How To Define A Market For My Product & Ebook?

Perhaps find some health discussion forums or do a survey or two...
I'm happy to see more people checking the market BEFORE making any products...

Chris

BABY BOOMERS! I'd consider looking into segments where there may be a higher % of type A personality types in the baby boomers market, considering they're more at risk for your certain conditions in your ebook. Where exactly those segments would be in that market, I'm not sure, but it's worth a try.

Go with the specific group of desperate buyers afflicted with the ailment.

You could also add the prevention piece to your eBook or create a new one all about prevention with the eventual reference to the health supplement as a back-end offer if the symptoms arise and/or create a blog with a series of articles about prevention which feeds to your solution eBook w/autoresponder to create a list.

Some folks will do the research for others online (I.e. Wife searches for Husband; friend for friend) so you can attack it from both angles with a sale as an end state.

If what you have is a solution to a severe problem then that's where the bank will be so I would go there first.

You can also laser target your potential buyer by focussing on a specific demographic/location for the product (similar to what dating sites do) so you could potentially have multiple versions of the same product addressing the needs of each demographic while speaking to them in their language/culture.

Segment your market by demographic and you'll see quick returns also promote your product wherever your market goes for reference material on the subject and also, socio-demographic community forums & health related sites for your marketing promotion.

Here is a reference from the CDC which may prove as a starting point: Disparities in Premature Deaths from Heart Disease --- 50 States and the District of Columbia, 2001 :

During 2001, of 700,142 deaths attributed to heart disease, 117,346 (16.8%) occurred among persons aged <65 years. The proportion of premature deaths was greatest among AI/ANs (36.0%) and blacks (31.5%) and lowest among whites (14.7%) (Table 1). Premature death was higher for Hispanics (23.5%) than non-Hispanics (16.5%), and for males (24.0%) than females (10.0%). Hispanic whites (23.3%) had lower proportions than Hispanic blacks (27.5%), and non-Hispanic whites had lower proportions (14.4%) than non-Hispanic blacks (31.5%). The highest proportions of all deaths occurred among persons aged 55--64 years. When premature death was examined by age-specific death rate, mortality increased with age, and rates across all age groups were highest among blacks and lowest among A/PIs (Figure).

The proportions of premature heart disease deaths ranged from 12.4% in Rhode Island to 35.7% in Alaska (Table 2). The 10 areas with the highest proportions were Alaska (35.7%), Nevada (25.4%), Georgia (23.9%), South Carolina (23.8%), Louisiana (22.9%), DC (21.5%), Alabama (21.4%), Tennessee (21.3%), Mississippi (20.7%), and Texas (20.5%). Among males, proportions were highest in Alaska (41.8%) and lowest in North Dakota (18.6%); among females, proportions were highest in Alaska (26.0%) and lowest in South Dakota (6.3%). Within states/areas, racial/ethnic differences in premature death were similar to those observed overall.

Reported by: SS Oh, MPH, JB Croft, PhD, KJ Greenlund, PhD, C Ayala, PhD, ZJ Zheng, MD, GA Mensah, MD, WH Giles, MD, Div of Adult and Community Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC.
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Prevention is an excellent way to cross promote in this niche:

I.e. Stop Smoking products, Diet/Exercise etc.

The only way to truly know which direction to move is to test and track.

Surveys are the most economical way of finding out what the market wants and if there is a market for your offering.

Hi Jason,

Write reports & guides for all kinds of health related issues and niche marketplaces! Follow the suggestion Chris and others have mentioned. Here's your research resource center and a few tools of the trade to do a good part of the job...

Health Forums and Message Boards
HealthBoards.com Message Boards
Browse Health & Medicine - Forum Discussion Search with BoardTracker.com

Regarding marketing and advertising health supplement products. Make sure you do your homework well so you don't land up like this guy...
http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/9661-oh-my-guy-thrown-jail-25-years-doing.html

Dave