In the world of marketing (online and offline) there is much talk about targeting a specific group of people. Who are you targeting your marketing efforts to?
This is essentially called Niche Marketing. Niche marketing is about identifying a smaller part of a large market. In a sense it’s about specializing. The more specialized you are the easier it is to focus on delivering what your market wants.
So how do you choose a profitable niche market?
First, you need to do a bunch of brainstorming. Think of huge (and evergreen) markets. Here are a few examples:
- Health
- Baby
- Sports
- Finances
- Travel
- Food
- Business
Do you see how these are HUGE markets?
The next step is to pick a big market that interests you. Then take that main keyword and enter it into Micro Niche Finder or Google Keyword Tool.
Take a look at the results. These are keywords real people are entering into the search engines to find what they are looking for. This gives you incredible insight into what people want.
Most of the time you will see keywords that have a common theme or that is an off shoot of the main keyword. Pay attention to these keywords. These are keywords you want to look further into.
But for now, you just want to see if there is demand for the topic. If you are finding there are lots of searches then that is a great thing. Imagine that the market is a whole pie. You are just looking for a piece of the pie (niche market).
The next thing you will want to evaluate is whether or not you can find any great affiliate products or services to promote. Or do you think you could go one step further and create a digital product of your own?
Search affiliate networks or places you know have an affiliate program (examples: Amazon, Clickbank, Neverblue, MarketHealth) or just do a search in Google for topic name + affiliate program to see what comes up.
On the flip side, you could always search for products you know you want to promote. It’s always a great idea (but not always necessary) to promote products or services that you have tried yourself.
In order to find a profitable niche market you must assess whether or not the niche market has 1.) demand 2.) there is something to sell. Plus it will be very beneficial for you if you have an interest in the market as well.
I’d love to know how do you find a profitable niche market? Do you have trouble finding niche markets? Let me know below!
Lisa – Personally-speaking I look at niche markets in quite a bit more depth. For example just because there are products you can promote doesn’t necessarily mean people are rabid spenders in a certain market and a market that doesn’t have products to promote may simply be crying out for someone like you or me to create a product for that niche.
I suppose therefore the biggest thing I look at is commerciality. I look at whether people in that niche are actively spending money. Other useful resources I use are to check for magazines about the topic (suggests a lot of interest – and people willing to pay to be involved with that niche), I like to look at Adwords click prices and competition levels and I also like to check out the dominant sites in the niche to see what I could do differently.
For me, getting the right niche/keyword to target is 90% of the battle. Get this wrong and all your hard work thereafter is at risk of failure.
Richard
Richard @ Lifestyle Design Unleashed recently posted..Believe In Yourself- 4 Motivational Videos To Get Your Adrenaline Pumping
Hey Richard! Yeah, basically speaking a market is where people are buying and selling. So when first looking to find a niche market you want to look at big markets (where people are buying and selling) and then drill down from there. For example, the baby market is way to broad. Instead drill down: baby –> baby clothes –> baby girl clothes based on what people are searching for (keyword too). So the next step and the most important step is to find the right keywords to target. That’s where I get into more depth. My point here is that there are many, many niche markets to enter. It’s easy to get stuck so I say keep it simple. Is there a demand and *point of clarification* are people spending money? Then the next step is to find the right keywords to target.
Thanks for stopping by!
I quite like Micro Niche Finder, and used it for quite some time. In particular I valued that it integrated with Yahoo, or was it MSN, to provide competition and buying analysis. I certainly preferred it to Market Samurai, which most rave about.
After a while though I found that just using the Google tool, and the free Wordtracker, was enough to target profitable niches and keywords. It’s not that other tools are no good, but simply that as you become more experienced you get a feel for what will work.
Its still possible to get it wrong, of course. The key is to test, with affiliate products, before you spend too much time developing a product.
Stephen Bray recently posted..Greg’s Misconceptions About Branding For Small Business!
Hi Stephen,
Yes, I like Micro Niche Finder a lot and also tend to just use the Google Keyword tool these days as well since I’ve had a lot of practice. I’m a little annoyed though that the Yahoo Site Explorer is gone as that was very useful to find the number of backlinks. I agree the key is to test (for yourself) with affiliate products! Thanks for stopping by!
Lisa,
Hey friend – great post. I have to admit that I have tried many of the keyword research tools including Micro Niche Finder, MS (Which I won), and most recently Long Tail Pro. I keep coming back to Google’s keyword tool.
I find that with all of the changes that are made by the big G month after month it is most reliable to just go straight to the source.
Keep up the great work.
Jeremy