HOW THIS 7-STEP PROCESS TO FINDING THE PERFECT NICHE MADE $1.3 MILLION A YEAR

Short on Ideas of what Niche to pick? I'm here to help

AJ JOMAH

Ever had this conversation before?

Be honest…

What went wrong here?

The idea was freaking brilliant and you figured out a great product to sell online.

Why didn’t people buy it?

There are three things that have to be nearly perfect for a product to sell:

Pricing (the sweet spot price that will attract the right type of buyers)
Desire by the right type of buyer (target demographics)
No brand loyalty to the product (I’ll explain later)
2017 Traffic and advertising campaign
The pricing has to be on point. If you charge 10x more than you should, no one buys because you’ve out-priced the market. Price it 10x too low, and people are skeptical because it’s too cheap. Either way, you’re hosed.

Also with high ticket Dropship eCommerce you want don’t want to be selling products that cost $10 through $100 because the price point is not advantage enough for you to attract the type of upper middle class customer we seek. (If i lost you here don’t worry, I’ll explain as we go along) Your customers has to have a desire for the product you’re  selling within the niche you’re selling in. Does it solve a need or desire they want? If not, you’re screwed.

Is the website optimized the right way to get them to convert to a buyer? Are you is your website resonating with them? If not, yup, you’re screwed.

Hint: Customers buy on emotion not logic, which means the way your website is designed and layout including the images, descriptions and logo could either create a positive emotional reaction because aesthetically it makes them feel good, safe and comfortable with being and buying from your website.

Here is a fun diagram that shows how this works.

Get one of these out of whack and poof! Stupid Pessimistic You thinks he’s a baller. (He’s not. Optimistic You is just lazy and skipped steps.)

So, how do you make sure these four things are correct?

This is how…

Pre-research the niche and product well before you launch a store. (sounds simple right?)

Before you create anything, go through an extensive product selection validation process to refine your niche and customer target demographics and make sure there is an intense level of desire for the product. But most people get lazy and skip this step.

And that’s why most people’s sites flop.

This is especially true for those of you who have successfully launched an eCommerce store in the past. You think you are invincible and know everything. You don’t. Do your homework or suffer.

Don’t skip this process. Don’t be that guy.

I’ll help you.

…

TODAY WE’RE GOING TO DO TWO THINGS…
Thing #1: I’m going to walk you through my journey of validating the first product I ever sold on my dropship eCommerce store. It was called ALL Paper Shredder. I wound up selling it 8 months after I launched it, for $650,000 (that’s what I was able to take home after the brokerage fee’s and legal fees)

No I don’t have a copy of the check… I’m not the real estate investor guy on facebook trying to show you how i’m depositing all these checks.  I sold 1 store in 8 months prior to it I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

It was a site that contained 3 things: 1) High end Paper Shredders that was very niche specific 2) Targeted a very specific market demographic of small, mid-size businesses as well as hospitals and school districts which meant I only had to focus on purchasing managers and people who had small offices  3) I also had a website designed for optimization so when I lead the right customer to my site, I gave them no reason to leave… worst case I made sure they knew they could get a hold of me, and often time they did, which is where the real magic happens.  

When I created and launched this store, I had no email list, no experience running an online business. But I stumbled on a course that I invested heavily in that tought me an outdated approach to dropshipping, what I was able to do was apply new methods to attracting the right customer combined with an insanely optimized website that made sure to convert them at the right rate, I let fate do the rest.

What happened? Crazy stuff. We sold $0 the first week, made some tweaks to our PLA and adword campaigns, decided not to focus on any SEO or Blog stuff and strictly on targeted traffic using Google Shopping and PLA’s (product listing advertising)

What happened next? We rocket launched to a $46,000 month and a $80,000 2nd month!

This happened because the Niche and pricing were on point. And there was a strong need for what I sold, just to a much smaller group of buyers, which is ok because I was selling them at an average price of $1,500 each!  

And THAT was because I spent 4 weeks in an intense validation process before launching the store and calling suppliers.

You’ll see how to do the same thing. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE 199 PRODUCT MASTER LIST

Thing #2: Today we’re releasing a BRAND-NEW template into Elite Drop Ship Academy, the Product Selection Worksheet!

If you want me to take you by the hand and show you everything you need to do to properly validate  your niche and product (you’ll get at least $10,000 in sales), this worksheet is for you.

If you’re sick and tired of trying to start or starting an eCommerce store that flops or being unsure about how to properly find and pick the right niche, products, finding and calling suppliers, building an amazing website that converts, this worksheet is exactly what you need.

If you’re unsure whether your product and niche idea will match the right type of buyer and customer and you really don’t know where to go from here yup, this template is your soulmate.

There are 7 total steps you need to go through to properly pick and find the right product and niche  and validate your product.

Here’s a quick overview of how it works.

…

Alright…

Let’s jump into the validation methodology we used for the All Paper Shredders, Get your first $10,000 in sales and our latest course on the A to Z of Dropshipping.

There are 7 major phases.

Game time!

PHASE #1: FIND A PRODUCT YOUR BUYERS ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT OR VERY INTERESTED IN BUYING BECAUSE THEY NEED IT AT SOME POINT OR ANOTHER.

One of my best friends used to swear that he invented the idea powdered energy drinks and on the go flavored drinks in powder form… whatever I guess it’s a thing now.

But the truth was he wasn’t the head of an ad agency, he didn’t run a business and he had no way to actually use a slogan. It was just a random idea.

Random ideas are worthless.

What you need in order to turn your desire for starting an online business that is both very profitable and semi-automated is The right Niche and Product to the right target market… you’ll be surprised how many people get this wrong.  

The Perfect product is something that has no brand loyalty with big name brands.
The Perfect product is something that your customers will have a passion or hobby for on a consumer level or a unique need for on a business level (like all paper shredders)
How do you find the perfect niche and thus products to sell?

For most businesses it’s a guessing game.

For a smart entrepreneur it’s not. For a solopreneur  it’s a process of research and identifying key metrics.

This Product Selection Process allows you to sidestep all of the B.S. that traditional businesses go through to figure out what to sell in order to get customers.

Let me show you exactly how to come find with your perfect product idea.

Step 1: Make a list of any purchases you or your friends (family) made in the past 3 months that cost over $500

Note: If you you find it weird to ask around who bought what for over $500 that’s ok, I suggest using facebook and messenger to ask around. If you still not sure then go straight to my other strategy and find an existing business for sale on bizbuysell.com that is an online store the how I found my last niche by finding competitors for sell. To do this, visit bizbuysell.com and start searching around for eCommerce stores for sale (that don’t sell on amazon)

Once you click on internet businesses category you will see a list of different sites available for sell.

 We’ll call this our Perfect Product Idea spreadsheet.

Next, enter the listing details of the top 10 eCommerce stores for sell that you like

Step 2: Write down a list of the most expensive items you can think of that would go in a house or office.
 

I know this can appear challenging but work with me for a minute. When I came up with my niche I found it using the first step but for a lot of you that might not be enough so we have to try more methods until we get it right.  Take a look at this room here and let’s see how many items we can identify that are drop shippable and might be viable niche ideas if all metrics are met?  (you can learn more about the metrics I look for when finding a niche in our product selection blueprint process

Dropship items you may have never noticed as drop shippable items.

Chandeliers, lamps, wall paper, mirrors, chairs, tables, coaches, ottomans, fireplaces, crown moldings, book shelves. :
 

Which one of these items have you ignored when you walk into a living room , now imagine other places you see almost daily that you overlook.  

You can use as many of these methods are applicable to you. The main goal is to have a list of 20 or more niches to be able to move to the next step of your journey.

Method #1:Wayfair.com?

The best way to find if you can drop ship a product is to visit wayfair.com,  they are the largest dropship eCommerce website on the internet with Billions in sales and as of a few years ago become a publicly traded company, you can bet if you’re on their website and find a product to sell, that the product is drop shippable.    Simply type in price ranges over $250 and start searching in the search bar…

And then look through which of products meets our metrics for viable products to sell.

Once you have identified a few products include them in your Product Selection Worksheet to assess later on.

Method #2: Google Shopping and google searching?

Another way you can find a good product is searching google shopping and google trends.

Tool #2 ­ Google Trends

The next tool we’re using is Google Trends, and you can find it here:

https://www.google.com/trends/

Put in the same keyword, and see what the results are.

If the chart shows the keyword trending very negatively, you probably want to avoid the niche. For instance, the keyword “printing press” is probably trending down more and more, as it becomes a forgotten concept. You would probably not expect a lot of business if you chose to open up an old­ fashioned printing press nowadays.

Another benefit to Google Trends is that you can tell in advance if your niche is seasonal. For example, type in “Water Features”. You will see that it gets a spike in searches every May/April, so it is most likely a seasonal niche.

If you have an audience that is highly engaged via commenting, then go through and see which posts have the post comments. Add these posts to your spreadsheet.

Step 3: Analyze the common metrics of each niche to find a sweet spot.
Now that you have a grasp on how to start brainstorming and searching products to sell the right now, it’s time to find the common metrics.

Next to each entry in your worksheet you’ll want to identify if there are any Brand Loyalty  to the products, whether the suppliers are dropship friendly and whether there are more than 20 suppliers or more!

When finished it should look like this:

What this spreadsheet shows (yes I removed many of the items because I’m not going to do all the work for you) is the following:

Anything with UMP meets our metrics (Upper Middle Class)
Any item below $200-$400 is not qualified
Which of these products where dropship friendly
Which one of these products had enough suppliers to reach out to.
 

Tip: There are many more ways to identify interesting niches but following the key metrics will eliminate the niches not to touch, not even with a 10 foot pole.  To many times this is where I see people go wrong, thinking just because there are suppliers and the product is dropship friendly that that’s all you need to know to move forward.

Step 4: Spy on the competition to see what sells the best on their sites.
 

Hint: This is just one way to validate the niche but not the full solution.
At this point, you have analyzed your best possible niches and products to sell, identified the key metrics that my team and I identify as a viable niche,you’ve found a few competitors that sell the same products and it looks promising. Now, you need to pick one product idea and build a store around it before you call suppliers.
Even before you build a store you need to understand a lot about your suppliers and what they are looking for so you can get approved by the best suppliers.  

Ask yourself these three questions to help make your decision:

Which product idea excites me the most?
Which product would be the most helpful to my customers?
Which product has the most earning potential?
Don’t overanalyze this step. Spend no more than 72 hours deciding on your product idea. Remember, you’re going to validate it before you build it, so you aren’t committing to it 100% right now.

Just go with your gut.

Then…pick your favorite.

Want to learn the step by step process my team and I take when we decide on picking a niche.  First download our master list of 199 product ideas and sign up for our online Product Picking Master Plan. It’s actually an extraction of our most important parts of our core course that we sell for thousands of dollars… we decided to put together an entire course just on Product selection and walk you through 6  Modules dedicated to learning and understanding the key metrics we focus on to find the right niche to move forward with, it includes the Product Selection worksheet and so much more.  

Step 5: Make Sure Product is Hard to Find Locally:

If you needed garden equipment, you’d likely head down to your local Home Depot or Lowe’s. But where would you go to buy surveillance equipment or magicians’ accessories? Probably online. Pick niche products that are hard to find locally, and you’ll be able to get in front of the vast majority of your customers as they search online.

While you ideally want something difficult to source locally, you also need to ensure there’s ample demand for the product! This can be a fine line to walk, and we’ll return to the issue in the competition section below.

Step 6: Is There Enough Demand For Your Product?

The best way to measure online demand is with Google’s Keyword Tool, which provides data on how many people are searching for a specific term. If you’re unfamiliar with the tool, I’d strongly recommend watching this video on how to do keyword research:

In a nutshell, make sure to:

Use “phrase” or [exact] match, as these provide the most accurate results;
Look at the local and not the global results;
Look for keywords with lots of “long-tail” variations.
If we were selling sunglasses, “prescription sunglasses” and “discount Oakley sunglasses” would be examples of long-tail variations. These are important because your primary keyword (“sunglasses,” in this example) will only provide a small fraction of your traffic. Even with a #1 ranking in Google, you’ll be lucky to receive 30% of the phrase’s traffic!

Realistically, most ecommerce sites will receive 80 to 90% of their traffic from long-tail keywords. So the more long-tail variations associated with a primary keyword, the more potential traffic you can generate. As a rule of thumb, I like to see at least 3,000 exact-match local searches for a niche’s primary keyword, and ideally a dozen or so long-tail variations. Without sufficient search volume, I won’t even bother evaluating a niche on other criteria.

Step 7: Is it a Trend, Fad, or Growing Market?
 

Make sure you understand to the best of your ability where your product stands. Does your product or niche fall into fad, trend, stable or growing market?

Example: A Geiger Counter is a personal device about the size of a cell phone that tells you the level of radiation around you. Cool niche market right?

With a quick Google Trends search, I knew instantly that I would have probably made a small fortune if I had been selling them in March of 2011 right after the earthquake in Japan. Likely if I tried to sell them now, I would probably sit on my inventory for a while.