Find the Information Gaps

Now that you've analyzed the top ten competitor sites in your potential niches, think about what isn't there.

Even in a niche where there are tons of existing sites, there can be a lot of needs, wants, and interests that aren't being served.

Those information gaps can be a great angle or topic for your website.

You should now be in a good position to identify clearly where the “holes” are in the competition and in the market for each of your potential niches.

• What are people looking for in this niche that is no where to be found or hard to find?
  

• What questions were being asked or information exchanged in the forums, but not in the sites you looked at for each niche?
  

• What is done poorly that could be improved? (Content, products, services, site features.)
  

• Organization - does this niche really need a central organizing content site - a “portal” or a main domain and subs - to help people find the information you struggled to find in your searches?

• If the niche is light on deep content (informative, complete articles, reports, and other information), is there a place for a content site that offers great content to its visitors and to the competing sites in the form of RSS feeds and article contributions?
  

The more your analysis points to “holes” like this for any of the niches – the more likely it is that you have identified a potentially profitable niche for your authority site.

Well, you need to know that too. Unless you can come up with a unique angle, you're likely to have a harder time competing and being noticed in a niche where the competition already has everything sewn up.