My First Adventure With Niche Inspector – Part One!
Before I start using Niche Inspector (the site seems to be back up, btw. If you wish, I suggest you look at her movie, which demonstrates the product. I’m planning on discussing it in a future post) to find new niches, I want to discuss the first site I ever tried to make using it. This site did not work out the way I hoped it would, but from its failure I think we might learn some secrets to future success.
The site I created was called the “the business software resource page”, which you can find at www.businesssoftwareresource.com. The site was originally called “The Business Intelligence Software Resource Page”, as it only covered business intelligence software. Later I changed the title as I thought I might put up information about other business software products, but I have yet to do this. My thinking for this site (if I can recall using my hazy memory) was that only the people who really use business intelligence software can appreciate what is good or not so good about it. I also wanted to create some kind of forum where people could comment on the kind of service and support they got from these companies. This was kind of personal for me, as I used to work for one of these large software companies in a support role. However, the company was bitten by the outsource bug, and the support quality went downhill. I thought by creating a site where real people could voice their pleasure or displeasure might have some affect on these companies themselves. Looking back, this was quite a long shot, but I thought I’d give it a go.
Anyway, if you look up “business intelligence software” in Niche Inspector, this is what you find:
Searches (monthly) 1808
Google – 534,000
Google ads – 12
Broad match CPC – $13.35 – $16.68
Ok, so what does this mean? Well, in theory, there are 1808 searches being done a month for the search term “business intelligence software”. There are 534,000 competing sites in Google (if you search in quotes). There are 12 ads that are using this search term, with a bid price of $13.35to $16.68. Now, the number of monthly searches for this term is very low (in her video example, Myleena finds a niche which uses about 7000). However, the number of competing Google sites isn’t that bad, (she talks about finding niches with less than 900,000), and the price of the CPC Google ads looks pretty good, doesn’t it? Remember, my goal with this site was to create a mini niche site which would generate about $10 a day in revenue. That’s it. Google doesn’t divulge how much of a share it takes from it’s CPC ads, but let’s say its 75%. This means by potential revenue is between 3.30 – 4.17 a click. If I created a site based around “Business Intelligence Software”, and it only averages 3 clicks per Google ad a day, I should be at the magical $10 level. Plus, if other users submit their reviews or comments, I would have original content that I wouldn’t have to generate. It sounded good to me, so I decided to “take action!” and go for it. So, what happened with my first niche inspector adventure? Well, you’re going to have to wait till tomorrow to find out!
To Your Success,
Dave
Can Niche Inspector Show You The Path To Internet Riches?
OK, here we go ….
The first tool I’m going to try out to create revenue generating websites is a tool called Niche Inspector (www.nicheinspector.com – however, as of this writing the site seems to be down. I’m not sure what is going on. I would expect it will be back soon). Niche Inspector is an Internet search tool created by Myleena Phan which promises to find profitable niches which can then be monetized either with adwords or affiliate links. If you go to her website (when it’s up, of course), you will be able to download her free report on how to find profitable niches. The report is well written, and takes you step by step through the process she takes. The “catch”, of course, is that at the end of the report you learn that although the manual, time intensive way she outlines does work, you can save a ton of time and effort by buying her Niche Inspector software (which automates the whole process). Who wouldn’t want to buy such a software product!?! Well,
I bought it. The key question is, does it work?
From reading her report, her main philosophy appears to be to create small websites that generate you a small amount of income ($10 a day), as opposed to larger sites, which generate substantially more. She believes in consistently hitting singles, as opposed to aiming for homeruns. She also believes in trying to rank well in all three major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN). When she wrote this report in 2006, she cites statistics claiming that Google’s share of search is 44.1% ,Yahoo is 28.7%, and MSN is 12.5%. Therefore, as Yahoo and MSN combined are virtually the same as Google, you should care about them as well. I’m not so sure about this. It may have been true in 2006, but I don’t think it’s the case in 2008. There are some people who claim that Google now accounts for 70% of internet search (see here for a discussion of this http://www.skrenta.com/2006/12/googles_true_search_market_sha.html). Now, this in no way invalidates Myleena’s report, although it does indicate that it might need some updating. I’d be curious to know if she still believes that Yahoo + MSN = Google is a valid formula.
The other thing I like about her approach is that she’s not a big believer in extensive keyword research. She found that when she set up her sites, people were always finding her sites using keyword phrases she never thought of and didn’t optimize her pages for. Creating high quality content around a well thought out niche is the key. I like this idea as I find keyword research to be a long and tedious process myself. I hope she’s right!
Anyway, in future posts, I’m going to use this software to try and find profitable niches to create websites on. As of this writing, I’m planning on creating five of them in order to really give Niche Inspector a workout. I’m planning on sharing with you all of the statistics that I use to pick my niches, as well as how I created the websites, and then how the websites do. Most people hold back on information like this, as they don’t want to reveal their secrets or attract competition from copycats. Perhaps I’m being naïve, but I’m hoping this will not be necessary. I’m hoping to learn a lot by this process, and I’m hoping you will be able to use this knowledge to find your own niches as well. We’ll see how it goes.
As well, if you are thinking of buying Niche Inspector, please do so through this link:
Yes, this is an affiliate link, which means that I will get a commission on this sale. Some people hide their affiliate links, although I’m not sure why. If you feel you’ve gotten some valuable information from reading about my travails with Niche Inspector, if you think it will help you make money, then why not? It doesn’t cost you anything. Personally, if I find a resource that is helpful and the owner of that resource is promoting a product I find interesting, I will join up using his/her referral link. It’s simply my way of rewarding that person for the useful advice I received.
Oh, and as always, if you have any comments to make or advice to give, I’d love to hear from you. Particularly if you think I’m doing something really boneheaded. Remember, I’m here to learn too!
To your success,
- Dave
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