Choosing Your First Niche For Your Authority Site

This is episode 2 of 7 of the Authority Hacker New Year Starter Series. If you haven't been through the previous episodes, we suggest you go and check those out first.
What you will learn

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The most common mistakes we see when choosing a first niche
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The exact criteria we use when looking at potential niche markets
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What niche categories are and the key differences between them
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Super actionable steps you can use right away to find a profitable niche
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A real life example of a "good" niche and why it works

Niche Research Mistakes
Niche research is arguably one of the most important steps when starting a new authority site. The likelihood of creating a successful site depends heavily on your ability to choose a niche that ticks all the right boxes.

One of the biggest mistakes we see with niche research is what’s known as ‘paralysis by analysis’. Spending so much time on the research phase that you start experiencing information overload and can no longer make a logical decision.

On the other hand, we also see people who are too lazy to put in an adequate amount of research. As a result, they’re usually too quick to choose niche and end up with something that will probably fail.

It’s important to strike the right balance. Finding the right niche does require a lot of work, but at the same time, you need to enable yourself to make a decision when you’ve finally gathered all the facts.

Note: To give you some kind of benchmark, the niche we used in The Authority Site System took us about a week (~2 hours/day) to finally settle on.
What To Look For When Choosing a Niche
Niche research is essentially about looking at different markets and making comparisons. Specifically, these are some of the niche criteria we use:
SEO Competition
How difficult it would be to rank for niche related keywords (including keywords with commercial intent).
Commercial Intent
Finding keywords with commercial/buyer intent means you can create content that targets people further along the buying process (resulting in much higher conversions).
Monetization
What products and services are being sold in that niche and how you could potentially offer those too. Things like affiliate programs, training courses, physical product, etc.
Personal Interest
Whether or not you yourself have some level of interest in that niche. Though not essential, we recommend having some personal interest in the topic because it makes it a lot easier to stick at it long-term.
Mass Market
Mass market niches (like phones and laptops) should always be AVOIDED. Not only are they super-competitive, but they also offer very low commissions.
The 3 Niche Categories
Although there are countless niches to choose from, they can all be grouped into 3 main categories:
Passion
Niches that people are obsessed with (almost like hobbies on steroids).


* Horse riding
* Model trains
* Paintball

Lifestyle
Niches that people identify with (how they would describe themselves).


* Running
* Veganism
* Parenting

Problem
Niches that offer a direct solution to a specific problem or pain point.


* Acne
* Dating
* Weight loss

Which Is The Best Niche Category?
Though you can always find a successful niche in either category, they’re not all created equal.

For example, passion and lifestyle niches have an edge because they inherently have a strong community,