An observation about the Health niche

For starters, there is no such thing as the "health" niche. There is the health market, which is vast. There are thousands of niches under the umbrella of health-related topics and even more micro-niches. Though I understand what you're trying to say, it's a gross generalization.

It's like saying that the car market sucks. It's too general, it doesn't make any sense to me.

Yes, there are plenty of products and services that deal with health-related topics that make me cringe. I had my baby sister die of rhabdomyosarcoma cancer back in 1997 and reading about some of these so-called cancer cures make me sick. But that doesn't keep me away from it.

However, I've also read and seen some GREAT products that have had an impact on people's lives. There are also some good ones out there that have helped a ton of people. I've seen mainstream health care fail people in many areas, which is why some of these products are a Godsend to those that really need them.

I found your observations a bit short-sighted.

RoD

I think the market has moved the direction it has because in general - people will spend money on what they want, not what they need.

I'm not in the fitness niches (or health), but that is just my opinion.

This is what I posted in another thread that seems directly relevant to this too:

You would think, logically, that people would want sane, well balanced solutions they could implement that would make a real measurable, if not dramatic difference in their lives, income or health.

But the reality is, anyone who actually has that mentality is probably already in okay, if not better, shape.

If those criteria entered, at all, in the reality of the buying decision then those prospects would have dropped out long ago having found a sane solution.

Therefore the active market must be made, primarily, of people who do not fit that sane criteria.

Hence they are desperate, looking for a quick fix, easy to sway with hyped up promises, and quick to buy over and over seeking the next "magic solution".

Market to those people. They aren't going anywhere.

Most countries have laws for health products and services so you need to make sure you comply with legalities and protect yourself from liability.

But the marketing of health products often has little to do with the actual improvment of the buyers' health and more to maximizing the profit of the seller.

Look at how many "Copper Bands" and "Acupressure Bands" and other trinkets that purport to provide mysterious boosts to energy, cures of arthritis, etc.

Of course, your wife is disgusted by all this. She is a health practitioner who works directly with patients. Her concern is the welfare of her patients, not maximizing her revenue per patient.

By the way, the whole "Laws of Attraction" movement is the perfect example of a false methodology marketed to desperate people who want to belive that if you are only very good and wish hard and think positive thoughts that money will flow into your life with no deliberate effort on your part.

Product quality varies widely in every niche, especially on Clickbank. I buy both MMO and non-MMO products for business and personal use. Some are so good that it's worth far more than the $50 or so I paid. Others are junk.

For example, I'm into weightlifting and yoga and have been for more than 20 years. I've purchased 4 weightlifting products, 3 of which were really good. They weren't earth shattering in that I learned something TOTALLY new, but when I need a new workout or want to try something different, it's faster for me to buy a $50 product than scour the web for hours. For some people, I'm sure the products are garbage because they think "gee I could have put that workout and diet plan together." I view it differently. I'm grateful that for the price of one personal trainer session I get 3 months (or whatever) of a proven workout plan that's something different.

The same is with yoga. I know hundreds of yoga poses and could put my own routines together, which I do sometimes, but often I prefer following along to a DVD or online class that I pay for put together by somebody else.

At the end of the day, if people expect "earth shattering" new information, most products will disappoint. If, however, they're looking for a fast solution that works if used as directed for less than $100 plus some inspiration, many health products are a good buy.

The bad products are the ones that blatantly don't work or have sales pages that are misleading. Otherwise, people expecting a magic pill that is revolutionary will be disappointed. If people simply want a new workout, new diet plan or something that if used will generate results, even if it's not revolutionary, health products are a good buy.

At the end of the day, digital products are about convenience. Somebody applies their experience and some research into a condensed product that saves me time.

The health market isn't selling health, so to speak - they are selling the idea of a healthier you.

It is like the man who buys an umbrella while it is raining - he isn't buying an umbrella, he is buying dryness.

Folks who buy diet plans are not buying diet plans, they are buying the idea of what they could be... That is why the market will always exist.

As an ex nurse practitioner myself I can see where your wife is coming from, and I've worked for the NHS here in the UK for nearly 40 years.

She's got a point to be honest, there are a lot of people who are putting some really crappy products out but then there are also those who put out stuff that is pretty decent. (so you can't just shove everything under the same umbrella). Ensuring decent well written quality stuff was always priority with me when I ran my health related plr sites and is probably why they did so well.

Why don't you get her involved in the market herself, thats someone else out here writing decent stuff

Kim

Hey Ian,

I think we are agreeing much more than disagreeing.

I agree with some of what you've written, especially your second post which was a response to mine.

I'm with Danielle and Kay too, in that, a better way to serve these niches under the health market, is to come up with something that provides great value.

One example of this is that I suffered from gastristic and erosive esophagitus for many years. I went to 2 GPs and 2 gastro specialists. The medicines they gave me helped some, but I began digging deeper and connecting with others online who had my problems.

I found out what the underlying root causes were:

* Stress (I managed it by drinking and internalizing a lot.....lol). Stress produces cortisol (among other things) and that is not good for overall health.
* Alcohol - Drinking hard liquor over a period of many years can erode your esophagus, especially if you already suffer from acid reflux.
* Drinking lots of coffee and energy drinks (both destroy your digestive tract; energry drinks can lead to strokes, heart conditions)
* Diet and nutrition (huge!)
* Soda (at one point I was drinking 5 Dr. Peppers a day and sometimes 1 or 2 cokes, again this is very bad for the entire digestive tract.

Once I managed all five of these AND took my medications, I was able to conquer my problems. So I wrote a very detailed ebook on how I did it and it's done extemely well. I also recommend products for people to buy (such as a Vitamix or Healthmaster) and made recommendations for both diet and nutritional reasons.

In most cases, people can conquer these digestive afficitions by changing how and what they eat. I usually steer people to food documentaries such as FOOD MATTERS and HUNGRY FOR CHANGE. It's because of these two documentaries that I started juicing with my Healthmaster emulsifier, it totally changed my life.

RoD

I wonder what motivates pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs to people.

Do you think it's compassion or something else?

One of the more interesting threads...

The health category of niches is a marketer's wet dream. But, the real culprits behind the health conundrum are the greedy pharmaceutical companies - for decades they have it ingrained in people's heads that the "cure" is the pill. Just think about - when someone says on the fly "oh I have a headache", what is the first question that follows? "Do you know any meditation exercises off hand?" No... they want to know if you have any Tylenol handy.

Most health conditions, whether it be obesity, diabetes, cancer, or some musculoskeletal condition, are unsolved in regards to a cure as a result. This provides a leeway for marketers to promote more natural and, sometimes, more effective methods to get rid of whatever problem you are experiencing.

Some of these methods work great, others don't. For the ones - such as weight loss - where people still have trouble "mastering" the calories in, calories out miracle solution ()), this provides a perfect opportunity for marketers to sell products to folks who have very well tried other stuff without any success, and opportunity to provide a new solution to the problem, even if they are still "experimenting".

I'm not sure if these methods provide a solution to the problem, or if they just make the problem worse. Maybe both. Depends on who you are, I suppose...

You kind of act like all products are a scam.

Of course there are low quality products, plr rehashes, etc etc....

But that's only because the market is profitable. If you create a high value product that genuinely helps people I'd say that's pretty ethical! Don't let the spammers out there stop you from helping people.

Eh. I don't think it's a bad thing.

Sure there are scams out there, but that's true in every niche, not just health.

Surely there must be some products that are high quality and worth the price.

Also, I don't agree with the stance that the health market should only be allowed to be entered by people who have a medical license from a government-mandated licensing requirement. In general, I support more freedoms for individuals to do what they want, and less government intervention.

I myself have also used some non-traditional medicine with phenomenal results. Result that the traditional medical community actually says are "impossible" and yet, here I am cured of an "incurable" condition.

For anyone curious, I was lactose intolerant for my entire life from birth until I was 17. Then I started using Emotional Freedom Techniques every day for about 10-20 minutes a day. After less than 6 months, my lactose intolerance was gone, and even today (years later) I can eat any milk product I want with no problems whatsoever.

The traditional medical community says that these results are impossible and that EFT is "non-scientific", but it worked for me and has worked for people who I've spoken to about it. I would have never heard about this system if it wasn't for unlicensed people with no medical experience telling me about it.

That's life though isn't it? Often the most knowledgeable are not the people who make the money, it's the tycoons, the entrepenuers who do.

I agree with what you're saying in a lot of ways, some of the advice is terrible, but also some advice is brilliant. It's the same as books on shelves in book stores.

And I'd have to say, some of the medical community. Some are fantastic, and really care for you, and some just want to get you in, give you something to shut you up and get you back out again, taking your money on the way. I know it's not like that in the UK - you don't pay for a lot of the health care, but someone does.

I would liken a lot of my experiences to trial and error, here take this, if it doesn't work, take this... and so on. Not sure why that doesn't make you cringe also?

So in summary there are good and ethical marketers out there who will only create good and ethical products, there are also people who are in it just to make the most money.

There's absolutely nothing stopping you from tapping into your wife's knowledge and creating a brilliant load of products.

You're right, that the basic formula for fat loss is simple, but there are still many ways to achieve it. Like, what do you eat, what do you avoid, what exercises do you do. How you do the exercises to maximum effect. If people knew what to do there would be no market. People like to be helped out.

I can't believe as a marketer you would even make such a statement...

I think that your wife just subscribes to one particular brand of "health care" that is ultimately just as ineffective as anything else out there. We all have a finite lifespan, after all, dont we?

I don't think it is so much the health market he is referring to, more the weight loss market, I agree with most of the post, simple mathematics less in and more exercise = weight loss.

But their are power foods that can help.

Anytime you attack someone's source of income they are going to become defensive. That explains some of the responses to these kind of threads. The bottom line is that laymen have no business publishing medical advice.

And if you think you cured your ailment by eating pumpkin pie, standing on your head for 2 minutes and then downing a cup of green beans, that belongs on a discussion forum, not a $19.97 Clickbank "product".

But at the end of the day desperate people do desperate things. The forums are littered with broke people willing to do anything to save their car, make the rent, take the family on vacation and so on. If they come across info on how to sell this crap, they are going to sell it.

As others have said, health is not a "niche". It's a HUGE market.

Personally I don't have anything against people who make money from people who suffer health conditions. That's the nature of our economy. I used to sell an e-book about an obscure health topic that made me tens of thousands of dollars.

Did it help people? Yeah. Was I the best person to write it? Probably not. Would I do it again? Of course!

Well as a Certified Personal Trainer who has trained clients for over 10 years now, what you say is a huge over simplification and actually does more damage to people than good.

If this were true, than I could eat nothing but chips, and drink pop all day long and lose weight as long as I burnt more calories than I consumed.

This unfortunately is not true.

As someone who is coming on here commenting on the how your wife cringes at the whole health niche, she should be cringing when you give out this kind of false opinion.

I am in the "health niche" in a small way. I have written a book(on kindle) about getting fittest and losing weight.

I'm not a doctor or nurse (although my wife is). I am not qualified to tell people how to cure themselves of illnesses , etc., and I don't try to.

To take your example. You talk about weight loss coming from calories in versus calories out. I take that as a given in my book. So what do I write about? I write about how I was able to organise my life to get less calories in, and burn more calories from activity.

So my book isn't really a medical tip but a life organising tip.

Readers seem to think it has value.

As for your wife's broader observation, yes. It has some truth, but then 90% of anything is rubbish, so the observation applies to other fields too

Health, dieting and skin problems are my area of interest (but I don't sell to this market right now).

There is no difference between supplements, weight loss pills, paracetamol, chemotherapy or other stuff.

These days it's all made for money. Just because drugs are sold by "qualified" doctors doesn't make them good or effective. In fact in most instances drugs are as useless as weight loss pills.

And the biggest CONMAN here is gov and big pharma. Health niche as you called it is nothing. Real money and market is in pharma.

Statins lowering cholesterol and chemotherapy are two examples of HUGE money makers. They are still prescribing statins despite the fact that cholesterol is not a cause of illness (and it's obvious since 1980).

They sell chemotherapy but they know that in 90% cases it won't help in log run.
And we know that there are new substances and experimental therapies which are more effective and healthier then chemo but somehow there is no one interested in financing them.

Big pharma is not interested in finding actual cures. That's not how you do successful business. They are interested in customers for life. They know very well their CLV.

So it's exactly same s***.

Yeah I know sometimes chemo will help someone survive some time but how many it actually kills?

Regular people have no idea about numbers and facts related to pharma because they blindly believe what gov and doctors say (and they know s*** about their bodies).

If health market (products we sell online for example) is all BS, then pharma, doctors and gov regulations is 1000000000 x BS.

I'm not talking here about surgeons, first help guys and nurses. Those people actually the only ones real in this bushiness. They are actually cleaning up the mess created by doctors and pharma representatives.

That's reality (for some hard to swallow and for majority impossible to swallow but reality).

Two observations:

One, you don't have to be a certified medical professional to know more about a particular problem than most doctors. I'm in two tiny niches of the health market and I can tell you categorically that most doctors haven't read nearly as much as I have over the past ten years or so in my area, and simply don't know much about it. Their standard advice is good in some cases, completely useless in others (counter-productive, really). That's when their patients become my customers.

I had a vice-president of Bayer buy my ebook, get cured in about a week, and write me several emails evincing his astonishment. I've had other doctors buy one book, then come right back and buy the other an hour or two later (presumably after they've had a chance to see the references I provide). They're learning from me, the non-medical school graduate. So I completely disagree with whoever it was above who said that non-certified people should stay out of it. Non-certified – but knowledgeable – people are the best hope the health field has for finding new, cheap ways to fix what's wrong with you.

Two, it's not the case that putting a good [health] product out there and wanting to make money from it are mutually exclusive.

Thanks for all your posts, it's been interesting and useful to read them all :-)