Hi Dave,

I've been in around a dozen different niches over the years. I've used a few different different ways to find niches.

My best niche in terms of the amount of money I made was software. I used some software in one of my jobs, and when I got made redundant I decided to build my own version of that software.

The message here? Your day job/career can be a great source of ideas!

Just be careful not to complete with your employer and avoid anything else that could lead to legal complications. For example, if you work for a toy company then don't design and build a new toy (remember Bratz v Barbie dolls?)

I found my second best niche by complete accident. I was starting to do something and I wrote one web page about it. That page got loads of traffic. Even better, people went click crazy on adverts in this niche, so that page started making some good money! I subsequently turned that single page into an entire website.

So if you're just starting to do something new in your life, then why not blog about it? This is also how studyinglaw got started (that's not my site, but I wished I had started it!).

It's good to blog about stuff you're just getting into because you'll know all the newbie questions people are bound to want to know the answers to.

Incidentally, it's usually better to aim your site at newbies. Niche Laboratory has only had a memberzone for a few days, but already most of the registered users are completely new at making money online. Where are the experts? They're not on this site, that's for sure.

What other ideas are there?

Niche Laboratory now gives a lot more keyword phrases if you run a job. Some of these phrases are totally unrelated to your niche, but they can be good niches in themselves. For example, submit a Niche Laboratory keyword research job for cats and you might see catsuits come up in your job results. Catsuits are a wonderful niche, but they're nothing to do with cats!!!

I once had a really good hunt through ClickBank's Marketplace for some products to sell via affiliate marketing. I found some really cool software for making cardboard cutouts from photos. That was a really nice little niche, and I made quite a few sales simply buy writing articles like "Hey... This software allows you to make cardboard cutouts of celebs".

How else could you have found this kind of idea? This niche is hiding in plain sight. Walk past stores and you'll often see cardboard cutouts in the window!

How many other micro-niches have YOU spotted while walking around your neighbourhood?