How to tell the competiveness of an SE topic??

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if someone could give me input on how to determine if a topic is competitive enough to make creating a web site around that topic worthwhile.

Specifically....

I have been in the window cleaning business for about 4 years and have been looking at ways to create an income stream from the Internet. Window cleaning is a natural choice since I am very good at what I do and could write extensively about it.

The way I would make money from my site is to sell a computer program I am creating for internal use to other window cleaners or those using my site to learn how to start a window cleaning business. I can go into the details of my program if anyone cares to know about it but suffice it to say that I just need about 50 customers to make $2500 a month or so (which is just fine for my needs).

In short I would give away all my window cleaning expertise and "secrets" on the site, absolutely for free, and make money from the sale of my program.

But...I need to know if "window cleaning" as a topic is a good one to focus on. In terms of giving me a reasonable chance to rank highly in search engines if I create a really good window cleaning information site. Or whether this topic, like "internet marketing" for example, is so crowded that even if I make a good site, the chances of being ranked highly are slim at best.

I don't know how to tell the competitiveness of a search topic like "window cleaning". Other than just searching for these terms and seeing what the count of sites that are available for that topic is from the search results.

For example:

The term "window cleaning" results in 6,100,000 english pages on Google.

"window cleaning business" results in 438,000 english pages on Google.

The above does not tell me how often people search for these phrases which I am really interested in knowing. Only how many web pages might exist that are related to these topics. It does seem to indicate that I should concentrate on "window cleaning business" rather than "window cleaning" but on the other hand most of what shows up highly under "window cleaning" has to do with directories of window cleaners, cleaning fish aquariums, and the like which are really not the type of web sites that I would like to create (i.e. all about window cleaning as a business)...so there might be some opportunity there too.

Hard to say...

Any input from anyone would be most appreciated.

Thanks.

Carlos

[ Message was edited by: carlos1234 06/11/2008 06:41 pm ]

I'd start by studying the pages that appear in your top ten searches, especially those that have interactive stuff; are there busy forums in your niche? Is there an interest in software among window cleaners (not to be confused with 'windows cleaner'!).

You need to know and understand the online window cleaning community before you can make your business decision ... simple numbers really won't give any indication of likely business success.

You also need to consider likely competition, and you might consider whether your software could be adapted for other related uses.

Hi Quadrille,

Thanks very much for your input. Aside from the excellence of your input I wanted to add a couple of thoughts to what you said if I might...

Although I have not studied the top ten pages in depth (something I will definitely do as soon as I can) I can say this much...the one's that appear on Google for "window cleaning" do not have much interactive stuff on them. They are mostly static (or at least are served up as static pages by the web server).

Of the top ten...#1 is oriented around starting a window cleaning business.

#2 is for a window cleaning business that focuses on window cleaning for itself.

#3 AND #4 are window cleaning directories where one can find window cleaners in one's area.

#5 is a video for how to clean a window on a site that has videos on how to do other things (rather surprising that given the little text associated with this video that it made it so high for this topic).

It would seem that only the first search result is a site that would directly compete with me in what I am thinking of creating. Even then the #1 site does not give away much info. You must pay for it.

I would give away my "secrets" and tips absolutely for free (and there are some really good one's that I would give away). Focusing my site on getting people interested in buying my computer program (PHP and MySQL) to use in their window cleaning business.

This program can be used not only for window cleaners but for all small business owners who might presently do things on paper or a spreadsheet. So grass cutters, snow removal, driveway sealing, painters, and any other such service oriented businesses having to keep track of customers and what they do for them can use this program.

I want to concentrate on window cleaners at first since that is what I know how to do the best.

In the window cleaning industry there is NO forum of any value on window cleaning. There IS however a mailing list that one can join which is fairly good but mainly having a US membership. The mailing list has some country specific sub-mailing lists but the email from all these lists is very low and infrequent.

From the research that I have done the most likely route to starting a window cleaning business for people is to buy one of the ebooks, CD's, or courses offered for sale by various window cleaners that have gone unto the Internet to try and make more money.

There is hardly any, indeed I have found no other site in my searches, that provides the kind of info I am thinking of providing for free. They all and I mean all charge something for full disclosure info on how to start and succeeed in window cleaning. That is understandable giving that most probably do not have a backdoor product like my computer program that they can sell to site visitors.

In essence I would give away the crown jewels to gain traffic which I would hope to turn into at least 50 paying customers that would use my hosted program to keep track of their clients. I would help them succeed for free and show them the ropes of how to do that in the hope that some would buy use of my program.

In addition I could eventually sell window cleaning equipment kits and the like.

Window cleaning as a full time income is not that easy to achieve but as a part-time job paying exceellent income it is very doable. When I say full-time income I mean an income that would support a family of 4 in a decent house and at a decent standard of living. If one is single one can easily make enough to live on and then some from this business, having a great deal more free time on one's hands as a result of making an excellent wage per hour when one is window cleaning.

Off the top it would seem that this market niche is not being well served in terms of the kind of web site I want to offer.

There ARE other programs out there, one that even focuses on window cleaners. BUT these programs are not marketed or tied to showing prospective customers of the program how to start a window cleaning business. They are more directly marketed as programs.

To get around the competiveness of these programs that have been around for a while I will market my program indirectly by first capturing the attention of visitors who are interested in starting a window cleaning business.

Mind you, my program could hold it's own against other such programs but it would be much tougher to market my program directly since there is more competition in such programs.

Any additional input from you Quadrille or anyone else would be most appreciated.

Thanks.

Carlos

It looks like you have a bright future ... but just because there's little serious competition is not, in itself, proof that there is a market for your product.

For example, I could develop a piece of code that would paint the background of every website I visit bright orange; I'm pretty confident that such a program has few competitors, but I suspect there'd be few customers either!

The only way to know is to try it - and the only way to get a hint in advance is to be part of the niche online community and get a 'feel' for what THEY see as their needs.

Good Luck!

carlos you could use googles adwords keyword tool or other keyword tools if you anna know more of which words are widely searched for your niche.

A couple of more thoughts from my end...

Quadrille you make some excellent points in what you say. I appreciate your input!

Regarding the lack of competition...your saying so is in itself very encouraging confirming for me what I suspected to be the case. Only ONE web site shows up under "window cleaning" in the top 5 at Google that deals with how to start a window cleaning business. So there is definitely room at the top for another such web site.

While you are absolutely right on in saying that this alone does not guarantee that there is a market for my product...I would add this...my market is anyone out there who wants to make an excellent, and I mean excellent, part-time income ($30-50 per hour!). Even possibly turning it into a full time income. The "product" I offer is knowledge. Knowledge about how to start a part-time or full time job called window cleaning as your own boss.

I would think the market for persons wanting to be their own bosses and who might be interested in making $30-50 per hour part-time or full-time is absolutely huge.

The problem is that most people are tired of the hype and don't believe it can be done.

I did it. And I started it while living in my truck - literally (I lived in it for the first 3 years I did window cleaning). A truck that is a real beater. So badly rusted that it's funny to look at and somewhat embarrasing for me to use. Yet multi-million dollar home owners have me routinely clean their windows! If I did it (with faith in God and a couple of window cleaners taking me under their wing when the going got tough), I think anyone with average intelligence and coordination and a desire to succeed can duplicate what I did and even do better (with my support).

All I need is 50 customers who will pay me to use the program I am developing. Who will pay me on a monthly basis to use the program and get my support. At $50 per month times 50 customers that is $2500 a month. That's all I need.

I figure there are at least 50 out there somewhere. This program will be extremely useful to me now (once I finish it and bring it online for myself shortly) and would have catapulted me to make much more money if I had used it when I began. So I figure that I should be able to convince 50 prospects who want to make excellent part-time or full time income to become customers of my program. Through my web site.

I could be wrong but that seems doable.

My goal is to make money over the Internet so that I can move to Chile (my home country). I can't do window cleaning down there such that I can make serious money. They pay only $20 a day down there! Peanut wages.

As for being part of the niche community of window cleaners...I am already a part but that is not the community I would aim my site at. Rather I would aim to capture those who are looking at starting a small business or even a window cleaning business and who want to know how to do it from someone who has done it and is currently still doing it.

I suppose I could join small business forums or otherwise but I think I would rather focus on creating the best how-to window cleaning site on the net and let my 50 customers come from those who might eventually visit my site.

I guess in the final analysis I will have to take some risk of loosing my time and giving away my crown jewels to the world at large by creating my site and seeing how it goes.

Maybe it will flop. Who knows. I know some window cleaners will not like my giving away my knowledge for free (it will undermine their profits from selling window cleaning CD's and the like). But it does sound like there is some potential there.

I am just hoping to minimize the risk of lost time and giving away what I know for nothing before I even get started, by asking around on forums like this and doing some research.

los_angeles_seo...I will check out the google adwords keyword tool. Someone else on another forum mentioned that one too. Thanks for the tip!

Thanks again for your all's input. I have not been this excited about something in a long time but when the idea of doing this first came to me (as I was observing how an Internet marketer was selling another program through his site where he gave away much of his crown jewels too) I got so incredibly excited that I just could not stay on my computer. I had to turn it off and pace around the room some, while I thought about it some more .

I have dreamed of making a living over the Internet for years. This just might be it.

Carlos

PS. I hope my long post did not unduly bore anyone. I am just excited about this and felt like sharing more about what I hope to do.

We all can see the passion in you Carlos. You will succeed surely.
If you are going to market a software, you can list that in many of the Software repositories. It increases your website's visibility and might bring in targeted traffic. Create a kind of demo and show what your software will do.

Look for a large website with established presence in the field of Home improvement. If you are an established author ( from the way you express - you are quite an effective communicator), you can persuade the large website owner who publishes free content on the theme to include one of your articles. This is akin to book authors requesting reviews.

Success in internet is not easy. But it can be achieved with your kind of passion and hardwork.