Fridays with Vicky 155

For 2018 I wanted to start a new project, a new case study focused on the process and how to set up a website and what it takes to run one.

One of our most valuable assets is our time, and just like your’s mine is limited. I wanted a project that didn’t interfere with what we are doing already, something that can be done for a few hours every week in the evening or on the weekend.

I’m sure we all can find 5 hours weekly to create something that could be profitable down the road. To find time get up earlier, stay up 30 min later than usual, cut out TV watching or playing on your phone… The “I don’t have time”, let’s not make it an “excuse”.

For this project, I will put in about 5 hours a week, or 260 hours for the year. I don’t want the project to interfere with my summers off or time off around the holidays, so some weeks I will put in more time some weeks less, but the goal is 260 hours for 2018. What will be your time commitment for 2018?

260 Hours… What can be generated in that time? Can we get a profitable website going?

That’s what we will figure out together in this 5-hour website, case study.

 

Niche Research

I have started to look at some niches, some possible directions to take this site. Right now, I’m debating between two main niches.

According to Google Trends, this is interest over time for two main keywords that I’m researching.

 

Niche 1 (red) – great problem-solving niche, some good keywords but also some established websites already doing a great job in the niche, so there will be a lot of competition. I do have some contacts in this niche so that would be a good place to start for product reviews.

Niche 2 (blue) – this site would provide what the reader is looking for, not so much problem solving but rather targeting specific keywords with one thing in common. It’s kind of a broad topic but there is one thing connecting the different directions making this a niche.

After doing a quick search with my keyword tool Jaaxy, this is what I get:

Some good avg. searches, with not too much competition.

I have found some good keywords to start with but there seem to be a lot of different directions to go. Competition seems to be pretty low when targeting the keywords with the one common factor between the sub-niches, which can mean one of two things…

1. it’s kind of an untouched direction to take OR
2. the common factor is not enough to create a website around it

I’m hoping for the first option.

When choosing a niche, it’s been said by many to stick with something related to health, wealth or love and you will be good to go. There’s a lot of emotions attached to those topics, so that’s why they often work really well. My other case study site is health related, but I thought I would break the rule this time. I’m hoping that the common factor will be targeted enough that over time Google will recognize it as an authority website with a specific focus.

When it comes down to it a niche is simply a group of people looking for the same thing.

 

I Do Know… After Some More Research with Niche 2:

• There is an audience looking for this, I do see a need from a group of people.
• Money is being spent on this online, if there are 1000+ reviews on Amazon for specific products then people are purchasing these online.
• There are plenty of products to promote, Amazon will probably be the one to start with.
• After doing some quick keyword research with Jaaxy, I see great potential in ranking long tail keywords, which means traffic to the site.
• I would have a personal interest in the site. I will outsource most content, but I wouldn’t have a problem writing on some of these sub-niches.

 

My Concerns with Niche 2:

• This is not a niche I see a lot of passion or problem solving with. I see a NEED but not a pain point or passion point.
• It is a broad niche, will I be able to tie it all together with the one factor that brings all the sub-niches together?
• Not a lot of competition in the direction I want to go. Competition means it’s profitable, does little competition mean it’s not?

 

Do I go with the classic niche 1 or the more unpredictable niche 2?

I will go with niche 2, I’m hoping that it’s targeted enough and that there is a void to fill with this kind of site.

To sum things up…

 

5 Things to Look at When Doing Your Niche Research

• Make sure you solve a problem of some kind. Is there a pain point, passion point or need?
• If you plan on getting organic free traffic from your content ranking in Google make sure there are long tail keywords that you can rank for.
• Are there products related to the niche? Are people spending money online for these kinds of products?
• You do need to have some kind of knowledge of your niche, you don’t have to know it all but an interest and basic knowledge and maybe most importantly willingness to learn.
• Some competition is good, that means that it often means that it’s profitable for others.

I would love for you to follow along on this journey. If you want to you can set up your own website along with this 5-hour case study site. It should be an interesting first year.

Can we make 5 hours weekly turn into a profitable website?

I will be tracking how much time I spend on this site, so far…

Time spent on research: 3 hours

Great related read:

• Choose your direction – Choose a Niche
• Jaaxy Keyword Tool Review
• Keyword research for content marketing
• Amazon Case Study Site with Income Report

 

To a great 2018!

Vicky