220 000	10 300 000	Very high ad competition	150
Stretchmarks	27 100	2 000 000	Very high ad competition	148
Anti Aging	673 000	20 800 000	Very high ad competition	150
Home Décor	2 740 000	39 000 000	Very high ad competition	150

Once again, SBI’s Brainstorm It! Tool will give you the REAL Supply for each keyword. It also gives the PROFITABILITY of the words.

Its really easy to use this option because you can compare demand, supply and profitability across all three related themes/niche topics at once.

This way you make a scientific decision about which topic is the best one to choose (no guessing).

Anyway, back to choosing our top niche:

Here, I will make more of an intuitive decision to make my choice. I will choose constipation as my overall (broad) niche theme.

I am not really sure what the supply numbers mean at this point, but I do know that “constipation” has enough demand to warrant further investigation.

There might be other reasons for choosing constipation. Perhaps your  MLM is a nutritional Products company and you  have products that can be useful for constipation sufferers- that you can sell!)

Constipation  looks like it has good demand (way over 20 000),  but it also seems to have very high supply- i.e. number of competing websites. (10 300 000). Although this supply seems alot, its not nearly as much as say anti aging, for example, which comes in at 20 800 000!

(This is where the SBI tool comes in so handy: It’ll immediately tell you whether the niche topic is  over supplied or not.)

I am realising that I’ll probably need to “dig down” deeper to find a related “constipation” keyword that could be a sub niche- it’ll need to have good demand, but must not have such high supply.

Constipation also does have very high advertiser competition, but there’s no need to worry about that right now. (We intend having a site that beats them through excellent content- not through paying money for ads).

If we drill down deep enough into the niche, to find a sub niche (which looks possible because there are 150 related  match keywords), I am sure we’ll find some easily winnable profitable keywords.

Dig Deep

Now we dig down deeper- compiling a list of the top 10-15 keywords (with the highest search volume) based on “constipation”.

We’ll look at these more specific niche related words to assess their search volume, their competition and their real supply.

Click here for 5 Steps to Find a Profitable Niche: Part 3:  Assessing Demand

Now, if you haven’t already, go read Niche Business Ideas: Niche Business Ideas for Online MLM. It is an overview article on finding your niche.

How to Find Your Niche: Finding Your Niche within your Network Marketing Business is not as difficult as you may think!

Firstly you need to know what a niche market is. A niche market is a definable group of people with a specific interest or need.They can also be called target market or niche target market.

Finding a niche market just means finding a sub target market or sub category of people interested in  a specific solution or having a specific interest or need.

Once you do your niche market research, you can provide solutions to them- and if you are in Network Marketing (MLM), some of your products or services may well be the solutions they are looking for. There could also be other (non MLM ) products- like E books or other info products (audio downloads, video downloads, membership sites, coaching services etc)- that answer to your target market’s needs.

Of course, your Unique Selling Proposition is the heart of the matter-making your product stand out from the crowd. Its what makes people want to buy from YOU. Its your marketing strategy and your business mission.

So, to give an example- in the category of “natural skin care” a niche, or sub category could be “natural skin care for excema sufferers”.

An even narrower niche might be “natural skin care for teenage excema sufferers”.

Generally speaking, the narrower you can make your niche the more focused you can be on providing information  to that particular segment of the population and the more relevant your marketing message is going to be to their particular, specific concerns and issues.

How to Find Your Niche within your MLM Range of Products or Services- Find Your Story

Very often when you join a Network Marketing Opportunity, you are taught to “go out there and find whoever is interested in your MLM Products and Business Opportunity”.

This is a generalised approach and what one finds happening is your target market is too broad and doesn’t really focus on any segment of the poulation’s particular problem, need or desire.

When you speak to a general broad market, you generally speak to nobody!

So for example if you’re in the Nutritional or wellness industry, it’ll be a really good idea to narrow down your focus and select a product that has a solution for a specific ailment or health care issue.

A good friend of mine did exactly this with great success.

He suffered from sinus problems and after taking his MLM Product, he found that he was able to prevent his recurring infections from coming back to haunt him.

Now, his MLM has nutritional supplements for many many different types of problems and health issues- but he decided to focus on the sinus sufferers as his targeted niche market.

All his marketing content, messages and products are focused on the needs and concerns of sinus sufferers.

More specifically, he is targeting people who want to PREVENT sinus suffering, rather than continue treating only the symptoms.

He has also decided to focus on individuals who are averse to taking drugs to solve their problems.

He is targeting people looking at natural remedies for sinus prevention. So instead of going out there and flogging his company, its products and its compensation plan, he is actually targeting a niche market of people with a particular problem, wanting a particular solution.

He is then able to provide them with the answer to their problems (in the form of information and products), and in that way, introduce his MLM products to his prospects.

Some will have such good results that they’ll eventually sign on as distributors within his downline.

How to Find Your Niche: Where to Begin

A good place to start is to ask yourself the following questions:

1. What do u know a lot about?
2. What are you passionate about
3. What do you do every day?
4. What have you overcome in your life?

This will narrow down your focus and allow you to target exactly the questions and concerns your ideal clients have.

Have you noticed how the Network Marketing heavy hitters all use their “how I overcame” story?

Usually the story starts off with how their life was before joining XYZ Company…and moves to how his life is now. This is a great business marketing strategy, allowing many listeners to identify with the leader and have hope that they too will succeed, just like he did.

If you can craft a story relating to your MLM product (how your particular problem was treated/solved) or your MLM business building efforts (how you were able to generate leads or make a profit or succeed in some area of business, start paying off your debt, put your kids in a better school, stay at home with your kids etc), you already have a head start.

You will be able to talk to a specific target market with authenticity-  in such a way that your audience is able to identify with you. You instantly become a likeable character and someone your prospects can relate to and trust.

Luckily, most of us started in MLM because the products did so much for us. If this is the case, use this as your starting point. But it goes much deeper than that.

After you’ve formed a general idea of the niche you’d like to focus on, its time to do some keyword research.

How To Find Your Niche: Do Your Keyword Research

Go over to www.SEObook.com.

Its a free keyword tool that’ll help you get an idea of what people are typing into Google and how many searches are being performed on keywords related to your niche.

Start by typing in a generic term  for example, knitting.

You’ll see that there are around 2063 searches/day for free knitting patterns!

When you’re looking at analysing the results of your research, for your generic keyword (e.g knitting), make sure there are at least 300 searches per day for that keyword.

Less than this probably means there’s not really a market for your chosen niche.

Then take a look at related keywords: For example you’ll find 275 searches per day for the word ” knitting needles”.

Ideally you’d like to have lots of related keywords that have lots of people searching on them!

Of course, one can always use Google to get an excellent idea of what’s going on (or not!) within your niche.

When you do a Google search- look in the left hand side for the organic results.

Ideally you should look for returns from around 30 000-50 000 pages on your topic. (More than this could mean your niche is too broad).

Also remember to look for paid adverts too. If there are quite a few people selling info products, you’ve probably found a lucrative niche!

How to Find Your Niche: Finding Additional Products for a Niche (or finding a fit with your MLM Products)

The goal here is to really find out what the target market’s specific problems, issues and concerns are. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine your prospect sitting over coffee with their best friend saying:” I’ve gotta do something about my…………………(fill in the blank!)”

If your target market is excema sufferers who want natural skin care products- and your MLM provides that – great!

But there are other ways of providing your audience with what they need as well. For example, information on excema and natural skin care. An E book on this would be an excellent way of pre selling your prospect, educating them about natural skin care solutions for excema and priming them to buy your products.

If you don’t have your own E book, you can start recommending existing affiliate products/books.

Buy some affiliate products related to your niche and promote them as an affiliate.

You can do this by doing a search on Google…find affiliate programmes that are out there that are selling a product that your target market would enjoy. (For example an E book on Sinus Treatment or Excema)

Sign up for the author’s newsletter and actually buy their products as well. It makes for a much better recommendation when you write your emails to your list.

Always think of your customer as a living breathing person. Try and be specific about them- who they are and what their issues are.

This is called having a customer avatar- the ideal customer you want to attract to you.

When you communicate with them, keep the picture of them in your mind.

Clickbank is also a great place to get digital affiliate products.

They are inexpensive too- so try them out! Just do a search in Clickbank’s Market Place.

Type in the key words related to your niche.

Other places to go are Commission Junction (CJ) and PayDotCom.com.

Spend a lot of time finding the right niche. Find the niche first, then find out what they’re looking for (ask them) and then give them what they want.

Promote affiliate programmes first (to get some money coming in).

Then write the E book.

If they’re  saying : I like it, I love it, I want more of it…you have a profitable niche (rabid buyers who love that topic!)

Finding a Niche is probably the single most important thing you need to to before to start with your marketing efforts.

If you’d like to know more about Niche Marketing and finding your Niche within your MLM, you can always contact me or visit put Your MLM Biz Online, to join the Savvy MLMers in Training Club.

How to Find Your Niche: Niche Finding Training Resources:

Free Resources

Attraction Marketers Manifesto (pg 59-66)

Lots of Niches PDF

Unique Selling Proposition (USP) (Inside Renegade University)

Paid For Tools

SBI’s Niche Find It Tool

Niche Marketing 101 (Inside Renegade Professional)

How to Find Your Niche: Related Posts

Niche Business Ideas

Definition of a Niche

Niche Market Research