SiteSell Blog

Online Business and Your Site Concept Tolerance Range

Niche Selection

Looking for a formula to determine the best niche or site concept for your online business? It's impossible to give a set formula, as much as we'd all love to have one.

You have to look at the interplay of the number of keywords, along with their Demand, Supply and Profitability, along with your own goals and time commitment, etc., etc. In other words, do you know your niche or site concept tolerance range?

1) How much time do you have (or do you think you have) every week to work on your site? To win a niche with a high Supply/competition (250,000-500,000 range) will likely need at least 10-30 hours per week to succeed.

Money or Passion, What Motivates You?

Niche Selection

Passion is what makes most people successful. From Steve Jobs, to Richard Branson, to Warren Buffett, "passion" is one of the must-haves for most people to have success in business. The reason is simple...

As anyone building a business (e-biz or offline) will tell you, it's hard work. It's worth it, in the end, of course. But it's hard work. You work for less than minimal wage at first. You aren't sure, really truly sure that it's "going to work"... until it does.

What pulls you through?

What's a Good Domain Name?

Niche Selection

Google counts hundreds of factors in its ranking algorithm. Some are on-page, while other factors (200+) are off-page as Google tracks human response to your content.

Your niche or "Site Concept" keyword in your domain name is just one little "on-page" factor in Google's overall algorithm. On the other hand, every little factor counts on the competitive Web.

What is a good domain name? Choose something that...

The Niche-Monetization Connection

Niche Selection

"How long does it take to create an earning business?" If you're thinking, "the sooner I earn some income, the better," use these guidelines to understand the niche-monetization connection...

1) Focus on less competitive niches.

With this approach, you'll limit the total income possible in the long run, but you'll earn income sooner since you'll generate traffic faster by winning for less competitive keywords. And you'll likely find some clever ways to monetize that traffic along the way that will exceed your income expectations.

Find the Right Spot on the Narrow-to-Broad Niche Spectrum

Niche Selection

Identifying the best niche for your business is a challenge. It boils down to a judgement call on your part.

Generally, the broader and/or more competitive a certain niche is, the more effort you will need to expend and the longer it will take for your keywords to win the Search Engine wars.

Although the tougher niches also raise the risk level (your new entry into an already crowded field may or may not gain a strong foothold), the rewards are also greater, if you decide to go that route.

This begs the question... Is it worth even considering a broader niche?

How Do You Recognize A Good Niche?

Niche Selection

The rest of your business rides on your choice of a niche or theme. SBI! calls this a "Site Concept."

A Site Concept is a keyword (ex., "Anguilla" or "Anguilla villas"). You use it as a focus for writing the information or content of your home page.

It is also the central theme, the niche, upon which you will base all of your site's content. That's how you create a "Theme-Based Content Site." Every page that you write will be about a topic that is related to your Site Concept. Each one of those topical pages focuses on a "Specific Keyword."

So what makes a great niche or Site Concept? Consider the following factors.  The niche must...

An "Early Stage" Niche Requires Hard Thinking and Time

Niche Selection

A niche that is slightly ahead of the curve (or an "early stage" concept) requires some dedicated brain work AND time to develop a just-right Site Concept. So there is nothing to worry about if researching and analyzing several potential keywords in DAY 2 takes you a month or so.

SBI! Case Study Elad (www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com) is a great example. It took him 3 months to identify his best niche. And look where that hard work took him... he has one of the "coolest" brands on the Web!

So how and where do you start with an idea that you suspect is ahead of its time? Begin with a question. Actually, begin with these three "big picture" questions...