Niche Ideas – The Easy Way
I’ve been there. People that write, call it writer’s block; others may refer to it as the well running
dry.
For many of us, niches and ideas are the lifeblood of our business. It can be incredibly
frustrating to run out of ideas, but you never have to worry about it again.
It’s stupid-simple, and requires nothing more than the ability to use a search box.
Go to…
Google
Yahoo
Ezinearticles.com
Then search for…
“3 Ways to”
“4 Ways to”
“5 Ways to”
All the way to,
“101 Ways to”
If you still come up short, then try…
“3 Tips for”
“4 Tips for”
“5 Tips for”
All the way to,
“101 Tips for”
The nice thing about generating ideas this way is that you get more ideas than one per result.
For example, a list of 99 Tips for A Cheap Wedding can become fodder for a whole series of
articles, a content site, or new infoproduct (to name a few).
I am not suggesting, nor hinting, that you should copy anyone else’s work.
Not all of them will ignite the spark, but you can bet the ideas will start to flow pretty quickly
once you get started.
You may think this is so simple it’s stupid. But it’s not stupid. What doesn’t make sense is trying
to overcomplicate things. Why get bogged down, when there are simple solutions to the
problem?
To be clear, I am not talking about any keyword or market research at this point – just how to
get ideas when you think you have run out of them.
Niches Are Everywhere
One of the common questions people ask me is how to find a niche. I laugh a little on the inside, but politely explain a few points on how to do it. However, that’s not what this post is about; it’s about where the niches are.
Anywhere you look, you can find a niche. Kevin Riley suggests going to the newstand (real, or virtual) and looking at magazines to get ideas. That’s only one way to do it. Watch television and you can find all kinds of niches there. What is that reality show about, what are they talking about on that sitcom, and what problems does that commercial solve? All of the answers will lead to a niche.
There are many other sources that will reveal niches if you are attuned to spotting them. Simply open your eyes and ears, and keep an open mind. Do this, and I bet the next time you meet me, you won’t ask how to find niches, but rather how do you limit how many you find.
Competition In Niche Marketing
A lot of misconceptions surround niche marketing. Much of this confusion stems from comparisons to traditional retail businesses. Without question, there are similarities, but the Internet makes entering a niche easy and inexpensive. However, an amateur approach will produce weak results. One thing that is necessary for bot types of business is looking at the competition. Here are the pros and cons of competition when ot comes to niche marketing.
Little to no competition - At first glance new niche marketers will be happy at the prospect of having little competition. The competition can range from hardly any to none at all. What could be better than being one of the select few people buy from, right? Well, there is a downside. Unless you happen to fortunate enough to find an untapped, hungry market then the lack of competition reflects a lack of a market.
Pros: Buyers more likely to find you. Grab larger share of market. Possible trendsetting if first to untapped market.
Cons: Market may not spend money. Market could be non-existent. Less motivation to improve.
Too much competition - Believe it or not, this can be a good thing. It shows that there are people making money in the niche. There is another benefit of a lot of competition, you will have to learn how to compete if you want to stand a chance, and what you learn in the process is valuable, too.
Pros: Shows there are buyers. Will learn more due to necessity. Competition increases quality and ultimately benefits customers.
Cons: Have to really stand out. Harder to attract buyers to you. Takes longer to get noticed.
The amount of competition in your niche isn’t as important as understanding what it means to you. Knowing how much competition is out there is a good, but not perfect, indicator of how large the market is. Research needs to be done to get an idea, but not everyone has the time to do it (that’s the main reason I started ProHotList), yet it’s important. If you’d rather spend your time earning money than on niche research, then a ProHotList membership is a smart move.
Out Of The Box Niche Selection
When it comes to niche marketing, one of the things people often have a hard time doing is choosing a topic. To be blunt, it does not have to be difficult. Some people assume if money is to be made, then it must take hard work. Well, when it comes to the Internet, working smarter pays off more than working harder.
To select a niche start out by thinking in general terms. I’m not referring to topics. ‘Cars’ is a general topic, but to start, try being even more vague to find the really juicy niches. Think of what people are looking for when it comes to cars – then drop the specifics. After you are done you will some solid niches, and they don’t have to do anything with cars.
Here’s what I mean. This is off the top of my head, so bear with me.
Make a list of what people want to know about cars. Such as…
How to get better mileage.
Where to get the best deal.
What to look for when buying a used car.
How reliable are they?
How to fix your car.
…and so on.
Now that you have your list, look for the most general parts of it. In the sample above we have the general terms of, ‘how to’, ‘where to’, and ‘what to look for’. Enter these terms in your favorite niche research tool and you will find all kinds of niches you wouldn’t have thought of on your own.
That’s one of the things ProHotList does for you. They not only explore the nitty-gritty specific niches, but also expose some general niche marketing meta-ideas, too. Check it out and you’ll see what I mean.
Remember, this little out of the box technique means you’ll be working smarter, not harder. The niches you find this way just may surprise you.
5 Bits Of Bad Niche Marketing Advice?
This post is designed specifically for those who have not yet made the dive into niche marketing. The key is to just get started, pick a niche, and then market to it. The following advice will get you past some of the more common roadblocks to niche marketing success.
1. Stop doing research. While research is important to selecting a good niche, you can also get into a rut where you are doing research, but not taking action. Stop! Your research is done, for now. If you have even the slightest hint of a niche topic then go for it.
2. Stop thinking ‘perfection’. The perfect niche does not exist, so you can’t find it. Some niches may be a better match for you, but you will never know until you try one. The problem is that the niches that tend to make the most money are competitive, while those that aren’t competitive are more risky.
3. You can always get better, but… Only if you start. Don’t be afraid to learn from a lack of success. I like term ‘fail forward’, you take action and keep improving. Nobody gets it 100% right, 100% of the time. Don’t let the fear of failure stop you.
4. You can’t pick the ‘wrong’ niche. Just as the perfect niche doesn’t exist, neither does a completely wrong one. The worse thing that can happen is that you will pick a niche that doesn’t work for you. Good. Now you know to try another one. I can guarantee that the lessons you learn from your first foray into niche marketing will help you immensely in each successive one.
5. Do it wrong on purpose. Now I’ve gone too far, right? Hear me out. Remember, this advice is for those who still haven’t taken that first step. Well, I am giving you permission to do a lousy job. Pick a niche that doesn’t interest you, has no apparent market, don’t do enough research, get an irrelevant domain name, don’t promote it, etc. This will force you to learn some things that you can then apply to a niche you ARE interested in. In other words: If you are going to learn from your mistakes, you may as well get them out of the way early.
Niche marketing has its share of challenges, but it makes it harder if you are your own worst enemy. There is a wide chasm between understanding niche marketing theories and learning from experience – it’s the difference between thoughts results.
If you want tons of ideas and other advice on how to cash in on niche marketing, choosing niches, free downloads, personal assistance, exclusive information and more to increase your profits then visit ProHotList now to take advantage of all your membership has to provide.
4 Steps To Niche Success
Niche marketing is a gamble, to some extent, but if you lay the right foundation and follow a plan, you increase your odds of walking away a winner.
1. Research to get specific - The key to finding a successful niche is to get as specific as you can while still reaching a large enough market to make it worthwhile. But first you have to do the research to see if there is a need and if you can fill it. For example, you may want to target baseball fans. That is too broad. So, on to the next step…
2. Identify who your niche is - This is where you will narrow things down. How old are they? What is their gender? Income? Lifestyle? Profession? Where do they live, work or play? Do they have other hobbies? You do not have to answer everyone of these, but answering a few will get your niche more specific. Professional women over 55 who have blogs, and happen to like baseball is a well-defined niche.
3. Determine how and where to reach them – Now that you know you have a viable and specific niche, you should have some ideas on how to reach them. In our example, we can see that people in our niche have blogs, so using newspapers to reach them doesn’t make sense.
4. Follow through – Develop a written plan and put your information into action. Track your results to see if the niche is bigger or smaller than you expected, and respond accordingly. You have to take action. Understand that there is no guarantee that any niche will respond to your offer, but you never know until you try. It is better to learn what to do better next time than it is to wonder ‘what if’.
Using these four steps will put you on track to niche marketing success. Doing the research is necessary, but there are sites that do that work for you, giving you more time to focus on earning money.
Looking For A Niche? Then Watch This Video
Sometimes the hardest for someone new to niche marketing is choosing a niche. Once that is done the other things fall into to place easier, or at least make more sense. Here is a great video that lists some resources where you can get thousands of different niche ideas.
Explore the sites mentioned in the video above , and you will be sure to find a niche that interests you. He forgot one site that does the work for you, so be sure to check that one out, too.
