Unleash the web

This article is a continuation of Unleash your brain - brainstorming niche keywords. In part II we will be looking at sites that can help you find what is popular right now.

The Usual Suspects

You may have read a few articles that tell you about sites to get ideas for niche keywords. The ones I've noticed the most are: eBay Pulse, Google Trends, Digg and Amazon Best Sellers. These sites are great for getting ideas and will give you an idea of what is currently being purchased or talked about right now. Here is a twist on that list:

• eBay Hot Items - This is a list of top selling items on eBay for 2007.
• Google Hot Trends - A daily list of the most searched on keywords in Google.
• Digg BigSpy - A peek into what is currently being dugg on Digg.
• Amazon Mover & Shakers - The biggest gainers in Amazon.com sales rank over the past 24 hours.

How To Sites

One of the most popular topics on the net right now is "How to" type content. There has been quite a few sites popping up to help fill the burning desire people have to acquire knowledge. Here are a few to give you inspiration:

• eHow - A good instructional site. Take a look at the home page for popular how to's and also a top 10 list.
• How To Do Things - Similar to eHow. Checkout their daily popular articles.
• Wiki Answers - A Q&A site. Find out what is on peoples minds.

Top Searches
Here are some sites which list their top searches:

• Shopping.com Top Searches - View the top 100 searches for each of the Shopping.com categories. Its updated every 2 weeks.
• Squidoo Top 100 - The top lenses ranked by LensRank. Also see top lenses ranked by topic.
• Yahoo Buzz Overall - A summary of the top searches on Yahoo for that day.
• Technorati Popular - A list of the most popular blogs and searches on Technorati.

Keyword Spy

A free tool we have created attempts to give you an insight into what people are searching on. Its called SpyFree and shows a random list of keyword phrases which have a reasonable amount of traffic each day.

Remember that you need to consider both the niche and the market when you are brainstorming. Before moving onto chapter 2 choose five (5) niches that you think you are interested in and that have related markets with buyer potential. If your not sure at this point just pick 5 niches that catch your eye, we will analyze them more a bit later.