Niche Selection, Validation & Planning Kit

NICHE SELECTION, VALIDATION, & PLANNING KIT

Niching down is not essential, but the online marketplace is so crowded that focusing on a particular niche is a great way to stand out from the herd and become more profitable. It's easier to be seen as the expert and to gain expertise if you focus on one area and you get traction more quickly than if you try to cover a broad spectrum of topics. It helps with SEO so you get found by the search engines for relevant topics, too. If you want to cover a selection of topics to avoid boredom, you can do this with a cluster of related subjects or by creating separate niche sites and micro- business entities. The alternative is to choose a personality or lifestyle business covering a whole gamut of areas. This is feasible but a tougher nut to crack unless you have a lot of interests and opinions and love to write about many topics and are willing to put yourself \"out there.\"

the BEST NICHES... 1 are those that you have an interest in and that you could sustain an interest in over the long term AND 2 where you have some skill or expertise in the niche or could easily acquire the knowledge you need AND 3 where others are actively searching for information or tools to use for the niche AND 4 where the people who are spending money are easy to recognize and target as a group AND 5 are those which have competition but where it's not too difficut to find a gap This kit has a process for exploring all these important factors in niche selection, for ranking potential niches, and then for planning the next steps.

your INTERESTS If you have little interest in a topic, you'll lose all enthusiasm for creating content, and remember you'll have to come up with new content for some time to come. Explore all the topics you might be interested in to brainstorm the possibilities for further validation. NOTE: You may have the same answer to more than one question but sometimes a different question will remind you of an interest that you didn't think of with a similar question. What do you like working on? What kind of business would you run if you could guarantee it made good money?

What non-fiction books do you browse through in a book store or on Amazon? What kinds of magazines do you read? What feature pages do you turn to in a newspaper? What blogs do you read? What do you follow on YouTube?

What podcasts do you listen to? What social media accounts do you follow? What hobbies do you have? What causes are you passionate about?

Which special interest groups are you part of? What can you do for hours without getting bored? What interests did you have when you were younger? What kind of products do you enjoy shopping for? What types of people do you enjoy working with?

your INTERESTS Select at least three topics to validate further.

your SKILLS & EXPERIENCE Some topics will be easier for you to create content for than others. Find a topic you're knowledgeable about or don't mind researching. It's not a big problem if you have a beginner's knowledge as long as you are willing to do the work to stay one step ahead of your audience. In some cases, it's an advantage to be closer to beginner level and more on their level as long as you are not pretending to be an expert, but it will be easier to create content if you know your topic inside out.

What are you good at? What do you have diplomas in? What were you good at in school?

What training have you had? What have you taught yourself to do? Thinking about all the jobs you have had over the years, what do you have experience in?

What practical skills have you learned at work? What practical skills have you learned at home? What personal qualities and character traits do you have? What do friends, family and co-workers ask you for help with?

What questions do you get asked that you find easy to answer? What problems do people have that you like solve? What comes easily to you that others struggle with?

What lessons have you learned in each decade of your life? What do others say about you? What types of people are you good at helping?

your EXPERTISE Select at least three topics to you feel comfortable about teaching.

your personal SWEET SPOT Select the topics to validate. These are the ones that rate highly for both skills and interests. INTERESTS SWEET SKILLS SPOT YOUR THREE POTENTIAL NICHES

VALIDATION For each of the three topics, look at demand, competition and profit potential using the process on the following pages. You will be giving each topic a score out of 10 for each of these factors so bear this in mind as you answer the questions and investigate the topics. All three areas are important. There is no perfect niche but there are many niches that will work. If the niches you picked out seem too difficult, you can either go back and select different topics to validate, or delve further into a broad topic to look at sub-niches for validation. Print out as many validation pages as you need for the topics you are exploring.

DEMAND POTENTIAL NICHE If people are looking for information on your topic, you know there's interest in it from others. Brainstorm the search terms that they might use on Google to find information in your potential niche. And then check on the Google Adwords Keyword Planner to see how many searches there are each month for relevant terms.

POTENTIAL NICHE List the most popular keywords from the Google Adwords Keyword Data. MAIN KE YWORDS MONTHLY S EARCHES

POTENTIAL NICHE Look at the trend data on Google Trends for the top 3 main keywords. Is the niche losing or gaining popularity in searches? Is it seasonal or evergreen? KEYWORD 1 KEYWORD 2 KEYWORD 3 Are there popular groups and forums in the niche?

POTENTIAL NICHE Are there people or companies already serving this niche? (If not there may be no demand) What do people want to achieve in this niche? What are they saying about the difficulty of achieving this online?

POTENTIAL NICHE What do people need (which is not the same as what they think they want?) What problems do they have that they need help with? Are there enough people with a problem to solve?

profit POTENTIAL POTENTIAL NICHE Think about the potential buyers in your niche. Everyone is not a good answer to the question of who would be interested because you cannot easily target the whole internet. Which group of people could you target for your niche (for example homeschooling moms, women over 50, golfers, coaches, bloggers, yoga instructors)?

POTENTIAL NICHE If people are buying special tools, equipment or software in your niche, there is potential for making money reviewing and recommending particular items. What do people use? Brainstorm all the possible tools, equipment, and software that might be relevant. Does your potential customer have cash to spend?

POTENTIAL NICHE Is there a problem that you can solve that these people would be willing to pay good money to fix? Does the problem drive the potential customer searching for a solution? Are people open to the kind of solution you have in mind? Can you easily find people who have the problem or interest (i.e. do they self identify as a particular group)?

POTENTIAL NICHE Is the market growing or shrinking? What is the cost of entry to the market in terms of money, time, and effort? What affiliate programs are available to join in the niche?

COMPETITION POTENTIAL NICHE Some competition is a good thing. It means there's a demand for your topic, but if you're competing with a huge number of other sites, blogs, companies, and even TV stars, you'll have your work cut out to make a name for yourself. Who are you competing against in this niche? Are you competing against big companies with big budgets? How many YouTubers are there? How many books on Amazon?

POTENTIAL NICHE How competitive are the search terms in the Google Adwords Keyword Planner? MAIN KE YWORDS COMPE TITION

POTENTIAL NICHE If the competition is high, is there potential for specialization? (see sub-niche worksheet below) Is there a gap you could fill in the current marketplace? What can you add to the topic that others haven't done to death?

POTENTIAL NICHE Has your niche been failed by other solutions? Could you do things differently/better than others in the marketplace? How else could you stand out?

compare POTENTIAL NICHES Once you've answered the questions for each potential niche as well as you can, rate them in each of the five areas between 1 and 10 and add up their scores. POTENTIA L NICHE INTER EST EXPER TISE DEM AND POTE NTIAL COMPE TITION TOTA L Weigh up all the factors in choosing a niche to go forward. If none of the niches score highly as desirable as far as level of demand, competition and profit potential goes, go back to the drawing board with selecting niches to validate or look more deeply at subniches to see if that changes things. (see the following page)

potential SUB-NICHES It often helps make a niche work to specialize in a particular part of it. We choose a Brain Surgeon for our brain surgery over a General Practitioner! If you have chosen a niche which is too broad, you'll often find that the niche is too competitive, so in that case use this sheet to brainstorm potential sub-niches. Which different kinds of people or companies have this problem? Which parts of a more general problem could you focus on?

Which aspects of the solution could you specialize in? Which geographical area might you target? Which age demographic would you like to work with? Which gender?

potential NICHE & SUB-NICHES GENERAL NICHE SUB-NICHES

choose YOUR NICHE INTERESTS EXPERTISE YOUR NICHE MARKET (includes DEMAND, POTENTIAL & COMPETITION My chosen niche is.....

PLANNING Once you have chosen a niche, you can use all the information you found out during the selection to start planning. The following pages will help you explore products and ideas that will serve your target market and will further expand on your earlier findings. Start with basic niche analysis to clarify what you found out. STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

ideal CLIENT What kind of customers you want to work with? Who will benefit most from your products / services? Who can afford to pay for your product / service? Customers will use my product / service for... They would choose my product / service over my competitors because...

What problem are you solving by creating your product / service? How does your product / service solve the customers problem? How does your product / service their need and improve their situation? Why will they buy from you?

client DEMOGRAPHICS AGE EDUCATION SEX OCCUPATION LOCATION INCOME MARITAL STATUS HOBBIES & PASSIONS PERSONALITY MOTIVATION GOALS

FREEBIE ideas Brainstorm potential lead magnets.

FREEBIE planner NAME LAUNCH DATE: DESCRIPTION CATEGORY: MARKETING PLAN TO DO REMINDERS PROMOTION Instagram Twitter Pinterest Youtube Email Facebook

LOW COST product ideas Brainstorm potential products which could be used as a tripwire or entry- level product.

LOW COST product planner PRODUCT / SERVICE LAUNCH DATE: CATEGORY: DESCRIPTION / FEATURES BRAINSTORM MARKETING / LAUNCH PLAN TO DO PROMOTION Instagram Twitter Pinterest Youtube Email Facebook

SIGNATURE product ideas Brainstorm potential products which would have a high value to customers.

SIGNATURE product planner NAME How will I make this product / service unique from my competitors? Features my competitors are lacking List of features customers want

CONTENT brainstorm Related topics which would help promote your products.

CONTENT planner CONTENT / TITLE IDEAS DATE: CATEGORY: KEYWORDS / HASHTAGS OUTLINE LINKS / RESOURCES TOPICS PROMOTION Email Facebook Instagram Twitter Pinterest Youtube

PRIMARY LOGO BRAND kit BRAND SYMBOL LOGO VARIATION COLORS SLOGAN / TAGLINE ## ## FONTS NICHE SUMMARY HASHTAGS MISSION STATEMENT

BRAIN dump

NOTES