Should I DUMP a Niche with Too Much Competition?

[Tom Sheltraw]

I'm not a big time marketer. I've made limited money on the Internet. The question was posed in the subject line. My niche has 140 million web pages on Yahoo.

Should I dump it? I've been struggling with it for months.

Thanks,

Tom

[Chris Monty]

I wouldn't. I would use a tool like Adword Analyzer to come up with some niche keywords within that niche with high search volume and low number of organic results.

Remember, a competitive niche means a profitable niche.

[Monetize]

Only you can decide whether you should stick with
this niche. If you're not getting any traffic or making
any money, it's time to diversify. Maybe you could
find a sub-niche or a related niche that would give
you better results.

[Rod Cortez]

Originally Posted by Tom Sheltraw

I'm not a big time marketer. I've made limited money on the Internet. The question was posed in the subject line. My niche has 140 million web pages on Yahoo.

Should I dump it? I've been struggling with it for months.

Thanks,

Tom

It depends on a TON of factors and 140 million web pages wouldn't make my top ten list of things to look at (no, I'm not sharing that here, that's for a separate thread).

In general, the more competitive the market the more knowledge you have to have so you can compete. I was told to stay out of two hyper-competitive niches by some very well-meaning marketers years ago and today these two niches are some of my most profitable ones. I can understand why they told me to stay away from them:

1. The first marketer failed in one of the niches and then made it in another niche, so to him the niche I wanted to get into was "risky". Later on I learned what he did wrong (hint: he didn't study his competition) and learned what the top 5 to 10 people / companies in that niche were doing right.

2. The second marketer advised me to go into a less competitive niche, then build up a consistent, profitable revenue stream, gaining some knowledge before tackling a more competitive niche. This made sense to me at the time.

Sometimes you can really compete in a niche because the top competitor's are not utilizing all the channels of distribution. For example, I found a very competitive niche where there was ton of advertising online using PPC, banner ads, and other forms of paid advertising. But I noticed almost none of them were advertising in magazines or on the radio.

After doing some research I discovered it wasn't because they were not profitable advertising mediums, but mostly the owners or marketing VPs told me that it "wasn't worth our time". Smack! Blam! Zap! It hit me like the old batman TV series....there was a way to compete. Granted it was a calculated risk, but it paid off.

In some niches all you need to do is find out a couple of the top competitor's weaknesses (they all have at least a couple and I have yet to find an exception to this, no one...I mean no one company is good at everything) and land one JV partner.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. If you have enough backend products or affiliate products you can take a loss at building your list using PPC or other forms of paid advertising and then you'll make it back on your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th back end product, depending on price point (this is why its critical to know your figures before cranking out any marketing campaigns).

My One nickel and 4 Pesos,

RoD "Acid-Reflux-My-A@#$%-Bring-Me-Those-Coffee-Beans!" Cortez

[Andyhenry]

why keep banging your head against a brick wall? do something you can succeed at.

[RoyChan]

Originally Posted by Tom Sheltraw

I'm not a big time marketer. I've made limited money on the Internet. The question was posed in the subject line. My niche has 140 million web pages on Yahoo.

Should I dump it? I've been struggling with it for months.

Thanks,

Tom

Hi Tom,

To say it's "your niche", you need to think your edge/ story to make your key success factors. 140 million web pages does not mean a thing, if you can find your angle of approach and uniqueness to offer to your "niche". Think your strength, consider your offer vs your competitors'

Why should people buy from you? Read your content? Good luck

Roy