Yahoo! Answers is a fabulous resource for doing niche research. I’ve used Yahoo! Answers so many times to find profitable niches and audiences, do keyword research and even make direct sales.
Although its been abused to death, many marketers simply don’t know how to use Yahoo! Answers correctly or even use it to its fullest potential.
Yahoo! Answers isn’t just for posting links and getting a bit of traffic…its a goldmine if you know how to dig and pan for the gold.
Some of the reasons why Yahoo! Answers is so helpful in researching a niche are:
- You’re encountering real people with real problems
- Database of over 3 years to dig through
- Spot wide range of ideas for promotions and cross promotions
- Plenty of broad and narrowed down categories to search through
There are a number of ways you could go about researching a niche on Yahoo! Answers but I usually have a topic at hand when I go to Yahoo! Answers.
This is my favorite way to research a topic. You should always go to where the conversation is happening in your niche. A niche focused forum might work well but this works great too.
How To Research A Niche Topic on Yahoo! Answers
As an example, I’m going to use a popular women’s problem – cellulite.
Yahoo! Answers for cellulite
The image above gives an overview of what you can do with your research.
- I search for the broad topic “cellulite” in the Yahoo! Answers search bar. This returns me with questions that have the term “cellulite” in there.
- You will notice that there are over 6000 results for this term indicating that its a very busy topic. There’s pages and pages of questions to go through.
- Take note of questions that indicate a problem. When going through questions you will notice that some questions are asked over and over again. Look at the broad categories (eg. Women’s Health) that the questions exist in that you can always explore to find ideas for cross promotions.
- The good thing about doing research on Yahoo! Answers is that Yahoo also shows advertisers alongside the results. This is great because you can see what products advertisers are pushing. Make a note of these also as they might also come in handy for your promotions whether you want to affiliate with them directly or not.
Take a look at some of the questions I came across which indicated real problems that would make great content ideas if I were to tackle this campaign.
- How to get rid of cellulite naturally.
- How to reduce cellulite (emphasis on affordability)
- Reduce cellulite in specific areas (thigh, arms, belly etc)
- fastest way to lose cellulite
- exercises to get rid of cellulite (popular question)
- cellulite remedies that work
- what foods to eat to get rid of cellulite (asking for diet program??)
Also when you’re researching a niche you also want to take note of niche specific lingo and words that you could use in your campaign. There’s no better way to connect with an audience than to use the words they use – it makes you look more like an expert at the topic.
Here are some words I extracted during my research for this niche.
- cottage cheese (looks like)
- dimples (caused by)
- orange peel (looks like/effect)
- stretch marks (not the same thing) <—- could use further research (niche idea)
In the discussions, persons may ask about specific products…if they work etc… as well as Yahoo! Answers show what advertisers are pushing. You should definitely take note of these products as well – this cuts your work down a bit where you would then go searching for affiliate programs. Its like everything is right there on Yahoo! Answers.
- Arbonne Figure 8 vanish
- Celluthin
- Nivea lotion
- Cellulean
- Nivea Goodbye cellulite (could be same as above)
- Avon cream
- Accent (procedure that cost $3000)
That little research took me about 20 minutes to do and I found the topic using another Yahoo! Answers research method – digging down through the broad category of Health.
Niche research is very easy when using Yahoo! Answers so the next time you’re stuck on what to promote, give this research method a try.
Related posts:
Wow. And to think that I found you through BC. This post is absolutely great. I have not used Yahoo answers before for finding niche ideas like this (aside for self promotion, of course). This kind of research is very helpful as this is what real people are looking for and the way you have highlighted the steps and details are very clear and simple to understand. Kudos.. and I think you might just have gained a regular visitor here on your blog. keep up the good work. I’ll give this research method a try..