If you’re able to code, or if you have some great ideas and are able to find a reliable programmer, there’s even more potential. Freeware can work on many levels – everyone’s looking for free software, so the traffic potential is enormous. You can distribute your software to the thousands of freeware sites (there are great automated ways to do this), and benefit from the thousands of great backlinks to your site. You can also experiment with bundling some pay-per-install applications with your own software. And of course, if your product is useful enough and there’s enough demand, you can sell it at a reasonable price. If people are willing to buy your software, you have even more opportunities, as you can advertise with PPC and banners ( on relevant niche-targeted sites, of course ).

I do like to support people who make great software that I use on a daily basis. One such product, and a perfect example of taking advantage of the software niche is Format HTML. Format HTML is a code beautifier that you run against your messy HTML (or even Coldfusion code) and it will instantly format and indent HTML. It inspects all your mark up tags (HTML, CFML, XML, etc.) and will indent them according to which tags you decide should be handled by modifying a config.ini file. You simply drag and drop your files or folders onto Format HTML and the program will make backups of all your files first and then clean up all the file types specified in the config.ini file. Lastly, it can be easily used with CFEclipse, Eclipse, DreamWeaver, HomeSite, or any other editor for tidying up your code. I use it on a lot of my websites (especially the ones where I spend a lot of time tweaking the html) and it has worked out great.

We spend so much time on computers these days, surely you have some good ideas for software that would make your life easier. I’ve only scratched the surface on the software niche marketing, I have plans to go more in depth over the next couple months. Stay tuned!

Energy efficiency and products that promote greater power savings are still a growing niche. I know this is related to my recent green niche marketing post, but there’s so much money here I just can’t pass this up! The increasing cost of energy prices coupled with our insatiable thirst for oil and other energy producing sources is fueling greater demand. We are currently exploring new alternate energy sources and efficient green power generation technologies such as wind power, solar power, hydroelectric power, geothermal power, and newer technologies such as wave power and tidal power, to feed this increased demand while lowering costs. What this creates is a heightened awareness of energy costs and household energy draws. Consumers have different ideas why to conserve energy, whether to lower their monthly bills and save money, or to preserve the environment, they both lead to a new ‘energy efficiency’ niche.

A perfect example of a website that aims to profit off this niche is the Green Efficient Guide. They have information for various efficient, green products, and make commissions off sales through sites like Amazon. With energy calculators for each individual television model that calculate both annual energy uses and energy costs based on both the on power and the standby power, you get the actual cost to run the device. By making this available to the consumer along with the other efficiency data for each electronic device is helpful in making an informed decision about efficient electronics. It’s pretty cool-  all of the efficient televisons listed are energy star rated for excellent power savings, as are the home electronics and audio video devices. With the incoming recession, everybody is trying to pinch pennies where they can, and energy efficiency is no small potato. Five percent of electricity used in the United States goes to standby power resulting in a whopping $4 billion a year in wasted energy costs. And it’s no wonder, how many electronic devices do you have plugged in at home? Cell phones charging (once the phone is charged, most charging devices continue to draw power), DVD players, televisions, gaming consoles, electric toothbrushes, etc, all can add up very quickly to compose a decent percentage of your electricity bill. It’s a great idea for a website – now it’s your turn to profit off this niche!

We’ll begin by evaluating a niche blog I recently found in the ecology niche, The Chic Ecologist.

The Chic Ecologist website

The green niche is hot and growing quickly, so how do you define yourself? The Chic Ecologist stands out as a blog devoted to chic and stylish products and companies that are sustainable and eco-friendly. Don’t mistake it for a hippie site, you won’t find hemp and patchouli here. High design and functionality (even architecture) is paramount. Catering to a hip younger crowd as well as the high end market they feature articles on everything from eco friendly diamonds to green roofs.

This is not a limited market either. The green industry is experiencing huge growth as people become more aware of global warming and the ecological impact of our industrial and consumer-centric society. The Chic Ecologist is a dynamic resource promoting green solutions and eco-friendly products by socially conscious businesses. It could be used as a platform for launching new ideas and products by smaller companies through product reviews and sustainable business spotlighting. With an explosive surge in green design and research of new ecologically sustainable materials such as bamboo, recycled plastics as well as reclaimed and repurposed products, many businesses are looking for that green edge.

Marketing of this niche is also gaining popularity as it’s now cool to be green. Although the cost of oil has dramatically dropped from its highs during this current recession, dependency and supply concerns for oil and gas are driving new technologies for renewable energy and products less dependent on traditional energy sources. Blogs such as The Chic Ecologist are great platforms to test, prototype and launch new green products by generating interest and buzz within their target market.

I do have a few suggestions for the site. I know not everyone is looking to make money money on their blogs, but I would still suggest the author look into affiliate programs to promote that fit well in the green niche (which shouldn’t be too difficult). A few green eBay listings couldn’t hurt, either. They promote a lot of good products, but unfortunately wouldn’t get any credit for it if someone were to make a purchase.

And of course, Adsense clicks and affiliate conversions are impossible without traffic. I’m not sure how much SEO work they’ve done, but I would definitely suggest making friends with other green niche bloggers and exchanging some links.

I would also consider reducing the size of some the images, since 2MB is a lot to load for the home page. I’d probably use jpeg’s instead of .png’s for photos, and maybe increase the compression a tad.

Questions? Comments? Let me know your thoughts of this review and if this is something you would like to see more of in the future. And don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed to stay up to date on niche marketing ideas!