How can a beginner test different niches without wasting effort, and how to identify niches likely to need automation services?
Focus on niches that have money and are digital—think B2B SaaS, PR agencies, or any service that can be delivered online. Avoid low‑ticket, brick‑and‑mortar niches like dog walking because lead sourcing is hard and expensive. To test, scrape lead lists (e.g., 2,000 contacts per niche across three or four niches) using a service like Leads Rapidly; that costs about $5 per thousand leads, so roughly $30 for 6,000 leads. You’ll also need about 12‑13 mailboxes at around $3.50 each, adding another $40‑$50, for a first‑month total of around $100‑$110. Send your cold emails, then compare which niches give the highest response rates, deepest funnel progress, and most revenue. Also look for mid‑ to high‑ticket offers, as they’re more likely to need automation.
You don't know what you don't know, so don't rely solely on your past experience to pick a niche. Instead, test multiple options in the market and let customers decide. Run several niches simultaneously, measure positive reply rates, booking rates, and revenue over time, then double down on the best performer. Treat this like a science experiment: avoid putting all your eggs in one basket too early; instead, try several, identify the easiest to succeed with, and then go all in.
I feel like I've already answered this, but to be clear, I would use Apify's 1.5 per 1k scraper, which gets you about 1,000 leads for roughly $1.50 to $2. Then I'd run them through Million Verifier to validate emails—I'm not affiliated with them. That would give me about 60-70% valid emails, meaning you'd spend around $3 to $4 per thousand leads on average. That includes phone numbers too, though they're sparser than emails. You could also enrich with something like Lead Magic for phone enrichment if needed, but I wouldn't worry about that right now. [gasps and sighs]
I wouldn’t sell the whole system as one monolithic offer. Instead, I’d break it down into its components—pipeline (a CRM), lead qualifier, scheduler, and a suite of tools like job post writers and CV screeners. I’d create multiple tiers and packages: for example, a basic package with just the CRM, another with CRM + qualifier, another with CRM + qualifier + scheduler, a fourth with just the tools suite, and a full package with all four. Then I’d test each package as a separate offer to see which resonates most. The most‑popular package gives natural upsell paths—you can sell the basic package, then add the qualifier, then the scheduler, etc., or bundle them together. I’d also consider adding a second niche, such as HR departments, alongside recruitment agencies, and run two variants per package (giving 16 tests total). To test efficiently, I’d send about 800 emails a day using roughly 25 mailboxes (costing ~$170/month) plus lead‑scraping infrastructure (~$200/month). In the first month I’d run all 16 tests, drop the underperformers, and scale the winners. This approach lets you validate each piece before committing to the full workflow.
If you're running an automation agency, you have three main options to find clients. First, Upwork: it's the simplest, straightest path for beginners to get your first dollar online, though the ROI is lower than other methods. Second, cold email: cost per acquisition is super low, you can scale it, and you can use AI to personalize outreach; check out my previous videos on my main channel @Nix for details on customizing and personalizing emails. Third, communities: post high-value content daily or every few days in groups where your target customers hang out; this frames you as an authority and quickly builds an inbound presence without the hard work of recording hundreds of videos. In Maker School I provide a daily regimen: send 10 Upwork applications, make a community post, and do cold email outreach each day. I recommend about 270 cold emails per day (nine mailboxes with 30 emails each). With a two-step sequence, that yields roughly 3,240 contacts per month, leading to about 90 engaged people, and assuming a third respond positively, you get around 30 leads per day—fantastic for your pipeline. This is what's working today given your photography background; you don't need to cold‑approach bigger businesses unless you want to, as it's often a pain.