A fresh start. (Choosing first real niche)

I usually send people who are starting out here (because they need to take a principle-based approach instead of looking for the magic bullet or chasing after the newest shiny object):

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/500934-57-lessons-learned-over-14-years-internet-marketing-list-i-wish-i-had-when-i-first-started.html

In a nutshell, most people start off asking the wrong questions, such as which affiliate program should they promote? Or should they start with affiliate marketing or create their own products or go offline and try and get SEO clients or should they send traffic to CPA offers? Or something else?

Today's online entrepreneurs are facing a double-edged sword today. Today there is far more ways of making money online than ever before; even than 4-5 years ago. But the flipside of that is there is also a dearth of information on how to get started, an endless supply of coaching programs, and promises of making 5k per month using XYZ method or 38,000 per month or what have you.

The very FIRST thing I recommend people to do is to get absolute clarity on what you want to accomplish in life. I advise people to spend a whole weekend and/or a couple of days away from all modern life, sit down with a pen and a notebook (not a PC as it won't have the same impact), and WRITE down in one column what you really want and in the other column things that you don't WANT.

Once you get absolute clarity on what you want, it will help you in the decision-making process when you begin doing your research on the different business models out there.

Should you open an online store?

Should you build an authority website?

Should you build a series of 3 to 10 page blogs and hire VAs to do daily postings and build links to your post?

Should you join a PPC membership website and learn how to send PPC traffic to offers?

Should you learn about PPV traffic and/or media buys and send them to your offers?

Should you combine creating your own products with affiliate AND CPA offers while building a list of prospects?

Or any combination of the above?

Oh man, what's a beginner to do? It CAN get overwhelming.

Without knowing more about you, it's difficult to advise you what the "best course of action" would be to take. There are so many business models out there.

In general terms I advise people to approach this like a real business. Treat this endeavor as though you put 2.5 million dollars of your own money into this endeavor and that you'll stay focused on the things you need to do in order to succeed.

Instead of looking for the latest and greatest "system" or "product", look for specific needs and wants. Look for a specific problem or issue that people (or other businesses) have and find a way to solve it. You can use existing products or services to solve their problems or you can create your own or both.

Spend at least a few weeks researching different business models, invest money in a couple of courses and study them and take notes.

One of the most successful Warriors I know first came into this forum a few years ago as a complete newbie. What he did was read a lot of the content in this forum, he figured out who the leaders and experts were based on their consistent postings, and he would CALL Them and talk to them on the phone or via Skype, of course, with their permission.

He took all that information and wrote down a basic outline of what he was going to do and then he took massive action. Today he's a millionaire and a very respected marketer.

RoD

That's a great post from Rod! Very inspiring about the newbie warrior that became a millionaire too.

I do agree with you (ragnartm) that you should go with what you know, given that:

1) It's something that intersects with at least a somewhat high-demand market

2) It's something you enjoy

I wish you the best. Hopefully you'll be able to find something that truly suits you that you'll be able to enjoy and succeed at.

I got this via PM from another Warrior and thought it would be more beneficial to post my response here:

A lot of beginners fall prey to the "analysis of paralysis" trap. Which is understandable because there is a lot of information out there.

Many entrepreneurs advise you to start with your passions and that's generally good advice, as long as your passion can be profitable. However, if you've ever read periodicals or websites from Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes, Fast Company, etc. you'll find many, many examples of entrepreneurs who saw a need or gap in a market or niche and knew little or nothing about it, but they KNEW how to find the talent / outsource / etc. to solve whatever problem that market or niche had.

My very first niche I went into was wedding planning on a budget. I created an infoproduct that showed couples how to plan an extraordinary wedding on a budget. Now wedding planning is a niche or subset of the wedding market. Selling bridal gowns is another niche, and selling designer wedding gowns is considered a micro-niche because it is so specialized.

When I talk about specific needs or wants I generally use the dating market as an example because I've been in it for so long and at one point I had a lot of websites catering to many of the niches found there.

Now the dating market and many of it's niches are VERY competitive and I generally don't recommned it for a newbie marketer unless they're willing to do what it takes to become competitive.

Now one of the more popular niches under the dating market is the dating advice for men ages 18 to 35 because that is a rabidly desperate market. And there are new potential customers born every second (I'm not kidding).

Some micro-niches would be:

dating advice for newly divorced men
how to improve your text game
dating advice for seniors (don't call them "seniors" and your conversions will double)
how to get your girlfriend back

Each of these niches and micro-niches solves a very specific problem (or need or want) and if you did some research in market places like Clickbank or performed some cursory research using Google, Bing, & Yahoo using certain keywords you can easily find on competitor's websites.....you'd see that there are plenty of products with affiliate programs that cater to these needs.

This a huge sign that it's a viable market and that it's large enough to build a sustainable business around it.

At one point, I had over 30 websites in the dating niche and was marketing well over 120 products and services, about 1/3rd of them were my own products. But before I got to that level, I started out with ONE product and then I created and promoted more them, gradually.

I hope this answers your question and if not, feel free to PM me.

RoD

Competition it's not a bad word. Actually, i like competition, because i know that there is $$ to be made in the niche.
SEO it's not the only way.
If you will brand yourself in weight lost market (branding is very important), and take advantage on your 3 languages, you can make it.
Please remember, your "hook" and good copyrighting is very important.