I got my first Build A Niche Store (BANS) site up, and I’m very happy about it.  It was simple, easy, and quick.  The BANS process is an effective way for novice Internet entrepreneurs to learn how to find a niche and build a website.

I got the site up in just under 30 minutes.  As I explained last week in my preliminary review, the instructions are straightforward and easy to understand.  Anyone who can read can get a BANS store up in under an hour.

The hardest part is finding the niche around which to build a store.  But this is easier than it sounds.  It involves two simple steps: finding a niche and testing it.

Build a niche store graphic 1How To Find A Niche

The first thing you need to do to find a niche is figuring out which product you want to sell.  In my post about how to create a product, I touched on the idea of focusing on things that interest you.  If you want to come up with a product, you need to zone in on your interests and the areas with which you’re familiar. 

Thus, if you’re into music, you can look at musical instruments, concert tickets, or how-to DVDs.  If you’re into exercising, you can look at sneakers, exercise clothes, or . . . jump ropes?? 

It really isn’t that hard to come up with a product.  I just thought of jump ropes off the top of my head.  That’s a legitimate product that is probably sold by a few hundred people on Ebay.  If so, I just gave you a product idea for a BANS store.

I actually sat down the other day and, in 5 minutes, came up with 10 different product ideas.  And I did it by focusing on the things and areas I am familiar with and in which I am interested.  It’s real easy once you put your mind to it.

So now that you thought of a product, what next? 

The most important step in this process is testing your product.

Testing Your Product

I did some research before I settled on a product, and I came across two key guidelines, thanks to The Blog Entrepreneur:

1) Find a search term that attracts at least 300 searches per day.  (This is otherwise known as demand.)

2) Make sure that search term generates no more than 1 million search results on Google.  (This is otherwise known as competition.)

To figure out if there is enough demand for your product, you need to pinpoint how many people search for it on a daily basis.  For that, I recommend Wordtracker’s free keyword suggestion tool.  In general, you want a search term that people search for at least 300 times per day.Build a niche store graphic 2 

Remember that Wordtracker represents about 1% of all searches done on the Internet.  It maintains logs containing 300 to 340 million keywords covering periods of 60 to 100 days.  Thus, you have to multiply the number of searches you get from Wordtracker for a specific keyword (like “jump ropes” or “concert tickets”) by 100 to get an estimate of total searches per month.  Then, to arrive at a per-day average, you divide that result by 30. 

So, if the keyword ”exercise clothes” gives you 95 searches on Wordtracker, you multiply that number by 100 (95 x 100), and you get 9,500.  Then, divide that result by 30 (9,500/30), and you get 316 searches.  That’s a good number of searches, and a good amount of demand.

The next step is to check out the competition on Google.  Search for your keyword in quotes (i.e., “exercise clothes,” “jump ropes,” etc.).  If your keyword generates more than 1 million searches, ditch it.  Find another keyword to build your niche around.  You don’t want to have to deal with too much competition.  The goal here is to make money, and to make it as soon as you can.  Don’t be the small fish in the big pond.  Be the big fish in the small pond.

If your keyword returns less than 1 million search results, you’re in good shape.  If it returns around 500,000 results or less, you’re golden.  Either way, you’re dealing with less competition, and that means that you have a good chance (provided you employ some good SEO tactics) of dominating the competition.   

Build a niche store graphic 3Building Your Build A Niche (BANS) Store

Once you have a product and have tested it, you are ready to build your BANS store.  If you followed the steps above, you have laid a good foundation for your store.  You have an adequate level of demand and a manageable amount of competition. 

Building your store is the easy party.  Follow the instructions, and you’ll have your store up in no time.  I’m becoming a BANS addict, and you should too!  Get your Build A Niche Store software and get in the game!

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