The following is my entire process for identifying a niche and building a content site to fill it.

I’m hoping that it will help people who have not yet refined their own process and I’m also hoping that some of the more advanced members will add some tips or suggest alternatives to some of these steps so that we all might benefit. So please participate in this thread by posting any additional ideas or steps you would take in a similar endeavor. Feel free to criticize anything you see here as well!

1. Find a Niche - Choose a few niche subjects - if you need help with ideas then visit directories like DMOZ, check Google News, Wordtracker's top 1000 searches list, go to a yard sale or flea market, check a store catalog, go to the mall or some other things of this nature until you’ve found some interesting niche subjects.
   
   
2. Check Search Volume - Check the search volume of the core keywords using your tools of choice (I use Overture, WordTracker, and AdWords Sandbox) The core keywords are the most basic keywords that contain the essence of the niche - the more obscure the niche is, the longer these usually are). Collect a modest keyword list for the moment.
   
   
   
3. Check Competition - Perform some searches in the various engines for a few of your keywords to gauge competition:
   
   
   • A key phrase without quotes search to see what sites get returned in the top 10
   • A "key phrase in quotes" search to check for pages that touch on the niche
   • A Google allintitle: key phrase search to check for optimized pages
   
   
4. Judge Monetization Potential - If you think you can compete with the currently ranking pages then check the bid amounts for these keywords using overture's bid tool, perform a search on google and count the number of AdWords adverts, then search for affiliate programs, CPA offers and anything else you could use to monetize the niche.
   
   
5. Expand and Organize Your Keywords - Assuming you’re happy with the earnings potential now expand your keyword list using more diverse tools like MSN’s SRC beta, Vivismo’s Clusters, FindForward’s Yahoo Cluster, OneLook’s synonyms and take these new keywords back to your original tools to expand them some more. After you’ve driven yourself mad with keywords take the list and *guess* what surfers are really searching for based on the different combinations of keywords and arrange them into groups based on what you perceive their purpose to be. Some research into the niche may be required to get this part right – don’t be afraid to ask someone in the know what they think. After this you can decide how to attack the niche (a large informational site, mini sites, ecommerce site, etc.) and what the structure and 'flow' of the site should be like. For the sake of this example I will choose an informational content site.
   
   
6. Let it Stew - At this point let the idea cook for a week or so in the ole’ noggin. Come back occasionally and add or tweak something. Write every idea you have down regardless of how dumb it seems at the time.
   
   
7. Refine - When you return to the plan, you now have a basic site idea along with a list of ideas and keywords. It's time to sort through the ideas, generate some more, explore their possibilities and decide which are worth further investigation and which should be trashed. Use whichever idea generation methods you prefer –If people request it, I would be willing to detail my process for this in another thread.
   
   
8. Site Mapping - Time to design the structure of the site based on how it will be used. The main sections are dictated by your keyword groupings. Ideas that passed the last step get added to their appropriate sections. If you’ve chosen a CPA or affiliate program then add sales pages to each main section which will be used to monetize the traffic, these are the pages you will be driving your traffic towards. Draw (on paper or the computer) some mock-ups of how you want the different sections to look. Envision each part of the site. This is the stage where you should have selected the domain name as well. Host it and password protect it.
   
   
9. Choose a CMS – Make your own or use an existing one? Check your list of ideas and create another list of features needed in the CMS to make them reality. Install/build it and get the directory structure right, make any tweaks, install any plug-in’s, perform any hacks, whatever is needed to get the functionality needed for the finished site.
   
   
10. Design and Content – It’s time to turn those ideas into reality. Tools, scripts, and main sections of the site now get polished. Community features that let users add content are great assuming you can manage any spam or exploit attempts. Create or outsource your site graphics/template. All of your money-making (sales) pages should be ready to go at this point.
    
    
11. Make it Public, Grow, and Get Links – The basic site should now be operational. Open up the domain for the public and begin slowly adding pages to the main sections, each targeted at a specific keyphrase. These pages will be used to catch searches and will serve as entry-points into your site. Depending on the keyphrase targeted on each page, link to appropriate sections within the site to funnel the user to the appropriate sales page. If you’re only using contextual advertising then link them however you feel is most intuitive.
    
    At the same time initiate a link campaign. Submit to niche directories, DMOZ and Yahoo’s Directory (If you have the cash). Find sites that you can negotiate links from, and syndicate articles deep-linking to your content pages using your target keywords without duplicating any of your content.
    

As you begin to see traffic, keep your eyes on your logs for the search phrases people are using to find you and make any adjustments that are needed to compensate for deviations or capitalize on opportunities. Set up a Google Alert using your URL to monitor for new links and rumors.

So there it is, out there, naked for all to see and scrutinize.

How can this be improved?

An excellent write up! I wish you could flesh out each piece, with more details and tools used!

12. Bring up additional web sites, with similar topics, neighboring key phrases
13. Interlink web sites and create own neighborhood.

Honestly, this is one of the most amazing things I've seen on this forum so far. Thank you for putting this out here for all of us to see.

Do you think it would be beneficial to have multiple sites in the same niche with slightly modified content. This way you could interlink the sites and create a small web of your own?

Approximately how long does this entire process take for you? Do you contract your content or write it yourself (or scrape it) ?

Where do you usually contract your design work from?

Uhhhh... Those are what #12 & 13 say in my post...

Originally Posted by nickohrn

[...]
Do you think it would be beneficial to have multiple sites in the same niche with slightly modified content. This way you could interlink the sites and create a small web of your own?
[...]

Thanks for the comments Libertate and nickohrn. I'm suprised no one else is contributing.

Originally Posted by nickohrn

Do you think it would be beneficial to have multiple sites in the same niche with slightly modified content. This way you could interlink the sites and create a small web of your own?

Approximately how long does this entire process take for you? Do you contract your content or write it yourself (or scrape it) ?

Where do you usually contract your design work from?

I've seen a few companies dominate niches by building tons of small sites and flooding the SERPs, but I have limited experience with that particular strategy. From what I hear, interlinking is risky and you need to hide anything that can connect your sites. I try to stay on the "if you have nothing to hide, you don't have to worry" side of things.

This process takes me 1-2 months from conception to launch depending on the size and complexity of the chosen niche and site, but I take my time and don't work on one project continuously. I've tried contracting out content but have yet to find a writer that I'm happy with so I write most of my content myself. I never scrape.

Thanks for the answers Think. Much appreciated. I'm glad you don't scrape. It seems kind of dirty. So, how many content sites do your currently run? Do you just make it and leave it, or do you continue to add content as time goes on?

Thanks for answering my questions from before!

-Nick

You don't know how much help that is

Think, thank you for your post! This kind of information is exactly what noobs like me need to get started.

awsome write up

Great post, Think! Hopefully some of the 'big earners' will chime in with some additional advice. Could make a good ebook.

Thanks for posting this.

It can be improved with

a) Some ideas on content creation. I have a list of short post ideas and in-depth article ideas for my blogs. Short stuff is usually commentary on news, longer stuff is how-to that isn't time specific. You want to use the short stuff to fill in the days between longer, more useful posts.

b) Considerations on building links. It's not good going past Step 3 if they've got most of their links from rarely updated edu/gov sites, or other places it would be hard to get links from. Similarly, consider what kind of techniques you can use to build backlinks.

c) Ideas on getting return traffic. Are newsletters in the picture? What about RSS? Do you offer browser based services/tools? How easy would it be to build a community around your site? Returning traffic means returning customers. It's the 80-20 rule of business: 80% of income from 20% of the clientele.

d) Other monetization opportunities: can you quickly build up the site's value and sell it? What about selling ad space in your newsletter.

On a related note, you're all welcome to subscribe to my site flip newsletter (see sig) about buying, improving and selling websites for a profit. It relates to this, which is the same thing minus the buying aspect.
I'm currently offering (free) to list people's websites that are for sale and are good deals/values. Just subscribe and reply to the first email with your site sale pitch.

I think this is such a good start, so let's not stop here. Here is my attempt to flesh it out.

Originally Posted by Think

1. Find a Niche - Choose a few niche subjects - if you need help with ideas then visit directories like DMOZ, check Google News, Wordtracker's top 1000 searches list, go to a yard sale or flea market, check a store catalog, go to the mall or some other things of this nature until you’ve found some interesting niche subjects.

1.1 Read the news consolidators daily, and look for highly topic trends.

http://news.google.com - Watch news counts - corroborate with http://news.yahoo.com, http://news.msn.com, http://www.newslinx.com, http://news.aol.com, and similar consolidators.

Read Zeitgeists, Monthly search reports, and similar Search Engine information.

Look at top books selling non-fiction on Amazon, for clues. Review spam content - they know more then you think what sells.

Watch fashion (it tells more then just how long pants need to be), TV shows (examine the forest, not the tree), and review general mass-consumer interests.

Look for slow increase, and upward trending searches - not meteoric rises, as those also tend to fade just as fast. (Although if you have an existing infrastructure to deploy something fast - do take the ride!)

Very good, thankyou very much!

Infact im just about to print that off at stick it above my desk!

Great post! First time to see someone revealing the true art of successful site how to...

Thanks very much for all the information. Might help me with one of my projects that I haven't even started on yet.

Once you have made the site public what are your methods of advertising?

This forum is kind of out of hand with all of the thanks and pointless replies. Maybe people should PM the author 'thanks' so hundreds of people in the future don't have to waste time finding the posts with content. It should be a forum rule to not post something unless it has content that could be useful to someone. Yes, I know I am breaking it with this post.

Originally Posted by Think

1. Find a Niche - [...]
2. Check Search Volume - Check the search volume of the core keywords using your tools of choice (I use Overture, WordTracker, and AdWords Sandbox) The core keywords are the most basic keywords that contain the essence of the niche - the more obscure the niche is, the longer these usually are). Collect a modest keyword list for the moment.

The following are tools I use to narrow my niche, and find just the right combination of key phrases with sufficient volumes.

My personal preference is 1,000 searches minimum a month (or 12,000 / year).

Overture suggestion tool provides some estimated searches done for last month on a keyphrase and suggest others.

Overture's Bid information provides some idea as to what your income might be on key phrases.

Google Zeitgeists shows monthly keyphrases used for searches.

Yahoo! Buzz is similar but with more article oriented discussions.

Google Keyword Tool is the Adwords costs and clicks, but suggests possible Adsense income.

The Lycos 50 Daily Report is similar to Y!'s and G's commentary on searches.

NicheBOT is one of the best interfaces (because it is simple, and fast), yet provides enormous amount of information for free. The paid service offers even more features (I have not tried it yet). It shows estimated traffic, total pages and total web sites in Google for a specific key phrase AND other related key phrases and combinations. It also offers dictionary, and lateral lookups on key phrases.

SEOBook's interface combines the Yahoo!, Google, MSN, Digital Point and NicheBOT results onto a single page - allowing drill down into the key phrases.

Although it is extremely hard to compete for the "core keywords" as Think mentioned above, it is not so for the "tail".

The expression "tail" refers to a curve of 1/x or x^-1, where x is the number of searches performed over a period of time.

Y-Axis = Number of searches.
X- Axis = specific key phrases/words sorted from most searched to least searched.

The core keywords are at the far left side, and get most of the clicks on a few keywords. Targeting the tail - everything to the right of 2 on the X-axis, can be as much or more profitable. The first reason is because the horizontal run of this curve can continue to infinity, theoretically. Second competing on the "tail" is much much simpler, and easier then on the "head".

Tomorrow, #3.

Cant wait till #3!

Excellent post. It's quite similar to my process as well. Well written, too.

-spenda