Donna Knight's Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews

Category: Niche Marketing

Niche marketing articles to help you find a profitable niche and use effective marketing strategies.

  • Finding a Niche Using Expert Keyword Research Tactics

    By Donna Knight

    In online business, it may seem like the world is your marketplace, but it is also true that the world is your competition. As a result you still have to choose your target market carefully.

    One way to narrow down your potential market to maximize your profitability is to choose a business that caters to a special niche. The definition of a niche market is a smaller segment of the population that has special desires or needs. The best niche may be overlooked by the vast majority of marketers, and as a result there is much less competition. As a result of this neglect by most marketers, niche markets have the potential to be vastly more profitable than an overexploited market with too much competition.

    If you choose your niche wisely, you could end up being the only source for a ravenously hungry market that makes repeat purchases. That’s the best situation for a business to be in.
    With that said, you may be asking, “Okay, so how exactly do I choose a good niche?” I’m glad you asked!. Here are 8 expert keyword research tips for finding a niche to sell a product or service to:

    1. Take inventory. Know what abilities you have and what products you have that may service a niche. You may not be in a good position to cater to a niche that requires a large expenditure of money or specialized knowledge that you don’t have. Write down a list of things you are good at. Your past job descriptions are a good place to start to get ideas. Even extracurricular activities such as coaching a baseball team can be included on this list. You should also write a list of products you already have resell rights to.

    2. Split niches into subniches. Once you have a list of some specific niches you want to pursue, narrow them down even further by listing subniches in those niches. The more general a market is, the more likely it is to be saturated. Smaller marketers have a greater chance of having a higher demand and lower supply, which makes for greater potential profit. If you’re having difficulty finding smaller subniches, use free keyword research tools such as the Overture keyword tool at http://www.inventory.overture.com and http://www.nichebot.com . Simply do a search of a keyword relevant to your target market, and these tools will list related keywords. This is an excellent way to discover untapped niches.

    3. Find a hungry audience. It’s very important to find a niche where there are enough searches to make it profitable. Using the previously mentioned tools, make a record of how many searches there are. A high number of searches (such as 100,000) indicates a strong demand. If there are fewer than 100 searches, that might be too small a niche. However, keep in mind that is only one search engine. There may be more searches on other search engines. Specifically, however many searches there are on Overture for that keyword, Google will have many more since it is a more popular search engine.

    4. Check out the competition. Your next step is to get a feel for how much competition there is in that niche. Manually search multiple search engines for the keywords for your chosen niche and note how many results there are. Also try using Metasearch engines such as http://www.dogpile.com and http://www.mamma.com . Nichebot.com tells you how much competition there is on Google and Wordtracker.

    5. Compare demand vs supply. Compare the number of competing websites (look at the number of search results, which is usually at the top of the page) with the number of searches made. The greater the difference between the two numbers, the less potential profit. For example, if there are 100 searches for a keyword and 10 million search results, this indicates too much competition, especially for such a small audience. If there are 100,000 searches and 10,000 results, this is more promising. If there are less results than there are searches for a keyword, you may have struck gold! For example, if there are 10,000 searches for a keyword, and only 10 results in the search engine, this could signal a potential windfall of profits.

    6. Check your knowledge base. If you’re like me, you may already have a bunch of unread eBooks sitting on your computer. Check out niche marketing eBooks and special reports that provide valuable tips and tactics on finding a good niche. You’ll find a lot of repetitious material, but you could still find some valuable nuggets of information. Paid eBooks are more likely to have valuable information than free ones, so you should focus on these first.

    7. Check niche lists. Although these are not as common as eBooks, there are niche lists prepared by successful marketers. Some people make a living by doing the “dirty work,” of finding potentially profitable niches. Even with one of these lists, you still want to follow the previous steps to confirm the potential profit of any niche. However, a niche list will save you time, especially you have no idea where to start.

    8. Mix and match. You may be able to combine related niches as your target market because your product or service may cater to more than one related market. In your keyword research you may have found several subniches that show 100 searches. If you combine 5 of these subniches, that may be a large enough audience to make it profitable.

    By now you realize, online prospects are not the easy targets some internet marketing experts might want you to think they are. But if you choose your target market carefully, because of a larger potential customer base, you can have an online business more successful than you ever could imagine in the offline world.
    =============================================
    Donna Knight is a Computer Trainer and Website Promotion Specialist. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time when marketing online, visit her Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
    =============================================
    Copyright (C) 2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact. For product reviews, you may substitute your affiliate referral link for the product URL.
    ——————————————–

  • How Can I Find A Niche?

    By Donna Knight

    Here’s o­ne idea for finding a profitable niche. Most internet marketers tell you to find a subject that you love or are passionate about, but here’s what I think. I take the advice of “sell what you love” with a grain of salt. While I have lots of passions, some I wouldn’t want to make money from.

    For example, while I’ve spent about 11 years troubleshooting computer problems, there’s no way I want to use those troubleshooting skills online in some way. It would still be hourly labor and it’s labor-intensive work. A better solution would be for me to sell computer-related infoproducts to help people fix their own computer problems, if they’re inclined to do so.

    If you think of yourself as a marketer rather than as someone who sells xyz product, you can find a niche that is potentially profitable ( use http://www.nichebot.com which tells you potential profitability) and learn what you don’t know about it.

    Another underutilized source for niche ideas… If you have any ebook collections, I think they’re a goldmine, and not for the reasons people think. If you look at the o­nes that include special reports–Take for example Free to Sell–If you don’t have it, I’m sure you’ll find it for $2 o­n Ebay. There is the Ebusiness Encyclopedia which has dozens of reports you can resell. Now these reports may be outdated but they give you dozens of potential niche market ideas.

    Plus you’re allowed to take the reports that are there and add to them. And you can do your research right o­n the web to expand this information into an ebook.

    Some examples:
    Catering Business
    Used CD & Video Store
    Child Care Business
    Local Tour Operator
    Show & Seminar Promotions
    Limousine Service
    Janitorial Contracting Business
    Auto Detailing Business
    Party Plan Sales (350 searches for how to be a party planner o­n Overture)
    Bed & Breakfast (487 people searched for how to start a Bed & Breakfast o­n Overture last month)

    Okay those are all business-related, but that’s because I took them from o­nly o­ne of the 20 report collections. Despite how outdated these reports may be, there are hundreds of people searching for information o­n these businesses o­n Overture alone. I suspect that’s because the person(s) who wrote these reports knew this information was in demand at the time, and it still is!

    I hope that helps you come up with your some potential niche ideas to start with. Then you can narrow it down to the o­nes that interest you the most. In my mind, coming up with a niche idea isn’t as hard as choosing o­ne and getting started.
    =============================================
    Donna Knight is a Website Promotion Specialist and Website Builder. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time in your online marketing efforts, visit her Internet Marketing Tools blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
    =============================================
    Copyright (C)2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact.