How many niche ideas should I generate before narrowing down?

Aim for a genuinely wide list — 15 to 20 ideas — before filtering, since the first few ideas that come to mind are often the most obvious and most competitive ones.

Should I choose a niche I have no existing knowledge of, if the data looks strong?

It's possible, but it adds real research time to every piece of content you produce — existing knowledge plus strong data is a stronger starting combination than data alone.

Finding Profitable Niches

Generic "best niches" lists go stale fast, and worse, they send everyone who reads them toward the exact same handful of ideas — meaning you'd be starting in already-saturated territory. A repeatable process for generating your own ideas is worth far more than any static list.

A step-by-step process

Start from your own knowledge and interests, not a "best niches" list. What do you already know enough about to write confidently, without extensive research for every single post? This is your genuine starting advantage over someone entering the niche cold.
List adjacent sub-niches, not just the obvious top-level category. "Fitness" is too broad and brutally competitive. "Home gym equipment for small apartments" is specific enough to have a real angle, while still having genuine search demand behind it.
Check for real affiliate programs in each sub-niche — using the six factors from the previous lesson. A sub-niche that fails this check gets crossed off, no matter how appealing it seems otherwise.
Search the actual keywords you'd target, and look honestly at what's already ranking. Is it dominated by massive, resource-rich sites, or is there a realistic opening for genuinely useful, specific content?
Look for an angle competitors are missing. This might be more specificity (a narrower audience than existing content addresses), more current information, or simply better organization and clarity than what's already out there.

A concrete example, worked through

Start broad: "productivity tools." Too broad, too competitive, too many massive sites already covering it comprehensively. Narrow it: "productivity tools for freelance writers." Better — genuine sub-audience, real commercial intent (freelancers actively pay for tools that save them time), and a manageable competitive landscape. Check the six factors: real affiliate programs exist (many SaaS productivity tools run programs), search demand exists at a workable level, and the competition — while present — isn't dominated entirely by unbeatable, massive sites. That's a niche worth taking to the validation process in Lesson 10.

What to avoid

Two common traps: chasing a niche purely because it's described as "hot" or "trending" somewhere, without checking any of the six factors yourself — and going so narrow that there's genuinely no search volume behind it at all. The sweet spot is specific enough to be winnable, broad enough to actually have search demand and commercial depth behind it.