The key to building the most profitable, highest-traffic Authority Site possible in any market is to conduct a thorough niche analysis before building the site.
(It's just like starting any new business, online or offline - the owner has to do a thorough market analysis first so the business won't wind up failing.)
Identifying good Authority Site niches requires much more than just keyword data analysis. That's only one facet of finding a profitable niche. There are also many other important things to research and consider before making your final decision.
Unfortunately, many people get so eager to start building their website that they make the huge mistake of rushing through their niche research. They nearly always regret it later. Rushing through this step costs them a lot of wasted time and effort on an unsuccessful site. The people who get discouraged and quit are often the ones who didn't research their niche thoroughly.
So please - don't rush through this process! Doing your homework at this stage is vitally important. You're building a solid foundation for your Authority Site.
If you came to ASC with a fixed idea for a site – step back from it. Get yourself a mental blank sheet of paper and start again.
Give yourself the freedom to find the best possible niche. After all your research, you might still wind up using this initial idea - but even if you do, chances are that you'll have come up with a more profitable angle for it than you were previously considering.
Bottom line: Do a thorough job with your research stage no matter what. You'll be very glad you did!
Make a list of all the topics you think would make the best niches. At this stage don’t be too judgmental.
The more topics you identify, the better - as long as you have a good reason for including the topic on the list.
You need quite a big list at this stage because as you start looking at keywords, competition, and monetization for the niche – you might find quite a few get discarded.
And those you don’t use will be there waiting for you when you do your next site. Even if you don’t use some of your great niche ideas this time – you’re in this for the long haul. Keep all your notes – on the next site you build, you’ll have a head start.