Help With Drilling Down in a Niche

10 replies
Hey Warriors! I need help with drilling down in a niche.

I understand that it starts with the MARKET. With certain types of niches, this seems pretty easy and straightforward. For example....

If you want to tackle the very lucrative pet niche, you would do something like this...

Pet Owners ----> Dog Owners -----> Small Dog Owners ----> Dachshund Owners

Of course, you'd be looking at Amazon, pet owner forums, Google Adwords, etc. as you drill down.

And then you look at what Dachshund Owners want. Understand the market's demand - and then supply it.

That's the concept.

Any experienced IMers think I'm missing something? If so, please let me know.

Okay, here is where I start to get major brain cramps, Information Overload headaches, creative constipation, etc....

Let's say you want to specialize in a "soft skills" niche like Self Improvement.

In this case, it seems that you're not starting with a niche of specific buyers, but rather with a CONCEPT within which you know that products and services sell.

And that's where the challenge comes in for me.

How do you effectively drill down in a "soft skills" niche like Self-Improvement and still identify a clear, specific, group of known buyers?
#drilling #niche
  • Profile picture of the author nat014
    Hi
    A first step you may want to take is to find out how big is your market. Use Google keyword to get an idea. From there you can see if people are searching for it and term do they use. Then you need to know how many are competing, how many pages. Basically if you have an area of expertise you need to find out how to position yourself and which key words will give you the highest exposure.
    Once you know what key word, then it will be easy to find related product to your niche.
    Hope that helps.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1419314].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author trytolearnmore
    Find out what problems people are having through forums (communication problems, stress, etc).
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1419321].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author BrianTubbs
      In looking at a "soft skills" niche like self-improvement, I often start with my own experience, credibility, and interests. I realize that may be the wrong way to do it.

      I know the kinds of ebooks, videos, reports, etc. I'd like to publish. And the kinds of talks I'd like to give. And then I go looking for the audience, the market. And that's where I'm having trouble.

      But when I start with the market, I end up with markets like antique collectors, pet owners, etc. that don't interest me much.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1419357].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by BrianTubbs View Post

        I know the kinds of ebooks, videos, reports, etc. I'd like to publish. And the kinds of talks I'd like to give. And then I go looking for the audience, the market. And that's where I'm having trouble.

        But when I start with the market, I end up with markets like antique collectors, pet owners, etc. that don't interest me much.
        Brian, you are going at it a little bass-ackward if your objective is to make money.

        A market is a group of people with something in common, hopefully something that your product will improve in their lives. Whether you're talking about piranha-training or self-help, it's the same idea with a different approach.

        Let's pick one of the 'soft skills' to use as an example - building strong self-esteem. Who might need to boost their self-esteem?

        > Maybe the newly-divorced?
        > People who perceive themselves as physically unattractive?
        > People who have just been pink-slipped and need to hunt for a job?

        ...and so on.

        List the soft skills you want to teach, then brainstorm for groups of people that might benefit from learning those skills. Same idea, just not as straight forward as drilling down from "Pets" to "Dachshund Owners"...
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1419562].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author BrianTubbs
          Thank you, John, for your advice: "Let's pick one of the 'soft skills' to use as an example - building strong self-esteem. Who might need to boost their self-esteem?"

          I had a vague sense of that, but I see this is where I need to focus. Brainstorm those interested in the "soft skill" I'm prepared to offer, and then start researching and targeting those groups.
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1419605].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Fraggler
    The Google Keyword Tools are actually great for drilling down through niches, especially using the "Broad" filter.

    Put in your main market into the Google keyword too and sort by number of results. When you find a broad match with 50K+ take that term and do another search based on it to find related keywords. Keep flipping between Broad and Exact as you move down to make sure you have enough terms with enough searches to make an adequate and worthwhile site. Each time you narrow the search down do some SEO Analysis to see if you can rank well for the current list of results. If you can then you can start collecting keywords for your site. You can keep drilling if you like but the digger you deep the less the number of searches.

    You can think of the broad match for a keyword as the maximum traffic you can get for a site dedicated to that term and the phrases it is within.

    To find emerging traffic remember to always look at Google Insights.

    To move a little outside of a niche have a look through the results of the Google Wonder Wheel.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1419641].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author BrianTubbs
      My next question is that, as you identify the markets to target, what kind of credibility, credentials, track record, etc. do you need to effectively reach and sell to that market?

      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ty-needed.html
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1419649].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Cringer
        Hi all,

        This is my first post here to the forum so I hope to help add some value to your thread BrianTubbs.

        I use a couple of systems when looking for a narrow niche and it starts with Google. You're probably aware of Google's Suggest tool that drops down results as you start to type in a search term.

        Well what I begin with is a phrase that incorporates a noun. For example,
        "How to build a "
        If you place that phrase (without quotes) into Google you'll notice the suggested results appearing.
        Now I take it a step further and type in an extra letter after that phrase:
        "How to build a a"

        This will return results with niches beginning with "a".

        Of course changing the noun around will generate different niches. Try things like "How to knit a " for example will return further niches.

        To make the process easier and quicker for rapid niche finding, I created an application (freeware) which you can grab in my signature.
        Signature
        Access to my entire team for less than the cost of a Virtual Assistant and have unlimited requests including Cold Calling each day![/B] Click Here to find out more
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1419661].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Dr Dan
    This is all great advice and I love how John put it. I too was struggling with this. It feels like the self help/ self development is just so big. You gotta narrow it down to a specific group. Something like self esteem for single dads or single moms. Life after divorce etc.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1420050].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author simpleonline1234
    It's really all about the angle. You have the right idea but somewhere along the way you've fuzzed it up a twee bit.

    Internet Marketing is all about using the right "targeted angle" to attract your market.

    Think of the niche process like tears.

    Tear I -(SEO) this is the most broad focus level. Not much targeting going on here. Chances of converting a sale are slim to none.

    Tear II-(SEO services) now we add another keyword to our phrase to begin the tighten our focus and increase of a sale.

    Tear III- (SEO services Houston, TX) . You can see how much more focused this can get. The more tears or layers you dig into a market the more focused or targeted your keyword phrase will become.

    The more focus the less traffic and competition but the higher chance of a sale because it will be exactly what the target audience will be looking for.

    I shoot for monthly searches ( using the Google keyword Tool ) over 5k a month.

    Competition level - this one killed me for a long time. Months to be more exact until.....the chosen one showed me the way.

    It doesn't matter is there are 10 or 10 billion sites competing because it all comes down to the top 10 in Google that matter. (SEO purposes).

    If all 1 billion sites all have a pr 0 ranking then you can easy out rank them with a few backlinks....or you can have only 10 competitors that have a PR7 status that you can spend a bankroll on and still not put a dent in those folks.

    Sounds like you have a good niche going just try to think of all the different keyword phrase searchs that your target audience would use to find your product. Research them, the competition and wrap a site around those exact keywords ending with .com and your good to go on the basics. Then you have the whole promotion of the campaign but that's an entirely different post.

    Best of Luck...shoot me a pm if you need further help with micro niches.
    Signature
    Check out deals
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1420093].message }}

Trending Topics