Mental scenarios & guided thinking to come up with & research a niche

[ContentWriter]

OK, close the e-books and turn off the videos.

We're going to research a profitable niche step-by-step...

What we're going to do first is brainstorm something that wakes people up in the middle of the night and causes them such agony that they can't sleep. We'll picture an individual seeking desperately for an instant solution to a problem that they need relief from RIGHT NOW!

We'll call him Joe. Now, Joe just woke up in intense pain--his feet are cramping up so he gets up and tries to straighten out his toes. He's suffering badly and nothing seems to be working. This has been going on for some time now; night after night he's losing sleep.

He's got a major problem and needs an immediate solution. So, he gets on the internet to find information on how to get relief from his foot cramps.

What does he find? A bunch of medical articles that have the information he needs, but he doesn't have a clue what they're talking about! So, he goes to another site: it turns out to be some junk site filled with a bunch of gibberish that, unbeknownst to him, was an auto-generated blog made up of articles created by a spinner (the owner of which just can't understand why all of those backlinks he/she paid for aren't generating any income!) The wonder!! 

All Joe knows is that it's worthless and unhelpful cr*p so he keeps looking until he can't stand it any more. He winds up calling his doctor's answering service. An hour later he gets a call back from his doctor who tells him to eat some bananas, drink some water, soak his feet in warm water, and massage the cramping muscles. If that doesn't help after another hour or so, then he can try finding an all-night store and go buy some Potassium pills.

Well, he doesn't have any bananas and the water hasn't helped much. So, he has to get his wife out of bed because he can't drive with his foot in such pain. When they get to the local 24-hour Walgreen's they have no clue where the Potassium is so they ask the clerk who shrugs and says, "I think it's in the back with the vitamins". After searching the shelves they finally find some Potassium, but which one? There's Potassium Gluconate and Potassium Chloride, the doctor didn't say anything about different kinds of pills!!

Luckily there's a pharmacist on duty so they ask her and she clears up the whole mess and gives him some advice on how much to take. Problem solved! Joe takes a couple of tablets and in a short while his feet have stopped cramping. Ahhh, that bottle of Potassium was only about $5 but he'd have gladly paid $100 for it!

Now, Joe's wondering, "how can I keep this from happening again?" He's once-bit, twice-shy now and will gladly pay for some REAL advice on how to treat and prevent these foot cramps without having to jump through hoops to get it!

And WE'RE going to give him just what he needs!

Let's head over to Google and bring up the keyword tool.
Type in some broad phrases like:

foot cramps wake me up at night
how to prevent foot cramps at night
how to avoid foot cramps
etc.

...and we get these results   

Look at those search numbers! ...and the really low competition!
Poor Joe! Nobody cares about him or helping him get a good night's sleep 

Well, WE care about Joe and helping him solve his problem so we're going to research and write some excellent information to help him out. AND, we're going to provide him with a nice little e-book he can purchase. One with a diet & exercise plan along with some delicious Potassium-rich recipes. Then he'll be able to sleep through the night.

We might even show him where he can buy a 90-day supply of Potassium Gluconate at a lower price than the local pharmacy, and have it conveniently delivered to his door. No more groggy, grumpy wife having to drive him to the store at 3:00 a.m.! Surely he'll be eager to have a supply on hand, don't you think?

And now that we have a great site that delivers what Joe and 1,000,000 other people like him are looking for, we'll be getting some traffic. No doubt that now since Joe and all of these other people have found us, they'll put our link in their e-mails, on Facebook, bookmarking sites; they'll Tweet our praises to the whole world, we'll get even more traffic and make quite a few sales!

THAT's how it's done 
~Karen

[Jim Burney]

~Karen

Excellent share of information.

Many thanks

Jim

[valpubs]

That's a brilliant breakdown Karen .. but...

How do you know Joe's suffering from foot cramps? What makes you (the marketer) go in that direction? That's what I don't get!

[ContentWriter]

I just pulled a rabbit out of a hat so to speak  

I just pay attention to things that other people sometimes miss.
I tend not to miss the trees for the forest (if that makes any sense).

Toss out some other stuff to do this with.

I love a challenge and I think if we go over a variety of things,
it will be much more helpful than just this one example.

~Karen
P.S.

How do you know Joe's suffering from foot cramps?

The question is not "how do I know he's suffering from foot cramps--it's a fictional scenario.
Rather you should ask: "how do I know what he needs to fix the problem?"

[padre]

That's a brilliant breakdown Karen .. but...

How do you know Joe's suffering from foot cramps? What makes you (the marketer) go in that direction? That's what I don't get!

Google will tell you what 'Joe' is asking about.  Pick a subject that interests you.  Using the Google Adwords tool just type in a general word or phrase that you associate with the subject.

Add the CPC category and then on the left click the 'exact' match under 'match type'.  Any of the local search numbers that are above 1,000 for exact match are potentials.

To use Karen's example;

The phrase 'foot cramp' has great numbers for a broad search but the exact search shows that it gets 1,600 global and only 880 exact.  With a CPC of $.05 this would eliminate this phrase, even though the competition is very low.

Foot cramps, on the other hand has an exact local search of 4,400.  That is very good but the CPC is still a bit low at $.24 (it should be at least $.50 but $1 and over is better).

Once you've got a few keys that fit the criteria then check them with Traffic Travis (free) for . . .

• relative ease of dominating the keyword
• top 20 competitors
• indication of where these competitors are weakest

This will give an accurate idea of the feasibility for the keys.

Cheers

[ContentWriter]

I certainly admire your statistical expertise Padre,
but that wasn't the point I was trying to make.

As a matter of fact, that's what I personally feel is all
wrong about the whole thing and gets everyone so
frustrated and confused.

Numbers. It's all about numbers, CPC, PPC, thousands
of backlinks, let's see how many articles we can spin,
etc., ad infinitum.

The best and most highly-paid copywriters understand this
concept. Why are they so effective at what they do? It's
because they understand people.

I don't care how tough a market may look on paper.
Show me someone who knows, and even better, cares
about people genuinely, and they'll lead the pack. That is,
provided they have the correlative technical skills to get the
job done, or hires the right experts to do it for them.

~Karen
P.S.

[padre]

Perhaps I still do not get your drift, but if you are suggesting that online copywriters do not use keywords then you are mistaken.  Copywriters were some of the first to grasp the keywording concept because it was so similar to the use of 'magic words'.

Copywriters use keywords for the same reason they use magic words . . . to elicit a consistent and dependable response.  With the magic words it is an emotional response from humans and the keywords bring a consistent response from the search engines.

Copywriters even use the two in a similar manner in terms of frequency and placement . . . small percentage of the total word count, in the title and sub-headings and sprinkled throughout the text.

Online copywriters can even write great copy to bad keywords . . . but they won't.  Because they want their copy to sell.  If online copy is not correctly keyworded it will not sell because no one will see it.

No matter how basic the level of human need your subject holds there is no way a person can effectively emote the specific terms other people (around the world) use to express it.  Also, there is no way you can determine all of the related keys.  You must do this because if you don't use related keywords as well as the primary key then your LSI is non-existent and your copy remains in limbo.

Perhaps you are a savant at emotional response.  Are you successful with your method?  Can you teach it?

Cheers

P.S. ~ This actually seems a bit like a rudimentary emotional response for artificial intelligence.  Could the first AI eventually be named 'Google'.

[ContentWriter]

Padre, I don't even claim to be what you'd consider a marketer.
I'm not really even talking about marketing; or copy-writing for
that matter.

I'm talking about people relating to other people at a human level.

My official point is not keywords, not rankings, not even making money.

Can no one dare to guess that I'm talking about stepping back away
from all of that for just a bit and actually "observing" people as individuals
and considering just what we're really made of at the core?

There's enough material out there teaching marketing and market research.
There's not a thing I could possibly tell you on the subject that you either don't
already know or can't find out easily.

But, I can point out this: look what you're focused on. What have you been
trying to glean from all of this? A method. I'm sorry to disappoint, but I
don't have one for you.

Unless you can formulate one from this information...

Why was I able to enter a saturated market with zero experience and not a thread
of knowledge about: keywords, LSI, SE algorithms, heat map patterns, building a list,
auto-responders, etc.; yet dominate a portion of that market and make a living off
of my little website?

I'm not talking about getting rich, because that was never my goal; but it paid the
mortgage, put food on the table, clothes for my kids, and even a few extras now
and then.

Why is it as an eight year old little girl I was able to take all of the mowing jobs in
the neighborhood from the boys, and eventually get paid more than they ever did?

It's because I knew who I was serving. I knew them well. I knew what they wanted,
what they were needing, what they were looking for...

And I gave it to them.

~Karen

[ContentWriter]

I don't want anyone to get the impression that I'm trying to
teach them Internet Marketing. I'm certainly not an expert
in that respect.

It's just that I see throughout various posts here, other forums,
WAHM sites, etc. that some people are really struggling.

For some reason it's either not making sense, not being put to
use, or it's not done correctly.

I'm laying my bet that it's over-complication.

Some people try to find things in this game that don't exist but football is only two things - blocking and tackling.
Vince Lombardi

At the beginning of every season, Vince Lombardi would round up his players
for a talk. Now, these are all men who have been living & breathing football
all of their lives. Still, Vince would start each training camp by going back to
the very basics of the game.

If I'm correct here, I once heard that he would start off with...

“Gentlemen, this is a football.”

Was he being condescending? I hardly think so.

It's all the same with business. Buying & selling.
In order to sell something, you have to have a product, or a service.
And, you need someone to sell that product or service to.

The ONLY way you'll ever be any good at it is to simply: Know your customer!

KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER!

Once you've got that down pat, the keywords will flow. Crawl inside of your
customers shoes and think his or her thoughts. Then you'll know exactly
what he or she is typing into that search box.

No struggle.

No analysis.

No sweat.

~Karen

[padre]

KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER!

Know your customer is certainly the heart of copywriting.

As for the rest, your ability to empathize may be beyond the norm of even great copywriters but some, like myself, may be too insensitive to reach that level.  Can you do this for any subject or are you limited to familiar subjects?

Cheers

[ContentWriter]

Padre,

I'm no different than anyone else. It's a trait that can be cultivated.

It can also be lost. I went through a period of time when I was a
heartless, self-centered woof woof. (can't say the REAL word  )
But, I'm working on doing better.

Another thing: I don't view you as the least bit insensitive!
I think you're a downright nice man and enjoy your posts.  

Can you do this for any subject or are you limited to familiar subjects?

There are certain subjects I won't touch but, unless it's far out of my
range of understanding, probably yes.

~Karen

[padre]

Many thanks, Karen, for taking the time to explain.

Cheers