The hardest part of niche research is staring at your list of potential niches and trying to decide which one is the winner… and why.
Guessing is not allowed and will only cost you money down the road.
“Winging it” and just playing a game of eeny-meeny-miny-moe ain’t gonna cut it either. Sure, eventually you’ll find a winner but who has thousands of dollars to just shell out? And who has months to wait around before you make money?
Not me. And I’m guessing, not you.
Believe it or not there IS an actual process for finding money-making niches. It’s not dumb luck.
There are two parts to the process: Niche Discovery and Niche Validation.
Niche Discovery 101
Niche Discovery is all about generating ideas, not validating them. Validation is Part 2 of this process and will be discussed shortly.
Here’s my Niche Discovery process…
This is really the easy part because most of the work has already been done for you. Remember, we’re not validating anything here. We’re just brainstorming and generating ideas. Put as many potentials down on your list as possible.
Lucky for you, I’ve already done a lot of the hard work for you by putting together a list of 127 Evergreen Niches.
Why evergreen?
Because I don’t like changing/updating stuff constantly. I want to build it once and profit from it for years to come (with minor adjustments and maintenance, of course).
Validating all 127 of these is gonna be fun (sarcasm implied).
Truth is, you don’t need any more potentials than this. Even 10 is overwhelming to think about.
As I scroll through my list of 127 niches I see TONS of great ones. TONS. I’m satisfied with this round of Niche Discovery.
I don’t need any more than this.
Lets move on…
Niche Validation 101
Now comes the fun part, especially in a list of this size.
Actually, it’s easier than you think and will shrink rather quickly once I get started.
Here’s my process to pick out money-making niches from a list of 127 potentials…
Each niche idea must meet three requirements.
Here’s the first requirement:
1. The niche idea must center around a specific audience or group of people with very similar interests.
This won’t weed out too many niche ideas from my list but I’ll go through it and remove the ones that don’t meet the requirement.
Here’s what the list looks like after removing the unqualified niches.
Like I said, it didn’t remove too many.
The second requirement will weed a decent chunk of them out though. Here’s the second requirement:
2. The niche idea must fall into one of these three mass markets: Health, Wealth, or Relationships.
Why does this matter, you ask? These three markets have proven time and time again to contain people who are willing to pay for help/advice/information.
Like I’ve said before, there are plenty of niches OUTSIDE of these three markets that are profitable but getting them to be profitable is much harder.
47 niche ideas left.
Lets move on to the final requirement of the validation process. The third requirement is a biggie and is by far the most important in the validation process.
I’ve never seen or heard anyone use this method before in niche validation. Here it is:
3. The niche idea must center around GREED, SEX or an IMPROVEMENT OF (SOCIAL) STATUS.
This is an absolute must (if you’re looking for speed to profitability) and will shrink the list dramatically. I’ll explain my reasoning shortly, first lets look at the list after removing all the niche ideas that don’t meet this requirement.
11 niche ideas left.
Let me explain my reasoning on the last requirement. This may get rather dark but I promise you it’s the honest truth, like it or not.
We, as human beings, are naturally greedy. It’s in our DNA. Survival is our number one priority. Cavemen would fight to death over a meal. Fortunately, modern times keep us from having to run from lions and bears, hunt for our food and find a cave to get outta the rain.
But that primal instinct still lives in us stronger than ever. Every decision we (humans) make, subconsciously runs through a test in our mind that goes like this…
Will this raise or lower my status? Meaning, will this make me look good or look bad to my friends, family and neighbors? Ultimately, will this help me survive? (It’s all about survival when it comes right down to it.)
Don’t believe me? Tell that to the dudes at Stanford.
It’s true. Trust me.
My point is, there’s nothing people are willing to pay for more than something they WANT. Not something they NEED… something they WANT.
People don’t WANT to replace the hot water tank for their home… they NEED to.
People don’t WANT to replace the alternator in their car… they NEED to.
People don’t WANT to pay for car insurance… they NEED to.
Given the choice, 99 out of 100 people would choose to spend their money on a 55” LED Smart TV… over replacing the roof on their house.
It’s just how we’re wired as humans.
History has proven that people spend their money on things they WANT not things they NEED.
Here’s what I tell people who invest in one of my Done For You Affiliate Websites, I say to them…
You’re setting yourself up for a tough journey by choosing a niche that’s not fueled by Greed, Sex, or Status.
For example, weight loss is fueled by all 3, greed, sex, and status. This all happens subconsciously… “if I lose weight I’ll look better than Sue, men will find me attractive and want to date me, I’ll have guys all over me at the club.”
The Invest In Gold niche… “I’ll look smart when gold goes up, Alan will be jealous and will come to me for advice, maybe I can get that new Corvette I’ve always wanted, then I’ll attract some smokin’ hot babes.” Again, fueled by all 3.
See how this works? If you choose a niche that’s fueled by all 3 of these, you’re golden.
Choosing A Validated Niche
This is where people fall down.
I receive countless emails from folks saying they don’t know how to choose a niche because they have no experience, no expertise and would feel like they’re “scamming” people or lying if they attempted it.
Chew on this for a sec…
What’s Oprah’s expertise? What experience did she have?
ANSWER: None. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
She made a name for herself by building an audience and delivering value.
She never claimed to be the expert on relationships. She brought Dr. Phil on for that.
She never claimed to be the expert on dieting and health. She brought Dr. Oz on for that.
She never claimed to be the expert on cooking. She brought Rachael Ray on for that.
See where I’m going with this?
Stop saying you have no expertise or experience and start looking for ways to help people solve problems.
That’s all Oprah did. She was a mass-market problem solver. Look at those examples above of who she brought on, the problems were…
…Health.
…Wealth
…and…
…Relationships.
Imagine that. Funny how that works, huh?
Here’s what I want you to do and I’m 100% serious…
Stop using this word for just one day and see how much your view on life changes: CAN’T.
I’m serious, try it. It’s an enormously powerful word that does more damage (subconsciously) than you’ll ever know.
So, you’re probably wondering, okay Duston, you want me to become Oprah?
Well, yeah… kinda.
Think of yourself more like a problem solver, finding a group of people with a problem and finding a valid solution to help them.
You don’t need to make claims, have experience or be an expert to do that. You’re giving advice (based on publicly available research) and recommending an all-in-one solution (the product you’re promoting). Period. It’s really that simple.
As you build the business, you’ll gain more and more knowledge on the topic and soon enough, you’ll BECOME an expert.
Okay, lets look at the 11 niche ideas I’m left to choose from.
Copywriting
Dropshipping
Get Your Ex Back
How to Be Confident
Invest In Gold
Life Coaching
NLP
Relationships/Dating
Running
Weight Loss
Weight Training
Yoga
I want to make sure you understand that these are not the ONLY niches you can use.
This is just what I was left with after going through the process. You may end up with a completely different list based on your Niche Discovery.
As long as you validate them, using my method above, you’ll be good to go.
To choose the best niche from your list, start by looking for one you already have a connection to. Even if it’s just an interest of yours or even something you’d like to do or something you can see yourself doing.
Start there.
If there’s nothing, you gotta go with whichever one you think you’ll be able to add the most value to. This is easier than it seems. Just think about the person you’d be helping. Who can you help the most? Who do you WANT to help the most out of that list? Which will fulfill you the most?
For this example, lets choose Weight Training.
But… just because you’ve chosen a niche doesn’t mean your work is done.
Weight Training is WAAAY too broad of a category. I need to narrow it way down to be able to effectively speak to a more specific audience.
I mean, look at all of these choices:
Bodybuilding
Powerlifting
Resistance Training
Isometric
High-Volume Training
Bodyweight Training
Free Weight Training
Machine Training
…and that’s not even close to all of them.
You gotta really narrow your niche down until you can easily imagine your ideal prospect in your mind. Are they male or female? How old are they? What’s their number one burning desire?
By digging way down like this, you’ll increase your chances of success greatly. Plus, you’ll still be inside the umbrella of one of the three main markets and you’ll have less competition because no one else takes the time (or knows how) to do this kind of research.
That’s how you find highly profitable money-making niches.