heres my problem with internet marketing

some good niches are:

weight loss
IM
Forex
Real Estate
Dating

there will always be people looking for help in these niches

Thanks I am really considering dating/relationships. That niche would work for sure right? What about cat care/training too? I suppose the dating one is better right?

You can't go wrong with a good list in the dating niche. Pet care is also a huge (under rated) niche with many sub niches.

Also if you can get into the travel niche there are many opportunities there that most people have not yet capitalised on.

Hey corey,

I was actually trying to think of niches that don't help people and was really struggling to think of any. Most of marketing is centered around improving someone else's life. Like you said though, it just depends on what you are selling them. Some of these guides and eBooks are indeed not worth the digital paper they are virtually written on. That's why it is incumbant on you as an ethical business person to full validate what you are selling first. If you don't, you're guilty like the rest of the people you are pointing out. If you try it, like it, use it and it works (or know someone personally that it did help) then you can market the remedy/product/whatever with a guilt free conscious.

In terms of "dating/relationships that would work for sure" the answer is of course, it depends. It certainly could work... it just depends on your micro-niche and marketing abilities.

Dude, Amazon is so untapped. You can make money selling anything. My wife for example told me about a commercial she saw about the new Dyson DC41 vacuum and how she really wanted one. Be an expert on vacuums. Take the time to do the research.

I am doing nothing but providing more info on stuff like this. Everyday stuff. That's why Amazon is a billion dollar company. People like us give people like my wife more info about something they were going to buy anyway and Amazon gives us a commission.

The responses in this thread are why there are so many crap products out there to begin with.

Everyone has their 2 cents about how you can go out and make money by jumping into all these different niches and do this and that and you're good to go!

Problem is... You aren't an expert in these niches and you have no product. Do you know where this is leading? It's leading to the part where you are that exact person you were talking about in your original post...

"People are promoting guides on how to cure health problems etc. The problem is a lot of these guides don't work. I don't want to be part of this."

If you don't want to be one of these "people" you need to do more than just "invest in solo ads and build a good list". You have to become an expert or hire one to create a product that can add value to your niche.

Otherwise you're no better than those people pumping out crappy products.

Aren't you interested in making money too?

How do you know that a lot of these guides don't work? How many have you bought and faithfully followed out of the thousands for sale?

How many of the Amazon books have you bought so that you can know that these are quality products?

How do you want to help people? What can you offer them that will make their lives better because they bought your product?

Mark

You should look into a niche that you are interested in. Are you interested in dating? Do you want to spend hours every day thinking about it and writing content on it, communicating with people on Facebook and tweeting about it?

You're probably going to need to do all those things in order to develop trust in your audience and grow your business.

If not, pick something you are interested in. What unique knowledge or skills do you have that could provide value to others? What topic can you talk about endlessly without getting bored?

If you're sick of all the garbage, them remove yourself from the niches where all the garbage is dropped off (all the ones you named above). I make plenty of money and don't have any (or many) sleezes in my niche.

The solution is to enter a niche where you have some experience or knowledge. Otherwise you're just bullshitting people.

Now you don't need to be the worlds leading expert to teach other people on the subject you just need to know more than your average person.

With that mindset I have no doubt you will be successful in any niche you choose!

Right on!
-Chris

Just because other marketers in the MMO or Health niche may sometimes promote or create products that suck doesn't mean you have to too :-) Crappy products in a niche actually HELPS you if your service or product is good. If somebody has been scammed and then they find your awesome service or products, they will be a customer for life.

You're looking at this all wrong. If your goal is to "help people", start a charity. Marketing is about making money. People don't create products to help people, they create products that can help people so people will buy them and the seller makes money.

wow guys. Thanks for all of the replies! So much good info here. I think I am going to get into the dating/relationship niche. I will research the heck out of it and use some life experience too. I feel like this is a good honest niche that I can help people in.

I do not see anything wrong with selling dating/relationship products. I opposed to the health products because I feel like they need to see a doctor or something. I dont feel comfortable giving medical advice to my list and "playing doctor."

I actually had a weight loss list that was quite big and I deleted it because of this once people started asking me questions about getting dizzy doing my exercise routines etc because they had diabetes. I realized I was in no place to give this advice. These over weight people had medical conditions and were listening to my advice through emails. I didn't want to be responsible for someone hurting themselves etc.

But in the dating niche I will just take an honest approach. I will try pick ups myself and share the results etc. I really think this will be good. Now I just need to figure out how to approach finding solo ads in this niche.

Hello Corey,

Keep in mind that the true meaning of Internet marketing is where you provide a product or service that helps people - that's what real Internet marketing is. Unfortunately, all of the hype about making big money (and you CAN make big money if you're willing to work at it, not the "make $1 million in 30 minutes or by tomorrow" statements) has brought out people who think they should make big money immediately, and they go to almost any lengths to do it, even promoting and/or creating inferior products that really shouldn't be marketed because they really don't help people as they should. That's the problem.

All of those niches you mentioned, along with the pet care niche (agree it's underrated), are good ones. People will always be travelling (even if the Star Trek transporter comes to pass one day, :-), people will still be wanting somewhere to go, and still may want to stay in that location too).

Other possible niches can include

- hair loss/taking care of your hair
- healthy eating
- organic foods (both the foods themselves, the debate over whether they are better than non-organic food or not, the higher cost, etc.)
- Time management (we never seem to have enough time on our hands, and especially in this crazy digital world! :-)
- Self improvement (another big one- and who doesn't want to keep improving? :-)

Hopefully, this has given you some more ideas - good luck!

Take care,

Joe Chengery

Hey Corey,

First off you have the right attitude. Helping people is what it's about for me as well. There are plenty of good products on CB but you have to buy them to see which one you are comfortable with. But beyond CB there are also systems that help people, such as marketing systems, which is my focus. Lots of people don't like to be bothered with installing WP blogs etc. and rather have a complete system, ready to go.

What we sometimes fail to realize, is the fact that there is a HUGE market and I mean HUGE that wants to be entertained (for lack of a better word) by the info products they buy.

To that end there are tried and true sources for such entertainment and there has been for a long time.

For instance as a kid I bought tons of "Opportunity" magazines that offered how to information on literally hundreds of start up guides for businesses from carpet cleaning to dog grooming to yard care to roofing, on and on.

I had to rush to the news stand to get my copies of said mags because they were always quickly sold out.

Do you think the tens of thousands of buyers/readers of these mags started up all the businesses written about. No they didn't. believe it or not reading such info is "recreational reading" for many.

We are always jumping on consumers of "shiny new objects," however, most of us are quite happy when the next shiny objects hits the market because we like it.

Another thing. It's the same with offering services.

Although it may be hard to believe, there are thousands of small business owners out there who want a website just so they can say they have a website or for some other reason than adding to their bottom line.

It used to be quite the popular thing here to get into debates about the web builders who provided websites that did nothing vs the ones who "made money" for their customers. Not so much any more. (Since the advent of the offline forum)

My point is that when it comes to products and when it comes to services there is a market for them for many different reasons.

You don't have to be ashamed to provide products and services that don't "help" if your target customers are not looking for "help." Maybe they want what you have for reasons other than the obvious. In which case you've "helped" them anyway.

By the way, I recently picked up a copy of an Opportunity Magazine I used to buy long ago. Guess what the "start up" business articles are about now. If you guessed MMO, you would be correct.

George Wright

You are exactly right George.

that being said, I think people like the OP struggle with the fact that they can't sell such things as entertainment, rather they have to make a flashy sales page and promise the world so to speak.

So while the seller and often times even the buyers know "whats up" there is still a good bit of deception type games that must be played to be successful selling how to make money guides primarily for entertainment purposes.

Your conversion rate on a bright shiny new how to make money guide would be pitiful if you pitched it as just a way to spend $7 and 2 hours of your life that wont really ever work to make you any money...But its just as entertaining as the new blockbuster movie hit.

Corey, you realize that there is a lot of junk in the dating market right? How are you going to "help people" versus pitch everything that has a commission attached?

On your other thread, for example, you are talking about sending a new promotion every week. That's 52 high quality dating and relationship offers a year - have you found that many yet?

And you have to ask yourself another question - if you are truly in this to help someone, does someone with that attitude have a revolving list of new shiny objects (the next big thing, the real secret to picking up women, how to get more...) they keep throwing at their contacts? Is that helpful or is that just out to make a buck at someone's expense?

My point is that you need to be clear about what you're doing and why. If you are going to write of MMO or Health because of XYZ, then don't go and do XYZ in the dating market.

Mark

I understand your intention to "help" people, but, once you get good enough traffic and establish yourself, you will come at a crossroad where you have to make the decision to either trade part of your good intentions for da moneyz or continue consuming your time without making the most amount of money. This doesn't mean that you become a charlatan as many of your quoted niches have; it means that you have to become more efficient, and answering every single email/post/request for help from your readers will become impossible. I get 20-30 help-type questions every day and I cannot keep up with it, which of course is not understood by the question asker and you normally lose him/her as a reader; however, for everyone I lose I gain 10 more as I have increased my efficiency.

It's good that now that you're beginning you have good intentions, but don't think internet marketing or being an online authority is all about flowers and smiling rainbows.

Try re-framing your point of view just slightly and you might find your answer.

I struggled with this one too - for years.

You see, I'm not much of a marketer - most of the tactics used in the industry turn my stomach, quite frankly.

But I finally found my "fit" in this world when I re-framed what my purpose was in marketing online.

I simply changed my goals from "helping people" to "teaching people".

It's a subtle shift....so subtle that you might completely miss it the first time you look at it, and think that there's no difference between the two.

The idea of "helping people" is completely vague and unwieldy. Helping people do what, exactly?

But when you re-frame to the idea of "teaching people", things start to clarify.

When you ask, "what do I want to teach someone?" the answer should be much clearer and easier to find.

When you have your answer, you create a product that "teaches" people that very thing. When you're ready to promote it, you do so as a "course" instead of a "product" - you set the expectation that you have something to offer people who want to learn a specific thing.

Again, it's subtle, but for those who struggle with the idea of marketing being a non-stop pitch fest where the goal is to remove as much money from the pockets of others as possible, this tiny shift can make a HUGE difference.

When positioned this way, you don't have to sell as hard. And even for the unavoidable selling you'll have to do, you'll feel MUCH better about it, because you have pre-defined the environment (student/teacher) and pre-defined the product (an eCourse in this case).

tl;dr - The idea of "helping people" is too vague. Re-frame to "teaching people" to find the balance between altruistic ideals and the unavoidable necessity of marketing.

Looks like you are on the same boat as those you are talking about.

The Dating niche is very popular but the one suggestion I have for you is to laser target a specified group of people in the dating niche (or any other niche). For Example: "How to get dates after being divorced" or "How to pick up Foreign Women" etc. Dont just focus on "Dating" its too broad. Hope this helps

If you want to help people online, then start by helping them with what you know about marketing online. That's a great start in the right direction.

If you know what really works, then teach these people that instead of guiding them towards yet another download or something like that. Start up your own coaching program where you offer quality material that you know works and will help other people to succeed.

Don't be the content expert. Find someone who really has something golden. Then cut them in and share the profits. Find someone with massive credibility and an excellent product. It will make your life much easier and more profitable.

I agree that there is alot of junk out there but there is many quality products too. Since you already knows what's garbage, take some time to find a really good product first and just promote all you can too.

I wouldn't be too worried about the niche though. Find something you like and just work at it.

Solution is just to find your passion and then write about it. Focus on creating your own website, your own voice on the internet, your own customer list and finally your own product.
You can easily make these products with Microsoft Power Point and a Camtasia-like recording software. You can even just make eBooks in Word and publish as a PDF document.

This is actually an opportunity.

With so many people trying to make money with crappy content, it's a chance for you to stand out.

I recommend reading this: Stop Trying to Make Money Online | Copyblogger

It's basically what you're saying: everyone's trying to make money online...but few are.

Ironically, the people trying THE LEAST to make money online are making the most!

How?

By helping people and providing value.

That's not all there is to it, of course, but it's a helluva good start.

You can make a few bucks with shady landing pages + PPC and single-page SEO crap.

But to make money over the long-term (which is what you want, right?), you need to start adding value.