What should I write about - How to find Niche Advertising Markets | 60DC

When confronted with the task of writing daily it's not uncommon for one to begin to have difficulty discovering niche marketing topics that both interest you personally yet also offer some level of commercial viability.

Although common, this really is an easily conquerable block.

Simply open your eyes. The world is ripe with topics and niches. I assume some sort of mental disconnect between the offline and online world causes this problem. There is no disconnect! The online world exists solely to inform, connect and entertain members of the offline world. If it exists offline - be the one to drag the concept into the digital world, try to do it first and do it best, if you can.

Often people have a limited view of themselves. You may think you have no expertise or your knowledge is specific to just a few topics.

Well, a rather delightful correlation between successful topics and your variegated knowledge exists. Very precise, targeted terms, that are unique to your world and interests will bring consistent returns and traffic .Such terms are also likely to be conquerable with limited seo work.

So what are you expert (enough) in ?

I can glance around my home and quickly see hundreds of possible writing topics. Topics I know well, topics that I am likely to be more knowledgeable than most (or at least most who will ever be publishing online).

Im writing this on a little netbook, the general topic of "netbooks" isnt a battle I would even bother with. But, I cant help remember how just a few days into using my netbook, when I was most excited by my new acquisition, my Puppy ran by, and nipped my power cord in half with one little chomp. The replacement cords on Amazon and at the distributor were $40.00 - yet two days later I had a new cord in hand, shipped from NYC total cost to me? - $12.00! I love eBay! I would bet "replacement power cord for netbook (or insert brand name)" would be a very successful topic. I dont need a keyword tool to ascertain that. I may use one to specify my phrasing but the need or "market" is sure to exist.

I have a universal remote in front of me, I wonder where I can get best deal on a replacement ?, or how do I program this thing? or can I get rid of it altogether and use my PDA or smartphone instead? (yes, you can)

A coffee cup and a combination french press sit on my coffee table. Have you ever seen a combo travel mug and french press?

Your personal style,choices and surroundings are probably chockfull of uncommon things that could be easily converted to a winning article topic.

• The art on your walls?
• The places you have traveled
• The medical illnesses you have beaten?
• How you got your first job?

I bet you could spend a month writing new content about items, inspirations and searches you made yourself just about stuff you can see from each seat in your house.

At home you are bombarded with commercials, when you step outside, billboards on busses, benches with ads and front page news are likely to enter your vision. These companies are not spending money on advertising because they like giving money away, they obviously expect a return.

How about the previews at the movies?

If you think, well, I cant compete with the Clash Of The Titans marketing machine. You are right. But, you can catch a piece of the pie. While the big guns market the movie you can begin to write about the spin-off comic books or T-shirts for your kids.

One very easy trick for finding up and coming products is window shopping and paying attention to displays at your favorite stores. I still kick myself for not writing about the Sony e-reader promo that I played with in a bookstore months before I ever saw a single ad. Often keyword research isnt very useful for such topics. If you come up with the idea before its popularity picks up the their shouldn't be much search data to look at. The trade-off is that their shouldn't be much competition either.

This is a particularly useful process if you have uncommon tastes, the products that are promoted by niche stores are more likely to translate into a conquerable niche online.

You have to wear lots of hats to be a successful online money maker. From drafting and typing your content to promoting your work and building backlinks lots of the required activities are time intensive and monotonous.

So when you can, get other people to do this for you.

There are tons of sites dedicated to purchasing your writing at low prices and either reselling it, taking a commission or publishing themselves for long term ad revenue. Within these sites, there is always a "suggested topics' or "call for writing" section. Here at Hubpages there is an "Idea Bank" but since its poorly moderated I wouldnt put much effort into that particular source.

Its usually someones job to look into the profitability and potential of these titles and topics. Use them!

I have already outlined a worthwhile  system for finding topics and reusing the research to make hundreds of dollars off of the same general work.

How to maximize your content revenue and make hundreds from similar writing at varied sources

This is an active income method - so Im only linking to it for its insights into topic selection.

Other sites one can use solely for their suggested writing sections:

Top ten paid to write online sites

This is by far my favorite and most used method for finding topics to write about. Your very own private warehouse of data. Comb through your entrance keywords, your sure to find keywords, questions and strings that you did not intend to attract.

These terms are gold! You already know they are working for attracting visitors. You already wrote the info that attracted the visitors. You can expect that you know plenty about the topic and it should be quite easy to draft a couple more related articles.

Just get lost in your analytics for a day, you will come out richer!

When people first decide they want there writing to be more profitable they usually land at the adwords keyword tool.

The great joy of using such a tool is that it shows you what markets already exists. You can run a URL of one of your existing articles through and begin dissecting keywords, you can run a URL of your competitors site through and begin to mine the keywords. You can type in whatever idea has sprung into your mind and see how much of the world also cares to know about such topics.

Its just awesome!

After finding terms that have a minimum level of traffic, your very next and most important step is deciphering your competition for the first page and first couple of positions. If you cant be there, you pretty much should keep searching and maybe slecting smaller sub topics within whatever you were interested in. There are enough competition free niches for the intrepid searcher, find them!

I put the adwords tool last. Because it shows the past. The past is valuable, very valuable, but I tend to write and bank on the future.

There are a lot of formulas out there, about how to interpret this data. Some are rather good, some are downright dumb ( there is one popular formula that tells you to pay attention to number of competitive results - thats crap,)

Ill try and dig up Courts, freely posted formula from his blog, Court went on to found The Keyword Academy which offers a $1 first month fee for their training course. Its one of the very few things about the Internet marketing world I can support as ethical and effective!

I wanted to write all about my keyword selection methods but TKA did it better.

Google Wonder Wheel - Use the wonder wheel to figure out long tail keywords

Google Suggested search - as you start typing into google a drop down should give you suggested terms, pay attention as google learns these from the actions of all its searchers!

When you start developing an income from your online writing and promotion efforts, your first purchases should be reinvestment's into your business.

Keyword Research takes forever- some tools that save you time and work well are:

Market Samurai - a free trial is available via the original 30 Day Challenge (Ed Dale)- which was a great program at one point, now its not much better than a noob farm. The tool is amazing and is worth buying - of course get the trial first.

Micro Niche Finder - http://makecashwriting.com/nichefinder This tool was heralded by a lot of writers/money makers I followed. I was impressed by the product and do think its worth the investment. The time I have saved is near immeasurable. One of the features I really enjoy about Micro Niche Finder is its built in commercial intent feature.

I usually try and avoid suggesting paid software, but quite frankly I wouldnt be able to do all the things I do if I still did my keyword research completely manually.

Perhaps you can write better about this topic? Or you are interested in sharing your knowledge or experience for a little returns in income? Try out this free community - Sign Up for Hubpages

The 60 Day challenge consists of a team of web writers working together for a shared success in promotional efforts. Although, its no longer possible to join, all training materials are freely available and the works created by each member are very informative.

• Introduction to the 60DC - Concepts for success

• The 60DC Official team - Watch our progress!

• Ways to Promote - How to get Traffic to your site

• What should I write about ? - Finding a niche

• Phase 2
  
• Free Tool - 60dc HubPages Super Dash

• Make a Passive Income writing online : The 60Dc Complete Outline

• Automated Promotion - RSS Submission Site List
• How to use your Adwords Voucher
• The Complete 60 Day Challenge Outline
• How to Make a Passive Income Online- The 60dc
• Tweak Your Content - On Page Optimization through Design
• Define Your Content - On Page SEO principles
• Sell your Content - Persuasive Writing Techniques