Help with niche- masonry

[John Cawley]

Hi everyone
I'm completely new at the internet and affiliate marketing but in the past two weeks I have learned a great deal. I look forward to bringing my site together and sharing info with everyone. Alas, the problem comes out. I always hear that our site niche should be about something your passionate about and have a decent amount of knowledge. My niche would be about masonry. I'm a stone mason in the phila area and own my own co. I was thinking about an how to, tips advice. I guess my target area would be homeowners.Is this niche just to boring and wouldn't drive traffic. I'm not sure what to add for links to companiess and their services. Would love some ideas, thoughts,advice? Should I find another niche? JOhn the Mason

[Linda Buquet]

Hi John,

Thanks for reposting this question in a new thread.

To find out how potentially popular a niche is use this tool and type in masonry, then other related key phrases. Free Keyword Suggestion Tool from Wordtracker

Masonry for example has 296 searches. (I think that's daily)

Then Google: allintitle: masonry to see how competitive it is.
allintitle: masonry - Google Search
669,000 competing pages in Google. That's because it's a single word.

Then scroll down the Wordtracker keyword list above to find other key phrases people search for that contain the term masonry.

A phrase like allintitle: "stone masonry" only has 12,700 competing pages in Google.

Then look at paid ads to see if any have affiliate programs. I just happened to see this one.
Pays up to $12.50 per lead. Need contractor - Get Masonry and Stucco Quotes

Search for home improvement affiliate program and you'll find more.

You can also join programs like Ace Hardware and link to masonry products.

I don't know this market at all so just throwing out the basic niche research steps and a couple ideas.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

[positivecarry]

I would suggest you get the camcorder out and film yourself doing projects that the average person could do themselves at home. Take the videos and try to market them through ebay and your own site. I think this will progress 1000 times faster, and be much more lucrative, than trying to sell other people's stuff. You have a unique skill that can be leveraged through video, not many people do, take advantage of it.

[Genny]

Hi

It's one thing to find what keywords are popularly searched for on the Internet, but it's another thing to know whether or not people would actually spend money here. People search the Internet for all sorts of things - like info for school projects, health matters etc - just information, but they don't necessarily spend money.

You asked a good question. To find out whether your niche would make sales and be actually profitable, you need to do some market research. Visit eBay and check out their 'what's hot' categories, also Amazon.com - see how many books are there on the subject of masonry. If only a very small number, I would re-think on your niche. There is also an online magazine site - search through it & see what's there relating to masonry. If these areas are lacking in the subject of masonry, then it's a good indicator that it's not so popular - so why go to all that trouble to build a website around a subject that all other indicators are showing a lack of enthusiasim on it.

It's all very well for people to say that you should find what you're passionate & knowledgeable about, but a more important question is, what is the general populace passionate about - after all, they are to be your customers - not you. If eBay has got categories on masonry, and magazines can be found on masonry, then it's popular & must be a seller. Local book stores are also a good place to look. I'd say that masonry is a fairly hefty subject - not suitable for magazines perhaps. If I were interested in masonry, I figure I'd go to a book store and get a very large, well-illustrated book on it (an accompanying video would be even better). Have a look and see how many books there are on the subject. Also ask the salesperson there how popular they are - don't ask the owner - he'll be pushing books that he wants to sell.

If you find there's not much demand in the MARKETPLACE for masonry, then I suggest you find something else that is in demand. It's not always something you're passionate & knowledgeable about - you'll just have to research & learn about your chosen topic. Invest your time & hard work in something that will SELL.

Having decided on a good niche that SELLS, now is the time to do your keyword research to find what keywords people are using when doing a search on your topic. Market research comes first, and it's only AFTERWARDS that you do your keyword research on it.

You mentioned becoming an affiliate - have you looked around to see what there is on the subject of masonry? You'd like to know there's some decent affiliate products out there on the subject that you'd like to promote. You might decide in the end that you could come up with a decent product yourself - maybe a video + an accompanying book etc.

Regards
Genny

[salamei]

Hi John:
I was thinking that maybe the masonry niche might be too broad and perhaps you would want to tighten it up a little bit. Like do your searches on concrete. Searches on concrete gives you a lot of smaller niches inside the masonry category that you could target an audience for a lot better, i.e. concrete blocks, concrete walls, concrete floors, concrete mix, concrete stain and there are tons more with excellent searches daily. The're all masonry relevant products that people search for on a daily basis and wood be easier to get an audience for as each one is a very specific product. You could break these down to even smaller niches, i.e. Concrete wall hangers, concrete wall paint etc. you see where I'm going? It's all endless.

The key as you were told from Genny and Linda is to find a good niche with an audience first! Thats imperative. A niche without people to buy is a total waste of time for you. As they said find something that is hot, in the concrete category, to make sure you can make money then go from there with your name and then your site. Remember that names are very important too. For search engine purposes you should pick a name very closely related to your niche. When writing articles etc. this name (keyword) should be incorporated in some way also as with the construction of your site build. Things such as title, keywords, description should all be relevant in some way to get good results. Everything being closely related keeps the niche tight so that only certain, specific, keywords and keyword phrases bring up only those sites targeting those words and phrases. Each page to your site should target one or two keywords tops. Everything on those pages should be relevant to each other and nothing else.

Oh! I almost forgot, bigger isn't always better. In other words going for a niche that gets millions and millions of searches can hurt you too. They are too competitive for you to infiltrate. Like wise a niche with not enough searches can hurt you as you wouldn't have enough of an audience to make sales. Thats why keyword research is very important. John just something to think about to help you from wasting your time when the build starts

Well I've been known to ramble so
I hope this was equally helpful.

Warmly,
Salamei

[Niche]

I think one of the most important factors in determining a niche in affiliate marketing is the marketability of the niche products

What products in this niche would a member of the public be likely to buy online

I suppose in your niche, how to ebooks, tools of the trade and such things would be an option. You need to look carefully to see id these products are often bought on line or if this is a niche that attracts adware store enthusiasts

The other thing you could do though is develop your own masonry manual and market it online

Hope this was useful and good luck