Main Lessons: 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Course Index
Lesson 11
Does Competition In a Niche Really Matter?
You have probably heard from so many people that you need to "niche down" when starting a blog. An extreme example would be focusing on "underwater basket weaving for seniors" rather than the larger "basket weaving" marketplace. And for the most part, that is great advice. This drastically lowers your level of competition, lessens the amount of research you have to do, and introduces you to passionate prospects who are closer to making a purchase decision than those in larger markets.
However, you can also find your niche (pun intended) in markets with lots of competition as well. Sometimes a lot of competitors is a sign of a healthy marketplace. So, how much competition is too much? Conversely, how do you know when your niche is too small, when a lack of competitors is a sign of no profitability or traffic? The key is realizing how you approach any marketplace, and the enthusiasm level of the prospects in that market.
Build Something That Lasts
One way to build a successful web presence is to really care about who you are talking to. Aim to build something that lasts. Don't focus on short-term profits. Be patient and reach out to your prospective customers and followers. Solve big problems in their lives, make a difference, and you can create a successful piece of Internet real estate regardless how much competition you have.
Provide Food For the Hungry, Water For the Thirsty
There is an old marketing lesson which has been attributed to any number of marketing, business and sales gurus. An expert in marketing is giving a class on niche selection. He asks, "If you could have one thing to ensure the success of a business selling hamburgers, what would it be?"
Some answered that they would prefer the recipe for the best hamburger. Others said location was key. Dozens of other very good responses were given. However, the instructor told everyone that their answers were incorrect. He revealed, and rightly so, that the one thing you should look for before anything else if you are selling hamburgers is a "starving market".
Competition really does not matter if you are selling food to people that are very hungry. Choose a niche where people are extremely receptive to the products and services you offer. This "starving market" will ensure success, whether you are competing with thousands of bloggers or websites, or just a few.
Lesson 12
What is a Niche in Blogging?
Have you ever heard someone say, "She's really found her niche in life?" This refers to someone discovering a career, job or pastime that perfectly suits that person's values, goals and abilities. The same is true for a niche in blogging. A blogging niche is nothing more than a very focused interest or market.
A niche blog may be relevant to a specific industry or age group. It could focus on the needs of a particular ethnic group, geographic area or future goals. If you are someone who relates to hard definitions, and you want to develop a blog that makes a difference and is truly helpful, here's what you need to remember:
A niche market is a subset of a larger market on which a specific product or service is focused.
So a blogging niche might be scrapbooking for beginners with a passion for scuba diving. Scrapbooking is the large market. Scrapbooking for beginners narrows the focus, and by further narrowing your marketplace to scuba diving enthusiasts who want to take up scrapbooking for the first time, you have an excellent niche marketing opportunity for an authoritative blog.
Niche marketing is far from a 21st century concept, it has been around forever. Blogs are certainly not new, though they are relevantly new in comparison to niche marketing. When you put the 2 together, you can create an authoritative web presence which can help people answer big problems in their lives.
Authoritative niche blogging is different from running a website where your goal is to simply get people to click on ads that earn you money. Yes, you may have some type of monetization on your niche blog, but that is not the main intent. Successful niche blogs inform, answer questions, provide solutions and work to develop relationships with their readers and followers.
When choosing which niche you want to blog about, think about a specific problem in a tight marketplace. Don't try to be everything to everyone. When you have a laser targeted approach, you can quickly become an authority figure in your niche.
So think of a marketplace where you want to really make a difference. Then niche down until you have identified a very specific area of focus. Inform, answer questions, help and care about your audience, and your niche blog will never be confused with a spam blog (splog) or autoblog intended solely for revenue generation.
Lesson 13
6 Ways to Test Whether A Niche is Profitable
You have an amazing idea for a blog. You are certain that becoming an authority figure in this niche will be a cinch. You envision yourself being interviewed as an overnight success, and can't wait to get started. Even though you are virtually sure in your mind that you will be a success, is there some way to measure if your niche will be profitable? The following 6 methods will help you discover if your "guaranteed success" will be exactly that, or an all but certain failure.
1 – Is There Any Competition?
Too much competition can be a bad thing. There are so many web properties already entrenched in a market that is very competitive, that it will be tough for you to be a success. However, no competition is a bad sign as well. Type your niche name into Google. Are there ads at the top, bottom and to the right side of the search results? If so, that is a good sign. That means companies are profitable enough to spend money advertising to your market.
2 – Check Amazon
Amazon is the world's largest online retailer. Type a potential niche into the search engine at Amazon. Are there thousands of results, or less than 100? You may think you have a sure-fire idea for an authority blog or website. However, if the biggest retailing web presence doesn't show too many items for sale in your prospective niche, you should probably move on.
3 – Shoot For the Sweet Spot
Log into your account at Google's Keyword Planner. If you don't have an account, sign-up is free. Once there, choose the option to "Get search volume for a list of keywords or group them into ads". Inside brackets, search for your niche market. For example [organic dog biscuits] may show 34,900 monthly searches. Shoot for somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 exact match searches for a sweet spot that reveals niche viability.
4 – Is It Trendy?
Some topics trend reliably at certain times every year. Some markets are poised to explode in popularity, while others may be popular now, but ready to fall flat. Checking your niche with Google Trends can reveal some surprisingly informative data regarding whether your niche is trending up or down.
5 – Selling Information? Check Here
JVZoo, Clickbank and CJ.com are just a few of the most popular sites where information is sold. If you plan on offering information products, checking to make sure that your market is healthy on those sites is imperative.
6 – Ask Technorati
Technorati is a blog aggregator. It is also free to use. Search for your niche topic at Technorati.com. If there are a healthy number of results, you are probably looking at a niche that is viable. There are multiple filters you can apply as well.
Lesson 14
Is Your Niche Too Broad?
If you are having trouble developing a presence in your marketplace, you may be going too wide. By trying to attract everyone, you appeal to no one. It is much more profitable, and easier to be a success online, when you focus on one type of individual in a smaller market, rather than a huge marketplace.
How can you tell if your niche is too broad?
Take a look at your blog or website. Are you writing about several topics? If you are an absolute stranger winding up on your Internet doorstep for the first time, could you quickly understand the topic or market being covered? This is one way to see if you are using a shotgun approach that is shooting for to large of a target.
How Many Words Define Your Niche?
What is the focus of your niche? If you had to put a name on your niche, what is it? Often times, if your market can be described in 1 or 2 words, you are trying to please too many people. This is not true in every case. However, if your market is "shoes" rather than "designer shoes for millennial men" then your market is probably much too large.
Refer to Your Most Popular Blog Posts
Try this. Check out your analytics and take a look at your most popular blog posts. Are they all on the same topic or subject? Is there a very tight, focused approach to the same subject on all of those posts? If not, if your top posts drawing the most traffic are all talking about different things, you may be marketing too wide.
How Much Traffic Are You Getting?
Are you having a problem attracting web traffic? In many cases, this is because Google and the other search engines don't really know what your site or blog is about. Your focus is on so many different things, the spiders that crawl the web can't tell their respective search engines what your true focus is.
This is a classic sign of marketing to too large of an audience.
Tighten your focus. Choose one topic instead of several. Build a blog about "organic nutrition tips to help you recover from a heart attack" instead of "nutrition tips". You may think micro-niches with a tight focus attract very little traffic. However, you may actually find your traffic improving with a laser targeted approach, especially if you are currently trying to be everything to everyone.
Lesson 15
How to Turn a Broad Niche Into a Profitable Sub-Niche
You probably know now that you should focus on a smaller niche rather than a large one. It is easier to be profitable, you can develop an authority reputation quickly, and your prospects are passionate about what you have to say. If you have created a web presence that is simply too broad or too inclusive, practice the following steps to narrow your focus for a much better chance at profitability.
Go Book Shopping
Your local bookstore can help you niche down. So can the magazine rack at Walmart, and online bookstores like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. In all of those cases, you can get a "sneak peek" at chapter titles and other relevant information in just about any book or magazine. All you need to do at a physical bookstore is open a book and look at the chapter titles.
If your current niche is firearms, take a look at the most recent Guns and Ammo magazine. Jot down chapter headings that offer sub-niche or microniche possibilities. Online, the biggest virtual bookstores will allow you to preview the Table of Contents of the book before you buy it, revealing the same information.
Ask Your Audience
If you have already started off in a broad market, you have developed some type of traffic. Why not ask them what specific, laser-targeted issues they have? Ask your market what niche problems they have not been able to solve, create a solution, and you guarantee traffic and sales in this smaller sub-niche.
Check Out MeetUp.com
This tip works well for local and global sub-niche selection. MeetUp.com is a virtual meeting place. It focuses on grouping people of similar likes and interests. Type your broad niche name into the search engine there, and you will see all kinds of physical and virtual meeting places relating to that keyword or phrase. In addition, smaller micro-niche markets are revealed.
Let Facebook Help
Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and the other social media kingpins are treasure troves of niche information. Let's say you began a business in the massive weight loss marketplace. Head over to your favorite social media site and search for "weight loss". Browse the results and you will see dozens, if not hundreds, of potential sub-niches. This also provides a built-in marketplace.
You can see which groups and pages have the most members in a microniche. Facebook's advertising platform has an excellent demographic targeting feature. So not only does this help you identify a popular sub-niche in a broader market, but it also provides a ready-made group of hungry prospects.
