Rate Your Ideas

Rate your Ideas

So you now have a list of at least a few optional subjects for your site. We are now going to decide which is our "best bet" for your first site. You can always come back and do the others later ...

Our "best bet" is going to be the site that has the best combination of:

• Available content
• Available products
• Highest demand
• Least competition

Let's try to rate each of your ideas. I should make it clear - this is as much an art as it is a science. We're going to try and apply some objectivity to the process, but there isn't a mathematical formula I can give you that will spit out the right answer - you will need to apply some personal judgement.

Having said that, sometimes the answer from this process is really obvious once you go through it.

We're going to rate each of your subjects at 6 different web sites and enter the results in a table like the one below. You'll want to draw or type out a bigger version depending on how many ideas you have.

Rate Pay Per Click Popularity at GoTo.com (GT)

This is the top pay per click search engine, where sites pay to get their links up the rankings. We want to see how many sites are promoting your subject, and how much they are paying to do it. Search for 3 or 4 keywords that you can imagine potential customers using - some general and some specific.

Jot down the number of results that have a "cost to advertiser" price against them, and the position in the rankings at which the cost drops to $0.01.

Example - we might search for "outdoors", "camping", "tents", and "waterproof".

In this category - low numbers are good, because it means few people promoting the subject, and low rates to get click throughs.

Rate Free Search Popularity at Altavista.com (AV)

This is one of the top "free" search engines, so it will give us a measure of how easy it might be for potential customers to find your site.

Use the same search terms as before and jot down the total number of results, how many in the top 20 look like they are actually about the subject, and how many of those look commercial.

Again, low numbers are good in this category as we don't want too generic a subject, or too many competing sites - especially if they are selling too!

Rate Media Product Availability at Amazon.com (AM)

Now we start looking for products. Books are a great general "in demand" product that cover most interest areas no matter how specialized - and Amazon are leaders in the field.

Depending on your location, subject and intentions you may wish to check some of the international Amazon sites (such as Amazon.co.uk) as well as the "main" Amazon.com base.

Search for books on your subject at Amazon and jot down total numbers of books for your search terms. High numbers are good, but also rate a subject highly if it appears to correspond closely to an Amazon category or sub-category.

If it's relevant to your possible subjects, you might also check out software, CDs, videos, toys etc - and anything else Amazon are doing by the time you read this!

Rate Branded Product Availability at Vstore.com (VS)

Let's extend our product search at Vstore - where you will be able to choose products to sell from a massive range of well known, branded suppliers.

You will need to register to set up a Vstore - but it's completely free and it will come in useful later, so go ahead and do it.

Register with Vstore.com here.

Go through the process of setting up a new store and browse the product categories for the different store types to see what's on offer. Do you see products there that would be appropriate to your subject?

Think laterally - it's clear we could sell a selection of sports and camping goods on an outdoor hobbies site, but we could also sell toys on any site about parenting or family life, travel goods to business people ...

For scoring, decide on marks out of 10 for each idea.

Rate Support Product Availability at Commission Junction (CJ)

We're going to conclude our "product" search at Commission Junction - looking at the big world of affiliate programs on the internet.

Again, you will have to register to get into the site - but it's also free and it's also going to be one of our earners later, so go ahead and do it.

Sign up here with Commission Junction

Once you are in, browse the programs available - looking at suppliers and at individual products. Some things in there are very specific offers that will only be of interest to a small number of people, others - such as companies who pay you a commission for selling discounted magazine subscriptions - have something for everyone.

As with Vstore, you will have to decide on what your rating for each idea is.

Take your time and explore Amazon, Vstore and Commission Junction - the more you see what is on offer, the more excited I think you will become about the possibilities for building a Practical DotCom Business around a single-subject web site.

Rate Dynamic Content Availability at Moreover.com (MO)

Finally we are going to check for content availability.

Remember - you don't need to find things that are a 1:1 match, simply something that will be of interest to your potential visitors and add value to your site.

Rate each idea for availability of content.

It's Make Your Mind Up Time

Based on the numbers you have gathered, what you saw at each of the sites, how you feel about each of your ideas in terms of popularity, competition and availability of content and products.

Pick one subject.

Yup - just one.

... and sleep on it. You want to be sure tomorrow that it's still the right thing to press ahead with, because from then on you will be fully committed to this subject.

And your commitment will be an important factor in your success ...