Is Self Development the WORST Niche?

Exactly. There was a guy coming to the copywriter's board a couple of years back looking for critiques on his sales page. The product was a course on improving self esteem. His sales material was decent and he was getting very few conversions.

There are relatively few searches on self esteem or improving self esteem. That's because most people refuse to think they have issues with it. They feel it's some sort of character flaw.

But self esteem, self love (same animal) problems are the root of all personal problems. I tried to point out to this guy that he needed a more subtle approach and start drawing attention to the specific problems people have and then use self esteem improvement techniques to work on those problems. But he wouldn't listen and insisted on waving the self esteem banner as the cure all, which it is but cannot be touted as such.

Eventually he gave up trying to sell his course. Not sure he ever figured out why the direct approach he was trying to use wasn't working.

The whole self help industry is that way as John has pointed out. Find a common problem people are looking to solve and address that specifically. That's the key to this market, specialization.

In a nutshell, pick a niche within the Self Help market and develop your presense in that niche. For example, "overcoming shyness" is a profitable niche. There are people making nice money helping others to be more outgoing. There are literally hundreds of sub markets that fall under the classification self development. The key is specialization. Good luck.

I'm not in the SD niche/industry, but I have a hard time imagining, that it can't be a very profitable market.

I think John McCabe hit the nail by pointing out, that people probably arent searching for self development as a generic term, but they are interested in self development for the purpose of improving something very specific in their life.

As an example, I think you can find many people interested in self development who have become interested in it because they are interested in starting a business. I think the same is the case for some people wanting to lose weight or improve their dating life. Many of them develop an interest for personal development.

NO! NO! NO!

You are getting it right. I sell product in this niche and they work better if you narrow it down. It is I believe one of the best niches after dating and money.

If you're targeting self development and personal development, you will hardly make any money. You need to target it down. Tony Robbins targeted his niche as motivational products in the beginning of his carriers.

For instance, I'll post some of the narrowed down niches:

abundance
achievement
brainwave and music therapies
assertive trainings and tools
motivational products and services
brain enhancement
physiological growth
emotional intelligence
attitude
executive coaching
life transition
peak performance
personal development
NLP
success skills
time mastery skills


I hope this helps.

When I sold a product as personal growth, I hardly made any sales. But as I narrowed it down to emotional intelligence, it was easy to advertise and target it and though I made more sales.

DING! DING! DING!

We have a winner!

Okay, this is my primary niche, so I think I've got something you can use.

There are three reasons marketers fail in this niche:

1) They're just in it for the money and have no real value to offer (least common reason)
2) They're too vague in their value proposition (second most common)
3) They address the cause instead of the symptom in their marketing (most common)

If #1 is where you are, I can't help you and I don't want to.

If #2, see the solution for #3 below:

Number three took me a LONG time to accept. I have a background as a counselor, so I can get to the root of things fast.

Problem is, you can't address the root of people's issues with them until you've built some real trust, and that takes time.

The most important fact about the personal growth niche is this:

"The problem people come to you to solve is NEVER the real problem. It's a symptom."

The challenge is, we experts want to cut right to the chase, but this just weirds people out and causes their guard to go up. Then they go crawling back under the rock of denial (which I've spent some time under myself) and you've lost them.

That's why you have to make the connection and the sale based on the symptom and build a relationship so you can help them confront and solve the real problem.

For example, if someone comes to you with time management issues, you have to meet them where they are, even though you know it's just a symptom of perfectionism and of measuring their value based on either the approval of others or based on their performance.

I've coached dozens of people with time management and procrastination issues, and that ^ has been the root cause every single time. But you can't start out there because it's just too much too soon.

I get emails from people who want me to review their products in this niche all the time. Their value propositions all promise to help someone: raise their self-esteem, overcome personal limitations, love themselves etc.

Too vague, too personal and too focused on the root cause. You have to meet them where they are and work inward from there. The good thing about this is:

1) There are hundreds of symptoms, pick a popular one and you've got a niche to start with and a specific problem to address in your marketing
2) Help them solve a small problem, but keep showing them that there are more layers to work through. This means more products to sell and more customer loyalty
3) Most of your competitors will stay stuck making one of the three mistakes I mentioned earlier, while you attract all the customers.

Just do myself, and your customers, and the industry a huge favor before taking this advice...know your stuff. Lots of people in this niche who just don't belong here.

Much success.