Characteristics of a profitable niche
A rough, 5-minute test to measure the profitability of any niche is to establish that niche’s popularity in the PPC engines. By finding out the AdSense payout (per click) for the top keywords in that niche, or by finding out what the top bids are on AdWords and Yahoo (Yahoo Search Marketing, formerly Overture), you’ll have an idea of what the market considers this niche’s profitability to be.
For example, PPC bid prices for high-end medical keywords (mesothelioma is a common example) can go as high as $75 a click! Debt consolidation is another high-earning topic. Lesser known topics include any traveling or tourism niche, personal yachts and gardening, where the average high-paying keywords hover around $3 and $4 per click. With this being said, if you’re looking to make a killing with Adsense, I would stick to the
keywords paying out around $1.00-$4.00 a click, rather than shooting for keywords in the “mesothelioma” neighborhood, which everyone and their brother is targeting.
All these numbers (and there are several resources available that help you find these hidden niches, as well as these PPC prices) point to a healthy payoff depending on the monetization technique you use, you stand to make a decent income from them.
The problem with estimating the profitability of a niche in this manner is that PPC engines don’t always allow full access to information such as bid prices and AdSense payouts. For example, AdWords offers a prediction tool, through which you get an approximate maximum cost-per-click figure for achieving the top spot for your keywords. Yahoo offers an interface through which people can view current bid prices for any keyword. Rumors
are that Yahoo will also shift from revealing bid price data to a more opaque, prediction system in 2006.
In most cases, the , along with the, is sufficient (you’ll have to have an AdWords account, though). Other keyword tools that you can and should use (both for judging the profitability of your niche and for generating topic ideas):
Micro Niche Finder
This is a brand new product. New Software Tool Uncovers Hot Untapped Niche Markets that Have Been Completely Overlooked by the Masses.
You should check back to see if it’s available.