Niche research is one of the most important skills you can master as an Internet marketer. Whether you’re creating your own products, marketing as as affiliate, or simply creating content sites for ad revenue, narrow, targeted niches are your best bet.
Would you rather be a small fish in a giant lake, or a big fish in a small pond? While your personal philosophy might argue otherwise, when it comes to Internet marketing, you want to be the latter – unless you have an unlimited advertising and product development budget!
Below are a list of must have niche market research sites that will give you a slew of ideas on niches you might want enter.
About
http://azlist.about.com/num.htm
You’ll discover hundreds of regularly updated guides written by experts with a real passion for their subject.
Alexa
Browse thousands of sub-categories and discover markets you might never have even considered. Micro-niching has never been easier.
Amazon New Releases
http://amazon.com/gp/new-releases
Want to know about up coming products. This site lists the big new product launches before they happen. It will save you hours of research finding out what the latest consumer trends are going to be.
AOL Hot Searches
http://hotsearches.aol.com
As they say themselves: “Check out what’s hot on AOL Search. Find the hottest searches on celebrity news, breaking news and more.”
Associates Directory
http://www.associateprograms.com/directory
I’m a big fan of conducting my market research by finding products first, instead of conducting keyword research. If there are products for sale in a specific niche, that’s a good indicator that money is being spent and therefore the niche might be worth exploring.
Bella Online
http://www.bellaonline.com/misc/sitemap.asp
A women’s site that will give you a good insight into the female niche mindset. Let’s face it, guys and gals are different and have different desires, wants and needs.
Best Online Research Apps/Sites You’ve Never Heard Of
http://oedb.org/library/features/best-online-research-sites
Excellent list of resources for the serious researcher.
Big Boards
http://rankings.big-boards.com/?p=all
Lists the top discussion forums by rank
http://www.cbengine.com
A veritable treasure trove of information for scouting out hidden gems in the Clickbank Marketplace. If you want to sell CB products, this is an essential resource. Grab a PRO membership, it’s worth the measly price tab!
CNet Buzz
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-12578_7-6527356-1.html
Reviews and comments on the latest tech products.
Del.icio.us
See in real time just what folk are digging about. One of the most popular social bookmarking sites around.
Depth Reporting
http://depthreporting.googlepages.com/websites.htm
Classed as “the most useful web sites for reporters”. Nuff said dudes and dudettes.
Do It Yourself
http://www.doityourself.com
A monster site of home improvement information.
DMOZ
People seem to forget about the humble human-edited open directory project. But in it be fields of diamonds my lovelies that might just push you into actually getting off your butt and doing something with your online business.
Dummies Guides
http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitleAll/index.html
The famous Dummies guides as listed by tiltes.
Ebay Categories
http://www.mpire.com/ebayPop.ivk
You will die and think you’ve gone to heaven after taking a peak at just what is being sold over at Ebay. Don’t anyone ever tell me that they can’t find a niche to get stuck in.
Ehow
As the site says “how to do just about everything”.
Ezine Articles
Articles on thousands of niches. Hint: Take a look at the bottom of each article to discover a plethora of product ideas.
Furl
http://www.furl.net/furledPopular.jsp
When it comes to niche market research I like riding the coat-tails of others. After all why reinvent the wheel when thousands of other kind folk have gone before you.
Gizmodo
This is a blog dedicated to gadgets, gadgets and more gadgets. You’ll be first in line to know about those “must-have, I’m gonna kill you to get it” sale scrums.
Google Catalogs
http://catalogs.google.com
Browse through over 4500 mail order catalogs.
Google Products
http://www.google.com/products
Yup believe it or not some folk are actually making money selling stuff online. And not just downloadable information products! Hard goods sell real well. Heck I should know, I just sold $13,000 worth of one electronic product in less than 72 hours. Remember Rob’s maxim: Find a product, then the market.
Google Hot Trends
http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends
Daily trend watching to see what people are searching for on this little know about engine.
http://video.google.com/videoranking
The Top 100 most viewed videos on Google.
Hobbies List
http://www.hobbieslist.com
A site listing a ton of hobbies. Well what else did you think the name suggested!
How To Do Things
http://www.howtodothings.com/browse-all-categories
People always want to learn how to do stuff. This site will make you head explode with ideas. Is there a way you could create a paid for product using what’s here?
http://www.imdb.com
If you’re mad about films (movies) and want to sell to this addicted niche, this is one place you must visit.
Intute
Provides some of the best resources for education and research. All the sites are listed and reviewed by qualified researchers. Serious stuff here.
iVillage
http://www.ivillage.com/archive/a2z/
A great list of subjects related to women’s issues.
Magazines
It costs tens of thousands of pounds/dollars/euros to start a magazine, so you can pretty much deduce that if there’s one in print and it’s popular that there’s a market or sub-niche somewhere hidden in it. You can’t go too far wrong scouting out what’s available on this site.
Men’s Health
http://www.menshealth.com
A ton of information related, not surprisingly, to men’s health!
Metacafe
http://www.metacafe.com/most_popular
Videos hot, and it’s only going to get hotter as broadband proliferates around the world and speeds just keep on increasing. Which is why it’s important you stay abreast of what’s getting attention in the videosphere.
http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/boxoffice
Films are big money earners, and with each release comes a plethora of associated products that people suck up. Will you be ready?
http://lists.nextmark.com
You can search more than 60,000 mailing lists, email lists, and telephone lists from hundreds of vendors – virtually every list available!
Popurls
http://www.furl.net/furledPopular.jsp
“Popular URLs to the latest buzz”.
Pricerunner
I won’t say it again… Find the product then the market! Millions of products can be found on this quaint little old site.
Technorati
Yet another must visit social bookmarking site. Now let’s be clear here, just because someone bookmarks a subject doesn’t necessarily mean there’s money in it. There might or there might not be, which is why I bang on about finding products that sell first, then explore the market.
ThisNext
http://www.thisnext.com/activity/map/
This one is way cool and seriously addictive. You can actually watch what people are looking for on the ThisNext shopping portal. Plus you get to see where they are in the world. Kinda like Google Earth with Market Research data!
Top TV Shows
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/nielsens-charts.htm
What are all those couch potatoes staring at for hours!
Yahoo Buzz
Top movers and leaders as searched on Yahoo.
Yahoo Groups
If folk are interested in a hobby, subject or passion you’re going to find a group that hang out here. And if there isn’t one, maybe there aient much of a market. Why be a trailblazer when you can be a coat tail trailer.
Yahoo Shopping
Another great shopping portal to explore.
Viral Video Chart
http://www.viralvideochart.com
Lists the top viral videos by multiple categories.
WikiHow
http://www.wikihow.com/Categories
Looking for how-to articles and information. This site is similar to Wikipedia but is just for how-to. Content created by the public.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_topics
Well if you don’t know of this site you must have been sitting in a cave. A huge resource. Tip: Use the external links at the bottom of each article to dig deeper into a subject.
YouTube
http://youtube.com/browse?s=mp
Here you’ll find the most viewed videos so you can see what folk are interested in. Ideas anyone?
1 response so far ↓
1 Kevin // Dec 15, 2010 at 1:10 am
Lots of useful information, thank you!!!
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