

Ask YC: How do you discover niche content? - qwestion

We are working on learning more about a niche domain. We would also like to leverage our exposure to new content in this niche domain to develop a Niche Social News feature for our niche market.<p>How do you go about discovering new niche content?<p>I have tried Google, Google Reader, Yahoo pipes and the other Social bookmarking websites, but not with much success. I suspect something is flawed in how I organize what I discover.<p>How do you guys do it?
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nostrademons
Links from other niche-content websites, usually forums. Google to start the
hunt.

Here's how I found the HP fandom: I was browsing Salon TableTalk at work
because I had nothing to do. Stumbled upon the Books section, then Harry
Potter. Found that somebody had posted a some fanfiction they'd written (which
at the time I thought was the leaked Book 4, because I had no idea what
fanfiction was) along with a link to FanFiction.net. Started reading
FanFiction.net. A few months later, found a review on FF.net that asked where
all the good Harry Potter fanfiction had gone, and a reply that said "A lot of
folks have migrated to SugarQuill or FictionAlley." That's how I ended up at
FictionAlley.

I have a similar strategy with music, where I also have very niche tastes.
Heard a Transsiberian Orchestra song on the radio that I absolutely had to
find. Found it on a ratio FTP site, where it was filed in with a bunch of
Savatage songs. Googled Savatage, found out they had the same producer and
most of the same musicians. Checked out the official Savatage fan site, its
forum has a section for "other bands", kept hearing repeated mentions of Dream
Theater. Downloaded a couple of their songs, bought a couple of their albums.
Checked out their fansite. There were mentions of a couple upcoming rock
operas - Avantasia and Nikolo Kotzev's Nostradamus - that I ended up buying.
My screen name actually came from this period of my life: I was looking for a
fandom pen name that I could be reasonably sure would not be in use at any
site I registered at, and had just bought the Nostradamus rock opera.

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mattmaroon
If you can't find it on Google, you might be looking at too small a niche to
be of use. You can type in "Dachshund Lovers" and find ten pages of search
results about them. If a group is any smaller than that, there just might not
be any content to find, or at least not enough for a social news site.

I assume you've used Google Blog Search and Technorati, then followed links
from the blogs you did find? Social bookmarking sites aren't very great for
highly non-technical niches. Your Average Joe has never heard of delicious.

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imp
Are you trying to find a new niche market, or get more information about a
specific niche market?

If it's the former, you need to get interested in a niche market. I'm sure
there's something semi-rare or different that you're interested in that isn't
quite main-stream.

If it's the second, then that depends entirely on the market.

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qwestion
We need to discover more content about a specific niche market.

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bkovitz
Hmm, if Google doesn't turn up much about your niche market, maybe you have a
great opportunity. The fact that it's _hard_ to get info about these people
and what they need means that market is yours if you do the leg-work (or
phone-work).

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maheshcr
For me its all about keywords. To start with some phrase that captures the
essence. Then to move on to the peripheries of the subject. Then to bring in
the context within which I search for that topic. By that time I have usually
found what I want...

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wallflower
I assume you are already using boolean searches but if you aren't...

