|
Home / Business / Small Business
What's a Niche and How Do You Find One?
By:Kathryn Beach
According to Wikipedia, a niche is "a special place within the scheme of things." Niche marketing is defined as "the process of finding and serving small but potentially profitable market segments and designing custom-made products or services for them." So it's all about finding your special place, and the products and services that fit.
Right from the start, you should understand that your goal in discovering a niche is to concentrate all your ideas and thoughts into the most precise, concise, and focused concept possible. Your potential audience is everyone in the world with computer access and an interest in your site's topic. Your potential information resources are everything known about that topic. So you want to be sure to have enough information to eventually fill hundreds of pages, and you want to narrow your focus enough that you can be perceived as an expert, as "THE place to go" for information, products, and/or services.
I want to add right now that if your only interest is making money online, this is a very difficult area to build a website around these days. That niche was "hot" eight years ago. Most successful internet entrepreneurs in that area say they would not attempt breaking into that niche if they were starting out today. There's just too much competition, there are way too many experts already. Breaking into a niche market using keywords like "make money at home" "work at home" "home business" is next to impossible. There are billions of niches out there; find yours.
Focus, focus, focus...
Let's say you're interested in art. You can narrow your focus by choosing an art medium, period in history, particular artist, subject (still lifes, dogs, clothing, hairstyles, architecture, etc.), events, geographical location, and/or the life and inspiration of one or more artists. Your aim should be to choose as many of these focal points as possible, so that the end result is extremely well-defined subject matter.
Then you want to find out how frequently people are searching for this information, what keywords they are entering in the search engines, and how many sites are currently available with that information. Eventually you will come up with your concept, your keywords, and you can begin creating your domain name and meta tags for your website.
Keywords were named that for a reason...
Every page on your website will have its own keywords. These are the words that people will enter into a search engine and find your webpage. Maybe your art interest has been narrowed down to the history of London architecture as depicted in the photographs of John Doe. You must find the best keywords for your niche market, see what sites are currently available, maybe change your focus until you find just the right balance between what's hot, what's available, and what's wide open for you.
This all may seem a bit confusing, and it's not my purpose here to show you exactly how to do all this, because there's already a step-by-step manual available and it's free, so why reinvent the wheel? It's the Affiliate Masters Course by Site Sell. Pick up your copy and go through it one page at a time. Don't skip steps no matter how tedious they may seem, because once this work is done, you'll pick up speed and you'll never lose focus.
Doing your homework completely at the beginning is crucial to your success. It's the hardest part, and at the moment, the least rewarding. But once it's done, you've got the skeleton, the foundation, of everything else you will be doing. You'll have a list of websites to refer back to for researching all the rest of your web pages, articles, links, and so on.
Might as well start out with the current "hot item"...
One last tool before I wind this up. There's a new kind of free advertising out there that's also an incredible tool when you're gathering information. It's called "Social Bookmarking" or "tagging". It's the latest alternative to linking, but it's also a great way to create your reference list when you're going through the Affiliate Masters Course. In addition to creating spreadsheets with the information you find as you're directed to do within AMC, you can create your own bookmark page online containing all the sites you visit that are relevant to your niche. Eventually this forms a web of links and backlinks, but in the meantime you'll have all your sites for further research in one place.
Digg
del.icio.us
Blink
Stumble
Spurl
Reddit
Netscape
Furl
Article keywords: niche marketing, affiliate marketing tips, Kathryn Beach
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com
Kathryn Beach has been building niche websites and businesses online since 1998. She shares knowledge from personal experience about getting started in affiliate marketing on her website, Affiliate Marketing Tips
|
|
| Top Small Business Articles |
- 1). Taking Business Phone for Granted By : Kingston Amadan
Located in Manhattan, my company occupies a small space in the basement of a upper east side brownstone. Because the space is so limited, we store our servers and phone equipment in the boiler room. I know what you're thinking, and you're absolutely right. It's not a good idea to put your most expensive equipment in a tiny room that feels like the foyer to hell.
|
|
|
- 3). Small businesses main problem? They need more customers. By : W. Dave Free
In September of 2005 our company sponsored a survey of small businesses in the service areas. The purpose of the survey was to ask the business owners, many of them franchise owners, what their significant business hurdles were. The key areas of the survey were customers, growth, technology and research, and employees. You can see the complete results at http://seedsofgrowth.
|
- 4). Preparing Your Business for a Bird Flu Pandemic By : Bird Flu
How would your business operate if half your work force were out sick? Would your business continue to function if several of your top key employees died? How many employees are cross-trained in other positions?
A recent study showed the threat that most preoccupies the world's business leaders is a global influenza pandemic. This is why you need to start asking these questions now so your business can be prepared for a possible bird flu pandemic.
|
- 5). Phone Sales not Ready to Yeild to the Internet By : Kingston Amadan
There is no question that the internet has revolutionized business. Many people are not only paying their bills online, but also ordering products and services at an ever expanding rate as well. Businesses with a web presence have opened themselves up to new market where many consumers take advantage of the ease of shopping from pages visually no different from a catalog.
|
- 6). Small Business Computer Consulting: Additional Qualifications for the Sweet Spot By : Joshua Feinberg
To find the ideal clientele for your small business computer consulting, you want to target small businesses by their number of PC's, (10 to 50) as well as their revenue. Generally, companies that have anywhere from 1 million to 10 million in revenue are the sweet spot of small business computer consulting. In this article, you'll learn why you should target this type of business.
|
|
|
|
|
- 9). New Vending Machines – Where And How To Buy Them By : Peter Crump
When you purchase new vending machines, you are getting the latest models with all the bells and whistles that make them attractive to customers. However, you do have to look for the cheapest prices so that you can save as much money as possible in the investment of getting started in the vending machine business. This is one of the businesses that is easy to get started with and you can determine the type and number of vending machines you do want to start with.
|
|
|
| New Small Business Articles |
|
|
- 2). How to Choose a Watch Wholesaler By : Dustin Cannon
Choosing a watch wholesaler is not quite as easy as it may sound. Sure, you could just find a company that offers this service and get started. But do you really want to take the chance of getting mixed up with the wrong people?
|
|
|
|
|
- 5). Reasons Why Home Businesses Fail By : Terence Young
The decision to start a home business can often be one of excitement and promise. There are many reasons why people start a home based business but to fail is not one of them.5 Reasons Why Home Businesses Fail
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
