How to Discover Your Niche

Last Updated on August 21, 2022 by Thomas

You’re probably reading this because you haven’t settled on a niche for your online business. Don’t beat yourself up about this because it can get confusing unless you have direction about how to discover your niche.

This post intends to help you find your way and learn what to leave out while you’re searching. But a first step is to forget about where you want your business to be in a year from now. Before you can expect success, you need to know where you’re going first.

Now that your mind is free from the clutter of creating your business, let’s start with you – your passion and ideas. Be honest with yourself and consider the passion you have for something important in your life. Anything that comes to mind is what we’re trying to get to because that helps conjure up other niche ideas that might prove to be a winner. Here are some ideas to help with the process:

• What are you good at and passionate about?
• Are you an expert at something and would like to teach others?
• What article topics draw you in to read more?
• Do you cherish your free time so you can get back to your favorite pastime?

Keep in mind that one very important part of niche research is that your content should help your readers solve problems or answer burning questions. If your content does this, you have a happy reader and one that will recommend and share it with others. Make a list to answer each question above and don’t hold anything back because you think it won’t work. We’re not there yet, so just keep filling out that list.

Be a Problem Solver

By now you may have found the perfect niche that fits well with your knowledge, desire, and focus. Whichever niche you’re considering, you have to perform solid research about it to confirm that it’s one worth trying to build a business around. Try to find problems that people need solved.

Depending on the niche, perhaps people are looking for and can’t find answers to questions about specific issues not found anywhere online. When you see this, it’s a solid clue there are problems that need attention within the niche, and your content could be just what they’re looking for to help them. Also, keep in mind that if you’re considering a niche but can’t find any problems you can help with, it’s best to delete if off your list of possibilities.

That usually shows the niche is too competitive and would be too difficult to rank your website because of the amount of existing content. But if your chosen niche is one you’re sure you want to pursue regardless of competition and difficulty, you can do it but it’s going to take longer.

While you’re dissecting each possible niche, look for problems that no one is addressing. Yes, it’s takes some work but the time is well spent because it might be the perfect niche to build your business around, especially if it’s one you’re familiar with.

Learn Your Reader’s Pain Points

I can’t stress enough the need to discover your reader’s pain points. They’re easy to find if you get involved and dig a little. Browsing various blogs in your niche will yield a goldmine of information you can use to help your readers solve problems. To find them, simply search for blogs about your niche and start doing some in-depth reading.

Another way to find this information is by talking to people. People love to talk about things that bother them, and who knows, you might uncover a potential niche that needs attention – from you. Sometimes, they’ll talk about their own frustration about finding answers, or note that they should introduce a certain product to the market to help with solving even more problems.

One other technique that might be obvious is to analyze your competition. Find out what they’re doing for their readers and what they’re not doing for them. You can fill the void and bring those readers to you. Remember, your competition is always waiting for you to make a mistake so they can pounce and take advantage of a misstep by you. Do the same to them. Competition is good because it helps keep everyone honest and focused on their readers.

Continue to Analyze the Competition

There is always something you can do better than your competition. Nobody is perfect, and that goes for your competition, too. Your niche selection should slim down, so your work to find your niche is also becoming less. That gives you more time to change your focus a little and dig deeper into your competition.

One of the best ways to analyze your competition is by visiting their website. Read their content and try to establish their purpose. How are they helping their readers, if at all? If so, what problems are they addressing? Can you write better, more focused content about those problems? And are they telling or showing their readers solutions?

Read all the reviews and find more pain points you can address with your content. Don’t forget to check out their social media activity and what others are talking about. Perform a search for them and check out the search engine results pages (SERPs). If you find a lengthy list of ads on the first page, that shows there’s too much competition to break into the market under that niche. But you can do it if you have the time and will put in the effort.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is a skill that can make or break your business in many ways. Like I said, if your site isn’t ranked for the keywords chosen, your content won’t rank on page 1 of Google’s SERPs, therefore making your content next to invisible. Why does this happen? Competition. Keyword research will show you other keywords that may not have the same volume, but a decent enough amount to start organic search traffic coming your way, albeit not at the same numbers of the bigger, more established sites.

A page 1 rank in Google requires more than just keywords, or course. But they are more important than what you might hear from others. When Google’s bot (Googlebot) crawls your site, it’s looking for keywords to understand the topic. It also accounts for quality backlinks from authoritative sources, and how much your readers share your content, to name only a few.

But it all starts with keywords. That said, there are many exceptionally good keyword research tools available. Some are paid and some are free. Both are fine, but the paid versions offer much better information in the form of details about your competition and what keywords they rank for, and how well your site ranks in comparison for starters.

Two of my personal favorites are Wordtracker and Ubersuggest. Both offer free and paid versions. The paid versions offer more keywords and provide better details in my opinion. When your business can support it, I recommend going for the paid versions.

In both versions, enter your one or two word general keyword and expect a vast array of related and unrelated keywords. Then, using the numbers as a guide, narrow down your search until you have a list of keywords representing the easiest keywords in your niche to rank for that have low competition and decent volume.

You can also enter questions in the search bar to see the number of searches for that question. Keep going on your keyword research until you see a pattern of high search and low competition. It takes practice, but the effort is worth your time. After you get comfortable using the keyword tools, you will begin to spot keywords you can target and create content around. If you consistently find high search and high competition keywords, the niche you’re considering might be too competitive and you should consider looking at a different one.

Is Your Niche and Content Evergreen?

It can be hard to find a niche you’re passionate about and yet is one that will always be in demand. Most times we find one that is one or the other. So, try to find one that is both. An example of an evergreen niche is the topic of money. Everyone needs and wants it, and it probably will never go out of style. The same is true for relationships. I think you get the idea.

Whatever you do, stay away from up-and-coming niches that fade fast and will never return. For you, it’s a waste of time and money unless you designed your business to cater to these niches. But if you’re looking long-term, a solid, evergreen niche is your best choice. You can invest more time and energy into the business and see growing returns over time.

As you write content for your niche, keep it focused on helping your readers, but also with an eye to the future. Evergreen niches evolve and change for the better. Using the relationship niche as an example, think about how dating apps have changed the industry as it evolved and became more mainstream.

How about the money niche? The niche is ever-changing and innovative ideas and techniques pop up often. Investing is an art, it seems, and getting in on the ground floor of something this big might be a game-changer for you, and it won’t fade away over time.

I think you get the idea behind having an evergreen niche, and the content to match. It can mean sustainable, long-lasting, passive income for you over the years.

Hopefully you found this information helpful and useful as you finalize your choice for a niche. There are several approaches to finding the right one and I hope this information makes it easier and more insightful for you. Good luck.