How to Find Niche Markets

Written by Zac Johnson
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Everyone is always talking about how they are making niche tight web sites, or that they make most of their money in niche markets. While this is wonderful and great to hear, the majority of people will never tell you what niche markets they are actually focused on. Rightfully so, they shouldn’t. Niche markets can be big, but many are small and if you are making crazy money in one of those areas, you don’t want to spread the word and bring in some new competition to hurt your ROI.

If you aren’t currently focused on any niche markets, or just looking for something new, I have compiled a list of seven different resource sites that can help you pick and research different niche markets. Keep in mind that niche markets and keyword volume always change through out the year. Most of these sites allow you to search what was hot, any previous day of the year.

Google Trends
A lot of people already know about Google Trends, but over time many of them forget to go back and see what’s new. I really like Google, not only because they update really fast when something shoots up on the search radar, but they also provide more detailed information on each term when clicked. Once you click the “hot” search, you will also see related terms, blogs, web sites and reasons why it’s become hot. (Google Trends)

Yahoo Buzz
In addition to showing the latest “top searches”, Yahoo Buzz also has a Digg-like feel to it, as users can “buzz up” the most recent news articles and related search sites. Yahoo Buzz is a great resource if you are looking to reference sites relating to a specific hot search. You can also use these featured sites, to see if they have any related advertisers or products that you could also take advantage of, in that specific niche keyword/area. (Yahoo Buzz)

AOL Hot Searches
AOL isn’t known as one of the largest search engines for business or average searching… but they still can push some massive volume, and fortunate they also offer their own “hot searches” part of their site. Instead of an automatic flow or word chart of top searches, AOL Search has a blog concept, while also offering “what’s hot” on the right side. Still worth taking a look at. (AOL Hot Search)

While going through the AOL Hot Searches, I saw they have a section for the “2007 Year End Hot Searches”. It’s a decent side site and breaks down the top ten keyword searches for the years, focusing on tv shows, celebrities, shopping brands, musicians, general, news and more. This will be a good source when they update with the 2008 version.  (AOL 2007 Year End Hot Search)

Lycos 50
The Lycos 50 has been around forever… but instead of focusing on all search terms, they focus more on celebrity and entertainment related terms. Lycos 50 is a great resource for any gossip or entertainment sites.  (Lycos 50)

Amazon Best Sellers
If at any time you are wondering what people are buying, just head over to Amazon.com. Their Best Sellers list is an excellent resource to find what people are looking for, and actually buying. Stop thinking just books and movies… Amazon profiles the best sellers in nearly all of their site categories.  (Amazon Best Sellers)

eBay Pulse
eBay almost offers the same effect at Amazon’s Best Sellers, except not everyone on eBay is buying… they might just be looking. Through eBay Pulse you can see “popular searches”, the largest stores (sellers) and the “most watches items” on eBay. This should give you a good idea of what is selling and what people are looking for.  (eBay Pulse)

Now that you have a few resources to find old, new or existing niche markets, it’s up to you to decide on which you will tackle. Before diving in, make sure you do some research, look at your potential competition, cost/profit margins, and if you can sell through an affiliate program, or will have to provide your own product.

If you know of any other quality resource sites for top searches or niche finding, please feel free to share them below.

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34 Replies to “How to Find Niche Markets”

  1. Very good posts. Perfect timing with the holiday season coming. Add this bit of information along with niche store builders like what Pepperjamnetwork offers and it seems like a good way to go.

    Steve

  2. prefect example of a blog post that provides value to the reader. Thanks for the specific examples Zac!

  3. Zac, excellent, thanks.

    I never thought of amazon best sellers list. Imagine that books… What a concept!

    I remember books.

    Rich Hill

  4. Zac;

    I know you wouldn't want to give away any of your great niche ideas, but I'd be curious to see you run one of these things all the way thru. Find something on Google Trends and then actually find an offer and set up a page etc. – and any other steps you might do like keyword research etc. Even one that flops. It would be interesting just to see your thought process as you look at these lists of hot trends and then actually turn it into some sort of affiliate offer and actually try and make money from it.

  5. Thanks for the resources list. Considered it bookmarked (social bookmark of course!) so I can refer back often.

    Amazon and Ebay were good reminders for campaign ideas.

  8. LOL…..this is a perfect reminder. I know about these and others. These are a great source to start. Just browsing one of these would provide you with the tools you will need to have a successful post or webstore. Zac, Great job!

      1. The problem with getting the top searched keywords

        1. There are pages with good PR already

        2. advertising is also high

        how to find niche content for which there is content but with less pagerank? Thats the secret…

  14. Great post. I didn't know about the AOL hot searches. I will have to add that to my bookmarks. Thanks. Also adlabs.msn.com has some pretty cool tools.

  15. Stay tuned…The Lycos 50 will be announcing its list of the most popular search terms of 2008 in a few weeks, including top news stories, top fads, top athlets, top films, top TV shows, top men and women, and top music artists, all based on web search activity. Oh, and be on the look out for the Lycos 50 list of the most-searched toys and video games this holiday season, coming next week. Thanks for the plug!

  18. I am glad I read this. I am getting new fuel for my niche ideas. I have been around Yahoo Buzz I think it works rather well. Google trends is flat and straight forward. Works for me as well.

  20. I must say that I am very impressed with the wealth of information here. Not just in this post but throughout the blog.

    Another source I use that I didn't see mentioned is PayPal Shopping.

    Thanks Zac!

  23. Finding a reliable niche (meaning decent ROI vs decent competionn or i wouldn't mind for zero competition ;> decent traffic) it's doable but the biggest problem as i see coming from the affiliate tracking where you can burn big time!

    Pay attention to the background history as for: payments incidents, tracking incidents, conversion incidents or you can find yourself in great loss…

  24. Oh yeah, and don't forget CB trends and Alexa. They're also good tools to help with market research. Especially CB trends if you're in the CB marketplace.

  27. I don't understand why people look everywhere, but at the one place that will tell you if there is a niche, how many people search for this nich and how much you can make from this niche. Google! They control the internet folks.

    Yahoo buzz, AOL, Ebay and all the rest all depend on one website for the one thing we are all after. Its like trying to get water from a stream when you have it in you house already. Ill never get it.

  29. I know when I first started out in I was stumped when it came to thinking of products to sell. My mind would totally go blank. Fortunately, having sites like those mentioned in your post really made it a lot easier to discover niche markets.

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