I had one of the funniest phone conversations of my life with marketer Nicole Dean. Nicole runs a series she calls “Weird Niche Wednesday,” and on this particular day, her weird niche was owl pellets.
If you are not familiar, owl pellets are little balls of bones and feathers that owls cannot digest after eating their prey. Fourth graders across America dissect these things every year as a science project. What I did not know was that there is a legitimate market for owl pellets on the internet.
People Are Actually Searching for Owl Pellets Online
While laughing on the phone with Nicole about owl vomit, I decided to do some quick research. When I typed “owl pellets” into Google, I found 11 paid ads running — sponsored links from advertisers willing to spend real money to reach this audience. Whenever I see that many ads, I know there is money changing hands in that niche.
A quick check showed some advertisers paying over two dollars per click. Even more telling, the Google Keyword Tool at the time showed 9,900 exact match searches per month for “owl pellets,” with some related keywords showing a cost per click over five dollars.
That got my attention.
How I Evaluated This Niche
I fired up a keyword research tool and dug deeper. It confirmed the search volume and surfaced about 100 related keywords. Of those, 28 contained the word “pellet” or “pellets.” The most interesting finding was the keyword “owl pellet dissection” — it had 1,000 searches per month and almost no strong competition.
That is the kind of opportunity niche marketers dream about: measurable demand, paying advertisers, and weak competition. The principles behind this research still apply in 2026, even though the specific tools have changed. Today you would use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or even Google's own Keyword Planner to run a similar analysis.
The Lesson: Weird Niches Can Be Profitable Niches
The point of this story is not really about owl pellets. It is about keeping your eyes open for unexpected opportunities. Some of the best niche businesses I have seen over my years of podcasting serve markets that most people would never think to explore.
Here is the framework that still works in 2026 for evaluating any weird niche idea:
- Is there search demand? Use keyword research tools to verify people are actually looking for this topic.
- Are advertisers spending money? Paid ads indicate that businesses are profitable enough in this space to justify advertising costs.
- How strong is the competition? Low competition means you can rank and get traffic without spending years building authority.
- Are there products to sell or promote? Look for affiliate programs, physical products, or digital products that serve this audience.
Do not dismiss an idea just because it sounds strange. The internet is vast, and there are passionate buyers in niches you have never imagined. Owl pellets taught me that lesson, and I have never forgotten it.
Weirder than weird.
Why would anyone buy them? Or is that not what the ads are for? I haven’t checked.
I can walk through our woods out in the back 40 and find them any time. Usually they are sitting on top of a stump of a felled tree, or on top of a big boulder that is a few feet up off the ground.
We have an Amish farm a mile away so I’m going to see how the market goes for Road Apples.
Rich,
You have a gold mine in the back 40. Start pluckin’ those nuggets up. I regret to say that, if I ever needed owl pellets, I would have to buy a supply as we are owl-less here.
Great oogley moogley! What a fabulous new blog http://www.owlpelletdissection.com/
Way to go Mark! (Are those little teeth in the pellet on the top graphic?)
I’m testifyin’ right now about Nicole – she is only mostly sane. I’m her Mom so I can say that… with love. 😉
Anyway, good job running with the ball, Mark! Nicole always has nice things to say about you, and now I see just how true they all are.
I think they are little teeth. Cool, eh?
You daughter is really special. I hope my girls (3 of them) are a lot like little Nicki.
Mark
Wow. What an incredible compliment.
Thank you for that.
I gotta ask you one question.
WHERE did you get that graphic for your header? I can’t imagine the stock photo sites carry that kind of thing…. or do they?
Either way, it kinda made me throw up a little. lol!
LOL — great question. They are used in schools. Kids dissect them and find mouse skulls and stuff.
Mark
Love it, Mark. Who would have guessed that you could make money by selling vomit online? Go figure. 🙂
That’s definitely a perfect illustration of the beauty of niche marketing.
I’m looking forward to seeing your progress with the new http://www.owlpelletdissection.com blog. I love the layout and I see you’ve monetized it to the nines. Fun stuff!
Thanks for always enjoying my mostly-sane teachings.
Nicole
PS. YOU ROCK!
Thanks Nicki. Will be interesting to see what happens. Obviously, I don’t intend to devote my life to it. So, it will be cool to see if I can make it profitable on a limited time budget.
Hi,
I’m interested on how it goes, I visited the website and it looks really nice. How are you going to monetize it? Adsense maybe… I bet you can get #1 ranked for those two terms especially since there’s weak competition. Nice story!
Bye
Clark — because of the high CPC and the fact that I don’t plan on investing a lot of time initially, I will start with AdSense, Amazon and eBay. This is because all three of those can be done completely automatically. If I see traffic and poor revenue, I will look at converting to more profitable offers.
For example, I might look at promoting (or write) an eBook for kids that helps hem do their reports or whatever.
Regards,
Mark
You do rock, man! Wow – great job getting that site up! Will definitely be interesting to see where it goes. 🙂
Thanks! I am working on a “system” for sites like this. So this makes a good experiment for me.
Great stuff Mark – I will definitely start tuning in to weird niche Wednesday. Here’s two that blew me away – – Google “Snooki” or “The situation”. You’ll be amazed – truly. One could probably profit nicely with an anti-snooki e-book.
I guess I am getting old — I had never even heard of Snookie. Oh well.
I guess I am getting old Kent. I had never even heard of Snookie before. Oh well…
Haha – you’re more efficient with your part time than I – or my kids are older than your’s. Snooki is on that rancid reality show Jersey Shore – and 32M folks Google her for unknown reasons. She’s so popular she garnered a comment from NJ Governor Christie – who I do like.