How to Find an Idea For a Website

Using the Niche Finder Method

Wondering how to find an idea for a website? This article discusses how to take what you know and find out if there is a market for your knowledge. While you may already have some general ideas on what you want your website to be about, it's best to do a little brainstorming before you commit yourself to an idea that may or may not have any potential for success.

This tutorial on how to find an idea for a website will help you do this.

Deciding what your website is about will be influenced by:

• What people are searching for,

• Having a concept that interests you, and

• Finding a topic with the potential to make money.

Why should you bother with how to find an idea for a website?

Researching possible concepts is like sticking your toe into the water before jumping in. When you figure out what your passion is and pinpoint exactly which group of people you want to reach (and what their needs are), you can avoid wasting time and money.

  Get ideas by concentrating on your strengths

The first step in how to find an idea for a website is to focus on what you know and are passionate about. Let's begin by making a list of possible ideas. Take your time building this list of ideas because it will help form the foundation of your business. 

For example,

  • you might be a strong tennis or golf player, 
  • maybe there is a certain hobby that occupies all your free time, 
  • possibly you have spent years caring for others with special needs, 
  • or maybe you have found a unique solution to a problem. 

The potential for ideas is endless. You just need to pick the ones that get you excited and highlight your interests. Here are some creative tips on how to find an idea for a website.

Narrow your focus to the three best concepts

The second step in the niche finder process is to narrow the list down to the three concepts that you are most passionate about. Why? If a concept really interests you, building and growing your website will be engaging and fun for the long-haul. 

For example, let's assume that you work with horses for a living, but you love spending your free time with your cats and studying butterflies. For this example, let's assume that your main job is that of a horse trainer (this narrows down your topic). Also, instead of cats in general, you like to find new ways to pamper your cats. The subject of butterflies is pretty broad, but you like it anyway.

Find topics related to your concepts

Next, list five words or phrases that are related to each of your three concepts. For example, if one of your website concepts is about horse training, you might include:

  1. horsemanship 
  2. horse trainer 
  3. round pen 
  4. horse behavior 
  5. horse training methods

These topics will make up a list of keywords for your site. Keywords are the phrases that people type into search engines to find information about a certain topic.

 Researching your topics

Keyword research is an important aspect in determining how to find an idea for a website.  You need to find out how popular these topics are with visitors in the search engines and what the competition is like.

To keep track of your results, make a table either on paper or computer, with these four headings: 

KEYWORDS SEARCHES COMPETITION POTENTIAL

Under keywords, you need to fill in the site concept and related words for each of your top three site concepts. 

To do the research, you can use a tool called Search It which allows you to find out how often your topic is searched for and how many sites already provide information on this topic. You'll be using this tool over and over again as you build your website, so add it to your favorites now.

Step 1: How many people search for information about this topic

To do this, go to the Search It tool.  (This is a popup and if you can't access the SearchIt tool, find out how to disable popup blocker utilities so you can use it)

  • Under "Step 1" choose brainstorming from the pull-down menu 
  • Under "Step 2" choose Google Adwords Keywords Tool. 
  • Under "Step 3" type in your first topic phrase (e.g. horse training) 
  • Click the "Search It" button

When you get to the Google Adwords Tool, first scroll down to "Match Types" in the left-hand navigation and check the "Phrase" option only.  Next, you'll need to re-type your keywords in the first box and click the "Search" button. I suggest typing in your general website concept because the resulting keyword ideas may include topics that you haven't considered. 

When you get the results, the number listed under "global monthly searches" is the number that you need to put under the "Searches" heading for each of your concepts or topics. For example, horse training shows 165000 global monthly searches.  

Continue doing this for each of your keywords in the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, recording the results for each keyword.

 Step 2:  Determine how much competition there is

For the competition column, you will need to find out how many sites provide information about your various keywords. To do this, go to Search It again and follow these steps:

  • Under "Step 1" choose competition from the pull-down menu 
  • Under "Step 2" choose google single keyword supply. 
  • Under "Step 3" type in your first keyword 
  • Click the "Search It" button

When it returns the results, the number you are looking for is in the shaded area right below the search box (top right corner).  For example, "Results 1-10 of about 739,000 for "horse training" means there are 739,000 site pages competing for this keyword.

You can find the competition for the rest of your topics by continuing to use google search. Simply put quote marks on either side of the word or phrase that you type into the search box. This will return results based only on those sites that provide that exact phrase.

Step 3: Calculate the potential for each of your keywords

Under Potential, you will determine how many searches there are in comparison to how many sites supply this information.

For the first word or phrase, divide the number in the searches column by the number in the competition column. I suggest multiplying this number by 1000 so the numbers are easier to compare. This will give you a rough estimate of the potential for that keyword.  Put this number in your potential column and continue doing this for all the remaining concept and topic keywords. 

Step 4: Compare your results

Look for keywords that have a high number of searches with low competition, and therefore have a higher number in the potential column. In the end it's not the actual figures that you will concentrate on. It's just a way to rank the keywords and phrases.

Here is an example of the results for our three main concepts and their keywords from above:

KEYWORDS

horse training 
natural horsemanship
horse trainer
round pen
horse behavior
horse training methods

cats
cat health
cat supplies
cat toy
cat products

Butterfly
Monarch butterfly
Butterfly garden
Butterfly feeder
Swallowtail butterfly
Butterfly net

Searches

165000
49500
110000
27100
6600
1600

24900000
90500
450000
201000
14800

20400000
165000
135000
5400
40500
18100

Competition

739000
533000
441000
203100
46100
8200

88900000
1250000
926000
790000
471000

61500000
626000
743000
82700
221000
146000

Potential

223.27
 92.87
249.43
133.43
143.17
195.12

280.09
 72.40
485.96
254.43
 31.42

 33.17
263.58
181.70
 65.30
183.26
123.97

As you can see, the cat topic appears to have the best potential overall. Even though the horse training keywords look good, there are not as many searches for these terms as there is for the cat keywords.  The only butterfly keyword that shows serious potential is "Monarch butterfly".

Step 5:  Do more in-depth research on your chosen topic

Now that you have discovered how to find an idea for a website, you may be really excited about one certain topic. Before you jump the gun and decide that this is what your website will be about, you will need to do some more research to find out if your topic has the potential for success.

If you want to save some time during the research phase, you might check out Site Build It. The built-in brainstorming feature can help if you're struggling with how to find an idea for a website. Plus, it does all the calculations for you, saving you countless hours in the process.


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Previous Page: Creative Business Website Ideas

Related Pages: Internet Business Opportunities | Optimize Keywords To Achieve Higher Rankings | Building a Website to Meet Your Objectives

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