Niche Marketing: Newbie Asks “Is ‘Dogs’ A Good Niche?”

Choosing a Marketing Niche Without Keyword Research is a Huge Mistake

Here’s a situation that is all too common with newcomers to the internet marketing world. But in the following instance, the question was being asked of me by an individual that claims to have a web development business! I don’t know about you, but if I had hired this company to help develop my website’s online presence, and I became aware that the owner was asking a question like this one, well … his company wouldn’t be involved with my website anymore!

I digress, so back to the subject at hand. Here is a very common situation that arises AFTER a new internet marketer jumps on the band wagon. Let me share the gist of what this individual was asking me:

Hi: I am new to the affiliate marketing business. I presently own and operate a small web development company. We recently developed a website targeted to people who are interested in and/or related to all areas relating to dogs. They could be dog owners, breeders, groomers, trainers, etc.

Here is my question: Is “dogs” a good niche?

Is “Dogs” a Good Niche?

Sigh … OK, so this individual has already purchased a domain name; has started to build out a site around the HUGE category of dogs; has probably taken time to write content; taken time to place the content and other information onto this new site … but he’s asking NOW “is ‘dogs’ a good niche”??

Did he put the cart before the horse? Yes, most definitely. My suggestion to him was to STOP what they were doing right now and do some keyword research using a tool like Wordtracker or the Google Keyword Tool.

I told him that the niche pertaining to dogs was huge! (But “dogs” is not what you’d call a niche. Poodles would be a niche, or puppy training would be a niche.) I advised “dogs” was way too broad for them to achieve any online marketing success. That they needed to narrow it down!

I told him I’d make a 200% wager that they hadn’t done any keyword research, based on the question. I told him if they expected to attract targeted traffic, then keyword research was a must.

In addition, I advised that not only would the keyword research help them discover smaller niches within the broad category of dogs, they’d also get a grasp on what people were REALLY typing into the search engines to find out information about dogs.

If you know what people are searching for, then you’ll know what content topics to write about in order to try and grab some of that traffic via your organic search engine rankings!

As an example of what I am talking about, I entered “dogs” into Wordtracker, set it to give me the top 100 results, and here’s an example of those results.

Here’s the top ten (actual term being used with projected 24 hour searches made in the USA):

1. dogs 36,052
2. dogsrule.com 7,241
3. who let the dogs out 1,417
4. funny dogs 1,130
5. dogs for sale 1,058
6. hot dogs 831
7. cute dogs 798
8. boxer dogs 753
9. small dogs 693
10. mummy dogs 622

All the way down to:

93. herbs for dogs 123
94. teacup dogs 122
95. seizures in dogs 120
96. english bull dogs 120; and lastly …
100. havanese dogs 115

So, the moral of this story is to do your keyword research before you even purchase a domain name! You have to know the niche(s) you will be targeting within the broad category you’ve chosen.

Plus, you must get an idea of what people are searching for! If you build out a website that contains information that only 2 people a day are interested in, it’s going to be terribly difficult to make any money as an online marketer!

Don’t want to do keyword research yourself? No problem.
I provide custom keyword research reports.
I’ll tailor the report to the niche and your internet marketing goals.