Identifying Most Profitable Niche Markets

June 5th, 2009, Author: Nathan Hulls, Categories: Make Money Online

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One of the biggest obstacles that new marketers face is not knowing what product or service to offer first. They may have an idea about the market that they are interested in, and they may even know the type of product that they wish to create, but they simply don’t know where to begin.

The easiest way to chisel out your niche and determine what angle to take is by first evaluating your existing knowledge, skills and passions.

What are you able to create that would be unique, and different from what already exists on the market?
What topics are you interested in or personally connected to that you believe you could stay focused on?
What can you do that will be ‘remarkable’?

It’s critical that you evaluate your personal interests and then determine whether there’s an existing market for this, or whether the market is overly saturated or quite simply, too small.

Many of the Internet’s leading marketers and developers will tell you that you shouldn’t necessarily follow what you are personally passionate about and instead, focus on what is most profitable.

From a personal perspective, I believe you should focus on both of these elements, because if you choose a topic or industry that isn’t of interest to you personally, you may find it difficult to stick with it, and to continue to develop your community or website later on.

While keeping this in mind, it’s equally as important to ensure that whatever industry you are interested in carries enough weight in terms of interest, existing buyers and scalability, so that you are able to consistently grow your business by catering to the existing market and developing future products and services to encompass the market as it continues to expand.

Don’t overlook this step in the process because it’s essentially one of the most important factors as to whether you will be successful or not. Choosing the right market and understanding your target audience is exceptionally important.

So write down a list of potential ideas and topics that you are interested in. Whether you have experience with golfing, consulting, parenting, or even public speaking, it’s important to create a rough draft of ideas that you can further investigate later on.

It’s very important that whatever market you choose, you are able to put your own spin on the material, so that your product isn’t simply a replica of another existing one, and while it’s very difficult to come up with new topics and coverage that doesn’t already exist (especially if you are focused on mainstream markets), it’s very important that you put your own personal touch on your product and present it so that it’s as unique as possible.

This is one of the biggest mistakes that new marketers make when entering the world of online business and Internet Marketing.

Rather than creating an outline of a potential product and filling in the gaps or improving their product based on what is already on the market, they simply create a close replica of an existing product, believing that since the original product was successful, theirs is bound to do just as well.

Without a doubt, this is the easiest way to sabotage your efforts before you ever get off the ground.

What you need to remember is that in order to be successful in any market, you need to stand out from the crowd, to present your information in a refreshing, new way and to establish yourself as an authority on the topic by being able to offer your customer base with a reason to purchase from you, rather than your competition.

If you merely go for the easiest route (that is modeling your product after an existing one), and that merchant is already an established figure in your industry, odds are that those being given the option to purchase from yourself or an existing merchant, will likely choose the person they already know.

One other thing that I’d like you to keep in mind is just how important your reputation really is. In online business, regardless of niche or industry, people buy from those they trust.

If you are after fast cash with no concern for the overall picture, you are putting your reputation at risk by being seen as someone who has no sincere interest or regard for their customers.

Rather than promoting every product that hits your inbox, or every joint venture you may be offered, consider whether it’s truly something that you would purchase yourself, after all, the products and people you endorse or recommend are a different association to you. Make sure to choose wisely.

Once you have a general idea of the kinds of products you are interested in creating, and the topics and markets that you believe are worth evaluating, you need to consider one more element to your online business development. What you want to be known for.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Jack of all trades, Master of None”?

It’s a prime example of what you don’t want to be known for in your online business circle. It’s always best to settle on growing your reputation and brand as an expert or authority in one market, then once you have solidified your name in that industry, you can expand and focus on another topic.

If you simply venture into the online business field with a generic approach that you will be a seasoned professional and expert on every mainstream topic, you will not only spread yourself too thin to be genuine in your attempts, but others will see right through the charade.

After all, if you were interested in seeking the advice or purchasing a product in the golfing niche, and you saw that the expert or guru in that market also claimed to be the expert or guru in the ‘baseball’ niche, you might have reservations in regards to the validity of their claims.

No one can be everything to everyone, and it’s far more important to be the best you can be in one market, than defeating the purpose by trying to cover all bases with limited time.

Another reason why it’s always best to decide on your foundation early on, is simply due to being memorable and brandable. If you think of the top players in any given niche, there are bound to be a handful of names that instantly pop into your head.

These people have done their job as branding themselves as authorities in their market, because whenever someone mentions the industry, their names are the first to be mentioned.

This is exactly what you need to do if you want to make the most money possible in your niche. You want to be the “go to” person for your industry, the authority, the expert, the guru.

You want people to think of you as someone with extensive knowledge and experience with your chosen topic, and to purchase from you time and time again because they believe that you are the one person who is most experienced.

Make sense?

Keeping this in mind, when considering your topic also consider what you want to be known for within that market.

If you are interested in the “Make Money Online” market, would you want to be known as the “Affiliate Guru”, or perhaps the “CPA professional”?

Think carefully about this, and start to draw out an outline of your business plan.

We’ll cover niche marketing in greater detail in future posts, where I will show you how to dig for profitable keywords, evaluate your potential topics and explore markets to determine profitability before you ever create a single product, so be sure to subscribe to my blog feed if you haven’t already done so!