

Ask HN: Ok, I have found a Niche... or have I? - captaincrunch

I think I have found a niche, but before I get too excited and run off, plan it all out, and code for the next 12 months...<p>HN: How can I make sure I am not mistaking and insure this idea is a hidden gem?
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ja27
Can you find some existing product/service in that niche, set up a SEO-
friendly site, and test conversion rates right now? You don't even have to
make a dime off the conversions for now.

That's one of the things Ed Dale's "30 Day Challenge" is good at teaching: how
to "taste test" niche ideas. Unfortunately all the 2009 content is gone now
because the 2010 starts next month. I wish they wouldn't do that.
<http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/>

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stoney
The old content is still there, you just need to know where to look:
<http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/training/2009day01.php>

You can probably guess the URL for the next 30 days from that.

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jasonlbaptiste
Can you find a way to reduce the 12 months to 2 months and front load the
first 2 weeks doing some mockups to show 1-3 potential customers?

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f1gm3nt
You check by doing research. I've had a few ideas I thought were gems, then
after some research I found a small number of companies doing similar things.
This in itself is not a bad thing.

If no one else is doing this ask yourself why? Is it because there is no
money/profits in it? Or is it truly a unique idea that you can make
profitable.

The best is when there is one or two companies that doing things that are
similar. That means there's a market for what you want. Through your spin on
it.

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stoney
Go and speak directly to a potential target user if you can, see what they
have to say about it.

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Travis
I would suggest you immediately read Steve Blank's "4 steps.." book. He
discusses this issue directly, and provides very detailed methods for
validating your idea.

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mikecane
What's the amount of money being spent in that niche?

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captaincrunch
I am seeing the competitions name in Google Keywords selling at $2.00/average
CPC, but the general and localized results in Canada are 0.05 with the same
traffic.

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arnorhs
Depends. Do you intend to build a content based site, an application or
something else entirely?

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captaincrunch
It would be more along the lines of a Web Portal/Service. There are a few
major players, but only a few - and only one good one. I cannot seem to find
many other companies like it.

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ndimopoulos
Can you segment your target audience to a small subset and run an experiment
there? The segment must represent as much as possible your target audience.
Building a prototype shouldn't be that difficult or time consuming. This way
you can have some data that might be used later on as marketing material for
extra funding.

