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Big Market Little Market Debate

by nicholasb
7 replies
The thing many people will teach you is to pick a tiny little niche, and carve out a little piece for your self.. Be a big fish in a small pond they say...

Sounds great in theory but in reality, this is horrible advice taught by petty online marketers.... I have never heard a billionaire or a super millionaire say find the smallest possible market. They always say to do the opposite.

My experience is in the Biggest markets, the markets that many are afraid to enter. Markets with a few million searches per month and that's just the online reach.

I have been full time without a job for almost 7 years now, I have tested small tiny niches and they SUCK big time. There is never any decent money in these little dinky niches and the income never lasts.

Tiny little markets are easily saturated, 10 people enter your niche and your out of business. Plus you have to rely solely on SEO traffic and one dumb little long tail keyword that delivers 20 visitors a day haha, this is laughable.

There's a reason nobodies in that market and it's hardly because it's untapped. Untapped is just a fancy word people use to get people to buy stuff.

Your much better off to be a small fish in a massive pond, because even a small fraction of that income will be more than if you dominated some tiny niche (which if you did, I can guarantee you it will only be temporary)..

There is a publication I advertise in that has a circulation of over 750,000 people a month.

That's just one publication, there are literally hundreds more I can advertise in with numbers much larger than that.

I dare you to enter a big market, play with the big dogs, you'll not only have to get seriously better at marketing which will give you an edge over the wannabes and nobodies, you'll also have a bigger pool of customers to cast your nets into
#big #debate #market
  • Profile picture of the author Nigel Love
    I would say big market - not really sure.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Nigel Love View Post

      I would say big market - not really sure.
      I tend to say the opposite, on balance.

      What pays my mortgage and bills and re-invests in my business is "my slice of the pie", not how big the pie is.

      I don't make a living out of the size of the pie. It isn't relevant to me at all.

      Only my slice feeds me.

      And anyway, those "big pies" are surrounded by thousands and thousands of hungry marketers waving their cutlery about and not always even waiting for "Grace" to be said so they can dig in.

      It's not even easy to get close to them. People's shares of them, if they manage to get one at all, aren't always very nourishing at all, however big the pie is to start with.

      Ultimately (if you'll excuse a metaphor) it's about whether you want to sell jeans or skating videos. The jeans market is absolutely enormous: everyone buys them, tens of thousands sell them. The skating video market is far smaller but almost nobody specialises in selling them, so it's comparatively easy money.

      The niches in which the most profits are collectively made by marketers and the niches in which you have the highest chance of making profits are often mutually exclusive, and there are reasons for that.

      Starting off from the premise that "the most profitable niches" (in general) are also "the best ones to try" (in particular) is a way of stacking the deck against yourself, not in your favor. Several of the reasons for that are discussed in the threads linked to, below.

      It's explained in more detail here: Niche Selection Roadblock
      And here: Weight Loss Market: Still Profitable ?
      And here: Most Lucrative niche in Internet Marketing?
      And here: Guess who is going to have the most profitable business?

      In a sense, it relates to a pretty simple, arithmetical question. Where do you have better chances: in a market with $1,000,000 turnover and 10,000 marketers, or in a market with $100,000 and 100 marketers. To me, it looks like one of them might be ten times as good as the other. And it certainly isn't the "big market". What matters isn't the first number: it's the result after dividing the first number by the second number. This, albeit expressed here in simplified numerical terms, is the key concept the OP completely misses and misunderstands.

      .
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  • Profile picture of the author brentb
    If you can bring something of value to someone and address their needs, you will make money. If you can bring value to 'fitness & weightloss' with your offering, that is where you should be, if its 'skateboard videos' that is where you should be. Making a lot of money in any niche, big or small, really comes down to if your can provide value and address a need, so don't pick a niche you can't provide value for.

    If you just want to rehash a fitness book, you aren't bringing anything new to the market, good luck. But if you develop a new way to exercise with clear benefits (ie think Crossfit), it will catch on. And this is one of the largest and most oversaturated niches out there but its still churning out millionaires and crushing thousands of new entrants for not bringing value.
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  • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
    Originally Posted by nicholasb View Post

    I have been full time without a job for almost 7 years now
    Hey, don't let it get you down - we're all pulling for you.


    Seriously...

    Originally Posted by nicholasb View Post

    Sounds great in theory but in reality, this is horrible advice taught by petty online marketers.... I have never heard a billionaire or a super millionaire say find the smallest possible market. They always say to do the opposite.
    Nice straw man you've thrown in there. Nobody advises anyone to find the smallest possible market - what those who succeed in a large market advise is to "niche it down". In other words, find a small part of a large market you can concentrate on and, if not dominate, then at least be a significant player in it.


    Originally Posted by nicholasb View Post

    Tiny little markets are easily saturated, 10 people enter your niche and your out of business. Plus you have to rely solely on SEO traffic and one dumb little long tail keyword that delivers 20 visitors a day haha, this is laughable.
    Nicholas, you're too experienced to really believe that the method you deride here is actually how successful marketers tackle a niche market.

    The reality is that the size of the market is largely irrelevant, as long as it contains a sufficient number of buyers that you can reach cost-effectively. The most important factor in your success is how you position yourself in that market.

    You must have heard the expression: "It's not the size that matters, it's the positioning."

    Or something like that...

    Frank
    Signature


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  • Profile picture of the author KenThompson
    Interesting comments and perspectives and they're all right in certain ways. I'm sure the OP is basing his opinions and advice on what his experiences have been and what has worked for him.

    I think this is one of those conversations where onlookers, lacking experience, may be best advised to understand all arguments and have an open mind. I'm fairly sure success stories exist and have been achieved using both approaches. There are too many variables not to mention the biggest one of all which is the person driving the business.

    Ken
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  • Profile picture of the author trader909
    It's getting "bigger"

    What do you think of the Weight Loss niche?
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  • Profile picture of the author Adam Monroe
    I'd say everyone here has a point. When a business is just starting up, depending on the niche, I'd say you better follow some steps. At the beginning, it's not always about the money you earn, but the strategy which will make your business successful and profitable.

    What does this mean? Try marketing your business on the small market first - use it to receive your first feedback. What if your business fails or needs improvements? Better fail at small level rather than big. On the other hand, if your business turns up to be successful and you end up beating all your small competitors, you can change your strategy and start playing "big".

    This way, you will enter on the big market like someone locally big.

    In my opinion, it's better to follow these steps and see where they lead you and your business.
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