Let’s suppose that you already have your own idea about a product, our mission now as a marketer is to determine if a particular niche market is worth pursuing. For example, while you may get a kick out of dominating the “underwater basket-weaving” niche, if no one else shares your enthusiasm for this hobby you’re going to have a tough time making any money.

Ok, so how do you decide if a niche fulfills the Qualification Factor?

Simple, just make sure it possesses at least 2 of these characteristics:

1. It is actively searched for on the Internet

2. Some “competition” already exists in the marketplace

3. You find it interesting or enjoyable

Now that you’re familiar with the necessary characteristics of a good niche, let’s discuss each of them a bit more.

1) The Niche is Actively Searched

Of the characteristics above, the most important one (in our opinion) is the first: That the niche is actively searched for on the Internet via search engines.

Search engine activity is the purest indicator that we as marketers have to gauge the quality of a particular niche market. And while there are many tools at your disposal to evaluate these searches, the one that we are going to recommend that you use is called “Good Keywords.”

Good Keywords is a FREE (yes, you read that right, a FREE) research tool that measures everything from keyword popularity to an individual website’s popularity and beyond. You can download the software at the website below:

–> http://www.GoodKeywords.com

After you install Good Keywords on your system, run the program and make sure the “Overture” tab is selected. Your program should look like the screenshot below:

Next, type the root word for your niche in the box at the top.

For example, if you plan to target the “job seeker” market by publishing an ebook on “How To Write an Impressive Resume,” then your root word would be “resume”. If you wanted to write a low-carb recipe guide for people on the Atkins Diet, then your root word would be “Atkins Diet.”

Ok, then let’s stick with the first example and type the word “resume” into Good Keywords. Once you’ve done that, just click the “Go!” button, and your program should look something like the picture below…

Obviously your results will differ a bit, but at over 44,000 searches on Overture alone, we would definitely say that this niche meets the first characteristic of the Qualification Factor.

At this point you’re probably wondering…

“How many searches are needed to meet the
Qualification Factor?”

Well while it will differ a bit from niche to niche, a good rule of thumb is to look for markets that receive at least 25,000 searches on Overture each month to their root keyword. In fact, if you’re more conservative you may not want to drop below 35,000 root word searches per month on Overture – it’s really up to you.

Please note that while you will use to the root word when researching your niche, you don’t actually want to use it should you decide to employ Pay Per Click Search Engines in your overall marketing strategy.

Generally the listing prices for these root words are bid up way to high for the average niche info-publisher, so your strategy should be to target specific, multiple word phrases.

For example, if you wanted to create a product that shows teachers how to write winning resumes, you would want to bid for keywords such as “teacher resume” or “resume sample for teacher,” despite the fact that your root word would be “resumes.”

Ok, so that’s the first characteristic of the Qualification Factor. Now let’s discuss the second, which is…

2) The Niche Has Pre-Existing “Competition”

When developing niche products, your goal is NOT to reinvent the wheel. Remember, you want to find markets that are underserved on the Internet, but not totally ignored.

If a particular niche has ZERO competition, it’s more than likely due to one of two things:

1. The niche is way too small to be profitable (i.e. Our underwater basket-weaving example from before),
or…

2. Someone has already tried to dominate that niche, and they couldn’t make any money (Think about it, if someone was making a ton of money marketing to a particular niche, why would they stop?)

We fully recognize that you may have come up with a new method or a new product that can be marketed to a particular niche. For example, while no one else may be selling miniature, cat-sized ear-warmers to cat owners, the cat owner market is none-the-less served by other products.

That’s what we mean when we say “competition.” (It’s also why we placed quotation marks [“”] around the word.) These other products may or may not be in direct competition with your product, but they’re at least targeting the same general niche.

Another reason you should seek out a niche with some “competition,” is because these “competitors” make the absolute best joint venture partners.

Good. Then let’s move on and discuss the final characteristic of the Niche Qualification Factor, which is…

3) The Niche Is Interesting or Enjoyable to You

Of the three characteristics, this one is the least important for one simple reason…

You don’t have to be passionate about a niche
to make a lot of money in it.

At this point you’re probably thinking…

“But wait, doesn’t everyone else teach the importance of ‘Finding Your Passion’ when creating a product? Are they all wrong?”

What we don’t want people to do, however, is to LIMIT THEMSELVES, to only niches that they find interesting. Remember back in the second section when we discuss “Vertical Expansion?” If you truly want your business to flourish, you’re going to need to branch out a bit. (That’s why, in the next section, we suggest that you hire ghostwriters.)

For example, we know a very successful marketer who sells a product to parrot owners. Is this person passionate about parrots? Heck no! He doesn’t even own a parrot, but I’m sure that thought never crosses his mind while he’s cashing the checks.

So there you have it, the three characteristics of the Niche Qualification Factor.