Picking a Niche Market

Picking a Niche Market the Right Way

If you have been online for any amount of time, you have most likely heard the term niche marketing, and have an idea what it is about. Perhaps you even bought an ebook or mini-course on the subject like I have. In fact, I have run into this topic numerous times and have been given advice about it over and over again. Usually it is basically the same; choose something you have an interest in, make sure there is a buying market for it and it isn’t too big or too competitive, and go for it. But is that all there really is to picking a niche market?

My answer is no! The above advice is a good start, but there are those niches which only make money during a certain part of the year or season, other things which are constantly changing like software or technology, and those things which are hot today and gone tomorrow because they were just a fad, fads come and go all the time. This is another reason why affiliate marketing is more attractive than creating your own product to promote for a market. It is a waste to spend a lot of time (and money) with something that can not be sustained over time.

Like what for example? Well lets take a look at a few examples, shall we. How about WordPress, if you spend time developing a tutorial on how to set things up, and then release it only to find that WordPress just came out with another update (which they do all the time), making major changes in the way it interacts, your efforts have just been trashed. Not only is your program considered to be obsolete, but you will lucky to even recover the initial investment you put into it and be back to square one. Same can be said about a website or blog, they require constant attention to keep them fresh and relevant to stay in the game. Unless you pick the right niche to start with.

I have visited websites that are still making money (anything that makes more for you than what you are spending is considered to be a good investment), and haven’t been updated in years! Yes, years. I recently ran across a site that was last updated in 2006, yet the information on that site (along with the product) was still relevant. But more importantly, still making the site owner money. Why? Because he had clearly picked out a niche that didn’t require a lot of effort once set up and continued to make money promoting a product that is still needed today.

How can this be? Think about math for a moment; how has math changed? Does 2 plus 2 no longer equal 4? Is math constantly changing? No, the fundamentals have been the same since the beginning of time. Then why are the schools always having to update their math textbooks? Actually they really don’t, but it comes down to the illustrations and math problems. Who today can relate to math problem examples relating to farm work? I have 10 cows, 2 pigs, and a dozen chickens. How many eggs are laid in a day? Who cares, besides old McDonald.

What matters is finding what is referred to as an evergreen market, where the need will always be there. You need to eat, drink, and sleep don’t you. However, you don’t need to eat a steak everyday. Selling food is in an evergreen market, but steak itself is an acquired taste, not everyone likes steak. However, selling steak would be in a food niche market! You would have to learn who is part of that market and what they want in a steak. But once you do know, you don’t have to keep reinventing the steak, it will sell itself.

The same thing goes with pets. I used to work for a pet store where all I had to do was pay attention to a prospective buyer, see what puppy they gravitated to, then pull the puppy from the cage, put it into their arms and stand back. The puppy would sell itself, that was if I got the right puppy of course. Once the puppy sold, that wasn’t the end either. There were add-ons. A collar, leash, dog bowls, puppy food, guide book and the list went on. Once I made the initial sale, the rest became easy.

Online is more challenging because you don’t get to directly interact with your prospective customer face to face. That is why it is all the more important to get the online niche you want to promote correct. You don’t get to interact as directly (or read their body language) as you do when you are there in person, so getting in the right niche AND understanding the people who are interested in that market are the key ingredients for success.

To recap, picking a niche market to promote is more than something you are interested in. It is more than just an active buying market. A niche market should have competition, but not be overwhelming. However, the most important part of niche marketing is choosing an evergreen topic (money, taxes, death, health, food, etc) that has a buying sub-market you can relate to, get to know your prospective customer and what they need. Once you find their “puppy”, you can then place it into their arms and let the puppy do the rest.