What do I do with these ideas?

[RichB]

Thanks in advance for reading.

I'm trying to come up with my muse but have some questions and would like some feedback.

I'm currently a personal trainer and have already published a few articles and whatnot so I thought it would be good to stick in the athletic arena since I already have a certain amount of "expert" status. However, I'm having trouble coming up with a niche to fill. I'd like to do an information product and e-book combo, it happens I have access to a recording studio for a reasonable rate so I may utilize that.

In addition, I have some experience in psychology, specifically with treating anxiety, although I don't have the letters after my name.

I had two ideas I thought were good and I could do well, but after looking at overture I'm not so sure.

First, I was going to put together an ebook and down loadable mp3 on the psychology of triathlon training, visualization primarily. I liked this because of my background in that sport specifically and the market. It is a rather expensive and gear crazy sport that attracts higher income participants. The problem is that I don't really predict many people going out on thier own and searching for the product. I wasn't able to find any searches for it on Overture. Now that doesn't mean that a print ad in a magazine wouldn't get responses, but I hate to remove PPC from the equation completely my first time out. If I just target people searching for 'Triathlon' there's a ton of hits but I'm not sure I want to market to something that wide.

Second, I was considering the same sort of e-book/mp3 for people with a specific phobia I have experience treating. Again, on Overture I get a lot of hits for 'phobia' or 'anxiety' but only a handful for something specific. There isn't really a well defined market for this either, which makes me more cautious. It's not like someone who is phobic about something is more likely to read a particular magazine or be male, etc (there is a demographic more susceptible of course but I don't know how to target them).

So I think I'm leaning towards the first, but maybe I need to keep thinking. Do I need to wait to find something that's being searched on a lot and fill that? My thinking is that if the product is niche people may not know they need it yet. If something is getting 5K searches a month someone would have filled the need already right?

[amuse-ing]

It's always easier to find a demand for something first and then create a product for it than it is to create a product and then try to sell it.

Do all the calculations that Tim suggest to see if your product would be profitable with as little keyword results as you have found. In regards to the phobia you treat, does it have a scientific name? How are the adwords possibility for that when you search for it specifically?

Sometimes people get caught up on getting things perfect before launching their muse because they're afraid it will fail. The only way to find out is to do it. Do the tests for the muses. You'll always fail if you don't take action. Sounds like you have two very promising ideas.

[RichB]

What I guess I'm struggling with is how to determine potential profitability is no one is actively searching for my product now.

I know that people are searching heavily for training advice, but not specifically what I'm offering because there's hardly any products now geared towards it. I have no way of knowing how many people that search for a wide terms like 'Triathlon Training' would be interested in my product.

So I guess I build a site, set up PPC for a week or two and see what happens? Anything I can do prior to incurring that expense to help me determine its' marketability?

[Marcie]

I agree, go ahead and try the one you think has the most appeal and test it! I think that it is possible that 2% of 2% of people searching for triathalon may purchase your product - it's a product for triatheletes :) I find that if you budget the CPC on google's estimator (I access it via this tool: http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/) you can still get good ad position, price your product right and (since you know about psychology) market it so the value perceived to be very high.