"Competitive Niche (vast knowledge)" vs "Noncompetitive Niche (little knowledge)"

I go where the competition is high and where I have
knowledge and credibility.

However, you need the MARKETING chops to be able
to pull it off - no matter what route you choose.

If you've got the marketing skills and knowledge in the
area, then go after a highly competitive niche.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

Alexa's point about competitiveness applying more to SEO methods was spot on. If you're looking to rank a website (which my initial post in this thread focused on), the strength of your competition can be a significant factor, but if you're using another business model then competition may not be a factor at all.

For example, my first foray into business as a teen was direct mail, and I wanted to play in busy markets. Since I controlled the distribution method from start to finish, it didn't matter if I competed against one company or one thousand. It all came down to conversion ratios, which were based on the strength of my mailing pieces (and to a lesser degree, products).

In the offline world, when breaking into a new market I would often piggyback off existing powerhouse competitors too, either by partnering with them directly for a new product/venture or engaging in a temporary joint venture agreement more typical of the online world. When my company was attached to one with widespread recognition through such ventures, I gained instant status without paying a dime in advertising. I then used that status to either continue working with existing partners in developing new products or splintering off on my own to create follow-up products.

So in the offline world, whether in direct mail or manufacturing, competition never enters the equation for me. They don't scare me because I control the message and distribution, so all that matters is whether my product and sales message is appealing to the customer.

Ranking websites is a different matter since I can't control the distribution method (unless we're talking about Google Adwords, social media marketing, etc.). In that case I won't necessarily allow competition to scare me off, but I will pay a little more attention to keyword selection and SEO when planning websites.

That being said, I still believe expertise wins in the end. Why? First, you can find less competitive long-tail keywords to attack rather than general keywords that are clogged with competitors, so just because you're attacking a popular niche doesn't mean you're tilting at windmills with your keyword selection.

But here's the more important reason: over 50% of SE queries are said to be unique keyword combinations, and keyword tools cannot account for them. When you're a non-expert relying on keyword tools, you often have to use generic terms like "dog training" and others that they return. When you're an insider, you're probably going to insert "insider lingo" into some of your articles... lingo that may be missed by the general population, but will be directly take advantage of the unique searches. This gives you an inside advantage over the non-experts trying to use force of SEO alone since most won't be targeting those lesser-known lingo gems.

In the end, though, it depends on the niche and business plan. If I'm an online product developer I may focus more on distribution through Clickbank and joint ventures with existing marketers. If I'm a site developer, I would have to decide whether I wanted to fight for SE rankings or work traffic to a site via other methods such as advertising or even guest posting on other authority sites to build my reputation in the niche and draw traffic to my site.

That's the cool thing about business, both online and offline... there is a multitude of approaches you can take.

Jeffrey