Ed Dale's 30 Day Challenge - Day 2

Getting ideas for niche websites was the topic of today's Thirty Day Challenge lesson. Ed Dale showed us a number of resources one could use to find inspiration for new sites.

• eBay Pulse: Shows what items are hot, by category on eBay. Ed's makes a good point when says find something people are not only passionate about but also willing to spend money on. Gaming consoles, iPods and laptop computers were the top searches. In memorbilla, Elvis and the Beetles were popular.
• Technorati: A blog search engine. Looking at post from the Top 100 blogs, two on Lifehacker caught my eye. One about how to fix credit scores and the other on how to go from a couch potatoe to exercise enthusiast. Hmm, both have possibilities. How many people do I know with bad credit who are out of shape? Lots!
• Google Groups: news groups on just about any subject in any language. Actually, there were so many groups it was a little overwhelming, and I didn't spend that much time here. I'm a member of several groups and know how easy it is to waste gobs of time reading and responding to posts.
• Google Hot Trends: Shows the 100 most Google searches for the day. Also lets you compare relative number of searches for up to five different keywords or phrases. Today it was celebrities, movies and and smadgin of politics.
• Yahoo Answers: People ask questions and other users offer (usable?) answers. I saw questions about engine accessories to save gas that got me thinking about what products might be available .

In addition to Ed Dale's suggestions I came up with a few sites of my own to look for ideas.

• Fun Advice: Similar to Yahoo Answers, but better in my opinion because you make money by asking questions. I average about $8 a week here.
• Commission Junction: Affiliate marketing network. Hundreds of companies run their affiliate program through CJ. Browsing categories I found a couple of products I think I can build a niche website around.
• Click Bank: Another affiliate network. Most of the products are informational in nature.
  

Homework- After watching the video and listening to the podcast, Ed assigned us to to come up six niche website ideas. Ed warned not to pick ones with a lot of competition for the first effort. He suggested staying away from weight loss, vitamins and mortgages. Here are my six:

1. Fitness device from marketer on Commission Junction. I know Ed said weight loss was loser, but this is a pretty unique item with a great embeddable promotion video.
2. Jobs in Iraq and the Middle East.
   
3. Online payday loans.
4. Speed reading
5. Raising earthworms for profit.
6. Fuel mileage improvement devices.

In tomorrow's lesson Ed will show us how to do market research to see if our ideas are viable money makers.