As in any successful venture, you first must start with research.  When researching a tiny niche I suggest finding a happy medium between too much research and too little.  You want to find something you can act on sooner than later.  You don’t want to spend hours upon hours doing research for something that ends up being a flop.

First, I’ll explain to you how to do the boot-strap method.  Otherwise known as “I have a lot more time than money and can’t afford to spend much to speed this process along” method.  To research your tiny niche you can use a combination of Google searches, Ebay Pulse and Google’s Free Keyword Tool.  Then I’ll tell you about the tool I use to really help speed up my research.

Come up with an idea for a tiny niche site.  I have a whole notebook full of random niche site ideas that pop into my head.  They may come from reading something in a magazine, personal experience with a good product or even perusing the isles at Wal-Mart!  If you’re stuck for niche ideas, take a look at Ebay Pulse.  Just go to Ebay, click on “site map” (I believe it’s on the top right of the page), and then find Ebay Pulse on the list and click on it.  Here you’ll be able to see the most popular searches on Ebay for various products.  Pick a category and keep on clicking down into it to get some ideas.  If it is a popular searched for item on Ebay, it should also be a popular item that is searched for on the web.

Another good thing to do is to take a look at how many of the items are actually selling.  To do this you’ll want to click on Advanced Search, put in your niche keywords and check off the “completed listings” box.  This will return a list of the items that have sold and not sold.  You’ll want to make sure you see more GREEN than red.  If there is a lot more red you may want to forgo this particular niche and move on to the next possible one.

I decided to do a search on Ebay for “dog training collar” (completed listings).  Now, about 20 of the 50 or so ended auctions on the first page are GREEN.  That’s almost 50% that have sold.  Yes, I’d like to see a lot more green – but I still think this could be a good tiny niche.  And there have been 3,500 listings – definitely plenty of products to promote.

So now you have a few tiny niche ideas go and visit the Google Keywords Tool.  You can just do a search in google for it and it’ll be your first search result.  Put in your first niche idea and take a look at the results you get.

I put in the term “dog training collar” which returned a “global monthly serach volume” of 60,000 – not bad – but I wonder what my competition would be for this niche on google.  I open google.com in another tab/window and do a search for “dog training collar” in quotes and it returns around 130,000 results.  That’s not too bad.  But then I take a look at my competition for the niche.  I check out the Page Rank of the first page of results.  I have SeoQuake installed on my browser to automatically bring up site stats in google results.  Add up all the Page Ranks, divide by 3 and the average PR comes out to be 3.3.  I’m taking a look at the Page Rank so I can see how easy/hard it will be for me to break into the niche. 3.3 is in the middle – I honestly would prefer to find something in the 0-2 range.

So, it’s back to the Google Adwords Keyword tool I go and take a look at the keywords list it gave me.  Perusing the list I see that “small dog training collar” gets around 1,600 searches a month – yes, it is much less than the 60,000 for “dog training collar” but I believe this could be the “tiny slice” of the pie that I’m looking for.  Remember, I’d rather be the king of a tiny slice, than another minion competing for the whole pie.

Popping over to Google.com again, I do a search for “small dog trianing collar” and go through the same process…Results=1,870, Average PR=1.3   I am liking this one.  Some may think that it is too tiny of a niche, I think it is just right.  Low competition, somewhat popular search, items that sell on Ebay – works for me.  And, when you take a look at the estimated average “cost per click” in the google keyword tool results, it is $2.24 cents!  If you drive traffic to your sites using Adsense, that $2.24 might not be so fabulous – BUT – if you look at it from the perspective of earning money by having google adsense ads on your site – cha-ching!

In my opinion, a tiny niche like “small dog training collar” is one that can be very successfull with the new Quality Click Pricing model on Ebay.  Unfortunately, SmallDogTrainingCollar.com is already taken (not by me).  I find it interesting, that site does not show up on the first page of search results for it’s key term.  After poking around the site for a bit I see that is because it has virtually NO original written content.  It is nothing more than a site with ads on it for individual products.  It doesn’t give the visitor any info about dog collars at all.  With the addition of a few good articles and a paragraph or two of content on each product page, this site could be a real winner.

SmallDogTrainingCollar.info and .net ARE available.  You could get each of them for under $5 (with FREE private registration) over at my favorite place to purchase domain names – 1and1.   And, by the way, I know everyone says you should stick with .com domain names.  But, honestly, I’m earning money with my .info and .net domains so I don’t see any problem with using them.  PLUS – they are 1/2 the price or less than the cost of a .com.  If you can find a way to work the “info” or “net” part into the title of the site that helps with people not automatically typing in a .com.  for instance…. Small Dog Training Collar INFO.

And I promised to tell you about the tool I now use (almost daily) to research tiny niches.  This tool saves me HOURS upon hours of time.  It brings in all sorts of nifty information into one awesome screen.  It brings in the google keyword tool info, comeptition info…etc. PLUS with one click you can look up affiliate products for the item, find articles to use to promote the items and much more.  And…here is the ABSOLUTE BEST PART….there is this magic little link to press to get the “SOC” – Strenght of Competition.  In just a few seconds the “SOC” will be either red, yellow or green.  GREEN means you have found what could very well be an AWESOME Tiny Niche to dominate It’s also useful for finding long-tail keywords to use on your site.  Honestly, this tool does so much that I’m sure I haven’t used it to it’s full capabilities yet.  Another cool feature is that you can save your searches and save selected results as projects.  That is very useful for me when I, on a whim, have a tiny niche idea.  I just pop open this tool, do a few quick searches and save them and they’re ready for me when I’m ready to tackle that niche.  When I first started to use it there were a collection of videos I watched that showed how different people use this tool to quickly and easily find good Tiny Niches.  You can watch those same videos for free by going here.  By the way, this fabulous tool is called the Micro Niche Finder.

So that’s all I have to say about that.  I hope this post helped you a bit in your hunt for good tiny niches.  If you have any questions, please let me know – post ‘em in the comments section and I’ll respond ASAP.

As I posted previously, I am absolutely thrilled by the new QCP model on Ebay.  Based on the preliminary sample QCP reports, I should see a 200-300% increase in my earnings when QCP kicks in for me in October. So, how so I have such high increases in earnings while others are complaining of dramatic decreases?  Well, I’ll share with you what has worked for me…

Building tiny, targeted, niche sites.  And I won’t even say “filled with quality content” – because, honestly, only a handful of my niche sites truly have good quality content on them at this point.  I’m in the process of re-vamping several of them and adding that good quality content because I don’t like being the owner of wimpy sites.

Starting out with a bare bones niche site is one way to test the waters and truly see if you can get those all important visitors who will click through to Ebay.  Still, you should have some decent content on your site when you launch it – but don’t spend hours upon hours on it until you know it’s a good niche.  And now, with the new QCP, you need to send very high quality, targeted visitors to Ebay if you want to be successful.  That is why the owners of tiny niche sites will reap the most benefits from Quality Click Pricing on Ebay.  Once you have found a niche that has potential, then go back and beef up the site some more – add more content, publish articles, use social bookmarking sites and create videos.

This can open up a whole new world of niche sites to create.   Doing a total 180 degree change on how you approach making money with the Ebay Partner Network will truly benefit you under the new QCP model.

Stay tuned for future posts about finding good tiny niches…

Basically, it boils down to this…you have to send good, quality, targeted traffic to Ebay.  You will get higher pay-outs if your site visitors purchase the item you recommended right away (or put a bid in on it).  The old model that many affiliates followed of just sending any and all random traffic to Ebay will no longer fly.

On your EPN affiliate site you can see samples of what your commissions would look like for August and September of this year.  This is especially helpful in choosing which current campaigns to beef up.  I must say that I am ABSOLUETLY THRILLED at what my earnings will be under the new model.  For the month of August, my sample QCP column shows a 228% increase in earnings as compared with the old model !!  And August was actually one of my lower months for clicks/earnings – I chalk that up to August just being one of the slower sales months in general – many Ebay sellers even take all/part of the month off because they know it is one of the slowest sales months.  For September so far, I have a 318% increase in earnings!

That is one heck of a raise!  Sure beats the 3% “cost of living” raise that most folks don’t even get in their j-o-b paycheck.

Anyways, I wish that I didn’t have to wait until October for the changes to take effect.  They’re keeping the same timeline for pay outs, so that first affiliate check/deposit for the new amount will not arrive until the end of November!  That’s a long time to wait…but I am SOOO looking forward to it.

I know there are a lot of Ebay affiliates out there that aren’t thrilled with the QCP model.  I’ve read things like “google adsense will pay me 50 cents a click, so why in the world would I stick with EPN”.  That makes me wonder what kind of sites do they have up?  My average EPC in the QCP sample report for August was 60 cents and I had several days of EPC’s over $1.00 !  To me that is pretty darn cool.

And the even coolest part is that the overwhelming majority of my EPN sites are just basic, bare bones, haven’t done a whole heck of a lot with ‘em – sites.  And several of the sites don’t even promote high ticket items.  But what they ARE doing is bringing Ebay quality, targeted traffic.  My focus for the next several weeks is to beef up all of those sites – add more and better content, write articles to drive traffic…etc.  and keep shooting for those $1.00+ clicks!

I remember “back-in-the-day” (early 2000’s LOL) when people where making money hand-over-fist by buying and selling domain names.  I’ve always been REALLY bummed that I didn’t get in on that – I missed the boat.  I even knew of a friend of a friend who started a small internet company, sold it within a few years and went on to purchase several acres and build his dream home and happily “retire” and he was just BARELY out of college! With this new Quality Click Pricing model at Ebay I finally feel as though I’m positioned in the right spot to truly benefit from it tremendously.

How do you feel about the new QCP at Ebay?

NOTE:  I DID NOT make these!

It is somewhat embarrassing to admit, but Christmas is tight this year. Therefore, I’ve decided that I will be making bedroom slippers for you all as gifts. Please let me know your sizes as soon as possible. You’ll most likely agree that it’s a splendid idea, and should you wish to do the same, I’ve included the instructions below.

How to make bedroom slippers out of maxi pads:

You need four maxi pads to make a pair.
Two of them get laid out flat, for the foot part.
The other two wrap around the toe area to form the top.
Tape or glue each side of the top pieces to the bottom of the foot part.

Decorate the tops with whatever you desire, silk flowers (this is most aesthetically appealing), etc.

These slippers are:
* Soft and Hygienic
* Non-slip grip strips on the soles
* Built in deodorant feature keeps feet smelling fresh
* No more bending over to mop up spills
* Disposable and biodegradable
* Environmentally safe
* Three convenient sizes: (1.) Regular, (2.) Light and (3.) Get out the Sand Bags.

I’ve attached a photo of the first pair I made so that you can see the nifty slippers for yourself….

Her Husband cheated on her and she is listing the evidence on eBay.  The best part of this unfortunate happening – besides the “tarts knickers” -  is her description of the discovery and the follow-up she posted.

You have to check out this auction, click here.

Plus, if you are into internet marketing then take a look at the number of ‘hits’she has received towards the bottom.  What would you do with THAT many hits?

Do you remember the guy that auctioned off his ex-wife’s wedding dress?  He was a manly-man and took pictures of himself in the dress to advertise it.  He definitely had his ‘15 minutes of fame’.  I’m sure you could still find it out on the web somewhere…I found it….here it is.

I need to work on thinking up something totally unusual that would get a ton of hits and use those leads for future sales……hmm……now is sooo not the time for me to start brainstorming…I’ll work on that later.

From that venture into native crafts I began looking up information on uses for other natural materials – such as pine needles. Pine needle baskets are really quite neat – and yes, they are being sold on eBay you can check some out here.

So that is how I ended up doing a search for Pine Needles being sold on eBay. And sure enough – folks are selling them. There are only a handful of people selling them. Last time I looked, one of the auctions was at $11.99 with 3 days to go and charging $7.50 for shipping! That’s not bad for something found in your backyard! Click here to see LIVE auctions where people are selling Pine Needles!

• step 1: gather pine needles and clean slightly
• step 2: make sure they are totally dried out (let them sit in the sun) or sell green ones
• step 3: once dried, put in appropriate bundles
• step 4: take pictures
• step 5: list on eBay

What could you add to the auction to make yours stand out from the others?

• directions on how to make a few baskets
• some other basket making accessory (basketry string?)

How is that for thinking “outside the box” (or should I say, basket?) LOL.