Competitor analysis should have given you a very good idea of which niche topics are likely to be winnable and where there are gaps for you to exploit.
But you need to be sure that you can generate sufficient income from any niche you choose.
There are many ways to monetize your Authority Site, and to be successful as a web publisher you should aim at multiple income streams. (Take a sneak preview of ASC Success Guide Step 15: Monetize Your Site, for more in-depth info on monetizing.)
Planning your income streams involves considering all the options and picking the ones that will work in the niche you choose. This might mean rejecting some common methods of monetization because you don’t think they will work, or because they won’t bring in sufficient revenue on your particular site.
Generate a list of ways in which you can make money from each niche topic. Your list could include any of the following:
Make the list as long as possible – get other people involved if you can, as this can often open up ideas that you may not have considered.
Take your list of monetization tactics and apply it to your best niche topics starting with the hottest prospect first.
Analyze how you would make each strategy work on that niche:
Join several affiliate program managers (Link Share, Commission Junction, ClickBank) and search for affiliate programs in the niche.
Identify those with the best commission rates and terms. Aim for 15-20% minimum and long-term retention of your sales code for repeat business.
Visit the website to assess the products you would be selling on your site. Are they good quality? Could you honestly pre-sell them effectively?
Do they provide average sales figures and conversion rates?
Do they provide good sales material and potential site content?
Calculate what level of traffic you need to traffic you need to generate income of $30 per day.
What level of traffic could you attract from search engines and other sources?
What’s the pay per click value for the main niche keywords?
How many visitors do you need to deliver $30 a day in contextual ad revenue assuming a click through rate of 15%?
What products or services could you create for the niche?
How would you create the products or service?
What would your costs be to produce the product?
How quickly could you develop and market the product?
What would your profit per sale be?
How many sales would you need/be able to generate assuming 200-300 visitors per day?
What level of traffic or page rank would you need in order to sell space (links or ads) on your site?
How quickly could you achieve this?
How much space or how many links could you sell and at what cost? Tip: Go look at some of the text link ad sites to get a feel for prices/limits/page rank.
What sort of profit could this income stream generate?
Is a dropshipping or shopping cart service appropriate for the niche?
What reliable drop shipping sources exist for the niche?
How much revenue could be generated based on your forecast of visitor numbers?
These are just some ideas for what you could consider – be inventive and think up your own ideas.
Make notes on your thoughts for each site.
When you’re done - give each of the top five sites a score for monetization potential and add it to your spreadsheet.