Here is The 1 thing I changed that started making me money

Thanks for the advice. Sometimes we can get carried away looking at the big picture, when we should be going for the thumbnail. Will take your advice. Regards.

what is an example of one of your tiny niches?

yeah, I agree. focus on one small niche and eventually, your biz will become bigger.

Not to be a contrarian, but I found my success in affiliate marketing by promoting clickbank products with HIGH gravity - popular products. If there's a lot of money in a market...there's competition.

Actually I do it a totally different way and make lots so I know it works and has for years now.

I go wide so as not to reduce my possible market share and then by watching my sales this then provides the markets I target.

For example I stated selling streaming audio which is quite a broad market however as sales came in I noticed pockets of specific customers so I then niched down into those specifics. I then created streaming audio for churches, streaming audio for MLM, streaming audio for poets, streaming audio for schools while still getting sales from the broader market place through my main site.

I had already seen people in these areas buying my products so I knew if I targeted them I would make sales and I do.

The problem with just going for a narrow niche is you can get locked in there very easily and leave a lot of money on the table. A very specific niche should be part of an over all strategy not the primary strategy.

Quentin

Everything that has been said is very relevant. One thing that Quentin said really sticks out, if you hyper focus on your narrow niche you can definitely leave money on the table.

I always found that it is better to start out small, then move onto bigger and better things. Through experience you will learn what works for you.

Hi there (I was going to say Hi 2nd Account but that would be weird ;-)

I think David (DWT) said it best there, people can confuse a small niche with a small section of a large market. Here's my definition:

1) Small Market: Deep sea Diving Costumes for Under endowed Poodles
2) Big Market Sub-Niche: Hotels next to big golf courses

Now, see how with number one, you could get onto page one of Google in 5 minutes, but as it's soooo specific (well, doesn't actually exist of course) you're not going to get much traffic and you don't know if people are buying in that market.

However, with number 2, Golf is a huge market, and people are spending money in it, of course you would be crazy to go for a phrase like "golf clubs" but you can still get a slice of it (opps, excuse the pun) but targeting a branch of that market. Hope that makes sense.

Phil

It definitely works for me...
Smaller niches = a more focused target audience.

EJ

what i was trying to convey is that i have had a lot more $ success by solving the problems of people in very specific niches.

i target getting a big slice of a small pie as opposed to the other way round.

the way i see it is that in all niches traffic is the key to success. it is so much easier to get quick, natural, sustainable traffic in small uncompetitive niches that bigger ones.

i am not saying my way is right but for my skills/knowledge levels/traffic generation techniques this is the blueprint that works best.

One technique I used with my old template site was to join a few different Google and Yahoo groups and talk with people who were either web designers themselves, or were looking for good templates to purchase; ask around, get a good feel of what they want and expect out of a product. Remember, you are not to sell benefits, BUT RATHER solutions to your clients problems, if you focus too much of your attention on the benefits of a product, usually it will be percieved as spam or hype.

When I look for a product, my keywords are based around the end result(s) I expect to obtain via using/learning a certain product.

I wrote about this exact strategy in my book - as well as how to find some small, targeted niches that you'd swear NOBODY would be interested in, but they are absolutely CRAZY about.

A good way to find niches without researching the web is to watch TV advertisements or read a popular magazine and look at the ads. Try to dig a little deeper to see what kinds of problems the product is really trying to solve other than what appears on the surface.

I let the ad companies do all the research

There are so many low competitive niches online that we all can benefit from.

Tal

I guess the other thing about targeting very narrow niches is you have to keep developing new product all the time.

Creating a product for a wider base means that when you drill down you use the same support, the same product and generally get economies of scale.

When you then niche down that product all you do is change the sales page to represent that niche.

The product is still the same and all the systems work the same just a different website.

The other trouble with going narrow is you limit the shelf life of that product. You will get a good spike and then it drops off rapidly.

I am more interested in building sustainability so I can eat in 4 years from now.

Believe me I have been doing this for 10 years and have lots of data to support this.

By all means do a narrow project but use the money you make to develop something that has more substance and has a longer life.

Quentin

I think all the responses here all say the same thing. Do whatever you do best and what makes you money. That's the bottom line.
Good for you for finding your path!

Can you give some examples of the big niches, where you went wrong, and giving examples of your small niches, comparing them to the big ones plz

Having spent a small fortune on Adwords promoting other peoples products,this was a interesting thread to read-Thanks for the info everyone.One learns every day