Ch. 9: I Picked the Niche on a Single Number

Ch. 9: I Picked the Niche on a Single Number

I was deciding between three niches: budget headphones, water filters, and home saunas. I didn't pick on volume or passion. I picked on one number: realistic order value.

Headphones averaged $40 carts at 3% Amazon = ~$1.20/order. Water filters: $80 plus replacement cartridges (recurring intent) = better. Home saunas: $1,800-$4,000 units, several direct affiliate programs paying 8-12%, meaning $150-$400 per sale.

I built the sauna site. Volume was tiny — my best month was 11,000 sessions. But 22 sales of $2,000 saunas at 10% = $4,400 that month, plus ad revenue on top.

Low traffic, high stakes. One ranking page for "infrared vs traditional sauna" did half my revenue.

Lesson banked: revenue per visitor beats search volume — a 10,000-session site selling $2,000 items can crush a 200,000-session site selling phone cases.