That's an understatement. I am doing by best to try and separate the wheat from the chaff. I think the first step is identifying exactly what you want to do, and that means investigating your strengths, weaknesses, desires, and a dose of common sense. For example, I am a huge fan of great customer service, but for some reason, I'm more interested in earning money with something like Kindle where you essentially do not interact directly with customers (unless you really want to). Some are great on camera, and so marketing via YouTube might be a great option for them.

The bottom line is that you must work to not become distracted from things that take you off your familiar path. So, what are you interested in?

In the past I had 20-25 niches, now I have only one.

My niche I picked by passion and love.

Not because it was the best niche in the world or you could make instant money and become rich in 2 days.

No I took it, because I understand that if you want to be successful, you have to work for it.

And then it is better to work with something you love.

Well, a niche is basically a market or niche you target. A niche is basically dating, MMO, health and fitness. Those are niches. What you described (PPC, Social Media ETC) are different ways to make money FROM niches.

Choosing a method/strategy/technique

Find out a strategy you can follow. You can try making money from social media, ranking a site on Google with SEO, do PPC and selling products in (insert niche here). Find a proven method that somebody else has made money from, and take action.

Deciding on a niche -

If you're confused about a niche to stick to, find out where the money is. Find what you want to follow based on your interests as well, but try to find where the money is.

You can find a big niche, and then narrow it down to find its sub niches. As long as it is a profitable niche, you'll surely make money and find the right one that you can target.

Hi, I always think the 'magazine rack' idea is a good one, especially if
you are starting out and not sure where to apply your efforts.

Go into your favorite magazine store (either literally or imaginatively)
and make a note of which magazines you like to look at: it'll usually
be the magazines in the areas that interest you.

That exercise alone will narrow down your options, and this is why:
Magazine publishing is a very competitive business and they have an
increasingly difficult time making a profit. There are a lot of costs
attached to producing a magazine so there needs to be 1. a readership
who will pay for a magazine regularly, and 2. advertisers, with products,
who are prepared pay the fees to have their ads appear.

If there is a magazine (or two, or more) in a market/niche, then you can
rest assured there is online interest in a website, and related products
as well.

The added benefit of a magazine in your niche is that magazines are
great resources for creating articles and information products. Start
collecting magazines in your niche and you'll always have ideas for
what to write about.

Finding a right niche is very important because you are going to spend lot of time promoting products related to that niche.

The Evergreen niches are the big ones - Weight loss, Make money, Self help, Muscle gain etc.Of those niches, weight loss and fitness are the biggest across the board, with making money coming in at a close second. People always look for different products of a niche.

I think you should get started with a niche you are comfortable with and the rest "specializing or drill down stuff " will automatically follow as you go on.

I sometimes use Google Trends to find what is popular, and attempt to create or find a niche product to accommodate that trend. But since I am not the only person who thinks like that, the resulting niche is usually very competitive.

I've have obtained much more income by finding and targeting small underserved niches. Unfortunately, I cannot not share many details because the last time I did that on this forum, I had competitors coming out of the woodwork who totally saturated my targeted market.

What is that you have knowledge of,what is is that you have a passion for ?Lastly is it a profitable niche.

What do you find yourself gravitating towards when you are surfing to entertain yourself? Odds are there is a way to monetize that interest. The WF is a great place to find different methods but the passion will be supplied by you.

I simply made a list of all the niches with desperate buyers and then zoomed in on the best one. I focus on intercepting visitors who are looking to purchase a particular product.

TIP: You will do very well if you find products to promote that are only available to buy online and nowhere else, preferably products that no one likes to talk about with others.

18 years ago, I simply chose a niche that I knew a lot about, and that I
enjoyed. I wrote a book in that niche, and it still sells well today.

If I had to give advice though, I'd say make sure that you choose
a niche where people have and are spending a lot of money. Otherwise,
it will be an uphill climb.

Willie

One thing you could do, is go to Amazon take a look at the categories of products and see if you find something that be of interest to you

My niches are typically based on things that I am already passionate about, that way my content doesn't always feel like work.

I love to play online games, so I decided to build a game site, and earn money from it.
This way I can work as a freelancer on a niche that I like.
I have a this game site for more then five years...

I choose niches I am interested in. My first was sci-fi since I've been a fan since I was 12. All my stores reflect my interests (or offshoots of them). If you stick to something you love, it never really feels like work and you will stick with it more.

1. Find a need that is not met, poorly met, or you can do it better.

2. Look at new trends. There is room for growth and less competition in the beginning.

3. Pick an industry that you already have an advantage and then drill down.

can you solve any of my problems? imagine i have every problem a human could possibly have that could be solvable, which ones would you be able to help me solve? if you dont know what problems people have, find some. uncontrollable ant infestation is a niche within the bigger pest control niche. do you know how to get rid of ants? can you solve that problem for me? why should i listen to you? does your stuff work? make a pest control site and have a page on ants. explain thoroughly why the problem occurs, what are some of the ways to solve the problem, and how to make sure the problem doesnt occur again. recommend products that you know help eliminate the problem. and if i feel like you know what you're talking about ill buy it.

i could go straight to amazon and look for pest control products, but i wouldnt know where to begin. which is why i wouldnt go straight to amazon, i would google it so you teach me what my problem is and how to solve it.

I too have tried a lot earlier.
But finally concentrated on one niche, which is earning me enough now.

Because it is available for all, even for beginners.

If you take a look at the most popular WSO's...they're selling to a niche market such as SEO, list building, affiliate marketing, etc. Notice they are all related to MMO but very VERY specific.

Choose an industry such as health and fitness for example: then break it down into Paleo/low-carb or anti-inflammatory diet...bodybuilding...if you happened to be a healthcare professional you might choose something like "celiac disease", etc.

These are niches. So choose an industry, then break it down into its parts...find something you're very interested in and passionate about. Something you could talk about with a colleague or friend while having a beer or glass of wine for HOURS!! That's your niche

I would also have to agree with GlenH, if you're passionate about it but there's no money in it...get passionate about something else!

Those are not niches and you don't focus on any one of them. They are marketing methods and you will probably be using all of them at once. A niche (your business, whatever that is) is what you direct that marketing towards.

When you read people saying to pick one thing and stick with it, they are (I would hope) talking about the business itself.

Picking a niche to go into like weight loss or dating is different from choosing a business model like blogging, product creation, being a ghostwriter or having a PLR store. In either case, it's one of those things where you have to research your options to figure out what you would like to do. I'll give you examples of what I mean.

I decided to go into blogging because I like the residual aspect to it and the fact that I can work around my own schedule. I wanted something with a residual aspect to it because I'm lazy and don't want to have to work harder than I have to -- just being honest. In terms of one of my niches, I've been working a lot this year in the dating niche.

I'm one of those people that naturally excels at humanities stuff, took some psychology classes in college, and that I really liked it. I also like the niche because, unlike the IM niche, dating is one of those niches that seems to have a lot more quality products in it. Since I've been working this niche, my conversion rates are also way higher in comparison to the IM niche. I also haven't had any refunds yet.

With that said, I'm also indecisive and will openly admit that it took me a good amount of time to find niches that I wanted to be in. The first niche I recall being in was the "learn Spanish" niche. I got into that because I was a Spanish major in college. While I liked the niche and already knew about some of the products in it, I found that the niche was "too slow" -- meaning that new products weren't released all that often in comparison to larger niches, so I tried something else.

Well, I hope this helped some.

Good luck,
Joey

First thing you want to do is to pick a niche you love and then start working on how to expand from there. If you pick something you love it will not feel like work.

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I actually found my first profitable niche by accident.

I stumbled on it, it looked promising, I ran with it.

It's just easy, just get started by picking a niche that you are most interested in and then work on it till you become very good at it. Then go for the second most interested niche and start working on it and become very good at it. This is if you want to work in multiple niches.

But, it's better to pick a niche in which you are most interested in and then stick to it and become an expert and authority in that niche. Because, this will be helpful to you for your long term success.

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Talk about something that you can tell someone all about without feeling like you're working. Something you love. Think of your favorite hobbies or something that you love doing and blog about it. If you love reading about reality shows or gossip then create a blog on a specific reality show and put the word fan behind it. (blogger.com is a place that you can start a free blog) Choose a show that you can keep up with. If you love the color pink, narrow it down to a specific thing like Pink Iphone Covers for 4.0 or Pink mini notepads.

If you know everything there is about natural hair, then think of something specific with that and sign up with affiliates or write something about it on Kindle. (I know you can make money with it but haven't figured it out yet)

I used to blog about club music but I can't think of anything else to say on it now and miracously I still get sales from Amazon and haven't updated in years. My blog used to be the first thing that came up on google and that is without ever spending a penny. I'm cheap.

I also used to blog about work at home jobs, medical billing and making money with blogs and haven't updated in forever but still get some money from Google Adsense, Amazon, Zazzle and some billing affiliates. I honestly have read everything about making money but lose the motivation and still don't understand half of it. LOL. I use free resources and just read the forums and research.

Try clicking on the forum folder in here and click the replies categories and read the ones with the most replies.
I also click on users names with the most posts and thanks and stalk them. LOL. They usually have some of the best advice.

Here I am giving you advice and I still haven't retired from this 9-5. But it is definitely my goal. I told my husband I am making some big goals for next year.

I'm sure if you stop thinking so hard and just think of something you do everyday, you'll have your niche in no time.

Love your job (niche in IM) and you'll never have to work in your life

I think you have been given a lot of great replies, Skmyna, GlenH, and Mr. Crawford hit the nail on the head. I can not really add more than evergreen, health, wealth, and money.

I really think you should be honored to have Mr.Crawford reply to your thread.

Key here is Keyword Research. Picking the wrong niche is deadly because you'll find it VERY hard - if not impossible - to make money with that list.
Do this...

1. Go to Google Keyword Planner and see how many "monthly" hits are getting searched. The higher the hits you have a good niche that people WANT.
2. Go to Google Homepage and search the same keyword string. At the top of Google's search will tell you how many millions of pages google found in this niche.


The lower the pages the less competition in your niche.

The biggest reason why people choose the wrong niche? They pick what they are interested in or what "seems like a cool idea" - instead of doing research into what is actually selling.

I started off in a super-raunchy niche, cause that was all i knew about back then lol.

And i made good sales from it on frontend - but totally denied my backend sales.

I've pretty much been up and down the internet marketing (and offline marketing) world and i had to simplify things for myself. I've proven to myself that i can sell anything at anytime, so i decided to make a "home stay" for myself in the IM niche. I'm good at what i do, plus it makes me money. So i'm good. I'm hoping you can find the same too.

What works best for everyone doesn't mean it will work best for you.

We are all unique and different so not everything will work for us.

In truth...

There is not one way that is the best for everyone.



1- Video
2- Audio
3- Writing

For me I get the best results from writing. Video works very well for many other people but writing works real well for me.

Now once you know your best form of communication, ask yourself this...

1- Do I have a marketing budget? If you're planning on doing paid ads, then you will need a 'steady' supply of money. You will have to learn by trial and error to gain experience on what works and what doesn't.

This requires a steady flow of money to feed your advertising while you are learning.

2- Free methods like social media or blogging / SEO. This type of marketing is free or very low cost but it requires a lot of learning and takes more time to get going.



So there is a lot to learn but you can learn more quickly if you pick (1) method and (1) product, service or system to sell and start working now.

Then 'master' your niche by learning (trial & error), keep tweaking and once you start seeing results, rinse and repeat.

Yes, ofcourse there is lot to learn from all of this fields. But which to choose depends on your interest and how would they be beneficial in your target market.

What products are you selling now? What services? Have you started on the road or just looking at it and wondering if this is the right path for you?

If you have not found a product to sell or a service to offer (or just decided what you want to do), then that should be your first step.

Later you can decide how you want to promote it, whether by forum marketing, Facebook ads/Adwords or social networking.

My decision was simple. I chose what I love to do most. I have three niches. All that I am specially educated for. If there is something you can't imagine not doing.......that's a real sweet place to start. As much time as I've had to spend on this contraption, I'd go nuts if I were working on something I didn't thoroughly love to do and know an exceptional amount about.

Note: One thing I never see really pointed out in here is that the less you know about your subject the more you are going to have to pay for help in your business. Keep that in mind when choosing your subjects.

Another problem you get and especially with forums like this one is information overload. To many things and so many ideas, that your brain can't cope with and goes in to shut down mode.

You should try and focus on something that you either enjoy and/or have a passion for. The last thing you want to do is get involved in something which is tedious, as it will show in your work and visitors will pick up on that.

Pick an enjoyable subject and if you can make money from it then, even better

You can refer to this thread: Struggling to find a Niche

- Nizam

Terapeak and Watchcount.com are cool niche research tools.

I'm a big fan of women-oriented niches. They just spend more, generally speaking.

Which means more commissions for affiliates.

I have a related question for people who have experience with large content-based websites, if you are building an authority type (thousands of articles) site, how broad should you go with the niche? Is it okay to combine mildly related niches that share a similar demographic? My thoughts are that combining niches will help you as some will be profitable, some will generate social media links and some will get a huge SEO traffic that will spill over to the website. But that's just my thoughts, I'd love to hear from people with experience!

First and foremost I chose a niche that I have knowledge of and a passion for in addition to that I did some research to see if my niche would be useful .

As far as Seo PPC social media it is better to choose one skill set and master it . If you choose PPC stick that particular skill set ,if you enjoy SEO stick with that one skill set and master it.

Do one thing at a time information overload will confuse and overwhelm you.

I believe there is nothing to think much about product or niche. But you should have right strategy, planning, resources to promote what ever you like.

I'll share a couple methods I started doing 14 years ago which helped me find niches to promote as well as a # of "valuable" domain names. It was much easier to grab quality domain names back then.

Method one was to use a search engine keyword popularity tool (way back then it was the goto.com tool). I was able to see the most popular searches but I also was able to enter a keyword and see the most popular searches with that keyword. For example I would enter keywords like "buy", "for sale", "buy online", "weight", "wholesale", "magazine", etc... .

Method 2 was to was to copy the product category lists of stores, affiliate networks & eBay. These are products people are buying.

I would then paste these keywords into notepad & get rid of the spaces by using the "replace" option so that all multiple word phrases are shortened in to a single word. Example "buy gifts" would become "buygifts". Sometimes a search tool would only show a singular result like "buy gift" so I would add the plural version into the list.

I would then paste the list into a tool called "Domain Analyzer" & do searches to see if the keyword is available in various TLD extensions. I actually still use an old free version of this tool on my other computer on occasion. Registering domain names now is very different from back then as domains that people let expire often are now held by the registrars to auction often. They didn't do that in the old days & domain investors like myself used to compete to capture those names at the daily drop time. Ahhh.... the good ole' days! However, formerly good registered names that have expired still do drop through the cracks. You also likely be able to buy a registered name in a niche in the domain aftermarket if they don't have a site up. Do searches at Sedo, Afternic, GoDaddy to se if they have your keword domain listed by someone or contact the domain owner directly via a whois search to find their contact info. Adding "purchase" words like "buy whatever", "buy whatever online" or "whatever for sale" can grab you some good.com names that are available to register in the niche you want to promote.

Anyway these methods worked back then still work today for identifying product niche ideas where people are "spending money" as well searching for to do that task.

Oh yeah - go visit, explore & sign up for the newsletter at this excellent site at NicheHacks - Niche Domination Shortcuts...

It took me forever and I wasted at least a decade or two forcing myself into several of the wrong ones. Finally I fell into something that was specifically in line with my talents and interests and that was economically viable and not easily duplicated. There seems to be a bit of luck involved and not everyone finds "it." Keep trying and good luck.

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When you have absolutely no idea what to get started with, its always best to look on sites like ezinearticles.com and check the niches people are doing from some of the recently published articles.

I think Kindle is an excellent market place to determine a profitable niche.

Assuming you are looking for "now money" and not "medium or long term money"

I recommend just verifying if a niche is highly profitable, make sure it is morally sound and ethical and beneficial to the world and then go at it. Here's a couple tips you might consider.

1. Start with looking at Kindle Best Sellers and looking for trends.

2. Remember, really, a niche by definition is very very specific. Not "dieting", not "weightloss", not "vinegar dieting", but rather, "apple cider vinegar dieting" would be a very focused niche.

You obviously don't have to go that focused, but still, I recommend being targeted and using Kindle can help you find this little money niches. They are hidden and if you work backwards without starting from the best sellers page, you'll be looking all day and all night and maybe even all year without finding where the money is. It's really actually a step by step science. But step one should always be, "look at the best sellers in kindle ebook store" if you are going for Kindle publishing, but even then, if your not, Kindle is a good representation of what our American society is interested in.

Generalist don't make money like specialist. In order to avoid spinning the wheel, look at you social, accademic and personal background. What are those area that make you stand out of the croud? What about your personal interest? The most important thing to remember is that you must find a targeted niche and segmented group with a problem, and creat information on which you have passion for because, if you try to sell to everone, you sell to no one. Use key research tools to help you identify a perfect and secific audience your trying to capture for you product and srvices.

Hi Rachel,

A lot of comments have already been made about this, so I'll just chip in with some extra stuff.

If you can think of something you are knowledgeable about and that ideally you are also passionate about - then you have found the sweet spot!

A niche is simply a group of people - that all share a common interest. There are literally millions of niches.

Once you've decided on a niche, you should try and determine who your competition is - you will have competition but that's healthy, you want that!

Doing some keyword research will assist you in finding who your competition is and how strong they are - then you can create a blog and write content that provides real value for your readers. Just make sure you put your keyword in the title and in the first couple of paragraphs of your content.

Hello!

There are two ways to pick a niche. They include, but are not limited to:
1. One that is trending.
2. One that you are an expert at.

Personally, I would go with a niche that is trending not just to internet marketers exclusively, but to the general public and from there create a website or product based on my expertise. That way you are secretly dragging a topic into another topic in order to benefit both parties.

Try using the materials on this website to find niches in which you could make money doing something you love:
Change The World By Doing Work You Love | Live Your Legend

I first choose a subcategory of something I was interested in. For instance, the pet category. Then you can drill down to cats, dogs, exotic animals, etc. People (myself included) spend a lot of money on their pets. I then went to amazon and checked how many reviews there were for products in the smaller niche. I checked on Google and Bing for ads for my chosen keyword. This is important. You want to pick a niche that people will spend money on. If there are ads up, they are making money. I also checked clickbank for digital products in that subniche and checked the gravity. Even if you don't promote any digital products, it gives you a good idea of what is selling. This is the most tedious part of research but it's important so you don't lose money promoting the wrong niche or keyword.

For me it was easy. I am a Father of two children and one on the way. My wife and I decided she was better in the normal everyday 9-5 job (which she works for H&R Block so she sits most of the day lol). I was better at dealing with the mental stress of the kids.

So After nearly a decade of being an IT Consultant I decided to just work from home. I knew of ways to make money online and learn very quickly. So I started up dadworksonline.com and started helping others ditch the 9-5 and do the same.

It can be so overwhelming. But the key i think is getting organized and setting priorities. That is the only way to get through a day and be truly productive. If not you spend your entire day re-posting to social media accounts and achieve nothing! lol

They all have their pros and cons.

It's important to pick one that fits your needs the best (whatever they may be).

Start with something you have a passion for. I have several sites devoted to activities I actively pursue: fishing, recreation, travel, and healthcare. After getting started you will find branches to each area that may lead to more sites and opportunities.

You don't have to be passionate about a niche to make money in it. For example I could make money on this niche with a website if I wanted - "porcelain dolls". Find a niche that people are spending money in.

Did Rachel decide on a niche? I have been in IM but never made it through whatever system I followed. I am mainly interested in health (body, mind, soul) and gastronomy travel.

Anyone can recommend where to start, as in a complete system I can follow. Anyone wants to partner as well?

Many thanks

Dori

Couple of ways to go about it! You can stick with what you have passion and interest with or you can go after the money and to do that you need to keep on top of the trends. What products can you choose now to promote that will make you the most money.

These can change on a day to day basis!

Once you have your market and niche then you nee discaplin to continue in it and not change.

80% of online marketers change thier business strategy at least three times per week and wonder why they don't succeed.

Stick with one thing and the more you do it the better you will get and soon the money will come in.

My advice is don't chase the end result which is the money part. Pick a market and niche, follow what other successful marketers are doing to promot it and copy them. Stick with it and the money will follow.

if you have money to invest in PPC, then do that as it's fastest way to get traffic
SEO takes time and it's also a learning curve

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So my options are selecting a high price affiliate offer, setting up a sales page and directing traffic with paid advertising? Any articles on site as well?

Any marketing courses or system to recommend pls?

Much obliged

Best help for you will be google keyword tool.

you should definitely stick with those affiliate programs that you're interested in

also, don't switch the affiliate programs frequently 'cause you will just waste your time. chose a good one and go for it

ok,well that's good question,for mean i think that before choosing any niche,you first have to study the market,to observe products that are in need and which works well..

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