It’s a glorious October day here in London and I’ve been out in the garden planting red cabbages and kale for winter. Yes, I try my best to be an urban farmer even in the heart of the city!
Planting always leads me to thinking and it’s when I’m gardening or cooking that I get some of my best ideas.
But what if you find it hard to come up with ideas? Specifically when it comes to finding a niche or thinking up a product to create?
No worries because this week I’m focusing on resources that will help you do that without having to get all green fingered or chop a few carrots (although feel free – works for me!)
Authority sites are a good place to start as they are focused on one particular market or industry and you can then dig deeper into what’s there to find niches and sub-niches.
For the health market, including niches such as weight loss, try WedMD:
While for the hugely profitable gaming niche and its multitude of sub-niches you could try the Internet Gaming Network:
There are a lot of gadget and electronic authority sites but Gizmodo is as good a place as any to start:
Aside from authority sites, ‘how to’ sites are another goldmine not just for niche ideas but also for content ideas. One of my faves is Do It Yourself which covers not just the lucrative DIY market but a host of other ideas encompassing everything from the great outdoors to boats:
There is also Ehow and this page shows you all the categories they cover – you’ll never go short of a niche idea again if you simply look at this page:
http://www.ehow.com/how-to.html
Advertisers pay big bucks for TV spots so you can be sure that any product or niche featured on As Seen On TV is worth promoting – check out what’s hot on it here for inspiration:
Of course, once you’ve found that perfect niche, you need keywords to help you optimize your sites, social media and other content.
With many people turned off by the increasingly restrictive Google Keyword tool, here are some alternatives that won’t cost you a bean.
Answer The Public goes beyond the auto suggest tools like Google to give you some great long tail keyword suggestions:
While Keyword Tool Dominator takes Google’s auto suggest to a whole new level:
http://www.keywordtooldominator.com/k/google-autocomplete-keyword-tool
Finally there is UberSuggest – one of my go-to resources:
As an alternative to TED, here’s a wonderful talk from Kristy Tillman at 99U on how to get your ideas to actually happen by inviting yourself to the table:
