If you want to find low competition niches online but you have been struggling with the practical side of how to find a niche…
Then you are in luck!
In this tutorial you are going to learn how to find profitable niches with low competition.
What Will I Learn?
I recently started my blog Cloud Income, after spending a good few years behind the scenes. I have created hundreds of websites and made some great money doing so.
I was becoming tired of the same old regurgitated content, lack of imagination and flare.
That combined with being inspired by this very blog, I decided to do something about it 🙂
In my last post “Niche Site making $1,000/Month“, I explained how I discovered a website that was making a very nice income, in a niche I had never heard of.
Long story short, I created my own site to compete in that niche and 4 months later…
That site is bringing in over $1,000 per month.
It really is a great strategy to find your niche market!
After receiving a number of questions about how to find a niche market, I wanted to show you exactly how I go about finding proven profitable niches.
Using a tactic that 99% of the competition doesn’t use.
My Secret weapon in finding profitable low competition niches that are proven to make money is…
In this article I take 3 sites, pick them apart, and explain how I would go about building my own website in that niche.
There can be a lot of BS in a Flippa auction, spotting a legit website can prove difficult.
There are steps you can take to filter out much of the rubbish to find niches with potential.
This is the easy part, as Flippa provides the tools we need to search for specific attributes. For this analysis I have used the following-
(This search returns 1,149 results)
Essentially I am looking for websites at auction, that are over 12 months old and have a NET profit of $2,000+…THAT HAD A SUCCESSFUL SALE ON FLIPPA.
The last part is essential as this cuts out a lot of the rubbish I mentioned above.
If a site has sold, chances are the buyer did their own due diligence. It doesn’t mean that every result returned will be a gem, but it does give us a great base to work from.
What we do here is scan through the results and ignore any of the following;
Using the example below, here is what I look for in the summary listing;
The results that I like the look of and fall outside of the above ignore list, I add the domain name, auction URL, niche and net profit into a spreadsheet.
I can then come back at anytime, when I am ready to build another niche site.
This saves so much time, as I have a readily available source of proven niches at my disposal and I only need to search through Flippa once 🙂
So let’s look at 3 of these sites in detail shall we?
URL – MilitaryBases.com
Selling price – $125,000
Bids – 8
Net Profit – $5,499
The first site that caught my eye was the auction for MilitaryBases.com, which ended in October 2012.
The sale price of $125,000 certainly peaked my spider senses, which is around 23x monthly net profit. This is above average for a Flippa site, as I usually find sites sell within the 9-15 times net profit mark.
The site is in an evergreen niche and provides a great source of information on the US Military Bases, covering the Air Force, Coast Guard, Army and Navy.
The Flippa auction states;
MilitaryBases.com is a relocation resource. To understand this website, you need to know that:
1. The United States has ~800 military bases worldwide.
2. Military soldiers get PCS orders every 2-3 years which relocates them and their family.
Before moving to a new military base, families want to know about school options, housing availability, hotel rates, local banks, the cost of living, basically, what kind of lifestyle should they expect. That’s where MilitaryBases.com comes in handy. MilitaryBases.com helps these military families transition.
I love how the seller jumps straight in with these facts. This, combined with the easy breakdown of the description into sections, is a very good sign the seller knows what he/she is doing…and this may not be their first time selling a site
(Quick Tip – check out the sellers profile for even more proven niches!)
Even though this auction has just 8 bids (I think the price tag was out of reach for 90% of the Flippa community), it has everything I would look for in a potential niche to enter.
A proven 2 year history in the SERPS, and an average of 120k unique visitors per month and 361k page views. What’s not to like!
The primary revenue source for militarybases.com is AdSense. There are a few other affiliate resources that generate some income, but on the whole Google AdSense is the bread and butter, bringing in over 85% of total revenues.
Ad slots appear in the sidebar as skyscrapers and under the navigation menu as banners. They do blend in with the site very well as image ads are enabled, I think text ads would look out of place on this particular site.
One year on from the sale of Military Bases, the site is sitting at #3 for its main keyword in Google US;
However I am certain their long tail traffic will be driving upwards of 80% of their total traffic (from my own findings).
Here are some other keywords they rank in the top 10 for;
As you can see, the site is doing well for many different state and country searches, if the site has continued to earn at the same rate, the new owner could expect a full return on investment over the coming 12 months.
The site also has some great content, user comments (active service men and women and their families) and backlinks pointing to the site.
As you can see from the current stats below, the various tools like A-hrefs (see the full Ahrefs review), OpenSiteExplorer, MajesticSEO) offer differing volumes of back links;
Following the in-depth study ahrefs vs. MajesticSEO here on MatthewWoodward.co.uk, I actually favour the Ahrefs data over MajesticSEO and OpenSiteExplorer.
UPDATE: Please the results of the new case study to find the best backlink checker.
However by using a combination of all three tools, here are some of the relevant and high authority links I came across;
What’s interesting in this case however is the number of both foreign back links and anchor text.
What’s even more interest is the adult related links in profile. Perhaps victim of a negative SEO attack….looks like it to me.
AdWords still have the majority share of advertising space; however there is also another method being used to monetise the site. This is the banner you are presented with when you visit the root URL.
This appears to be an affiliate/referral method to direct security cleared personal who are transitioning back into civilian life.
It’s a great way to eek more money out of the site whilst keeping it relevant to the visitors, and whilst the popup is fairly obtrusive, I think it works for this niche.
They also have a banner in the header of the site for the same referral method.
Whilst you could build a site around military bases in general, I would look at how to start a blog for say “Air force Bases” and see how that site went.
There will be plenty of content even though you would have ‘niched down’.
Or if you want to “Niche Down”
Any of the above domain names would be fine.
A quick look for some free to register domain names over at ExpiredDomains.net finds the following;
Whilst a little low on the DA side with 22, we have 165 backlinks from 84 domains and it’s a relevant domain name, with part of our keyword in the name. It wouldn’t take much to rebrand this into a highly relevant linking site.
Not an awesome backlink profile, BUT with a DA of 29 and 127 links from lots of different domains, there is little chance of losing all those links overnight.
I would pick up both of these domain names and make these the beginning of a blog network to link back to our new niche site.
Top them up with some targeted, relevant bank links using GSA SER and you can increase the power of these sites.
To be honest, we couldn’t go far wrong to use the content ideas from this site and replicate. I don’t mean straight copy, but use the article titles, layout and formatting to your advantage.
I love the map that is used on MilitaryBases.com, so I would HAVE to have this on my site.
Heading over to UberSuggest, we enter our keyword “Military Bases” and we have hundreds of content ideas in an instant. Here’s a small snippet-
What UberSuggest does is it takes your keyword and appends either a letter or a number to the end. It’s a very clever keyword scraper and one I use frequently.
It doesn’t provide search volume, but on this site, we would be writing for the visitor and this tool tells us what they will be searching for.
Here’s what they say on their site-
With this free keyword tool you can instantly get thousands of keyword ideas from real user queries! Use the keywords to get inspiration for your next blog post, or to optimize your PPC campaigns.
Following the MilitaryBases.com site as an example, having a clean navigation bar, fairly unobtrusive ad slots and helpful info, I think we could build a great site.
I would be very tempted to avoid AdSense for my own site, concentrating on the quality of content and building a place servicemen and women trust.
Once established I would then look to sponsor various charities (you can make small donations in exchange for your image or link to be placed on their sponsors’ page = quality backlink).
This will enhance your credibility and also provide some great backlinks, even if they are brand/URL anchor text.
URL – GuideGator.com
Selling price – $31,100
Bids – 8
Net Profit – $14,000
Unfortunately, the Flippa auction details for GuideGator are no longer available, it must have been removed by either the seller or buyer (you can purchase auction privacy after a successful sale).
However, this is one site I had my eye on back in August this year.
Luckily, whilst the auction was running, I created a folder (using Google Drive) to store all of the auction details 🙂
This info went into my ideas folder for review when I had time, however because I couldn’t decide on the legitimacy of the site and seller I just left it alone. Until now.
Note – the figures quoted are direct from the Flippa auction itself, which I gathered whilst the data was still available.
As the auction is no longer available you will have to take my word for it!
I have added a screenshot below of my Google Drive folder (when I say I captured everything…I mean everything!!)
The first item I want to address is the claimed profits of $14,000 per month.
The auction description stated-
The site for sale is a guide and review web site with over 1,150 unique professionally written articles and a clean sharp design
The site has grown ethically and organically with strong natural backlinks and is continuing to increase revenues month on month.
All of the revenue comes from Adsense which is minimally placed as not to be overly intrusive. Thus increased revenues may be gained from more aggressive forms of advertising.
Current revenues are stable and producing $14,000+ per month with existing traffic which is growing as new content is added to the site.
The trouble had with this site is content quality. It’s appalling.
Here are my notes I took at the time of auction in a Wordpress doc-
Ok so I’m a little critical here, but this is how I perform my research and I like to keep it real!
Clearly non English speaking writers have produced this content, which can be fine IF their grasp of the English language is good enough.
However here we can clearly see very low-quality content, targeting a whole host of niches ranging from Jobs & Careers, Banking, and Online Services such as Netflix and Lovefilm etc.
Below is a snippet of text from one of their articles titled “Apply For Chase Amazon Rewards Visa Card Online”
As you can see, it literally is a guide on how to sign up for this credit card. Go here –> Click This –> Enter Details –> Click Go
Such a simple business model and if the earnings are true, then this is something anyone with a team of Odesk writers can achieve. Just churn out financial related content, day after day.
The auction contained a snapshot of the Wordpress backend showing the number of posts on the site, which I also captured 🙂
So 1,197 posts have been published, and each article contains a Google AdSense block wrapped inside of the text. It’s AdSense 101 really, nothing complicated and probably the quickest and easiest way to make money with a website.
Almost 3 months on from the sale of Guide Gator, the site is still active and looks exactly the same as it did. However with the majority of its traffic claimed to come from Organic sources.
I struggle to find which keywords are bringing visitors to the site.
With such a mishmash of content, topics and articles, it seems highly unlikely that this site is making as much as was claimed by the seller.
In today’s market, I would actually steer clear of the mass content method.
My focus nowadays is primarily on user experience and quality content that I would be happy to share with anyone.
With the SERP marketplace as it is, algorithm updates and stiff competition, I really cannot see this kind of site producing a decent income.
(If you have evidence to the contrary I am all ears!)
URL – BorderCollieAdvice.com
Selling price – $15,100
Bids – 7
Net Profit – $2,000
As a dog lover (I have a Cocker Spaniel) I have always thought about creating a niche site around dogs. This site is exactly what I have always had in mind.
I love that they have chosen a niche within a niche and selected a type of dog breed to target. Border Collies are a very popular dog in both the UK and US.
With 8k unique visitors per month and 25k page views, we can see that there is definitely a market for this niche. People love their dogs, and if you need a piece of information that will help you and your dog, you will spend time looking for it.
This site has a net profit of $2,000 per month, which comes solely from eBook sales.
So not only is the target audience engaged, they are willing to spend money.
This is one niche I would seriously consider getting into.
As mentioned above, eBook sales make up 100% of the $2,000 profits each month.
The eBook is selling at $27.97, which puts them at around 71 sales per month. With 8k visitors, that’s a conversion rate of less than 0.88%, now if you’re anything like me, I bet your thinking…
Geeze, I think could increase than conversion rate to around 3% quite easily.
Let’s say we did just that, which I think is very possible given the niche and target audience. We would be selling 240 eBooks per month which would equate to $6,712 gross profit per month.
(the Flippa auction states both the gross and net profit to be the same; however I do believe the seller will incur charges for the hosting and distribution of the eBook)
Reviewing the site 10 months after the sale for $15,100, we can see it is no longer ranking #1 for “Border Collie Training”, it now lies in position 7 (Google.com).
What is interesting from the SERP results is the 3 YouTube videos ranking just above this site.
I really like the dog niche, it’s the old cliché, people use “dog training” as an example of a keyword you shouldn’t target.
In this case, a niche within a niche, it definitely seems doable.
Here’s how I would tackle it.
Available Domain names
Either of these domain names are a great fit for this niche.
I spent 5 minutes looking at recently expired domains over at expireddomains.net. One domain I did come across is this;
With the following Moz OSE details.
With a Domain Authority of 27 and 80 inbound links, mostly from other dog-related sites, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up this domain for the reg fee and it would form the beginning of a private blog network.
In this example, I will use LongTailPro for my keyword and competition research.
Create a new campaign-
I have entered “Border Collie” as the only keyword, and filter only keywords with an exact match search volume over 50.
Let’s take a look at the results. (I have asked LTP to calculate the Keyword Competitiveness (KC) for some of the keywords I am interested in)
As you can see, we’ve got plenty to go at and if you spend longer than the 5 minutes that I did in LTP, you will find that there are plenty of other keywords to target.
I will save this campaign and refer back to it frequently when I need content ideas for my site. I aim for at least 50 article ideas, but it does depend on the size of the niche.
Quick Tip – Head over to Yahoo Answers and type in your main keyword if you are struggling for article ideas. There will be hundreds of related questions that dog owners want to know the answer too.
Some of the standout keywords for me are-
Border collie gifts – 170 US Exacts – Perfect buyer keyword, low search volume but a low KC of just 26
Border collie breeders – 2,400 US Exacts – I would create THE ULTIMATE guide to breeders and reach out to all the websites who make the list. I would use this as link bait in order to get some relevant/authority backlinks. (KC 31)
Border collie colours – I know from having my own pedigree dog that they come in a variety of colours. With 720 US searches per month and a KC of 30, it’s definitely something a user would expect to find on our site.
I really like the – White & Grey Dog WordPress Theme by Mercury, which is now discontinued but take a look to see the style. You could also go with any clean theme, free or paid to begin with.
Our main keyword “Border Collie Training” would form the bulk of our homepage.
The inner pages or posts would be other related terms such as “Border Collie Temperament”, “Border Collie Size”, “Border Collie Shedding” etc.
I would ensure I linked to these inner pages from the homepage, or at least to the category the post belonged too.
A quick note on Posts and Pages in Wordpress.
I go with the thought that if something is going to be written once and is evergreen, I create a page.
If however it’s a piece of news or you are building a blog – then add a post.
Let’s face it, most guides teach you how to find a niche market by using the Google Keyword Planner or some variation thereof.
However, by thinking outside the box and taking a slightly different approach to find your niche, we are able to find a much broader range of profitable low competition niches and keywords.
I hope you enjoyed this post, and that it has made you think about niche research.
You should check out my post where I reveal My Exact Strategy for a $1,000/month Niche Site and also How to Build a Blog Network – The Right Way.
I really enjoyed dissecting these websites and if you decide to follow my advice and tackle them head-on, let me know in the comments.
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I came across this niche finding method before but it was not as well explained nor did it provide the real actionable tips you did.
Glad I could expand and make it easier to follow 🙂
really amazing …learned a lot need to apply it now
Get busy!
very Long article, but it provides more value than the other articles out there.
Thanks a lot Ashutosh
Though the content is so long but I go through it because of the effectiveness. Thanks for sharing.
Long but full of value 🙂
These points are really valuable and helpful for me.
Great news
i am very confuse on choosing a better niche but I am very sure that this guide would help me scale throughthanks sir
No worries
it’s just an awesome post regarding finding a profitable niche for blogging and affiliate marketing because find a niche is a very difficult task for the new blogger
I hope it makes the process clearer!
Very good information. Lucky me I recently found your website by accident (stumbleupon).I have book marked it for later!
Thanks for the bookmark, hope to see you again soon.
Thanks very much! Glad you found my blog 🙂
Thanks for your comment, I’m pleased you like the style of my post
Hey very nice blog!
Thanks, come back soon 🙂
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Hey, good job my site is mobile friendly 🙂 Thanks very much
I enjoyed reading your suggestion because I just started my blog and in desperate need of some guidance. Thanks for all the pointers, I will keep them in mind next time.
No problem, we were all beginners once, keep up the hard work
Awesome post it is.
Thanks very much
Wow! I’m so glad I found your site. I have been trying to get started for almost a year and a half (don’t judge me lol) but continue to struggle with niche selection. I doubt myself and then start over. This article really helped me out!! I’m definitely bookmarking it to refer back to! Thank you so much for your insight. Most helpful article I’ve read about finding a niche, period.
No problem glad to help!
Enormously enjoyed this post :), keep up the great authorship and I’ll keep reading.Will be sharing this with my twitter followers and I’m sure they’ll love it as well!
Wow thanks Cristal for the shares. Glad you enjoyed this post so much
Great article.
Thanks
You gave me different-2 money making techniques and secret finding to money making. Thanks for it.
No problem
thank you for this article its a very good one i need some high niches and your article helped me a lot thanks
No worrys 🙂