10 Niches To Make Money From in 2009

Yesterday I was reading this article from Forbes about the 10 things that people are still buying even in this down economy. After reading it, I realized that Forbes just outed 10 hot niches for 2009. I thought I’d share them with you and comment on how you might make money with a few of them.

The first thing according to Forbes that we Consumers are still spending money on is Smart Phones. If I was in this niche, I would concentrate on building sites over a specific phone. Say, the Blackberry Storm or a Samsung. The iPhone niche is very competitive and unless you already have a authority website about iPhone’s, I’d stay away and go after one of the other lesser known Smart Phones.

Video Games and Consoles are the second item on the list in the Forbes article. Their theory on why we’re still buying this is that Consumers want a quick escape from reality. I say it’s because Video Games are addictive and addicts buy stuff! Whatever the reason, people are still buying them in droves. Pick a game and build a site around it. Websites about the Wii, PlayStation and XBox are really popular. Unless you can come up with an unique angle, I’d concentrate on picking a game since the Console market is flooded right now.

Gym memberships are also on the list. I’m not sure why people would cut back on their spending then blow bucks on a Gym membership when you can get a decent workout at home or by walking/jogging around your neighborhood, but Forbes says it’s so. I’ll just stick with my Health niches and maybe write some articles on Gym reviews if I need that traffic.

Personal care also made the list of things we keep spending money on. This would be an easy one to implement with Health. You could also start a affiliate site with a lot of persona care items. Just research the niche and try to find one not full of big players like Johnson and Johnson.

Toy building sets also made the top 10. This one surprised me a bit and I’m still not sure if they mean the Toy Building Sets their self or Toys in general. Their theory is that it’s hard to say NO to you kids. There’s a lot of truth behind that statement as I can relate to that! The article says that Lego sales were up 12 percent in 2008! In November, the word “Lego” was searched for over 673,000 times according to the Google Keyword tool. Anyone have a Lego blog? ;)

Car Maintenance is also on the list. Consumers aren’t rushing out and buying a new car now days but they are spending money on the ones the do have. This would be a good niche if you could find some specific products and build an affiliate site around them. Everything from products that clean and beautify your car to performance enhancing products would be good sellers.

Another surprise for me on this list was Dress Casual Shoes. Google shows 33,000 searches for Casual Shoes and 49,000 searches for Dress Shoes. Grab a domain with the words Dress Casual Shoes in it and you have several options to profit from this niche. A blog reviewing Casual and Dress shoes to an affiliate site selling both Casual and Dress shoes would be a hit if you can rank the site on page one of the Google SERPS.

Restaurants was on the list also. Most specifically fast food chains as people are looking for inexpensive meals. I’ve always thought about starting a blog and reviewing the popular menu items at fast food places since I eat out a lot. But I just haven’t had the time.

Movie tickets took my be surprise also. I guess the American Family is looking for alternatives when it comes to entertainment. The article says that attendance is down but profits rose in 2008. I’m not sure how good a niche this would be because I the prices of everything at Theaters are outrageous these days. I also believe services like NetFlix, Blockbuster and Red Box have taken a big chunk of money away from the Theaters. But hey, maybe you can get an unique angle on this niche and make some money from it.

Netbooks is a niche I think some money could be made at. These are relatively new to the market and due to the low price, becoming more and more popular. Review sites and affiliate sites would be a good way to monetize these niches.

If you were looking for something to make money from in 2009, the above 10 hot niches should do you well. Several have been good niches for years and will likely be so in the future. Do some research on them and pick one or two and give them a try!