If you really want to become an authority in your niche and produce good quality content, then you really need to know your audience and produce content that will connect with them.
By the way if you haven’t yet watched the webinar I did with Mike Ullman the other night, he presented some pretty compelling info so I highly recommend you watch that now, here’s the link to the replay: Webinar Replay
There are various ways that you can learn about your niche and become confident enough on the topic, even if you’ve never had an interest in that particular niche before, and I’ll share some tips in this post.
I think you need to be very careful when creating your content these days, and if you outsource it, which I do, make sure you spend time with your content writer to train them on how you want the content created. Trust me on this, it makes a big difference.
Niche Research Tools
As much as I dislike Twitter, I do still find some uses for it, and one of them is niche research. If you find a good Twitter account in your niche market, they will provide useful links to great resources in the niche, which can often save you time and uncover great info for you to learn from.
You do have to hunt around to find Twitter accounts that are not just spammy internet marketing ones with only links to their own stuff, however they are out there.
For example, if you’re considering going into the ‘online degrees’ niche, and in particular ‘online nursing’ then you could get some uselful info by searching for Twitter accounts, do to with nursing in general, and also online nursing programs.
Here’s one I found with a quick search: http://twitter.com/nurse_com
Find some quality Twitter accounts to follow and hopefully they’ll provide some great links to more quality info in the niche for you.
Another way to get great resources about a new niche, is to subscribe to a few good YouTube channels. I prefer watching videos to learn something myself, as I’m a big visual learner, so I like learning up about a niche by watching YouTube videos.
I just did a quick search while creating this post and found this channel – http://www.youtube.com/user/onlinedegrees/featured which is all about online degrees, this niche pays very well by the way. So go out a find a few good channels and see what they have to say about the niche and what they recommend. I’m sure you’ll get some good info pretty quickly.
An oldie but a goodie! Google Alerts is nothing new or terribly exciting, but it can be very useful. If you have never used it before, all you do is tell Google a phrase that you want it to look for new occurrences of as they happen, and send you an email. Setting up alerts is very easy to do, and is a great way to get info about your niche emailed to you.
What I do is set up a folder in Outlook and get all the emails from my alerts sent directly to that folder, and I check it out in my own time.
Forums
Most good niches have a forum these days, and this is where the target market of the niche hangs out and discusses what happening, so it makes sense to check them out and see what people are talking about.
Magazines
Just today I was out with my family at the local mall, and I saw a magazine that was in one of the niche markets I’m building a site in right now. So without delay I bought it and have already started ready the articles and in particular looking at who’s advertising in it.
It’s really important to know your niche well if you want to build an authority style website, as not only will this help you get more conversions, but people will also share your site around and you’ll collect links naturally too. So in closing, make sure you know your niche and spend some time researching it well.
Related articles
That was a great webinar. I friend sent me the link and I learned a lot and realize that I need to approach things a little different.
This is also a great post as I just have not thought about looking at magazines.
Matt Carter Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 7:42 am
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Hi there Jill
Thanks so much for your awesome feedback, really appreciate that.
Regards
Matt
Hi Matt,
Great blog post. Social media sources are key elements to evaluate a niche and get better understanding about its profitability.
One of the tools I would add to this list is SocialMention.com. It is a perfect tool to measure social activity based on keywords.
Cheers,
Peter
Matt Carter Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 7:42 am
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Hi Peter
Thanks for the site there, will have to check it out
Matt
Yeah Matt,
You articles are always on point. It’s like you know what we are searching for. I like the forum method especially. I recently just joined one in my niche and the value has been awesome. The magazine technique is also one i like to do a lot. I will like you to do a post on how to get quality writers to outsource web content to.
Matt Carter Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 7:41 am
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Hi Larry
Thanks for your comment, and I’ll keep in mind a post on that.
Matt
Matt,
Thanks for all the great advice!
I’m with you about Twitter and Facebook, many products to supposedly make money with both, but now hearing reports that all is not what they are supposed to be. Some marketers not making anything for their efforts. Google alerts is still a good way
to stay informed!
Best,
JB
Matt Carter Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 7:40 am
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I agree JB!
Thanks
Matt
Hai Matt,
What a Post it is !! Its Simply awesome. Nice stuff man !! Last webiner was awesome also. Thanks Matt
Matt Carter Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 7:40 am
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Thanks!
Great post Matt
I’ve been re-thinking my strategy on my sites as things have changed a lot this year. I had the opportunity to sit on on the webinar the other day and it was great. Probably on of the best webinars I’ve ever seen. Relevant at its core and practical as it gets.
Thanks
Matt Carter Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 7:40 am
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Hi J
Hope all is well and glad you found the webinar helpful. I got a lot of great feedback about it.
Matt
Hi Matt,
thank you. This seems to be all about quality.
I have just spend hours to build backlinks via Forums, as described in your SEO academy course.
And I noticed that the links from comments on your blog here are picked up by google instantaneous.
How is your ecommerce site coming along?
Kind regards,
Volker
Matt Carter Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 7:39 am
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Hi Volker
This blog gets anything indexed almost immediately, as Google bots hung around it.
Dropshipping sites are coming along nicely!
Matt
Hey Matt,
Thanks for sharing these quality ways of getting information about a niche. I always enjoy reading your articles!
Matt Carter Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 7:38 am
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Hi Norman, great to hear from you and glad you found this post helpful
All the best
MAtt
Thanks very much for sharing those experts’ experiences with us. Very useful information. Continue the good work.
Best Regards,
Matt Carter Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 7:43 am
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You’re welcome
Matt
Hi Matt.Dont forget Amazon ?
Good day Matt,
I really appreciate the webinar you had the other night. I will be downloading it and adding it to my ‘Brilliant info from Matt’ folder. It is truly amazing how the internet and Google specifically has been changing lately. I have noticed the changes that you have made in the way you do business. It is very reashuring knowning that you practice what you preach.
I have been an article writer, web designer and IM’er for a while now and you have been a huge part of my success.
Thank you.
Matt Carter Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 8:21 am
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Thanks Roland!!!
Matt
Matt,
That was one of your best webinars!
It was packed with very useful information. I was furiously scribbling in my notebook the whole time.
Matt Carter Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 8:21 am
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Thanks Andy!
Good basic niche sources. Also this should be included, I think: http://answers.yahoo.com/.
Agreed, the webinar was worth watching.
Thanks for great info and updates Matt,
Re: Twitter, Use the hashtag to find streams of your niche subject, there’s most likely a hashtag for anything you can think of. Hootsuite makes this easy, not sure about the other social platforms.
Also am using your Theme on my site I listed, Thanks!
Matt Carter Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 8:35 am
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Thanks Thomas
Matt
Hey Matt,
The Webinar was awesome. I got the email late and caught that last five minutes. Then you sent a link for the whole thing the next day, Very happy that you did that as I spend a hot minute re-adjusting things. Much love man.
Thanks
Andrew
Hey Matt,
Great post as allways, must admit I,m with you regarding
the You Tube method, I tend to learn must easier when
I’m watching something, but you do have to be careful as I
can get a bit carried away and end up staying on YT for
hours.
Another technique I use is signing up on other marketers lists that are in my niche and then “copying” what they’re doing. Seems to work for me.
Haven’t had time to watch the webinar yet but I will as soon as I can.
Thanks again Matt.
Hi Matt,
Firstly, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the webinar which was packed with up to date useful info.
Secondly, thank you once again for sharing with us your knowledge and experiences on Internet/Affiliate Marketing which have become a very useful source of information for me.
Gerard
Hey Matt,
I have watch the webinar and was great. I follow this with sara but otherwise I had followed your course .
Thanks,
Hi Matt,
The recent webinar was outstanding and thanks to the link that you graciously provided us, I was able to go through the KEY elements again. Thanks!
I am also taking your “Rapid Profit Formula” tutorials and some of the information that I got from Mike Ullman’s suggestions regarding post Panda and off-page SEO definitely tie in with what I am learning in your Rapid Profit Course.., so thanks again for all!
Great webinear, i not started by website yet but new information about the panda helpe how to do the 2012 thinking.
Hi Matt, I really enjoyed reading your article. It is providing new aspiration for me. So far, I am more use Google Adword Keyword Tool to research keyword.
I want to try some tools that you have described. I hope, with some of these tools will be able to get niche or keyword that is really profitable. Thank you for your article and some other article or video lesson.
Hi Matt,
Just following this link post from email subscription. This is another perfect tricks for newbie like me. But hey I’ve got another tips to be shared here. Instead of using these 5 sources that you specified here, there are another ways to outsource your “golden” keywords.
I oftenly use Google trends, Amazon and eBay for my keywords research. You can see what kind of keyword trends in real time. And if you’ve an authority site, definitely you can win Google’s heart to rank you better in SERP for any kind of long tail keywords. Just my 2 cents. BTW, thanks for this great post Matt. Glad to be one of your subscriber.
Regards,
Bryan Nickson
Hey Matt
Thanks again for great tips, through your help with courses etc I am happy to say my business is on track!!! 12 months ago I was totally lost and suffering info overload, I then focused on your teaching and it all started to become clear.
Cheers
Linda
Hi Matt,
Super post and great video – I always benefit from the information you share with us.
As you say: “…knowing your audience and connecting with with them…” is critical!
I especially like your (getting back to basics) thought on picking up magazines in your niche and drawing from the articles, plus who’s advertising in it – simple, easy and effective.
Thanks again,
Cliff
Matt Carter Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 1:28 pm
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Hi Cliff
Thanks for stopping by and glad you liked the post
Hey Matt,
Thanks for the webinar. It was awesome!
Had a query though regarding duplicate/unique content. It takes time to produce a unique content for your site and is depressing to find copies of it after a few days later. What according to you is a good way of protecting your contents? Search results do list some programs but would like to have your views and opinion.
Best Regards,
Somen
Just finished listening to Mike Ullman”s webinar. If you learn from mistakes, I can see I’ve made lots. Should be somewhat wiser. Appreciate this opportunity to learn from Mike, what’s coming in internet marketing.
Thanks Matt for some great info. Even though I’ve changed a lot of my efforts towards local marketing, I still have my health related sites and will use these tools to make them even better. I know that putting all my eggs into one basket isn’t a good idea and plan on going into many different niches over time, these will come in very handy.
That was very interesting particularly about the social media strategy using google plus and face book. I am really curious to see how google will make future searching a truly a “local” experience and tie that into the searcher’s social circles.
I watched the webinar of Mike Ullman and saw the mistakes I had made but I had already rectified most of them before that webinar.I had copied and pasted from Amazon but subsequently rewritten everything. My site is however still not visible in the USA though it is on the first page in South Africa where I work from. Thus still not a single cent earned. Perhaps my choice of niche was not so good although it is one of my interests. Still busy with SEO. The site went public about September 2011. Your course RPF is the best I have seen.
Great advice here as users really interested in the subject of your websitel will see straight through you with poorly researched content. Great advice Matt.
Books are for me another great resource. We’re so used to the online world that we forget what went before. In researching one area I’ve been browsing my local libary catalogue and bookstore. Please take my word that the time I spend walking to a store and physically to the library to take a book out can save me many many many days and provide some priceless leads. And thanks for the heads up and the webinar. It sure was very enlightening.
Matt Carter Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 6:12 am
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Thanks Ed
Hi Matt,
Another great post. I read all posts that you put up on your blog. My sentiments towards Twitter is similar to yours, however i find that it is one of the most current tools out there.. like most people came to know about Michael Jacksons death on Twitter and same with other current events reached subscribers of twitter before it even reached CNN or Sky News – That’s enough proof right there i suppose.
I’ve emailed you enquiring about something, hope to have a response.
Regards
Jeremy
Matt Carter Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 6:12 am
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Thanks Jeremy, will have a look for your email
Matt
HI Matt,
I’ve beenable to increase rankingboth for mainand inner pages of my website from the truly great information received from your webinars and courses. I thought I new SEO and marketing.
Thanks to you I am learning the real usable truth of SEO and marketing.
Not just thanks but Thanks a Lot
Matt Carter Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 6:11 am
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Fantastic Marty
Matt
Hi Matt!
Nice Sharing here..
I truly also use Youtube as a tool to find good affiliate tools and tutorials.
It is also a good way to advertise your affiliate links by giving good quality of video report or presentation about the product you want to show.
Youtube channels can give you credibility and traffic that is why I love to make videos.
Hi Matt
Great Post and an excellent Webinar. Since I became a SEO Academy customer (which I love) I have really enjoyed your blog. After listening to the webinar I just wanted to inquire if with all the changes that are happening if the link building plans you lay out in SEO Academy are still fully relevant or do you plan to update them. After losing a number rankings for various sites I have this last year I just want to make sure the new sites I launch this year are going to be have a good chance of ranking and keeping that position. So before I use the strategies outlined in your plans I just wanted to make sure that still fully recommend to follow them as they are now.
Thanks for any response
Regards
Howard
Matt Carter Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 6:10 am
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Hi Howard, as much as I agree with most of what Michael teaches, I tend to disagree when it comes to backlinks…I agree in the fact that you need contextual links as much as possible, which is what we teach, but I also get a variety of other links, and we get awesome results, look at this blogs rankings for “affiliate marketing”.
Matt
Howard Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 1:03 am
Hi Matt
Thanks for getting back to me I appreciate your time. I just wanted to make sure that anything I do from now on is absolutely spot on. As I said I love the training in SEO academy but I know things change so fast at the moment it is becoming difficult to put together a long term SEO strategy for any site. Will let you know how I get on with my new sites using your guidelines
Cheers
Howard
Matt, thanks. Your next info is very useful for me, especially when internet marketing is dead.
Hi Matt
Thanks for these posts – they really are helpful. I read all of your posts and attend all of your webinars. I am still struggling to get my review website ranked. I am working on getting backlinks now. My goal is 300 by March 15th. I have your RPF course and have made lots of progress towards my internet marketing goals. Thanks
Great webinar and post Matt.
I do enjoy learning more about finding profitable niches. It can be hard to escape the tunnel vision of staying in the same niche.
Cheers mate
Hey Matt, with the recent Panda 3.2 update on 12/19 that was supposed to be a “minor update” per Matt Cutts, yet wreaked more havoc, this post and the webinar are very timely.
Again more great insight on niche marketing. I am really starting to get more of a good understanding on how to find and build better sites with your information. I have been using Google alerts for my e-commerce business and find great information for content as well.
Thanks again Matt for the great post 🙂
Hallo Matt,
I not good in English, but i want to try get a good SEO for my blog
Hi Matt, just wanted to say I enjoyed the webinar the other night but something Mike said has got me slightly worried.
He said that review sites are basically on their way out and as this was how I was going to kick off my internet business I am now not sure if review sites are the way forward?
Thanks in advance and also for the great site you have here.
Gio
Hi Matt.
I watched the webinar, even though it was 2am-4am UK Time! When my boss started moaning about my lack of work output the following day I blamed it on you!!
The webinar gave a great insight into firstly the panda update with google and what it really meant. I’d heard bit’s and pieces already, but the info given in the webinar was very compelling. The adsense stuff was great, and I purchased the 100k course the next day.
Thanks for putting us in touch with such knowledgeable guys.
Great post Matt thanks…
Matt, you always have great stuff. I missed the webinar but will listen to it tonight.
Hey Matt,
I just bought a PR3 Domain,I want to build a site with about twenty inner pages.I have a done good keyword research for my inner pages but i can’t find a good Keyword for my Home Page,Is it ok for me to only do Off page Seo on the inner pages and not and my home page. By the way,I do have about 60 good backlinks coming to my home page already.
Hey Matt, I must say I am so impressed with the help and content you give, I am also so amazed, I have recently bought one of your products which I was very happy with.
But! I must say I so look forward to your emails. your content is so amazing and so gratefully received to say the least.
Matt YOU ARE THE BOMB ! Cheers Mate and God Bless you with Abundance always
Hollygee
Hi Matt on another note I am still a newby and google Banned me for life and I still dont know why………they said I spammed with some websites, but the websites that they told me were never mine nor do I know them. I wrote to them and range google au ( I live in NSW)but they said that was the decision they made but I did not even have those sites nor did I have anything to do with them, now I don’t know what to do…………….It is upsetting to be banned and not really being able to find out why. I am still very green to this but very upset about something I dont understand. I have one fully operational site and 2 others I am making, so I dont know what it really means can you please explain to me what I have done wrong
Hey thanks for the awesome post, Matt. This reminded me about your previous course “Rapid Profit Formula”.
And I have a quick question on that. You have explained very well in your course about getting high PR and relevant blog comment links. I followed your method exactly and got some 100 links (a mixture of PR 2, 3, 4 and 5) with in a month. I got PR2 (from PR 0) with in a month and all my internal pages also got ranked a PR of 1.
I built these links in a constant pace and after a month or 2, my site got penalized by bringing down my site from PR2 to N/A. I had no links from bad neighborhood at that time. Anyway, I lost the rankings of my home page as well as internal pages. That was a review site quite similar to that of your health care reviews site that you showed in the course.
So do blog comment links still work? You still do that to your review sites and internal pages? What do you like to suggest in this case?
Thanks
waiting for your reply…
Abhijit Reply:
January 18th, 2012 at 10:54 am
You were probably a victim of the Panda update.Also,Did you just build blog comment links ?If yes,Then you need more link diversity.That basically means that you need other kinds of links like Article Links, Directory Links Etc.
If your domain is new,Then your site might be experiencing the Google dance..In that case you should keep on adding content to your site and gradually your site will get back it’s old ranking’s.
Matt: Thank you for another great post and for the webinar. That was my 2nd webinar with you and I look forward to the next one. Keep up the great work and your honest and insightful advice.
Sincerely,
Chris
Matt Carter Reply:
January 20th, 2012 at 5:36 am
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You’re very welcome Chris
Regards
Matt
Really good article, thanks!
Never heard google alerts before, so really thanks :).
hey Matt,
i’ve bought your course but have problems, cause yahoo backlinks (on seoquake) don’t work anymore… what do u use now???
thanks
Matt Carter Reply:
January 20th, 2012 at 5:32 am
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I thought SEO Quake was getting its info from Majectic SEO now and did work. If not grab SECockpit as that thing is the KING of keyword research. I organized a discount for you guys through my affiliate link – http://mattsmarketingblog.com/secockpit.com , if you want a free tool then you could try TRaffic TRavis free version
Matt
How to Find Top keywords :
Nice representation regarding the Top 3 Most expensive keywords in Google Adwords advertising. The Insurance fields surely got the top spot as a lot of people are dealing mostly about the insurance business. Loans and Mortgage are second and third respectively.
Social media is definitely a great way to get a feel for what people are looking for, great article thank you.
Hi Matt, I was curious if you have ever used xsitepro? If so, would you recommend it? and is it good for ecommerce?
Thanks,
Robert
Matt Carter Reply:
January 21st, 2012 at 11:56 am
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Yes I have and no you don’t want to use it, it’s not great, better to stick with WordPress