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What is a Niche
Before starting any venture, you have to decide which particular group of customers, or market you will service. Dentists for example serve people who are conscious about oral health. Business consultants serve entrepreneurs or businesses who are looking for advice or help. Gardeners serve those who like to have a nice garden and lawyers serve those with legal issues.
Knowing who your customer is, helps you define your niche, or the area of main interest for your business. Knowing which niche you wish to target helps to really define who your customers is and in turn that helps you target them better too. A niche differs from a ‘market’ in that a niche is actually a subset of a market, thus making it more defined.
Advantages of defining a Niche
Not all niches are created equal. Some are what we call ‘mainstream’ niches which are very popular and thus have many competitors. Others are ‘smaller niches’ which tend to be less served and thus have lower competition. Whilst it is not always true, mostly smaller niches tend to have less demand and thus there is less money to make.
The argument however focuses on taking a very small piece of a large pie, verses taking a very large piece of a smaller pie. Quite often the smaller pie is the better option.
Within Online Marketing defining your niche is particularly important as it allows you to provide a targeted service to a smaller but often more loyal customer base.
Unless you have huge funds to begin with, then it is very unlikely you can take a piece of a major niche filled with established competitors. It is often better to serve a niche, or subset of a profitable market so you can establish yourself quickly and create a loyal following with a much lower budget.
A niche can thus help you to set yourself apart from the competition, create a loyal audience and to profit from a underserved or ‘undiscovered’ subset of the market. Online marketing in particular has become overcrowded within the major niches, so finding less competitive or even ‘undiscovered’ niches is really the key to success.
Niche within Online Marketing
One of the first challenges within Online Marketing is finding your niche. The area or segment you will focus on and attempt to make money with.
The Internet is such a vast array of information that it is widely accepted you need to focus on a particular topic and do it well to have any chance of success. This blog for example focuses on Entrepreneurship and Business Development Strategies. I do not target all areas of Online Marketing because I do not consider myself knowledgeable enough to write about topics such as website design or programming for example. It would also be far more difficult to establish myself within the major ‘Online Marketing’ niche rather then my chosen subset ‘entrepreneurs’.
Another of my ventures, Blog Commenting Tribe focuses on blog owners who want to increase the number of comments on their site. It focuses on one particular problem and offers a great solution. It is focused on a subset within the blogging niche, so is memorable and will stand out within a crowd.
5 Ways of Finding Niche Ideas
1) Your own hobbies and experiences
The best place to start with niche ideas is always with yourself. This makes the niche finding process personal and helps you find something where can add value.
Start by asking yourself the following questions:
- What are your hobbies – list them all, however obscure
- What do you enjoy doing – list everything. Even going for walks could make a popular niche for people looking for details on interesting places to walk
- Where have you had difficulty finding information? Everybody stuggles at some point to find information on a certain subject, think back to these times because you could uncover a lucrative and non competitive niche.
- What information have you been given that you thought ‘this could be written so much better?’. Sometimes simplifying complicated information within a niche, can be a viable business.
The idea is to narrow down your answers into niches or areas to explore. Quite often we encounter many niche ideas in our everyday lives, but we never really think of them as a potential niche. This exercise helps overcome that hurdle.
2) Look at popular lists
Sometimes the best niche ideas can be staring you in the face. Quite often something someone speaks about or writes about can spark the creativity to define your own niche. I call it taking inspiration.
So when I need new niche ideas, I go to lists of popular items, so I can see what people are actually wanting to talk about, and perhaps I can find a niche that is underserved.
Here are some lists for you to get started:
- Google Trends – Lists the latest trend in searches and thus great to find ‘new’ niche ideas
- Amazon best sellers – I’m within Online Marketing to make money, so why not get my niche ideas from lists of products that people are already willing to pay money for. Great way of finding underserved niches that people are willing to spend money on.
- Twitter Trends – Sometimes a little buzz is all you need to define a viable niche. Twitter trends list whatever people seem to be talking about and thus can be a very valuable way to find out ‘what is hot’ or what people are interested in exploring.
3) Pay attention to those around you
Quite often niche ideas can come from those around you. Sometimes a family member may have a problem finding something, a friend may ask your advice on something or you may overhear an interesting conversation whilst travelling to work.
If somebody is asking for your advice or even someone else’s advice, then it means that there is some knowledge that you could be providing instead. Knowledge that you could deliver via a website, a blog or even a book in a very defined sub niche.
Keep yourself aware of what is going on around you and niche ideas will present themselves.
4) TV
Television is perhaps one of the greatest influences on our lives. There are programs on virtually every topic available and even channels dedicated to specific niches. You have comedy channels for light hearted moments, we have drama channels for those who prefer something more serious. We have cartoon channels for the kids and we have have MTV, which no longer plays music!
Television can be a great way to find niches. If you want to do something within sports you can flick through all the sports niche channels. Some are dedicated to football, others to racing which others to athletics. They have already defined niches. However they have also split those niches further, as each programme within that channels satisfies a certain sub niche too.
Lets think about a sports channels. They cover the main games which is of course the highlight or central focus. Then we have pre match gossip for those who like to be in match mood way before kickoff. Afterwards we have interviews and analysis for those who like to discuss the games in depth. During the week we will have long interviews with players for people who want to get to know their teams better and of course there will be rumour shows for those who like to keep up to date with what is happening.
That is numerous different sub-niches within just one channels. People who just like the core content. People who like more in depth analysis. People who like up to date information and people who like a more personal knowledge of players.
Almost every channel will give you endless sub niches and best of all they are constantly giving you new ideas as new programmes are born.
Of course there are also channels which have programs dedicated to latest trends. These may be car shows, gadgets shows or even music shows. All giving you an abundance of potential niche ideas.
5) Yellow Pages
The Yellow Pages is what I like to describe as the ultimate collection of niches. Look for any business market and you will find it dissected into sub niches right in front of you.
Take a look at lawyers for example. You will see then split into corporate lawyers, civil, properly, divorce and so on. The book practically lists endless niches for you and all you have to do is flick through!
The great thing about this method is that many of the companies are not well established online, meaning those niches are there for the taking. You can establish yourself in a particular niche and use the list of companies in the Yellow Pages to find advertisers.
This is perhaps niche finding 101. It does not get much easier.
Summary
Online Marketers tend to believe that their niche ideas should be born online. That is not always the case. Niche ideas may come to you in the most unlikely of places. Some of these are more proactive such as the ‘Yellow Pages’ whilst others are more passive such as ‘listening to what problems people around you are having’.
Niche ideas can come from problems, dreams or even aspirations of either those around you or your own personal experiences. In my personal opinion these type of niches tend to work best, because you have a personal perspective on them and can thus add value that nobody else can.
Yellow pages and TV can also give you great niche ideas, but you have to consider what will make you unique and stop somebody else coming over and stealing the new niche that you worked hard to create. Quite often a unique perspective is all that is needed to set you apart.
In the next article in this series we will look at how to evaluate your niche ideas and which you should shortlist to actually experiment with.
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN
In the comments below I want you to tell me :
- If you have a niche – tell me where that niche inspiration came from. Was it a personal experience or was an undiscovered niche inspiration source!
- If you do not have a niche – tell me where you will begin looking for niche and perhaps think about what you were doing the last time you had a great idea.
Be sure to share this content with anyone who has been struggling with creating their first video. They will thank you for it!
Hi Dee,
Really interesting post today! I think the process of defining ones niche is often overlooked or done in a haphazard sort of way. Many people come online and jump into a general area far too quickly without giving proper consideration to selecting their niche and defining their target audience.
For example – if someone picks “Health & Fitness” as their chosen niche the likelihood of them ever finding success is close to none. It’s far too broad an area with many dominant forces present. If, however, they drill further into their idea they may strike oil! Health & Fitness > Mens Fitness > Men Fitness over Fifty etc. etc.
That’s a very general example but I hope it illustrates my point
From my own perspective I have an interest in Online Marketing but in particular the growth area that is Video Marketing and how it can be leveraged to generate both offline & online leads with minimal effort.
Moral of the story is not to jump in feet first. Take the time to decide what area you are interested in and conduct proper research before making any costly mistakes. Thanks for sharing this – I’m sure it’ll help many an aspiring IMer!
Best – Noel
Thanks for your input Noel.
Yeah, the drilling analogy is a good one, as most people like you say, rarely even scratch the surface.
People have to start realising that with over 200,000 new marketing joining online each day, it will only get harder and harder to rise above the crowd unless, you become take the time to become memorable.
Good job on defining your niche, you will find as you progress it become even more and more refined… which is only ever a good thing. Now get some videos up on your blog!
I’ll get right on it Dee!
It’s on my To Do List so “watch this space”!
200,000 new marketers everyday – wow that really is an astonishing statistic, and as you say it makes it even more important for people to make themselves stand out from the crowd.
Ya, I am always looking at more ways to differentiate myself because video marketing is really taking off and is getting more competitive with each day. Very important to establish your own USP and then Leverage that to your advantage as much as possible.
Noel.
Dee,
I have gone around and around this subject for a long time. Through my progress, I have come to the conclusion that the right “Master” niche for someone should be one that they are personally interested in. By getting this right, it is much easier to drill down to a more focused sub niche(s). I think that doing this is a great way to also find your unique voice which will only help you succeed.
Personally I can see that my niche is evolving and probably always will. At this point, I am still defining what mine is. It revolves around inspireing and helping people interested developing their own “Freedom Lifestyle” through an onine business, so they can really be their true self.
By setting up my blog and writing about my experiences, I am finding that their are a lot of people that are interested in this niche as well.
Thank you for writing about this, It has inspired me to get more focused in defining my niche, which is a good thing.
Brooklyn
Finding my niche, in all honesty did take some time. It is not always easy to narrow down straight away, you have to start writing content, and then look back and see if what you created actually flowed, or was all over the place. Most people will find it is all over the place, and that experience helps you narrow your focus down furthe.
The blog actually started as a diary of my MBA and a lot of my followers were classmates or people I had worked with. Over time that became obsolete and I had to refocus on what my niche actually was going to be.
I totally agree that if you want to run a blog, the subject must interest you. If you are in it just for the potential money, then you going to need to outsource your content creation to someone who sounds like they actually care about the subject.
A lot of people are doing what you focus on, but not everyone does it in the same way. Not many will put themselves in front of the camera or write in your short witty style. That is what sets you apart and what will help you carve out a space in a somewhat crowded niche.
Aligning yourself with other supercool bloggers cannot be bad thing either!
Hey Dee,
The ‘niche selection’ topic is so important and I believe that way too many people come online and get into the wrong niche because they believe there is more money to be made in any particular niche.
I have made this mistake! Getting into a niche that I didn’t like because I was told there was money in that niche… But the problem with following that approach is that it still takes time and dedication, and if it’s something you don’t LOVE, then you won’t make it – or your chances of success are much less likely.
I started out creating micro niche sites and absolutely hated it… I was very turned off very quickly at the fact that I was doing something I didn’t enjoy, that’s why I decided very early on in my IM career that I would focus only on niches that I truly enjoyed – which I believe is necessary for success.
I think the most important point you make in this post is the first – you own hobbies and experiences. This is a business! And unless you truly do love what you’re doing, you will probably quit before you make it big… it’s just too tough and competitive to keep going for the ‘love of money’. You have to enjoy the service or product you’re providing and more importantly enjoy helping others with it.
Great post Dee, I see a lot of debate upcoming on this one, great job!
Pauly C
Pauly I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate here and just tell you a little story.
My first online business started in the 1990′s – I was in my early teens so my dad put his name to it. I have to be honest and tell you that I didn’t particularly enjoy the work, but I damn sure enjoyed the money! I was young so did not need a lot of money to be happy, and my father never kept any of it (even though I wish he did!).
When you are doing well you will enjoy almost anything. The positives far outwieght the negatives when you are making good money online.
The issue generally comes about with things you have to put a lot of energy into. Blogging is a really big example. With Blogging you really have put in consistant effort before you see great results and that is where people falter.
I know this article mainly focuses on blogging, and there I think 9/10 times, you are absolutely right. Those without passion will find it very difficult, but I still believe that whatever you decide to focus on has to be profitable more then your passion.
I never really thought about which one is more important to be honest and it is an interest question which I may explore in the future. Perhaps it has to do with how much effort is required divided by the passion for that niche…getting techincal here but maybe we can find some sort of correlation.
Great post. right now the niche i am working on developing is my leadership site. my goal with that site is creating a site leaders get together and share tthat niips and grow together. That niche idea came from my hobby of self growth and helping others.
Nice Eric, just be careful with that though. Leaders tend not to discuss their issues in public because they have their followings to think of.
If you make it feel more like a ‘partnership’ then it is more likely to work. Perhaps encouraging them to Guest Post or showcasing some of their work, so they feel part of the family rather then a follower.
Hmm… you might have something here in figuring out if a niche is worth pursuing based on a mathematical equation – thanks now I’m going to be figuring it out all day!
Sure, nobody cares about the monotony of the niche if they’re pulling in some good cash, but like you said, you have to put forth enough energy to get to that point – so in keeping that in mind, I don’t think many people are going to work hard for months (or years) on end in hopes that they’ll make good money unless they truly do enjoy the work.
Your point is well taken, I suppose I just know for myself that getting into a niche I don’t like is enough of a deterrent, and I’d rather do something I love because I still know that I can make money in most niches.
Thanks for sharing and playing devil’s advocate
Talk to you soon!
Perhaps I totally disagree that you should do something without making money from day 1… I know you are thinking ‘what the f…..’ BUT there is some logic behind this.
Your blog, website or anything should always be building some kind os asset based revenue, usually from a mailing list. This should happen very quickly, perhaps within 4 weeks of starting your blog. The problem is the new generation of marketers relies too heavily on Google for all their traffic, whereas we ‘older’ marketers never had the luxury of Google in the early days so still think of other ways to promote our sites.
I’ll get onto this in an upcoming post because what you say has given me some ideas to write about.
Hi Dee,
I’m actually writing a post right now about niche selection – though it’s evolving with a bit more of a sarcastic take – might have to work on it a bit
But, what resonates with me most in your post is that niche selection can happen from anywhere – not just through research online.
I ran into an acquaintance a few months back who had just moved to a new city and was trying out different activities to keep herself busy after work. She said “I just want to find my niche.” (her exact words) So I jumped on that endeavor with her and discovered a completely different niche other than my IM one.
So now I’ve got another plan in the works for a fun niche project!
Always be open to new possibilities!
Really great post!
Fantastic Christine….. could not have put it better then your two lines
“Always be open to new possibilities!
Really great post!”
Appreciation for the last line!