Niche feedback

**tke71709** · February 11th, 2010, 09:09 AM

Ahhh, I so rarely ever start a thread...

So I was doing some niche research last night using MicroNicheFinder (MNF) when I came across a niche that seems to fairly unexploited. I don't have all the details in front of me but here are my findings in a nutshell without revealing too much).

Pros
Niche is product related. E.g. Lawnmowers

Niche is generic so there are no trademark issues around domain names and the such. E.g. Not Toro Lawnmowers

Ad costs are fairly high. MNF has most of the CPCs at between $3-$5. When I log into Adwords and try to create ads for those terms the CPC is fairly accurate.

Large search volume in the niche itself (exact match).

Large amount of fairly non-competitive search terms as defined by MNF. MNF counts the number of pages in Google's index that have the keywords in both the page url and page title tag. Many of the search terms return under 30 such results and several return zero.

This is not a dynamic field where things are changing (e.g Internet Marketing), or where items like specs are important (e.g. computers) so content would be pretty evergreen once written.

Cons

This is not a dynamic field where things are changing (e.g Internet Marketing), or where items like specs are important (e.g. computers) so content would be pretty spar se.

This is not a field that interests me at all.

This is not a field that lends itself to creating a lot of content.

This is not a field where there are a lot of other sites to leverage links off of.

My dilemna

I obviously have to do some more digging to see if this is as good as it appears (if it is then I may have my project for the next few months even though I really don't like starting stuff from scratch). But assuming that it is, then my dilemna is this, do I go the lazy route and buy some exact match domains (some of which are available), throw a bunch of low quality grey hat links to them (e.g. profiles, blog comments, etc...) and just plaster Adsense on them or do I try to build the authority site for the topic? Or do I go for both?

My greatest asset is my ability to think logically and to see and plan for eventualities. My greatest weakness
is my inability to get just started before planning for all eventualities, essentially I often get stuck in a paralysis by analysis situation so I know the first thing I need to do is just to do something.

Thoughts?

**Clinton** · February 11th, 2010, 09:14 AM

When I log into Adwords and try to create ads for those terms the CPC is fairly accurate.

I don't lay too much of store on figures there.

Not a dynamic field is a good thing, surely?

**tke71709** · February 11th, 2010, 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by Clinton

I don't lay too much of store on figures there.

It's a tool to give me some indication of the value of the traffic is all. I can see that being accurate as I would assume that someone buying something in this niche would probably be spending $xxx on a standard purchase and more importantly would, if happy, continue to buy from the online store in question for the rest of their life so the value of a customer in this niche would be quite high based on my assumptions.

Not a dynamic field is a good thing, surely?

I put it down as a pro and a con, I find it easier to continue to churn out content for more dynamic topics, but on the other hand, for more dynamic topics you have to constantly churn out content...

Heck, even About.com doesn't have a guide for this topic (although relevant material is scattered throughout other guides) and they have a guide on just about everything they can make money on lol

I'm probably over analyzing things, I'll need to take a look around the niche and see if there is an authority site out there already and I just don't know about it. It just seems strange that there is so little competition in a large, and growing niche. That makes me nervous to be honest, I don't mind competing with others, but when there are no others I have to ask myself if there really is an opportunity here or not?

Like I said, paralysis by analysis.

Anyway, keep the feedback coming people.

**hooperman** · February 11th, 2010, 11:31 AM

Obviously, my opinion is going to be based on my experiences and I'm fed up of writing content for stuff I'm not even interested in. I've had so many "failed" projects that I started based on keyword/competition research that now I only start something that I'm interested in and that I can leverage using my other existing sites or from expiring domains. The idea of starting from scratch on something that doesn't interest me fills me with the vapours.

I also spread myself too thinly on the projects I've got on the go, so that might be biasing my opinion here, too.

I'd only override those feelings if I was sure I could make something profitable or if it was a gamble that wouldn't drain my time.

If you think that it won't take much work to do what you want to do, I'd just go for it.

**tke71709** · February 11th, 2010, 11:54 AM

I hear where you're coming from Hooperman, I hear it.

**Clinton** · February 11th, 2010, 02:02 PM

The idea of starting from scratch on something that doesn't interest me fills me with the vapours.

True. I'm not a start-from-scratch kind of guy myself. I've always maintained that if you've got a bit of capital and have a reasonable ability at due diligence you should be concentrating on buying rather than starting new ventures.

You could argue that I've started these forums from scratch ...to which I'd reply that this doesn't count as it's a venture I'm not ever expecting to make a profit from.

But to return to tke71709's original dilemma, I would throw a single page together, get it some links and leave it to mature a bit. Stick a few Adsense ads on there and in six months you'll have enough EPC and other stats to decide whether to make a major project out of it.

This is not a field where there are a lot of other sites to leverage links off of.

That's brilliant news! It means that a competitor would have the same problem. But you're smarter than he is so you'd use your noggin. Going with the lawnmower example and assuming there aren't other lawnmower sites, you'd build links around the theme. I'd go for links from
- gardening sites
- sheep and horse sites, rural sites (if you're lucky enough to have several acres of land in the UK, you can hire sheep as lawnmowers)
- classic machinery sites (museums of farm machinery/fair and exhibitions/collectors' magazines)
- petrol vs electricity sites
- farm equipment sites
- composting sites
- knife and scissors (blade) shapening services sites

You get the picture.

**Michelle** · February 11th, 2010, 05:10 PM

Are there many AdWords ads in the SERPs?

If you decide not to go with it PM me the details.

**LukeMoulton** · February 11th, 2010, 11:00 PM

If there's stuff all competition, then why not give it a go? It obviously looks like it's going to be easy to rank for. Throw up a Wordpress site, get a dozen articles written on Elance, build some backlinks from existing sites and leave it to mature for a while. I might even know a place you can sell it if it doesn't work out for you ;-) !

**tke71709** · February 12th, 2010, 08:18 AM

Originally Posted by LukeMoulton

I might even know a place you can sell it if it doesn't work out for you ;-) !

LOL, and I can weite an awesome description about the potential of the market and how it's untapped.

Did a little more research on the market in general today, it's apparently a 5 billion dollar a year market according to the market research sites/newspaper articles I have been able to find.

No great risk in buying a domain or two, outsourcing some content and link building and seeing what happens I suppose.