This one question, “Is this the right niche for me?” is possibly the most loaded, troublesome, panic-inducing phrase an online marketer can have.

Months can be spent trying to cut through all of the crap understanding what is really important when deciding on a niche market for your online business – and still, chances are you won’t get it right the first time.

Finding the right niche market for your online business is fundamental – it’s like the heart is to the human body. Without it, your online business will shrivel and die, assuming you can squeeze a few breaths out of it in the first place.

Happily, we’ve been able to document many of the techniques, case studies and examples of how to get this important step in setting up your online marketing enterprise within the Information Marketer’s Zone.

Let me start by saying this…

But…the way most people go about finding their niche market is Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!


STOP THE INSANITY – PICKING THE RIGHT NICHE MARKET FOR YOU.

To begin with, there are very few BAD niche markets, however there are many BAD niche markets for YOU.

In other words, I know many full-time online marketers that rake in small fortunes with their own niche market websites, it is highly unlikely anyone could take exactly what they did and replicate it – simply because the passion, knowledge, dedication and unique perspective they brought to their niche market enterprise is the reason they succeeded.

So, first piece of advice is get out of thinking about finding the bucket of gold at the end of the rainbow – there are no perfect niche markets, so you need to find a good match of demand and something inside of you that triggers the thought “There is no way I can fail with this market!”

Second, there are two important (but very different) aspects about making your online business successful:

  • Getting Traffic
  • Having In-Demand Products/Services To Sell
  • Although these two factors are linked, they are NOT the same thing.

    So, when you find a niche market that looks interesting (let’s say weight loss), but seems to be massivly skewed in terms of supply (meaning there are millions of websites already on the topic), you immediately give up on writing an ebook or report on that topic right?

    Not so fast, and here’s why:

  • There are thousands of different keyword and keyword phrases people use when seeking information on weight loss – most of which have much lower demand
  • Most of the millions of webpages do NOT market books, ebooks, or other infoproducts, so your demand is really the subset of other infoproducts on that topic, that’s what you should be focused on
  • Within the subset of information products, you want to create a unique value proposition, a unique angle on the topic. It could be by further segmenting your niche market into sub-niches such as weight loss for pregnant women, weight loss for teenagers, OR it could simply be another angle on the broader weight loss market such as “weight loss by building muscle” or “the cave man’s diet”, etc…
  • Ok, this has been some pretty heavy stuff, and maybe requires a video or more explanation on my part, but here are the important point…

    1. Don’t give up on a niche market because it is highly competitive in terms of number of websites. There are stealth methods you can use to target sub-niche keywords in order to get traffic – that should have little to do with your choice of an information product topic

    2. When your goal is to assess the potential for an information product – ebook, report, course and so on – look at what other infoproducts are out there – THAT is your competition.

    3. Understand that you can target a broad market with your infoproduct topic (albeit you want to have a unique angle on your approach), but then drive traffic to your site by using sub-niche targeting in your articles, pay-per-click ads, ezine marketing, joint venture targeting, web page optimization, blog setup, etc… A simple example would be a general report on best methods to lose weight in 30-days (broad topic), where you then generate a dozen arrticles, each one targeted at a specific sub-niche driving them back to your report (Ex. “Weight Loss Secrets for Busy Executives”)

    Ok, I’ll stop there – if you have questions or comments, leave me a comment on this blog posting and I’ll try and clear up any unanswered questions or clarify the muddier parts of this important concept. Let’s find the right niche for you…

    Oh, by the way, if you want more hands-on, real, experience driven information from someone who really does operate highly profitable information product businesess online – then head over to the Information Marketer’s Zone Now!

    Jeff