Niche Sites And Novel Solutions
On last week’s post, longtime reader Anon1 asked the question:
How do I know if my original idea is a solution the market needs and is willing to pay for?
Is it Just via A:B testing and keywords basically?
Now, last week, I wrote that it doesn’t really matter how competitive a niche is because you’ll ultimately come up with different talking points, solutions and writings to anyone else.
That’s true.
Anon1 wants to know how to ensure that what you’re writing about is something that people want.
(At least I assume so, given the question is on a niche site article. I’ll write more about product creation and novel solutions tomorrow.)
Let’s talk about how you can craft articles with solutions that people want.
First… Let’s Start With School Problems
I didn’t have too much trouble with any of the work at school. I’d breeze through most of the questions and the answers would come to me immediately because I could mentally calculate most things.
But the teachers weren’t happy with that.
“Show your working!”
That’s what they’d say. They’d want me to write out my reasoning or calculations so that they knew how I’d come to the answer I’d written.
To childhood me, that was tedious. Even to adult me, that was a problem until I started writing obsessively.
But it’s important and it’s the key to crafting good articles.
Write out what you do, why you’re doing it and how you’re doing it.
That’s all you need to do to craft decent niche site articles. Well, that and using the product (or at least getting into the mind of someone that does.)
You are going to use a product in a different way to how I would. You’ll also find different issues and solve different problems.
For instance, you might have a niche site that reviews different types of travel gear.
Why are you reviewing this backpack?
I mean, of all the products you could use, why try this one? What do you need it for?
Even if it’s a specific product like a camera bag – a guy who uses a camera bag for wildlife photography in Alaska is going to be different to the guy who shoots glamour models in Dubai.
Look At Your Competition
Check a really common and obvious item you own. Say an iPhone. Go and look at the top results for “iPhone review.”
Now, those are all top sites with all kinds of SEO trickery to get on the front pages for those sorts of terms.
But the reviews are horrid, and so click-through rates and conversions are going to be painfully low.
Why?
Because they’re all untargeted and bland. A lot of people who start niche sites are still well and truly in the “copy/paste a description from Amazon and add your affiliate link” stage of development.
With a unique personal story and some targeting, you can outcompete these sorts of sites. Not necessarily in pure rankings for something like “iPhone review” but for less competitive terms or outside of SEO, sure.
When you have a niche site, your experience is the value-add and the reason people click through on your link and not someone else’s. (Well, that and fundamental copywriting skills.)
Not So Final Thoughts
The general gist is, “show your working,” and present a unique take on whatever situation you hope to solve with your niche site.
With niche sites, you can do this over and over with different audiences in mind or by using your product in different ways and for different things.
I’ll leave this article there, but if you want more of this – especially when it comes to product creation and more intensive forms of market research – you’ll want to check back tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s article will ask some pretty fundamental questions about solving problems of a market and creating unique solutions.