Niche Markets. What Are They? Should You Be Targeting One?

Niche (pronounced neesh) markets are subsets of a larger market. There’s niche and there’s niche. How niche you want to go is up to you, but some say the nichier the better.

If we’re looking at a large market like “shoes”, a niche market might be Nike running shoes. That niche is still in a pretty large space and you’d find many thousands of competitors all competing to bring their online shoe stores into the top 5-10 Google results for keywords related to selling Nike running shoes.

A smaller niche market would be female Nike trail running shoes. One could probably focus on this niche and enjoy a fair bit of success faster than someone with the same marketing budget focusing on the larger Nike running shoes budget. The competition is less and you’ll find it easier to manage your focus on a tighter niche.

There is an idea among internet marketing types that niche markets are where the real gold is for small businesses getting started online. The bigger niches are already heavily competed for. In fact, those blew up first, big companies with deep pockets realized they could sell everything online and quickly ramped up to do that. They are generalists – specializing in some general areas, or, like Amazon, reaching into all kinds of spaces to see how much they can sell in each.

There are huge online shoe stores. Huge online music stores. Huge online software stores. Massive electronics stores. The large spaces are pretty well competed for and spoken for. You’re not going to get in them without having a TON of cash to spend to get there. Is it worth spending a ton of cash to get there? Up to you, for some – yes. If your ideas are solid and you offer some value-add that is irresistable, and functional… people will go for it. There is big money to be made in general spaces… but, there is respectable money for small businesses in the tiny niches too.

Why do tiny niche markets work for the new business startup?

1. Easier to get a grip on. Easier to wrap your head around and master than a large niche. You’ll be up and running months or years before you would be if trying to play in a large space. Go niche and expand to other related niches later as master the ones you’re in already. Choose a space where unmet needs exist and play in all those tiny niche areas. Sites with traffic and needs for specific, hard to find or little known products and services will find you, link to you, and join your affiliate program to be able to sll the specialty items you have.

2. Customers want specialized knowledge about what they’re buying. An expert in a niche provides specialized information that others just don’t have. Ask the owner of Zappos shoes why a female trail runner should use Nike over Adidas shoes and you’d likely see a blank stare. Consumers are starting to insist on having detailed information because as a group we’re just so knowledgeable already. We know the basics… we want to know the real differences between Nike and Adidas trail running shoes. We want to know the modem speed of a GPRS enabled phone, not just the three colors it’s available in.

3. Your marketing costs are trivial in comparison to large, general, unfocused markets. You’ll find much greater success owning the space with a serious effort than you could ever dream of in a big market. Own many niche areas in Google and you’ll do very well. Look up Adam Short on Google. He creates products for 90 niche markets, has 90+ websites selling to those markets – and makes mid 6-figure income each year doing it. To get an idea about how niche you can go… he makes $500-$1,500 from this site each month: www.bettafishcenter.com. Pretty specialized, yes? There is a group of people that exists that wants information about Betta fish – and will pay $15 for his ebook about them. There are innumerable niche markets you could jump into… research and GO!

9 Advertising Ideas for Your Business

Here are some ways you can market your business both traditionally and online.

1. Radio! Don’t overlook radio ads because they can be inexpensive and effective depending on your plug. You will want to mention your website in the advertisement so people can find more information quickly.

2. Restrooms, Bus Stops, Taxi roofs, and other public places. Short of creating a 400 square foot billboard ad there are many public places that ads are found. Don’t forget local sports teams jerseys!

3. Television. Many cable television stations offer affordable advertising rates for small businesses, especially now as the rates for TV spots have fallen due to computer / internet dominance in the marketing space.

4. Local website advertising. There are a handful of websites that are focused on your geographic area that you can advertise your business in – maybe even for free. Hit those up, as well as other major sites that are focused on your niche. Directory sites are excellent places to get your small business listed – even if you have to pay, due to the importance in Google for sites mentioned in respectable directories.

5. Niche trade shows, conferences. If you aren’t invited, weasel your way into one. Offer to provide free drinks or snacks or something for participants. If your able to go – you must go. More meaningful contacts are made at trade-shows and conferences maybe than anywhere else. The best of the best in your industry are there – you should be too.

6. Email! Adding your signature to every business email and personal email you send out – and your employees send, is one good way to advertise for free. Take it a step further and create ads to send out on opt-in email lists and email newsletters.

7. Charity volunteerism. Align yourself with a local or national charity and do volunteer work and other helpful tasks. Admit that when you see Sean Penn doing charity work – you think, he’s not such a bad guy…  Charity work gives you instant credibility, as well as balances you as a person. You’ll help others and help yourself by volunteering when you have some free time.

8. Twitter. Twitter is rapidly becoming a major marketing tool that businesses all over the world are getting up to speed with. You can find people interested in your products daily in most niches – and contact them without having to email and possibly be labeled a spammer. Right now Twitter is wide open and people are making money with it. Learn all you can about this social media / marketing resource. We’ll have Twitter training courses here shortly.

9. Facebook! Facebook is a networking tool that makes it easy to add friends to your group and send messages to anyone you can reach. Messages can be web pages, photos, videos or many other types of contacts using the applications developers have built for Facebook. Facebook is quickly becoming a marketing freeforall where prices are low and you can target by demographic rather than keywords. Quite an interesting marketing resource to get up to speed with. We’ll have Facebook training courses for you here shortly too!

6 Tips for Online Business Entrepreneurs

There are many businesses that are doing OK during this recession. In particular the internet business owners that I know don’t seem to be in dire straits as much as those that were tied to a job with a boss and were fired or fear losing their jobs. Internet businesses are pretty resilient. The low cost of overhead – the room you sit in to use your computer – is one of the primary reasons for this.

The recession is a GOOD time to start a business because you’re starting something. Anytime you proactively start a business – it’s a good thing. You don’t have to pour cash into it right away until things start picking up economically, but you can do a lot of the legwork now while you’re feeling the fear of how bad things can get.

If the worst has already happened and you’ve been fired what have you got to lose by starting your own business
now? Why not chase your dreams, rather than be dependent on another
employer? Why not throw yourself into the drivers seat and give it a go?

Launching a computer based business or online business, can be done with little money and a lot of drive. Use your passion to create a successful online business and never look back.

Here are some tips on how to go about it:

1. List your assets. Include everything, computers, printers, cell phones; skills like writing, editing, web design,
organizing; expertise with software programs and computers; a list of
your network of personal and industry contacts; and the amount of
capital you could invest in your business and money you think you could find to help you fuel your new business.

2. Brainstorm ideas. Don’t remove ideas from the list – just brainstorm. You’ll pick a business topic from them – one of them might not seem right at the moment but in a day or two might seem perfect. Keep your mind open. Make the topic of your business osmethng you can be passionate about.

3. Research online how others are going about a business similar to yours. Look for role models. Look for businesses far away from yours that won’t consider you competition and ask them some questions about how they did certain things. Choose your business focus. Is it viable? Can you really make it work?

4. Figure out a marketing strategy for your online business. Will you have one site or a network of sites? A network of sites is a strong presence in the search engines because all the cross-linking really helps. Do you know anyone that is an expert at internet marketing? Do you know some websites you might go for help? Here’s one: IncAnswers.com. It’s part of our network of sites. We offer ebusiness training there and help by email after you invest in the courses.

5. Find someone or multiple people to help you or join you. Some will join a new business venture in the hopes that it will be successful with a small group of experts at the helm. Others you’ll need to hire. Outsource everything you’re not 80+% comfortable doing. Let experts do what they’re good at – and you too – do what you’re good at.

6. Never stop learning. Again, IncAnswers.com is focused on helping you learn all the online skills you need to in order to start, market and grow your new online business. We’ll be offering free sample courses coming up in the near future. Make sure you join our newsletter list to be notified of free courses as they come out.