I am continually blown away by the incredible opportunities online. They are everywhere. Over the years however it has become clear to me that while most people would love to have an online business that enables them to be cubicle free – many just don’t even start.
Why?
Most tell me they just can’t come up with a great idea.
Choosing a useful niche may seem like the hardest thing to do, but it does not need to be.
In this post I will:
- Show you an awesome way to come up with some great ideas
- Direct you to additional resources for a great way to do it
Let’s get to it!
In a previous post, I outlined what a useful niche website is in – The Niche Strategy That Works. One beauty of the way I am about to show you is that it is a perfect candidate for being a useful niche website with all the advantages that go along with that.
Here is a story:
- Man walks into a magazine store.
- Notices that there are three or four publications for a niche hobby.
- Realises that if three to four publications are selling each month to people just in the immediate area of the newsagency that there must be potential to sell an ebook or build a membership site for the internet.
- Then he looks online and starts thinking about ways he can attract leads for this niche and convert these into sales.
There are some great things about this story:
1) It’s true – the man was recently interview by Yaro Stark – His name is Ian McConnell and he went on to make over $300k from his model train website – yes, model trains.
2) He shows you how he did it in a video in a way that I think anyone could follow.
3) He was NOT a model train enthusiast.
Want an idea that could enable you to fire your boss and have time and location freedom for the rest of your life? Why not grab a pen and paper and go to your local newsagent right now? Write down a few ideas. I recommend sticking to things that interest you, but as we have seen there is no need for this to be your passion.
The next question we need to answer is:
Can you make money out of it?
Working out the profit potential for your niche will be is the subject of my next post in this series. I have some really exciting options to share with you. Join my newsletter to find out when I have posted.
Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate it and I sincerely hope you end up visiting your newsagent if you need some inspiration to become cubicle free.
“Often all you need is a spark to start a bonfire.”
What ideas are you working on? Any other cool ways to get ideas? Please leave your comments below.
Bob Hitch says
Hi,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on finding a niche and concentrating on the value you can add. Conventional thinking is that one should go with his passions and inclinations to be successful but your article says otherwise. I think you’re right as long as there is a passion to make money and to help people, almost any niche will do. But I think that if one has a passion for a niche, he is more likely to succeed than one who has not. Keep up the good stuff!
cubiclefree says
Hi Bob,
Passion is a really interesting topic for me. I agree if you are passionate about anything it is easier, but as we have seen it is not a requirement. That said, if you are blogging – you need to be passionate about your topic because it is an active community you are nurturing. A website on the other hand, can effectively been left for weeks, months and even years to just to its thing.
Thanks for you comments!
Quinn
Joe @ How I Got Rich says
I’ve done the old newsagents trick before to find a niche. Had some success with it in the past.
I’m still not entirely sure on what you mean by the different between blogs and websites and one being easier to make money than the other.
I’m confused as to whether my new project is a blog or a website. Either way, would the sites be getting traffic in the same: from Google searches? So why would one make money better than the other?
Joe
cubiclefree says
Hi Joe, Thanks for the question. That is awesome that you have found success at the newsagents! I think I understand your question better now and I realize I have not explained myself fully on my recent post about blogging. As we know technically there is no difference in the way a blog or a website get traffic. A blog is just a special type of website after all.
The big difference is in the markets we are going after and the way we approach those markets. I chose a blog as my platform on cubicle free because in order to add value I need to build trust and the market evolves rapidly. In such a competitive market my blogging efforts will need to be significant. I will be able to make money from it in the future, but in the meantime I could have built ten niche websites – had some wins – had some fails but I would have learned how to make money online and had success far quicker then slogging away at a blog. As I said the big difference is really the markets we go after. In comparison, on the website I built I purposely chose a much easier market to crack. The market changes slowly, is not anywhere near as competitive and the way to make money is much simpler.
Does that help answer the question?