How To Find The Best Niche Markets What is a Niche Market? The definition of a niche market in Wikipedia is "a focused, targetable portion (subset) of a market sector".
Why Look for a Niche Market? The niche market you choose will have a huge impact on your earnings and taking the right amount of time and effort to research one can pay you dividends.
For successful entrepreneurs the old saying still applies: it is better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.
If you are starting a new business, there is no way that you can compete against the big names in their sector.
They will have been building their business and brand name for a very long time.
And they will have the capital to keep on investing to continue their expansion in their quest for market domination.
That is why specialisation is a must.
Say I'm a business selling a lot of general, unrelated things like: hamsters, cowboy hats and maybe travel insurance.
Yes, that would be a more extreme case but you can see the point.
Would I be first choice if you were looking for travel insurance for adventure sports? I would bet money that I wouldn't.
But if I were to open a shop specialising say in insurance for mountain climbing then you might think I was a bit more credible.
Firstly, you would get the impression that I knew about mountain climbing insurance (and with me only working on this type of insurance I probably would).
Secondly, you could expect to get a choice of different climbing insurance policies.
And finally, my business would be a lot simpler to find with me only being focus one thing.
This would be especially handy when it comes to finding things on search engines.
One of the main reasons you need to specialise is to get search engines to find you.
So it is absolutely key that you narrow your niche market down.
To make any money from your site, I would steer clear of cars but something specific like Ford Fiesta accessories for example could do a lot better.
Just focusingyour site on only one product has often proved to be a profitable strategy.
The less choice a consumer has, the more likely to buy.
A well-known newspaper had once done an experiment showing an ad for one watch and a very similar ad shown for ten different watches.
Which one was the more successful? You got it.
The ad for only one watch.
That's all very well but how do I find one of those niche markets, you might now be asking.
Here are some ways you can find them...
1.
) What areas do you know a lot about - Everyone will know a lot about something.
What are you passionate about? The greater your affiliation with your niche the easier it will be to make a profit.
Earning cash from something you love will also be a lot more rewarding.
2.
) You want to target very specific groups.
One way of finding specialised groups is by looking at niche magazines.
This is simple to do - Just go to a larger shop selling loads of magazines to find ones that are targeted at specialised groups.
If you find a niche market this way, take note of the magazine's distribution.
The ones with a distribution of less than 20,000 tend to be super-specific (so more niche) and would also offer cheaper advertising.
Of course you can also do the same thing on line by browsing articles to see which ones get the most views.
EzineArticles is one of the places where you can do this.
So what are people be interested in now? What could they be interested in, in the future? Look up clubs, groups and events.
Can you spot any unusual ones? Are there any crazes cropping up? A good way of researching this is looking at what types of films will be coming out a good year in advance.
3.
) Keyword Tools - Look up keywords that get a lot of searches (say a few thousand a month) that do not have a lot of competition.
Incidentally, a keyword does not need to be a word.
There are a lot of commonly used search phrases out there that aren't widely used as Keywords.
The Google AdWords Keywords tool is a good free tool to use for finding how popular a given keyword is.
Just make sure that you uncheck the "broad" search and check the "exact" search option.
Otherwise it will seem like your keywords are getting a lot more searches than they are.
You can look up the competition your keywords by typing them into Google's search bar.
Make sure that you have your term in "" marks to get results for the exact word or phrase you are typing in only.
You can then see how many results Google will return for your search term.
Have a Niche in Mind? Make Sure It's Profitable You cannot start a money making business if it's a lot more expensive to provide a product than the price you get for selling it.
But I don't need to tell you that.
Make sure that you do a thorough cost benefit analysis before diving into anything.
Work out what you can charge (you'll have to take your competitors' prices into consideration here).
Compare this to the price of your goods - don't forget to deduct things like VAT, PayPal fees, listing fees, etc.
Think about how many units you will be able to sell.
If it looks like you won't make a profit, go back to the drawing board.
If you can, excellent - You can continue your journey on your money making path.
Always Keep Your Customers In Mind...
Once you have found your niche, you will need to consider the kinds of customers you are looking to attract.
Do not stop at a superficial analysis of the people who will buy your products.
Picture your typical customer.
Think about them in a lot of detail.
Their lifestyles, their daily routines, their aspirations and general spending habits.
Are they wealthy, frugal, image-conscious, intelligent, careful, Italian, culture-loving, farmers, easily distracted, insecure, etc.
Building up an accurate picture of your customer will help you to optimise what you are offering.
Keep in mind that there are tons of niches out there.
So it's well worth spending that extra bit of time on finding the right one if you want to make the big money.
Why Look for a Niche Market? The niche market you choose will have a huge impact on your earnings and taking the right amount of time and effort to research one can pay you dividends.
For successful entrepreneurs the old saying still applies: it is better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.
If you are starting a new business, there is no way that you can compete against the big names in their sector.
They will have been building their business and brand name for a very long time.
And they will have the capital to keep on investing to continue their expansion in their quest for market domination.
That is why specialisation is a must.
Say I'm a business selling a lot of general, unrelated things like: hamsters, cowboy hats and maybe travel insurance.
Yes, that would be a more extreme case but you can see the point.
Would I be first choice if you were looking for travel insurance for adventure sports? I would bet money that I wouldn't.
But if I were to open a shop specialising say in insurance for mountain climbing then you might think I was a bit more credible.
Firstly, you would get the impression that I knew about mountain climbing insurance (and with me only working on this type of insurance I probably would).
Secondly, you could expect to get a choice of different climbing insurance policies.
And finally, my business would be a lot simpler to find with me only being focus one thing.
This would be especially handy when it comes to finding things on search engines.
One of the main reasons you need to specialise is to get search engines to find you.
So it is absolutely key that you narrow your niche market down.
To make any money from your site, I would steer clear of cars but something specific like Ford Fiesta accessories for example could do a lot better.
Just focusingyour site on only one product has often proved to be a profitable strategy.
The less choice a consumer has, the more likely to buy.
A well-known newspaper had once done an experiment showing an ad for one watch and a very similar ad shown for ten different watches.
Which one was the more successful? You got it.
The ad for only one watch.
That's all very well but how do I find one of those niche markets, you might now be asking.
Here are some ways you can find them...
1.
) What areas do you know a lot about - Everyone will know a lot about something.
What are you passionate about? The greater your affiliation with your niche the easier it will be to make a profit.
Earning cash from something you love will also be a lot more rewarding.
2.
) You want to target very specific groups.
One way of finding specialised groups is by looking at niche magazines.
This is simple to do - Just go to a larger shop selling loads of magazines to find ones that are targeted at specialised groups.
If you find a niche market this way, take note of the magazine's distribution.
The ones with a distribution of less than 20,000 tend to be super-specific (so more niche) and would also offer cheaper advertising.
Of course you can also do the same thing on line by browsing articles to see which ones get the most views.
EzineArticles is one of the places where you can do this.
So what are people be interested in now? What could they be interested in, in the future? Look up clubs, groups and events.
Can you spot any unusual ones? Are there any crazes cropping up? A good way of researching this is looking at what types of films will be coming out a good year in advance.
3.
) Keyword Tools - Look up keywords that get a lot of searches (say a few thousand a month) that do not have a lot of competition.
Incidentally, a keyword does not need to be a word.
There are a lot of commonly used search phrases out there that aren't widely used as Keywords.
The Google AdWords Keywords tool is a good free tool to use for finding how popular a given keyword is.
Just make sure that you uncheck the "broad" search and check the "exact" search option.
Otherwise it will seem like your keywords are getting a lot more searches than they are.
You can look up the competition your keywords by typing them into Google's search bar.
Make sure that you have your term in "" marks to get results for the exact word or phrase you are typing in only.
You can then see how many results Google will return for your search term.
Have a Niche in Mind? Make Sure It's Profitable You cannot start a money making business if it's a lot more expensive to provide a product than the price you get for selling it.
But I don't need to tell you that.
Make sure that you do a thorough cost benefit analysis before diving into anything.
Work out what you can charge (you'll have to take your competitors' prices into consideration here).
Compare this to the price of your goods - don't forget to deduct things like VAT, PayPal fees, listing fees, etc.
Think about how many units you will be able to sell.
If it looks like you won't make a profit, go back to the drawing board.
If you can, excellent - You can continue your journey on your money making path.
Always Keep Your Customers In Mind...
Once you have found your niche, you will need to consider the kinds of customers you are looking to attract.
Do not stop at a superficial analysis of the people who will buy your products.
Picture your typical customer.
Think about them in a lot of detail.
Their lifestyles, their daily routines, their aspirations and general spending habits.
Are they wealthy, frugal, image-conscious, intelligent, careful, Italian, culture-loving, farmers, easily distracted, insecure, etc.
Building up an accurate picture of your customer will help you to optimise what you are offering.
Keep in mind that there are tons of niches out there.
So it's well worth spending that extra bit of time on finding the right one if you want to make the big money.