Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2010. The ranking of searched topics and sites, the Casillas–Carbonero kiss at the 2010 World Cup, the Cristiano Ronaldo search figures and the advice on advertising for adult sites all reflect that moment.
For those thinking of building a website and wondering which topics people search for most on the internet, here is a brief rundown of the most profitable topics online. As you can probably imagine, the most searched topic hasn’t changed since the early days of the internet: it’s sex, which accounts for 50% of all searches worldwide.
Sex is the most searched topic, but if that tempts you to base your web project on search volume, you should also know that it’s the topic with the most competition. There’s an added drawback, too: funding a business built on adult-content websites is getting harder and harder, because advertising companies are turning these topics away by law.
Even so, there is specialized pay-per-click advertising available, but most of these ad companies are American, so the ads you get are in English. That isn’t really a drawback, though, because when it comes to sex, videos and images, language doesn’t matter.
The next most searched topics are social networks and the search engines themselves, with Google at the top of the list, followed by Facebook.
Sites devoted to classified ads and buying and selling, such as eBay or Mundoanuncio (a Spanish classifieds site), get millions of searches a month.
Nor should we rule out online casinos and gaming, which top the list for profitability.
Sites about technology and vehicles also get millions of visits a month. A good site on either of these two topics can certainly bring in a large number of tech and motoring enthusiasts.
Nor should we overlook celebrity gossip sites. To take a recent example, Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas’s kiss with reporter Sara Carbonero broke internet search records, not to mention that Cristiano Ronaldo held the search engines’ attention for more than a month, with over 150 million searches related to “CR9”.
To give you an idea, those of us who cover business, investing and finance account for only 1.5% of internet searches, although on the internet 1.5% is still a lot of users.
Remember that there are two ways to make money from an online business:
- Build a site on a very general topic and take on a lot of competition, or
- Focus on a specific topic for a more limited group of people, but with less competition.
Of course, if you’re able to offer your site in English as well, your business idea will have a better chance of success.
Further reading
- Business ideas in leisure and tourism
- The only secrets to becoming rich
- How to lose your fear of starting a business
- How to be a successful entrepreneur
- The entrepreneur’s mindset
Featured image: www.Pixel.la Free Stock Photos, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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