How To Choose A Profitable Digital Product Niche (Without Guessing)

If you're over 40 and you have a notes app full of ideas like meal planning thing or printables or something with photography, but every time you look at it, you think, "Yeah, but would anyone actually buy this?" Well, then this video is for you. Because the fastest way to burn yourself out is to spend your nights and weekends building a digital product for people you don't really understand for a problem they don't actually pay to solve. So, in this video, I want to take the pressure off and make this simple. I'm going to walk you through a three-step niche test that you can do on a sticky note. And by the end, you'll have a much clearer idea which of these ideas is worth moving forward and which ones can stay in the maybe someday pile. And there's one mindset shift at the end of this video that actually makes people breathe a little bit easier. It's not about finding a perfect never seen before niche. It's about looking for two simple green flags, but we'll get to that a little later. Hi, I'm Kristen. On this channel, I help quietly ambitious adults turn what they already know into simple digital products and emailpowered systems so you can build a second income without quitting your day job or spending all your free time online. In my last video, we talked about what digital products actually are, and I showed you real examples related to real jobs. Well, today we're answering the question that always comes right after that. Okay, but which niche should I pick so that this thing actually sells? Well, before we get into the steps, quick favor. If you want practical step-by-step help with this whole second income thing, please go ahead and hit subscribe and turn on notifications. That just tells YouTube, "Yes, show me more of this and not another video about becoming a millionaire in six minutes." All right. And tell me down in the comments where you're stuck right now. Is it too many ideas, no ideas at all, or I pick something, but I'm scared it won't sell? I read every comment myself, and I use them to plan future videos, so I'm not guessing what you need. Also, if you already know that you want to create a digital product once you pick your niche, I have two resources linked down below. One is a free guide called 10 digital products you can create this weekend. And the other is my paid shortcut to selling your first digital product that walks you through planning and listing a simple product without needing a giant course or complicated software. All right, let's talk niches. I want to start with a quick story. So, I was talking with someone recently who had three different ideas. The first one was productivity journals. The second one was lesson plan templates for new middle school teachers. And the third one was budget trackers for busy moms. Well, if you have a brain like mine, they all sound kind of interesting and you can picture the covers of them already. But when we walked each idea through the same questions that I'm about to give you, one of them clearly floated to the top. Not because it was the cutest or not because it was uh the most original, but simply because she actually understood the group of people and there was proof that other people were already paying for similar things. That is what I want for you. Not a magical niche, a solid one. So, let's walk through this three-step niche test together. All right. Step one is your real life audience. Who are you trying to sell to? Instead of starting with online business avatar exercises, I want you to start with real life. Ask yourself, who do I actually understand in real life? Think about things like the job that you have right now, jobs you've had over the years or life stages you've lived through, situations you've personally experienced. If you're over 40, you're not starting from scratch here. You have decades of context in your head. Maybe you've been a nurse for 15 years. You understand long shifts, charts, constant interruptions, and how tired people really are. Or maybe you've worked in customer service or sales forever. You understand difficult customers, targets, and I needed this yesterday emails. Maybe you're the unofficial travel planner for your family and friends. Well, then you understand flights, hotels, budgets, and how to keep everyone relatively happy. None of that is random. Those are potential audiences for you to serve. So your first test is, can you clearly name one real life group of people that you completely understand? Not busy people, not women who want more time. That's not specific enough. Try saying something like, "I understand firstear teachers. I understand women working full-time who are trying to start a side hustle. I understand grandparents who watch their grandkids one day a week. If you can picture an actual person that you know, that's a good sign. If it feels vague and fuzzy, that's your first little red flag. You do not have to throw the idea away, but it might not be the one you want to start with. All right, step two is obvious existing problems. So once you have that real group of people in mind, the next question is, what are three very specific problems that they have that you could help them with. Specific is important here, too. Feeling overwhelmed is not specific. Not enough time is not specific. That's everybody. All right, so let's make this concrete. Say your real life audience is firstear middle school teachers. Well, their specific problems might sound like, "I spend my whole Sunday night planning the week and still feel behind." Or, "I never know how to turn what's in my head into a lesson plan that fits the format my school wants." Or, "I don't have a simple way to send notes home without rewriting everything from scratch." Those are problems you can design a product around. for example, a plug-and-play lesson plan template pack or a first week of school routine bundle or a set of parent email templates. Or let's say that your audience is adults over 40 who work full-time and want a side hustle. Well, their problems might be, I have no idea what to sell that anyone would actually pay for, or I get home from work and I'm wiped out. I need a simple plan, not a giant project. Or, I don't want to learn new tech. If it looks too complicated, I'm out. Again, those are productw worthy problems. For your own idea, I want you to actually write down three real complaints that you've heard or you've said or you've read in a Facebook group. If you can't come up with three, your idea might be too broad. That doesn't mean it's bad. It just means that it's not concrete enough yet to support a product. Now, if you find yourself filling the whole page with complaints for one audience, that's a very good sign. All right, step three is proof of demand. This is the part that gets you out of I hope this works and into I can see people already paying for this. So, some people think that if someone else is already selling something in your niche, you're too late. Most of the time, the opposite is true. No competition usually means there's no demand. So, here's what I want you to do. I want you to take their audience and one of their specific problems and search for it in a few places on Google. You can type in something like lesson plan templates for firstear teachers or night shift nurse planner or side hustle planner for working moms. On Amazon, look for books or workbooks or planners that help with that problem. On Etsy, you can look for related printables or templates. On YouTube, you want to search for things like how to followed by the problem you are thinking about solving. So, you don't need fancy software to do this. You're just asking, is there already activity here? Do you see other people selling similar things? Are there bestseller tags? Are there reviews? Do the videos have decent views? If the answer is yes, that's good news. It means that the niche is alive and your job is not to invent a brand new problem. Your job is to offer a simple, focused, easytouse solution for people you already understand. So, if you do this little research and you see almost nothing, that's a yellow flag. Sometimes it means that you found something new and exciting, but most of the time it means the demand is not strong enough for a beginner who has limited time to work on a product. As a grown adult with a real life and real responsibilities, you do not need a lottery ticket. You need decent odds. So let's run two examples that I mentioned earlier through this test so that you can see the difference. All right. Example one, we had productivity journals. Well, the audience for that is anyone and everyone who wants to be more productive. That's not a real life group. That fails step one. We cannot picture an actual person there because the audience is fuzzy. Their problems are going to be fuzzy, too. So step two falls apart. And when we go looking for proof of demand, we're going to find millions of things in hundreds of different directions and no clear way to stand out. That's just overwhelming. Then we have example two, a schedule and shift planning tool for night shift nurses. Well, the audience is night shift nurses. That is very specific. You can picture what their life actually looks like. So, step one passes. Their problems might include, "My sleep schedule is a mess and I can't keep track of my shifts, or my family never knows when I'm working and when I'm off, or I keep losing little notes and post-it with my shift details." Well, we can come up with three clear problems in a few seconds. So, step two passes. Then, we search for nurse schedule planner or night shift nurse planner or nurse report sheet printables. Well, on Etsy and Amazon, you will see planners, you'll see report sheets, you'll see badge cards, you'll see that people are already spending a lot of money here. So, step three passes. Now, is there competition? Yes. That is actually very reassuring because people are clearly willing to pay for help in this niche. So, your product might be a digital planner specifically laid out for rotating night shifts with a family calendar built in or a printable night shift survival pack with schedule trackers and checklists. The point is you chose a niche that you understand with problems that you can name where money is already moving. That is a very different feeling from productivity journals for everyone. So, let's come back to you. You might feel like you're standing between two different worlds. On one side, you have a very broad idea that sounds safe because it seems to include everyone. On the other side, you have one or two specific audiences that feel risky because you're afraid you're going to leave people out. So, here's how I think about that. Broad feels emotionally safe, but it's harder to sell. Specific feels a little scary at first, but it's usually much easier to sell. Especially when you only have a few hours a week to work on this. You do not need a perfect niche that you're locked into forever. You need a starting niche that passes two big tests. Test one, I actually know these people in real life. And test two, other people are already making money helping them with this problem. If you can say yes to those two things, you are no longer guessing. You are making a thoughtful, strategic decision with your time. That's the little twist I promised you at the beginning. You can stop hunting for the one magical niche that no one has ever discovered. That's usually a trap. You are looking for a niche where you already have an advantage and there is already demand. So, here's your homework. As soon as this video ends, grab a piece of paper and make three columns. At the top of column one, you want to write real life audience. At the top of column two, write three obvious problems. And at the top of column three, write proof of demand. Then I want you to take the top two or three ideas you have from your notes app or wherever you write them, and I want you to walk each one of those through this test. If you can't name the real life audience, put that idea in the later pile. If you can't come up with three concrete problems, it probably needs more thought before it becomes a product. If you can't find any proof of demand, be careful about pouring months of effort into this product. The idea that looks strongest across all three columns is your best starting niche. And if you want a little nudge, put your top two audience ideas down in the comments with three problems that you see for each group. While I can't do full coaching in the comments, I can absolutely tell you this one feels stronger or here is where I would tighten this up. Once you have a niche that passes this test, the next natural question is, how do I actually turn this into a product and get it out into the world without needing a massive course or a bunch of software? That's exactly why I created the shortcut to selling your first digital product. It walks you through choosing the format, outlining your offer, and setting up a simple system so you can start selling even around a full-time job. I'll link that for you down below along with my free guide, 10 digital products you can create in a weekend so you can start brainstorming specific offers inside your niche. And when you start creating your own content about your product, remember that you can add affiliate links for related tools and products that you genuinely use and like. Those little links can add a nice bonus layer of income over time. If you've not watched the video where I break down what digital products really are and show real examples that you can steal ideas from, that's the perfect next video for you to watch. It'll give you even more clarity on what to sell inside the niche that you just picked. Click over to that video next and I'll meet you there. Here's to your success. If this saved you time or gave you clarity, please hit like and subscribe. I've got a lot more videos coming and they're all made with you in mind.