Today Jon posted a more detailed set of things to ask yourself about your website idea.
1. Highly Competitive
2. Clear Path to Monetization
3. Successful similar sites that can be beat
4. Content will help solve the problem
5. Content advantage (able to produce better, cheaper or more than competitors systematically)
6. Community exists to tap into white-hat link building opportunities
7. Able to grow into a business selling a service
The more I think about which way to go the more important niche selection becomes in my mind. I joined a small 10 person sub group which I assume will work like a business mastermind group with regular online hangout meetings.
The guidelines above are a little more detailed than the ones shared yesterday. I definitely am going with a brand type domain for whatever topic I decide to focus on.
I recently bought a brandable domain for an business idea I wanted to pursue before I learned about this challenge. I know it meets some of the criteria, but is it the best choice?
I keep running the most recent niche ideas through my head. I think I need to keep writing them out as answers to the 7 steps above as questions.
Niche Idea in the real estate investing industry: Raise money for your property flips
The target customer would be real estate investors (small developers) who cannot pay all cash for their investment property rehab projects. The reason I have not pulled the trigger on this idea sooner is because it’s a complicated industry as far as monetization goes.
1. Highly Competitive – Yes loans to real estate developers is a competitive and rapidly growing industry online
2. Clear Path to Monetization – Not sure if there are affiliate programs.
3. Successful similar sites that can be beat – there are similar sites
4. Content will help solve the problem – Not sure about this
5. Content advantage (able to produce better, cheaper or more than competitors systematically)- Yes
6. Community exists to tap into white-hat link building opportunities – Yes there are several, BiggerPockets is one
7. Able to grow into a business selling a service – Yes lots of good business angels
I like this industry because I know a lot about it and the content would come easy. The complicate part is originally I wanted to raise / crowdfund the money and lend it out to real estate developers. Right now there are few if any regulations in business purpose commercial lending. However there are tons of very strict SEC rules and exceptions that allow a web portal to solicit funds from investors. Compliance is very expensive.
I am just wondering if I could create a successful site that could earn from referrals to bigger players.
Other ideas mentioned in my previous post.
RC Hobby industry. E Commerce and original product creation or white label imported products are the logical business transition goal for this niche. I could start out with product reviews and grow from there. I guess the problem angle for this niche would be entry for people newly interested in learning the hobby, a teaching angle. A secondary angle could be reducing the cost of starting up by avoiding expensive mistakes.
The more I type the more I am leaning towards the hobby industry. I am not looking to build a site to sell for a lump sum of cash. I would rather build and grow something for a number of years and save or invest the cash flow monthly.
I think the garage storage idea is a good one and meets all the criteria however it’s just not something I see myself doing long-term.
Tomorrow I am going to go through some older ideas and try to brainstorm some new ones. I am hoping to start getting a new site setup soon.