Graduating from university is a special time in a student’s life, bringing one chapter to a close and opening another. While studying, students have made friends and acquaintances that will form a part of their professional network in the future. Or, they may never see each other again, because sometimes life just happens.

Either way, leaving a special message for the graduating student is a heartfelt way to bid farewell. This is where graduation guest books come to the fore. And they’re a great niche to enter if you’re an Amazon KDP seller. Why? Because the top five results, according to Book Bolt, yield over 1,334 sales.

If you are trying to enter this niche, there are a few important details for you to consider. Take a look at what these are below.

How big is the market for graduation guest books?

As the academic year draws to a close, graduations become a focal point for many students. Graduation books are in high demand, evident from their impressive Best Seller’s Rank (BSR) of 570,539. This score indicates a strong market demand, making it a promising niche to explore.

But without in-depth research, your efforts may fall flat. This is why in the discussion below, we’ll cover the main keyword queries and their search volume, the keyword saturation, and the prices charged for these books.

Keywords and search volume

To gauge buyer demand for graduation guest books, it is essential to explore the predominant search queries and their associated search volumes.

Here’s a summary of the most important and relevant keywords, along with their search volumes (data provided by Book Bolt):

• “Graduations”: search volume – 2,619,458
• “Graduation”: search volume – 260,355
• “Graduates”: search volume – 1,837
• “Graduated”: search volume – 1,834
• “Graduating”: search volume – 1,616
• “Graduate”: search volume – 1,433
• “Graduate 2023 graduation guest book”: search volume – 1,254

This shortlist reveals the primary keywords used by buyers. Notably, the seed keyword “graduations” garners a massive search volume of over 2.5 million.

Additionally, the singular word “graduation” also receives a significant portion of the search volume.

Although the remaining keywords have lower search volumes, their combined numbers are extensive. To cater to this niche and maximize profitability, ensure that these keywords are incorporated in combination within your listing title.

Keyword saturation

As for keyword saturation, we also explore what keywords sellers are targeting in their titles to help capture the consumer-side search for graduation-related guest books. Here’s what we discovered:

• Type of book: book (203), guest (130), guestbook (24)
• Seed keywords: graduation (196), graduate (53)
• Audience: senior (26), students (16), seniors (14), grad (14), visitors (4), graduates (4)
• Purpose of book: gift (17)
• Related keywords: class (85), party (75), wishes (61), sign (50), messages (44), autograph (40), keepsake (39), school (38), advice (31), memories (30), college (24), memory (18), congratulations (14), signature (8), message (8)

Based on this information, it’s evident that the words “guest” and “book” feature prominently in the titles, while the one-word description “guestbook” appears less frequently. This is worth considering when creating your listing title.

Moreover, the highly popular seed keywords “graduation” and “graduate” have been effectively targeted by successful sellers.

The primary audience for these books is seniors and students, aligning perfectly with this niche. Furthermore, these books are often given as gifts to graduating students.

Related keywords aim to capture the essence of fresh graduates’ experiences, symbolizing a new chapter in their lives after completing their education. The goal is to create keepsakes that preserve precious memories.

Pricing

Let’s now delve into the pricing of these products. On average, we see that according to Book Bolt, the prices are in the region of just over $7.70.

Note that we will discuss the importance of price a bit further on.

• Lowest price: $4.15
• Highest price: $16.99
• Average price: $7.77

What are some of the best-selling merchants doing right?

There are many sellers who are doing well in the graduation guest book niche, courtesy of their listing optimization. However, we identified two top sellers, whose strategy we will discuss in detail in order to help you figure out their best practices.

Seller 1:

• Title: Class Of 2023 Graduation Autograph Book: Sign with Signatures, Capture Messages & Record Meaningful Wishes | Graduate Guest Book for Autographs | Light Pink & Black
• Author: Cebus Clouds
• Price: $6.99
• BSR: 42,058
• Total sales: 288

Seller 2:

• Title: Autograph Book for Graduation Class Of 2023: Graduation Guest Book 2023 to Write Autographs, Messages & Wishes | Class of 2023 High School Graduation Party, Colors Blue with Gold Glitter
• Author: Grad Congrat Reference
• Price: $7.48
• BSR: 41,616
• Total sales: 290

Keyword usage

Even though these two sellers are completely different, their titles are quite similar. Because they both get an identical number of sales, we can conclude that their strategies are working.

In particular, these sellers have used the high search volume keyword “graduation” and “graduate” and they’ve also indicated the current year, which makes the gift more personalized.

They also indicate the colors on the cover of the book. In addition, they indicate its purpose: namely that it is to sign, capture messages, record wishes, etc.

Pricing

Further to the similarities in their titles, both sellers have opted to price quite similarly, too. Their prices are just under the average of $7.77.

Below, we will discover whether this strategy works in their favor in terms of profitability.

Cover design

Both guest books of these two top sellers have a solid, dark color background. In the case of seller one, it is black and in the case of seller two, it is dark blue. Both capture the words “class of 2023” and both indicate that the purpose of the book is for graduations.

The font is neat and clear, centered, and large, which makes for an effective cover design, too.

What is the profitability within this niche?

To determine the profitability of these top sellers, we utilized the Amazon KDP royalty calculator to estimate their earnings based on royalties and sales numbers.

Here are the findings:

• Seller 1: $380.16
• Seller 2: $229.10

These figures reveal that sellers in this niche can earn over $200. However, by applying the average price to their book products, sellers could potentially increase their royalties and overall profitability significantly.

Our recommendations

Finally, we conclude with our recommendations for successfully entering the graduation guest books niche on Amazon KDP.

Here’s what you should know:

1. Keywords: instead of using the seed keyword “graduation” in your title, make sure to use the plural word “graduations”. This is the difference between 200,000 searches and over 2.5 million searches.
2. Price: neither of the two sellers we identified above priced at the average. This means they are losing out on potential profitability. Remember that a single dollar can mean profitability in the low hundreds versus profitability in the higher hundreds.
3. Cover design: make sure you use a neutral and dark color for your cover background. Also ensure that the design is stylish. It’s worth mentioning which year the graduation book is for because this makes for an important keepsake.

Final remarks

When it comes to graduation guest books, the potential for profitability is high, although not all sellers are taking advantage of this, including the two top sellers identified above.

Despite this, the niche is worth considering because of its ease of access. All you need are blank pages and a relatively simple cover.

Once you get those elements out of the way, it’s about pricing right and optimizing your title. You can do all this with the help of Book Bolt.

The platform is rich in functionalities and goes for a low $9.99 per month. It’s a subscription that you don’t want to miss out on if you want your Amazon KDP side gig to thrive.