Revealing a fun niche with weak competition (and untapped potential)

Did you collect trading cards as a kid?

If so, you know the thrilling anticipation of opening a new pack.

“Oh boy, what if there’s a Stephen Curry rookie card!??”

There never was for me, but I got a few decent ones. Game-worn jerseys, special editions, a few autographs, and so on.

Every time I got a card I thought might be worth something, I’d Google it right away.

“2013-14 panini prestige greg oden”.

$0.99 on eBay.

Ah well, maybe the next one will be worth something.

Now, a decade later, when I search that term, I’m still as curious as ever about the card’s value.

But I’m also thinking about other things.

Search volume. Search intent. Competition level. Whether sports cards is a good niche to build a website around.

Turns out, it most definitely is.

The Cardboard Connection, one of the top sports cards sites, gets 1.4 million monthly visitors according to SimilarWeb.

SportsCardsPro gets around 1 million monthly visitors.

Cardbase gets nearly 250K visits/month.

Those seem to be the “big 3”.

The Cardboard Connection is a true content-based “niche” site. Most of their top keywords are checklists for specific card packs, so collectors can see what cards they need for a full set.

SportsCardsPro and Cardbase are database sites that list all cards and their values based on recent sales. These sites heavily employ programmatic SEO.

There are multiple other pure niche sites in the space that are doing quite well. They’re not hard to find if you search a few keywords in the niche.

What I did not find is a site both publishing long-form articles AND doing programmatic SEO with a card database. Totally untapped potential. I’d imagine a site with that combination would do quite well. ;)

What about income potential?

Ads and affiliate marketing both work in this niche.

There are lots of buyer intent keywords, and sports cards aren’t exactly cheap.

“best baseball card packs to buy” has a search volume of 1,100/mo (Ahrefs estimate). The competition is surprisingly weak for a “best of” keyword with that kind of volume.

And that’s only one buyer-intent keyword. There are hundreds more.

As for affiliate programs, Amazon, eBay, and Fanatics all sell sports cards and have affiliate programs. And there’s a collection value tracking app called Market Movers that also offers recurring commissions.

If you end up building a card value database, it wouldn’t be too hard to build your own collection value-tracking SaaS and make money that way too.

My thoughts on the niche

Obviously, I think sports cards is a great niche if it interests you AND if you do it right. I’m not entering this niche because I already have multiple other niche sites I’m trying to manage (and hardly have time for).

If you were to enter this niche, my suggestion would be to build something beyond just a blog.

Adding a community component would be a good start. Adding a shop would be another good idea. Adding a database of card values would make a lot of sense. Offering a collection value-tracking tool would be brilliant. The more you do to make a truly helpful website and build a recognizable brand, the more resilient you’ll be through Google updates.

So if your plan is to enter this niche and blast your site with AI content targeting low competition keywords, I would suggest entering a different niche (or rethinking your strategy altogether, unless it’s for testing purposes. I get it haha 😁).

If you do decide to enter the sports card niche, whatever strategy you employ, I’d love to hear how it goes.

I’ve found 60+ other good niches (some much better than sports cards imo)

Over the last year, I’ve been compiling a list of fantastic niche ideas.

Some are PERFECT for programmatic SEO. Some are PERFECT for AI content. Some are good because of the very weak competition. Some are good because of the insanely high income potential per visitor.

The list is called Curated Niches if you want to check it out.

I’ve had several people ask me how I find good niche ideas. So a few months ago, I put everything I know about finding and validating niche ideas in a course called Niche Discovery Formula.

Just yesterday, I gave all members of Website Growth Mastermind free access to Niche Discovery Formula.

I’ve also added a few of the niches from Curated Niches to Website Growth Mastermind, and plan to continue adding more.

If you read this far, you’d probably be interested in Website Growth Mastermind.

Inside, you get access to:

• A community platform where members can ask questions, share strategies, learnings, news, and more

• A growing database of niche site/SEO-related AI prompts

• All the details about the new site I’m building for Spencer Haws’ AI content challenge (including the URL, the prompt I’m using to create articles with ChatGPT, and the strategies I’m using and planning to use)

• Lesser-known SEO strategies

• Niche site inspiration

• A member marketplace (where you can promote stuff)

• My Niche Discovery Formula course

• And more!

I’ll also be available to answer questions, give feedback about your site, etc.

All of that for the price of $15/month. That’s like 4 gallons of gas where I live. Or a big burger at Red Robin.

My goal is that the $15/month cost would be an absolute no-brainer.

So if you’re a niche site builder and want a place to connect with others, ask questions, and grow your skills, I’d love to see you inside Website Growth Mastermind!

If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to reply below.

Thanks for reading, and hope you have a great weekend!

Ian