Niche Product Research Ideas

Many niche marketers make the fundamental mistake of creating products based on what they believe customers will buy. However, the proper way is to find out what people are actually buying at the present time and then deciding on a product.

Ideas for niche products can be found in a variety of different places including the five below that you can use to make money on niche products.

1) Forums

With the popularity of the internet these days, forums (or bulletin boards or discussion groups as they are also known as) have proliferated. Forums are availabe on the internet for just about any subject you can imagine.

Basically, forums are websites where people with the same interests gather to discuss anything pertaining to a specific theme. Forums that are well moderated are usually very active and are a great place to do research on any niche you are interested in.

To find a forum for your niche, simply query the search engines (Google it) if you will, to locate numerous forums that are available. If your interest is backgammon, simply enter backgammon + bulletin board into the search box.

Find out the questions that are being asked by members of the forum by browsing the threads. If you find that a question is being asked frequently across a number of different forums, you have possibly found a topic for your next (or first) niche website or product.

2) Browse at Your Local Book Store

If you can't find an idea in the forums, try going to your local book store. If a magazine is available for a certain hobby or interest, there's a good chance those readers will purchase niche related products.

You should take note of the magazines being sold and how quickly they sale. Visit several stores and then compare common magazines sold in them all. Ask sales clerks the number of copies that are normally sold of the magazines that are in your niche.

If each store sells a large number of the same magazine every month, you can take that as a sure sign of a niche that you can make money with.

3) Check out eBay

eBay is probably the largest single marketplace on Earth. A huge range of products are purchased by millions of people month after month.

Open eBay in your browser, scroll down the left hand menu and then click on -All Categories- then scroll down to the bottom of page that opens in your browser until you find the section entitled -Other Ways to Browse-. That section will include four subsections, each a different way to define your search:

i) eBay Keywords (popular items that are being searched for)

ii) Common Searches

iii) eBay Pulse (a daily snapshot of current trends)

iv) Popular Products

A large number of great ideas for your next niche product can be found from these four search options.

4) Conduct a Survey on your Website

You can conduct a survey using a popup if you have an existing website that receives a decent amount of traffic. Some kind of reward should be offered to entice your visitor to take the survey.

Most of the time the web survey conducted would have to relate to the theme of your website. However, it is possible to find out the interests of your visitors and if they would be willing to spend money on their interests with the survey.

Asking simple questions that don't lead your respondents to a specific answer is the key. Keep in mind when designing your survey that you will have to spend time analyzing and drawing conclusions from the data that is submitted. Therefore you should keep your questions "on topic".

Multiple choice question surveys are the simplest surveys to analyze. However, you won't know for sure that the answers are exact or close. 

5) Survey Your eMail List

You could send a survey to your email list if you have one. Ask them about the current problems they are facing, or simply ask what their interests are. Since a degree of trust exists between you and your list, you should receive honest answers and suggestions. An incentive for responding to the survey will dramatically increase the number of replies received.