There are several main criteria for a niche to be considered “evergreen.”
The most important characteristic that defines an evergreen niche is that the information does not dramatically change as time goes on. As an example: Cooking Recipes. There have certainly been tweaks and new recipes for years, but the foundational information about cooking hasn’t changed all that much. In theory, the information will still be valuable ten years in the future or longer.
Content Oriented not Product Oriented
Typically these niches are content oriented rather than being product oriented. Marketplaces for products and consumer demands have a tendency to be constantly changing. Every year new products come out and consumer preferences change and some effort will need to be put in to adapt. E-commerce websites are generally not considered to be evergreen as there is a ton of work that is required to maintain that type of business.
Topics Are More Limited Due To Less Frequent Change
Another characteristic of evergreen niches is that there is a limited amount of “education information” available on the topic. That doesn’t mean that there can’t be a million in one ways to use that information, but the educational or foundational information is limited in scope. As an example, there is a limited amount of information on the topic of “learning how to cook” but there are millions of ways to utilize that information as there are endless volumes of recipes, different foods, and various devices to use while cooking.
Less Change Makes Changes More Important When They Do Occur
The less a niche changes over time, the more important the change actually is to the audience when one does occur. These situations are when having an email list become extremely valuable. So, let’s pretend that you have a site that teaches people how to cook, and somebody discovered a new way to cook steaks that results in steaks that taste ten times better. Surely your mailing list would want to be the first to know.
Ever Green Niches Can Be Very Technical or Require Experience
Usually these niches are a little bit “geeky” or “nerdy.” The audience of this type of content want a lot more than just surface level information, and they want to know everything there is to know about the topic.
The Website Has to Be Profitable
This is and important thing to remember: Since this is a business, there has to be some way to profit from creating content in that niche. Even though the niche itself shouldn’t be product oriented, some of the content may need to market products as a way to generate revenue.
Tip: Even if you think your topic is all fun and games, you should still treat it like a business, and think about the business from its perspective. Even if you hate writing content, it’s the most cost-effective way to get a content-oriented business started, so you’re going to have to put the time in.