A quick tip for newbies on niche choice

by andybeveridge

Posted: 10 years ago 37 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Often when you first enter the IM arena the first problem becomes what niche should I work in?

To overcome this problem it is best to look at your own interests, because you will have knowledge on these subjects and obviously will enjoy working in that area.
How do you know if your hobby is in a a buyers market?

Well I think this is a good method. Take a trip to your local newsagent, the type that have several shelves of magazines. If a publisher invests time and money into publishing a regular magazine that means their is a market for it. They don't normally waste their cash.
Plus if you are looking for content then the magazine will be full of it and this should spark off a ton of ideas. Also it will be a great place to see what problems people are having in your chosen niche.

Making money online can be as simple as finding problems and solving them, and this is a great method to get you started.

Of course there are many other things I could add but this is just a short post with a basic idea of how to choose a niche. I hope it helps someone.

#choice #newbies #niche #quick #tip

CDarklock 10 years ago

Originally Posted by andybeveridge

Of course there are many other things I could add but this is just a short post with a basic idea of how to choose a niche. I hope it helps someone.

Choosing a niche in three steps:

- You think about it every day
- Your customers think about it every day
- You know what your customers think

The best way to get these three things is to find an active forum with a lot of members that is entirely about your potential niche, and spend a month participating there daily. If you find that tedious or bothersome, or if a month later you are not popular and respected on that forum, that is probably not a niche for you.

(You are not even TRYING to sell anything that first month. Trust me, if you want to be hated on a forum, selling stuff during your first month is a great way to do that.)

There are two kinds of niches: dreams and dilemmas.

If you choose a dream niche like home business, the pain is that they don't have the dream and what you are ultimately selling is the ability to get it.

If you choose a dilemma niche like toenail fungus, the pain is that they have this dilemma and what you are ultimately selling is freedom from it.

You are NOT selling the dream itself or being rid of the dilemma. Sometimes you can't. In any case, it's generally irresponsible and frequently illegal or impossible. FTC bizopp rules prevent a lot of directly selling a turnkey business, for example, and you can't actually get rid of cancer or herpes.

Hope this helps. Off you go then.
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- JasonB 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by CDarklock
  
  - You think about it every day
  - Your customers think about it every day
  - You know what your customers think
  
  - money
  - money
  - money
  
  ?
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  CDarklock 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by JasonB
  
  - money
  - money
  - money
  
  ?
  
  So... what your customers think about money is "money," then?
  
  Are you marketing to retards?
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
  Signature
  
  "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
  
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  JasonB 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by CDarklock
  
  So... what your customers think about money is "money," then?
  
  Are you marketing to retards?
  
  "Retards" is a very very strong word and should be used wisely. I'm sorry you feel that way.
  
  Thanks for the reply though and good lookin out!
  
  Holla!
  
  Thanks
  
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  CDarklock 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by JasonB
  
  "Retards" is a very very strong word and should be used wisely.
  
  Don't I know it.
  
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  "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
  
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- jessiewriter 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by CDarklock
  
  - You think about it every day
  - Your customers think about it every day
  - You know what your customers think
  
  I'm selecting "niches" for my upcoming three trilogies of hobby/craft cozy mystery novels ... and you made such an impression with these three things. You've helped me immensely in sorting out what I should do! Your forum idea even works for me quite a bit.
  
  Thanks for sharing :-)
  
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AffiliateWaves 10 years ago

Thanks for info ,

Can you answer my query ,when selecting any niche they say select a narrow niche than broader .What does it means ,i am confused on it
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- CDarklock 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by AffiliateWaves
  
  Can you answer my query ,when selecting any niche they say select a narrow niche than broader .What does it means ,i am confused on it
  
  Every community of a certain size is really a series of subcommunities. Like in Andy's example:
  
  Golf
  Driving
  
  Hazards
  
  Putting
  
  So if you decide to specialise in putting, then you have:
  
  Reading the green
  
  Left-handed putting
  
  Putting devices for the disabled
  
  And you just pick one.
  
  You drill down to something small enough that you can get really good at it, but large enough that there are still customers, and that you can actually still be interested in enough to enjoy the research.
  
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  "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
  
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  AffiliateWaves 10 years ago
  
  Hello Andy ,
  I just sent a pm ,hope you will help me
  
  Thanks
  
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- talfighel 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by AffiliateWaves
  
  Thanks for info ,
  
  Can you answer my query ,when selecting any niche they say select a narrow niche than broader .What does it means ,i am confused on it
  
  When someone is looking for a shoe, does not mean you can sell high heels.
  
  Maybe they are looking for a basketball shoe and it has to be a Nike. So your narrow niche will be Nike shoes for men who want to use it for basketball.
  
  Thanks
  
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- Geri Richmond 10 years ago
  
  Hi,
  It can be confusing. Selecting a narrow niche means drilling down in a niche. For instance, say it's the weight loss niche. the drill down technique is "mothers over 40 with twins". That is a narrow niche in a huge niche.
  Hope this helps you.
  Geri Richmond
  
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pearlydean 10 years ago

Andy and Caliban know what they are talking about - great starter tips.
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andybeveridge 10 years ago

Yes I can. An example would be say Golf. Golf is a massive niche and would be difficult to get yourself heard, so by burrowing down into the niche you may find easier less competitive areas to operate in.
Perhaps it could look like this...Golf.....Putting.....Left handed putting.
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- lucidzfl 10 years ago
  
  What kind of CPC/Search Traffic/Serps/Competition numbers would you look for?
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  CDarklock 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by lucidzfl
  
  What kind of CPC/Search Traffic/Serps/Competition numbers would you look for?
  
  None. I don't care.
  
  As far as I am concerned, none of that is even remotely relevant to my business. People are not going to be searching for my niche and stumbling across my website. They are going to be searching for HELP, and stumbling across my CUSTOMERS.
  
  Basically you are looking for people to announce without provocation that you are awesome and your product is awesome and other people need to go buy it.
  
  I don't want to go too into that, but the whole numbers thing is just wrongheaded. Turn your focus to the people you serve and the quality of your service. Everything else is a distraction.
  
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i58biz

10 years ago

A narrow niche means that instead of say "dog training", it may be "poodle dog training" or "how to train an older dog", etc

In other words, narrow down the area of the niche that you are targeting.

Thanks
1 reply

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dsimms

10 years ago

be to work on some low comp long tail keywords....

Ie: Poodle training for Fat Dogs

Originally Posted by i58biz

A narrow niche means that instead of say "dog training", it may be "poodle dog training" or "how to train an older dog", etc

In other words, narrow down the area of the niche that you are targeting.

Thanks
1 reply

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Kay King 10 years ago

Finding good niches starts with opening your mind. If all you think about is "money for me" you sabotage yourself.

But how do you continue to make money?

By selling related products - someone worried about toe fungus may be interested in other health related products such as wicking socks that prevent toe fungus or shoes designed to provide air flow to keep feet from becoming damp....or anti-fungal foot powders or creams or.....

For a couple years I carried a small notebook in my purse all the time - I kept a running list of "possible niches" based on:

product/problems/solutions on magazine covers
what I saw people in stores looking at (popular product displays)
what I saw in people's carts
products I noticed that I hadn't thought of as niches
things I heard friends talking about as "new" or "in" or "great stuff"

A couple times a month I took those lists of "maybe" niches - and spent an afternoon running keyword searches. If search numbers were good I'd move on to look at competing sellers/sites, affiliate programs, etc. At the end of my research I'd have 2-3 good niches and a couple "maybe" niches from a list of 100 or more in my notebook.
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AvisMarketing 10 years ago

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- BillyPilgrim 10 years ago
  
  I would also suggest picking a niche that has staying power. Using CD's example of toe fungus (eeewwww!), once you've solved their problem, great. But how do you continue to make money? This business, particularly these days, IS really all about helping people. And you're in business to do that AND to make a living.
  Andy's example of golf (a waste of a good walk, someone once quipped) is a great one. Golfers are rabid and will do almost anything to constantly improve their game. Hence your ability to constantly sell to them.
  
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  CDarklock 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by BillyPilgrim
  
  Using CD's example of toe fungus (eeewwww!), once you've solved their problem, great. But how do you continue to make money?
  
  You are absolutely right.
  
  Do you know how many kinds of shoes you CAN'T WEAR when you have horrible embarrassing toe fungus and ugly nails?
  
  Target WOMEN with toe fungus. Then sell them toenail polish and open-toed shoes. Then continue selling them awesome shoes at bargain prices. What woman ever stops buying shoes?
  
  You're not really in the toenail fungus niche. You're in the PRETTY FEET niche.
  
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- AffiliateWaves 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by AvisMarketing
  
  I am actually working on a niche research eBook that will be out in a couple of weeks!
  
  Also everyone has offered some great tips on this post!
  
  Well i hope we will get that ebook for free
  
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Zeus66 10 years ago

I think if Andy and CD love each other so much, they should get hitched.

Seriously, though, good advice from both. Find a corner of a big proven market and stake your claim. The beauty is that you can expand your reach from the inside without fighting through the tough competition of going after the big broad market from the start.
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Stuart Walker 10 years ago

If you're looking to 'niche down' and find something more specific there are a few ways to do it.

You can go to forums based on your niche topic and look at what sub-sections they have. These are often sub-niches.

Or see what categories blogs in the niche have.

Check books (use Amazon look inside feature) and see what chapters they have.

Use Google Suggest and Wildcard searches to do stuff like "niche idea *" and see what it suggests.

Go to Amazon and type in your niche or choose a broad category. It will bring up a larger list of categories on the left hand side of the page. Clicking on a category will bring up sub-categories. Just keep clicking as far as you can to get super specific.

Go to Wikipedia and type your niche idea in. Go to the main page about it and browse through it looking at similar pages it links to sub-sections on the page. These can be sub-niches.
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travlinguy 10 years ago

I can't stand it. Too much common sense in one thread.

Another great way to peruse available markets is with a big city Yellow Pages. Yeah, baby. Idea wonderland.
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Greg Ray

10 years ago

Good discussion.

Aligning your Passion with a Profitable Niche is key to long-term success in this - or any - business.

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JohnMcCabe

10 years ago

Originally Posted by CDarklock

You're not really in the toenail fungus niche. You're in the PRETTY FEET niche.

Brilliant illustration of separating features and benefits, getting down to what the buyer really wants.

Going back to the golf market, since we've already started down this cart path...

Your product teaches people to hit longer, straighter drives off the tee. So what? What does the target student get from that?

Beginners, duffers and weekend hackers? Not embarrassing themselves with better golfers watching.

Club golfers? Easier shots approaching the green, which leads to lower scores and handicaps, which leads to enhanced status in the clubhouse.

Serious golfers? Control over distance and direction gives them choices, which allows them to play better on multiple courses in differing conditions. Think of the difference between a wind-blown course on Maui in the spring, a sun-baked track in Texas in high summer and a cold rainy day in the fall. Nothing stops a serious golfer...

Golfing In A Storm - Caddyshack - YouTube

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CDarklock

10 years ago

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

Brilliant illustration of separating features and benefits, getting down to what the buyer really wants.

The buyer doesn't really want pretty feet, either, but some kind of thing they can get WITH pretty feet.

Feature -> Benefit -> Advantage.

Learned that from Colin Theriot. He's freakin' brilliant.

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"The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers

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Zeus66

10 years ago

Originally Posted by CDarklock

The buyer doesn't really want pretty feet, either, but some kind of thing they can get WITH pretty feet.

Feature -> Benefit -> Advantage.

Learned that from Colin Theriot. He's freakin' brilliant.

If you love Colin Theriot (Stalin Stereo) so much, why don't you... wait, I already used that one. Maybe a 3-some with Andy?

I'm bored today. Sorry.

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Tom Addams 10 years ago

Good advice!

Another Method:

Jot down a list of your hobbies and then check them out with a keyword tool. Do they get a lot of buying queries? If so, you have some potentially great niches, and you've also started your research on finding out what your target audience wants to know. When you know this, give it to them!
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Krisz Rokk 10 years ago

Make an appropriate evaluation of the industry you're going to serve.
Check Amazon (bestselling categories, titles, items), eBay (what items are selling best in each category), ClickBank, Dummies.com, magazines.com...

Billionaire Jerry Jones says it best:
“I grew up under a premise, go in an industry that has a large profit margin, don’t go in one that’s slim. Go in one that’s large. Take what you’ve got: your assets, your energy or your willingness to just not be told no. The harder and the tougher it is, the bigger the challenge to get it, the bigger the opportunity behind. The opportunities behind are endless.”
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ZedyDiamond 10 years ago

Thank you for the advice! I knew this, but forgot it
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Janice Stacy 10 years ago

Actually it doesn't matter how many tips you give to a person who is a newbie, he will hesitate till the day of choosing niche. Most of the newbie choose wrong niche in the beginning but soon they realize about it. This is why I would like to suggest them to get started asap because it will lead you towards the right path.
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cyberzolo 10 years ago

I would suggest to find the balance between a profitable niche and a niche you are passionate about
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hbhanot 10 years ago

That is not a bad idea at all.
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ephicil 10 years ago

studies have shown that most people run to the internet to solve their problems. So very good point.
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- perryny 10 years ago
  
  Caliban, you are a really smart guy. Seriously.
  
  So, have you ever come across a product in the toenail fungus niche that works like gangbusters?
  
  There's a niche with a need. Don't I know it. (You don't wan't me to post a pic.)
  
  Good to see you,
  -Rob
  
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Stuart Walker

10 years ago

For a couple years I carried a small notebook in my purse all the time - I kept a running list of "possible niches" based on:

product/problems/solutions on magazine covers
what I saw people in stores looking at (popular product displays)
what I saw in people's carts
products I noticed that I hadn't thought of as niches
things I heard friends talking about as "new" or "in" or "great stuff"

A couple times a month I took those lists of "maybe" niches - and spent an afternoon running keyword searches. If search numbers were good I'd move on to look at competing sellers/sites, affiliate programs, etc. At the end of my research I'd have 2-3 good niches and a couple "maybe" niches from a list of 100 or more in my notebook.

I add dozens of potential niche ideas to a note on my phone nearly every day just from things that happen in my day to day life.

Problems, activities, things I hear, see and read, TV shows I watch, news features.

I just ran dozens of them through the first phase of research today and there were a lot of promising ideas.

Thanks

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A quick tip for newbies on niche choice

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