How to Choose a Profitable Topic Without Formal Market Research

Starting an information business is easy and hard at the same time.

It’s easy from the perspective that the software is simple, the sales model is predictable, and there are many who have gone before you that you can ‘copy".

But it’s hard in that you must determine that right angle to take in the market, see what the gap is that you can enter into, maybe even determine the right topic in the first place.

It’s also hard because although you may have the software to have a course and a sales page, if you don’t know what to write or speak on that sales page such that the right person responds and buys, you won’t make sales.

And it’s not just a matter of writing the same words someone else does.

YOUR message is unique.

YOUR buyer is looking for something specific.

And you are offering something specific.

Those two zones of specific must overlap.

So how do I personally go about finding out the right words, the message, and even the “sub-niche” I am going to go wide in?

I’ll give you a little background first:

I have discovered that the easiest ‘next conversion” is a conversion message that it the closest possible to the prior conversion.

For example, if I have a dog training guide for free, and I want to sell a cat training guide, it wouldn’t be a good fit.

And if I have a dog training guide for Bernese Mountain dogs but a Poodle training program . . . I’m likely to make far less sales than if I have a Poodle training guide (free) that then points to a Poodle Training system (paid) that then upsells to a Poodle training coaching program and then even perhaps a Poodle Training certification.

The closer you can keep each of the messages in the various points in the conversion funnel, the higher conversion rate you will receive at each point in the funnel.

For example, the social media article is the same topic as the free guide is the same topic as the item for sale, is the same topic as the Coaching Program or Membership on the backend.

Now, the depth of the courses might be different.

For example, the guide might be a checklist, the product might be a 2 hour course with the basics, the coaching program might be 5 hours of lessons with monthly Q and A calls.

This is for a single funnel, with no upsells.

The variation for upsells is that the upsell should be related to, not the same as, the thing sold. The reason for that is they have just invested, so if we sell the same thing again with different words, the implication is that what they bought isn’t “enough.”

So we might have a closely related item, in the Poodle Example, this might be: Dog Wash System for Poodles.

So where does choosing your topic and angle come in?

If you believe that the conversion system I just mentioned works (it does, verified by experience many times!) then if the squeeze page converts poorly, the item for sale with convert poorly as well.

And if the squeeze page (or article) converts well, then it’s likely the entire funnel will convert well.

This means that we can literally use article titles or squeeze page topics as our proxy for demand.

If the article doesn’t convert well, write a different topic.

The only caveat is that of course it has to be a market where the need is great enough the consumers will pay for the topic offered, and this can be tested with a low ticket item.

Once again, generally speaking, unless the market is specifically capped or limited by income or low price elasticity, if a low ticket item converts, it’s corresponding funnel will convert as well.

By using this message - driven method, you can find out what people will buy without doing standard market research.

I actually like it better, because surveys don’t tell us what people will click on or pay for, they only capture the expressed interest of the person, in the context of a controlled environment.

But using this method, not only are you testing it “in the wild,” you are also setting up the initial funnel.

I would personally write an article, have a matching topic squeeze page, and a low ticket item, in one funnel, right off the bat.

And once it starts making sales, I can add touchpoint and products!