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.
6 Indispensable Sites For Niche Marketing
Research should be at the forefront of the thought of anyone that is interested in niche marketing. Obviously, you have to identify a niche, but you need to do more than just guess. How many people are looking for it, where they are looking, and what they are buying are a few things you must know if you want to do well.These are the sites I seem to turn to again and again. The list is not complete, but it’s a good idea to see if you can add them to your repertoire of sites you use in your marketing efforts.
Google’s Keyword Tool: A quick way to generate keyword lists for optimizing your site, or other niche marketing efforts, with the right words. Ideally, you want to find words and phrases that have a lot of searches, but minimal competition. Which is why I always turn to…
SEO Book: This site is excellent for getting estimates of how many people are searching for different terms at the major search engines. But SEO Book also shows the top 100 results that contain the term you enter. To drill down further for long tail keywords, simply click on the term in the left column. It’s easy to use and returns results for other major search engines (and more).
Trend Hunter: The best niche marketers understand staying well-informed in the latest developments in their market. Trend Hunter can be used to spot the newest trends, and a sign of things to come. Be sure to check out their ‘Popular’ page, too.
eBay: Most people may think of this as an auction site only, but it is a niche marketer’s dream. Especially if they want to find markets that are willing to spend money. There are plenty of links hidden on the site that can help you get new ideas, and target more active markets. My current favorite is the eBay Express categories page.
WikiAnswers/YahooAnswers: Q & A sites are perfect for finding out what people want to know right now. Sometimes these questions are very simple, and border on common sense. Most questions are asked once or twice, but the smart niche marketer looks for are questions that seem to keep popping up, or do not get a lot of answers. These sites not only help you identify problems in your niche, but also give you the opportunity to position yourself as an expert on the topic.
There are over 50 more such sites listed in the exclusive members area of the ProHotList forum. Along with a breakdown of tons of specific niches, and how to capitalize on them. New resources and information are being added all the time. Visit ProHotList now to take full advantage of your membership.
Why Your Niche Matters
Selecting the right niche is one of the key factors in how successful your online business will be. That is why research is a vital step before making the full jump to Internet marketing. This is the first in a series on why niche research is important and how to go about it.
The niche you choose must be one people are interested in.
While it may sound obvious that you should be sure there is a market for whatever you are offering, too many people ignore this step.
Guessing does not work here. Fortunately, with the Internet it is relatively easy. Check to see if there are any of the following related to your niche…
- Forums – If there are several forums, it’s a good sign, but even more important is how active each niche-related forum is. If there are only 4 or 5 people and a dozen or so posts that were last made two years ago, then it is a clear sign that someone else probably thought there was a market when there wasn’t one. On the other hand, if there are dozens of forums with 100s of members that are making posts several times a day, then you have found an active niche.
- Blogs – The nice thing about the Internet is that anybody with minimal time and know-how can express their interests to the world. Blogs are one way to do it. However, just because you find one blog dedicated to making homemade, fruit-flavored peanut butters doesn’t mean there is a market for it. Take a hint from the suggestions above and look for a blogroll that lists many related blogs, along with comment activity to determine if you have found a niche with good potential.
- Articles – The key for using published articles is to look at the sheer volume of them. Chances are these articles are pointing back to a sales page of some kind (be sure to check where the links go, don’t assume). And the more articles, the more likely they are leading to actual sales. The only thing better than a big market is a hungry market that is spending money.
- Websites – Each of the above are technically websites, but I am referring to websites that are built specifically to cater to the niche you are researching. What hints are you looking for here? Ad links, affiliate products, current information (check for a current copyright date, e.g.), and any other signs of activity. It’s much easier for a site owner to keep things up to date if they are helping his or her business grow.
- Current products – Some niches just don’t do well online, so you have to do a bit of background work to check what’s really going on. It is possible several people got the same bad idea and tried to build a product around it. If you find negative indicators to a product’s success, it’s possible the niche may be to blame. Again, this is not the time to guess one way or the other. Be sure to check for related forums, sites, blogs and articles to see how all of the pieces fit.
These are just some of the ways you can go about researching a niche. It may seem time consuming, but it takes a lot more time to keep chasing niches that don’t produce results. Take the time to do the groundwork and you will be setting yourself up not only for niche success, but niche domination.
ProHotList is a site that does this kind of research for you. It’s a valuable tool for anyone that understands the importance of choosing a niche and deriving profits from it.
