Podcast Episode Details

How I Pick a Profitable Niche In 5 Minutes

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Season 4 Episode 1

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What’s the best way to discover a profitable niche? Find something you already enjoy or have a good amount of knowledge about.

Most people hate this advice.

I suspect they want a different answer. They’re looking for the undiscovered niche to help them get rich quickly.

There are no tricks or secrets to uncovering a profitable niche or topic for your business.

Everyone has an interest. That’s your niche.

Everyone knows a lot about one topic. That’s your niche.

Every niche can be profitable. The variable is not the topic; it’s the person creating the business.

The Fastest Way to Discover a Profitable Niche

I’ve been practicing this technique since 2008. And it’s the simplest exercise in the world.

NOTE: Don’t use a computer. Get a notebook or piece of paper and a pen. You must do this exercise by hand. No typing. I’ll explain why later.

1. Sit down for 5 minutes in every room in your home.
2. Write down every significant product you see.
3. Group products into obvious categories
4. Cross out the dumb categories you know you’ll never build a business around.
5. Highlight categories that you could easily write about with no research.

After performing this exercise, there will probably be only 1-3 ideas. If there are more, you’re lying to yourself. Repeat steps four and five.

You should now have your niche. No research is required.

And there’s an important reason not to open your computer during this exercise…

Analysis Paralysis: The Reason You Struggle to Pick a Niche

If you follow my analog method of finding a niche, you’ll want to research to see if there are good keywords. But I strongly urge you not to do that.

This is exactly why you’re struggling to pick a niche.

You can research to uncover a “secret” niche or choose a familiar niche (using my analog method). But both paths can lead to two outcomes: insufficient keywords or too many (and therefore “saturated”).

Researching a niche will kill your confidence. It might not, but I wouldn’t take that chance.

When I started my coffee website, I purposely didn’t research shit. I knew that if I did, I would be discouraged.

And as a result, do absolutely nothing.

Broad Brand, Narrow Niche

Another way to avoid struggle is to go wide with your brand. I see too many first-time entrepreneurs box themselves into a corner.

Your brand doesn’t have to be the niche. It doesn’t have to be anything. It can be nonsense.

The niche doesn’t need to be part of the domain name. Domains don’t matter for SEO anymore. They haven’t for a long time.

Think about Amazon. That word has NOTHING to do with selling everything in the world. It’s just a word. But now you know exactly what they do.

Amazon is a broad brand that started with a narrow niche: books.

Once they mastered selling books, they expanded into other niches or categories. You can do the same thing.

I have a niche site around the topic of homebrewing beer. I named the brand BREW Cabin. Not BEER Cabin. Why?

I gave myself room to expand the brand. I can discuss brewing coffee, tea, kombucha, whiskey, and witch potions.

There Are NO Saturated Niches

Think your niche is saturated? You’re wrong. Nothing’s saturated.

If your market is “saturated,” doesn’t that imply there’s more juice to squeeze?

You must carve out a space to stand out. And the best way to do that is to be your fucking self. Get started now and develop your voice.

Write your own content. You can always hire later when you earn enough money to afford a writer.

The first niche site I ev

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Published on 2 years, 11 months ago