Validating Your Product Idea

The first thing you need to ask yourself is – are people even interested in this product?

Are people actually searching for it?

Because if no one is searching for it, it is going to be hard to get enough traffic to your shop to make a sustainable income.

So how do you discover if people are interested in your product. Well, there are a few practical tools you can use to gauge interest.

• Google keyword planner tool – free tool type in keywords around your product and see how many people are searching for that each month.
• Marmalead – use this tool to find out what people are searching for on Etsy.
• eRank – input keywords and see how many people are searching for it on Etsy.
• Pinterest – try to find keywords and search terms around your product. See how many people are pinning ideas about your product and judge if it’s something of interest.
• Blog – if you have a blog, look at your most visited posts. What are your audience interested in? If you are yet to start your blog, then look at other blogs in your niche. What are people most interested in?
• Existing products – which of your products is the most popular? Could you take advantage of this popularity by creating a spin-off or complementing product?
• Social Media posts – across your own and other people’s social media accounts, which posts get the most engagement? Concentrate on those posts that get people commenting and join in the conversation to find out what your followers really want.
• Etsy forums – Etsy forums are a great resource for finding out what real Etsy sellers think and want. Simply search the forums for your general niche area and you’ll see how much engagement the topic has. From this you can decide if it’s a niche worth creating products for.

On page 13 of the workbook, use the tools outlined here to gauge interest for your product.