Skool Niche Case Study: How I Found a High Demand, Low Suppy & Monetizable Niche (In 48 Hours)

Today I’m going to show you how I found a niche for my skool community in just 48 hours.

The Skool niche I found is:

• Aligned with my passion
• In high demand
• Low in supply (competition)
• Monetizable

How did I do all of this in just a weekend?

I call it The Niche Navigator Method.

And in this case study I'm going to show you exactly how I did it, step-by-step.

How I Used "The Niche Navigator Method" To Find a High Demand, Low Supply & Monetizable Skool Niche

The Niche Navigator Method helped me turn my passion into community.

(without an existing audience or any authority in my market).

What's my Skool community you ask?

‍PokeCard Investing: Helps Pokémon card investors collect cards that they love ❤️, increase in value 📈 and make money 💰.

I managed to grow it to 195 members fairly easily:

You probably never heard about investing in Pokemon cards before reading this.

Let me tell you, it's a crowded market!

Lots of big players with huge audiences, communities and authority.

Like Pat Flynn (yes, the guy behind Smart Passive Income is into Pokémon cards too).

👉 Pat Flynn: 880k Youtube subscribers, a huge community of loyal fans and lots of authority.

👉 Me: 0 Youtube subscribers, no existing audience and no authority in this market whatsoever.

All I have is my passion.

Luckily, using my Niche Navigator Method, I managed to find an angle on my niche that's extremely underserved, in high demand and allows me to crush the competition (sorry Pat 😉).

That's why I now have people lining up to join my community:

And when they join, they send me DMs about how they were looking for a community like mine for some time now:

And when my members introduce themselves, they mention how the value proposition of community perfectly aligns with their own:

Plus, I've been able to quickly create a Skool community where my members tend to trust the people in my community more than anywhere else:

‍The best part?

You can do the same.

Let me show you how in 3 simple steps.

The 3-Steps to Using The Niche Navigator Method

There are three steps to my Niche Navigator Method.

Step 1: Brainstorm niche ideas.

Step 2: Do a niche viability check.

Step 3: Research the competition & look for opportunity.

Step 1/3: Brainstorm niche ideas

To find your niche, take some time to brainstorm and write down ideas for potential niches.

I strongly advise you to make it easy on yourself and explore your passion(s)!

Starting a community about something you are deeply passionate about has a ton of benefits.

It’s easier to:

• 👍 Generate lots of content ideas.
• 👍 Stay consistent for the coming years while you build.
• 👍 Connect and build relationships with your members.
• 👍 Go the extra mile for your members in terms of providing value.

Here's the thing:

Running a passion community is still a tough task.

There’s so much to do and learn! 

Finding new members, sparking engagement, DMing, events, content - it’s all on you.

Plus, community rarely sleeps.

So make it easy on yourself. Follow your passion when picking a niche.

To brainstorm niche ideas, answer these questions and write down the answers:

1. What subjects are you passionate about?
2. What are your hobbies?
3. What can you not stop talking about?
4. What topics allow you to generate lot of ideas?
5. What are you skilled in?
6. What feels like play to you, but work to others?
7. What Youtube videos do you watch the most?

💡 As you write down niches and you start feeling excited/motivated about a certain niche, and you get lots of ideas for content, that means you're on the right track!

Step 2/3: Do a niche viability check

Spoiler alert: Not all your ideas for niches will be viable.

You want a community with members you feel excited showing up for every day.

At the same time you want members that can help achieve your business goals, like a certain amount of MRR.

My niche for my community was extremely obvious for me (investing in Pokémon cards).

But I still wanted to double check whether this niche was viable for a community I knew I needed to build by myself (I don't have a team) and would cost me a lot of time and resources.

To do that, pick a niche from step 1 and rate it on a scale from 1 to 10 using the following questions:

1. How many people are interested in your niche?

If the size of your potential niche is too small, you’ll struggle finding new members.

A sufficient number of potential community members makes it a lot easier to build a successful community.

So ask yourself, how many people are interested in your niche?

If you follow your passion, you'll already have a general sense of how big your target market is, but it's still good to research.

Here's what I did:

I went to google.com and searched for "reddit.com Pokémon investing"

You can do the same for your keyword.

Next, I looked at how many subreddits (communities) pop up and checked them out.

Within a couple of minutes I found a few major ones, like this one:

Now go to Youtube.com, and type your niche in the search bar.

What do the search results say?

Can you find a lot of videos on your topic, or just a few?

How many views do they have? How many subscribers do their creators have?

Here's what I found:

Youtube channels that post daily with tens of thousands of views per video.

Now go to Google and search "[Your niche] news".

For my niche, I'm finding news reports about Pokemon products having to be rationed in Japan and the US cause of investors buying out stores.

Here's some other things you can look for:

Facebook groups, forums, actual books, apps, events, conferences, businesses.

Keep looking for clues that indicate how many people are interested in your niche.

My score = 9/10 👍

💡  Can't find enough info or don't know where to look? That might be a sign that you're not engaged enough with your own passion to understand what to look for. Spend some time engaging with your passion, you'll bump into clues to answer this question with more certainty.

2. Can you easily identify potential members?

If you want to build a community, you need to be able to easily identity potential members.

Try to find places where your potential members hang out.

This can be online, but also offline.

Online: Subreddits, Facebook groups, LinkedIn, forums, Discord servers.

Offline: Meetups, conferences.

You want to be able to pinpoint someone and confidently say:

Yes, this guy/gal clearly is a [participant of your specific niche].

Like this:

Yes, the people in this comment section on Reddit clearly are Pokémon card investors:

My score = 9/10 👍

💡 If you can't pinpoint potential members, you might be too unspecific about your niche. Try to define their characteristics more thoroughly.

3. How much do you like these people?

Community is about building relationships.

Do you build strong relationships with people you don’t like in real life? Exactly.

Try to give an honest answer here.

You might think like these people.

But would you like to hang out with them, grab a beer with them, have fun with them?

For me this question was pretty easy to answer:

I like them, I'm one of them, it would be easy to build a relationship with them.

My score = 9/10 👍

4. Do you understand them?

Do you understand their needs, fears and struggles on a deeper level?

If you don't, building a community for them will be difficult.

I'll say it again: Community is about building relationships.

Are you able to build strong relationships with people you don’t understand in real life?

And that's not all.

Do you empathise with their problems?

If you think they are complaining and you don't empathise with what keeps them awake at night, how can you build a real relationship with these people?

Lastly, do you get the lingo?

If one of my potential community members says:

"I'm worried my Gengar Vmax Alt Art is too off center to get a PSA 10"

I know what they are talking about.

As a matter of fact, I've dealt with the same problem.

You probably have no clue what that means, that's because you don't understand these people enough to run a a community for them.

(if you do understand what it means, join my community).

My score = 8/10 👍

💡 I'm giving a 8/10 here because I've been investing in Pokemon cards for 4 years. Some people have been in the game 10 or even 15 years, and there are things they are dealing with I simply can't relate to (yet).

5. Are you credible to them?

To lead these people as a community creator, they need to trust and respect you or they won't stick around.

You need to have credibility and some type of track record that you're as invested as them into this topic.

It's even better if you're having more success than most people and can share how you achieved that.

Now don't get nervous if you're not an absolute expert.

Here's the deal:

I'm not an absolute expert in investing in Pokémon cards.

Compared to the top investors out there, I'm not even close to where to they are.

But I'm better than most beginners, I have had some success and I spend more time than others figuring stuff out.

Credibility comes in many ways.

You don’t need to be an absolute expert and know it all. But if you’re being honest with yourself, would these people listen to your advise?

Can you exchange valuable information and learn from each other?

Are you committed to this niche just like them? Are you in the trenches with them?

Are you up to date on the latest developments in this niche and will you be for coming years?

My score = 7/10 👍

💡 I'm giving a 7/10 here because I'm definitely not on the level of some investors out there who are full-time, professional investors making million-dollar deals. I am however just as invested as my community members and very committed to learning and improving my own skill set.

6. How much passion do they have?

How much do these people care about your community’s topic/focus?

If people care more, they login more, engage more, and stay for longer.

You want a niche people will be in for as long as possible with as much excitement as possible.

Look through similar communities and social media, do people passionately care?

How much does passion does my niche have?

Let's just say they dedicate entire rooms in their homes to their collection:

My score = 10/10 👍

7. Can they pay you?

If you want to make money from your community, you need members that can and want to pay you.

If you can’t earn a living from your community, do you even want to build this thing?

Investigate if your potential members are spending money on what you plan to offer in your community.

For my niche, my average niche participant spends thousands if not more per year on Pokémon cards investments.

A mistake would be for me to then assume they'd also pay me to be part of my community.

Just because they spend money on their passion, doesn't guarantee they would spend money on being part of a community about their passion.

That's a common mistake you want to avoid.

The best thing you can find is other communities in your niche that charge a monthly fee.

For my niche, in finding multiple private discord servers with tons of members that charge a monthly fee:

If you can't find any communities, ask yourself:

Am I currently paying to be a part of a community in this niche?

I am personally paying someone $39 a month for 3 youtube videos with a market analysis.

But if I wasn't payment anyone, I would be asking myself: Why?

Maybe my potential members would rather spend their cash on new cards, than a community about buying cards?

Luckily for my niche, this isn't the case.

My score = 8/10 👍

💡 If you're worried you can't provide enough valuable information in your community to charge for, remember that people don't only pay to get access to information but also to feel like they belong, to connect with likeminded people and to be entertained.

Add up the scores

1. How many people are interested in your niche? My score = 9/10 👍
2. Can you easily identify potential members? My score = 9/10 👍
3. How much do you like these people?  My score = 9/10 👍
4. Do you understand them? My score = 8/10 👍
5. Are you credible to them? My score = 7/10 👍
6. How much passion do they have? My score = 10/10 👍
7. Can they pay you? My score = 8/10 👍

My total score = 60/70 👍

Depending on your scores, you might have to rethink and iterate your niche.

If you feel confident about your score and you're still excited about your niche, it’s time to research the competition and look for opportunity.

Step 3/3: Research the competition & look for opportunity

Read this sentence a couple of times:

There needs to be demand for your new community and its focus.

You need to make sure that your potential community members are not already being overserved by an abundance of existing similar communities.

Yes, you might be passionate about your niche.

And yes, it might be very viable based on the questions above.

But if your niche participants don't have an appetite for a new community, you'll struggle.

It comes down to supply and demand:

Supply: Existing communities and what they offer to their members.

Demand: What the people in your niche desire out of a community.

Your niche can already be overserved, meaning current communities are doing a great job and there's low opportunity for you:

You are looking for an imbalance tipped the other way, more demand than supply:

💡 You want an underserved, high opportunity niche. Meaning, there is demand for something more/new/different (your community).

How to research supply & demand in your market and look for opportunity

Your niche will already have communities serving it.

Join these communities and take note of:

• How many existing communities are there?
• How well are they serving their members (and segments of members), are they doing a great job or serving their audience poorly?
• Can you sense an unmet need or a feeling of not belonging from certain members? Is there a pattern?
• Do (some) members ask for a specific type of content but aren’t getting (enough) of it? Is there too little information and an overload of entertainment or vice-versa?
• What do you personally like/don’t like about these communities?

The great thing about turning your passion into community:

You can answer these questions based on your experience and see if you can find clues of other people having the same ideas/feeling as you.

When you do your research, you might find competitors' communities and at first glance think your niche is being overserved and there's low opportunity for you:

Don't let that get you down.

Dive into these communities and do proper research.

Read posts, comments and get a sense of what going on.

You'll be surprised how many communities are serving their members to a poor standard.

Their members are craving more high quality content (💎), but the community mainly produces, well... 💩 content.

(this can be the case with communities in which the creators let in the wrong people, who then start treating the community like a social media newsfeed for low quality posts).

🔎 How my research went: My competitors accept pretty much anyone that wants to join their community, including tons of kids that post low quality content. Serious investors need to sift through 💩 to find 💎. Maybe I should focus my community exclusively on adults?

Supply and demand can also be imbalanced for a specific segment:

Members of an English speaking community might be 50% from the United States (🇺🇸) and 50% from the United Kingdom (🇬🇧).

Meanwhile 90% of the content in the community is US focused.

Members from the UK are being underserved and might love a community just for people from the UK.

🔎 How my research went: 90% of the posts in my competitors' communities are done by people from the US. The US has different prices, stocks, products, release dates and online market places for Pokémon products than the EU. People from the EU are being underserved and neglected. Maybe I should focus my community exclusively on people from the EU?

Supply and demand can also be imbalanced based on the type of value members seek:

People join communities for different reasons.

Information 📚

Entertainment 🎉

Feeling of belonging ❤️

Networking 🧑🤝🧑

You'll find some communities are overloaded with entertainment (🎉) and little in-depth information (📚), or vice-versa, leaving a specific segment of people underserved.

🔎 How my research went: My competitor's communities offer tons of great youtube videos with superb editing. They stream everyday, and hang out in the group chat. But they have almost no in-depth guides or deeper discussions about investing, leaving a lot of members underserved. Maybe I should focus my community more on in-depth content, and less on entertaining my members?

Lastly, don't let huge communities intimidate you.

Not many community creators build the culture in their community with care.

They let in too many members and things get out of hand.

(especially on platforms where you don't have to use your real name, like Reddit).

Members hide themselves behind their usernames (🥸) and start trolling (🤬).

Meanwhile the members that want to bring positive vibes (🙂) are being underserved.

🔎 How my research went: The communities of my competitors are mostly run on Reddit, meaning they have a Reddit culture. Name calling, bad vibes, overly sarcastic answers and no social consequences as everyone uses a made up username. Many people keep saying the culture doesn't feel nice. Maybe I should start a community where members have to use their real name?

Wrapping up your research

Your audience can be underserved in multiple ways. Try to figure out as many as you can.

Here's what my research told me about my competitors' communities:

• Lots of low quality posts made by kids. Serious investors need to sift through 💩 to find 💎.
• 90% of posts are US focussed and irrelevant for EU investors. But EU investors make up a large amount of total members.
• They offer great entertainment, but not enough in-depth content leaving a large chunk of members underserved.
• They have too many members, their culture is bad and there are almost no social consequences for bad behaviour..

Add it all up and the idea for my community was born:

Pokemon card investing community, exclusively for adult collectors from the European continent. You need to use your real name, and you need to be approved before joining. 70% in depth content, 30% entertainment.

💡 Can’t find opportunity? Let your research lead you into a more narrowly focused niche that still aligns with your passion, just like I did. If you're unsure about you more narrowly focused niche, repeat step 2 (viability check) and step 3 (look for opportunity) for your new niche.

Once you think you found opportunity

You've done your research and think you found opportunity, an underserved high opportunity niche.

Good job.

Now what?

Answer these questions as honestly as you can:

• Do you have something special that you can bring to this niche?
• Can you bring something fresh and different?
• Do you see a way to position your community as a great option to explore?
• Can you beat the competition?
• Can you become #1?

Can you answer these questions with a 'Yes'?

Great!

You are now an official Niche Navigator and on the the right track to build your own Skool community.

Conclusion

That's how you use The Niche Navigator Method to find a high demand, low supply & monetizable Skool niche.

Here's a cool quote I read the other day:

It’s not how big your community is, it’s how much your community members care.

Getting my niche right was the key to getting my members to care deeply about my community.

And when your members care, it's a whole lot easier to get your "10 True Regulars":