Why Choose a Niche Market?
One of the hardest things about starting a new internet business is deciding what you’re going to sell. Something that I’ve noticed with a lot of the people that I work with is that they think they have to sell a little bit of everything on one site in order to be successful. This is what I would call the ‘Wal-mart Mentality’, which honestly isn’t the best way to approach your new online venture.
Think of it this way: one of the key ways you should try to market your website is through the search engines. In order to do that, you’ll be doing a lot of SEO work. Can you image doing the SEO work for a site like Wal-mart.com?? Talk about a logistical nightmare! Basically, it’s not going to happen. So what do we do instead? We focus on a more specific niche market that we can work to dominate.
Rather than trying to take over the whole internet at once, try focusing on one small corner of it first. Especially for your first website, don’t try to conquer the world. Find a category or niche that you know enough about and are interested in enough that you can really get caught up in that website. That’s hard to do when you’re selling 50 different categories of products!
Another way to look at it is rather than having one site with 50 different categories, why not have 50 different websites? Now what you’re doing is your using the leveraging power of the internet and getting involved in multiple areas with niche specific websites. Then you can actually target your traffic and reach the right people. Granted, having 50 websites is a lot to handle, so don’t take me too literally here when I’m throwing out numbers. I just hope that you get the point of what I’m trying to say.
The internet is an interesting place. In the real world we’re used to going to the big stores like Best Buy, Wal-mart, Target, etc. to buy things. But online we’re going back to the old, more product specific stores. They say that history repeats itself, and maybe that’s what’s really going on with the internet. Rather than setting up a big-box mart, start with a smaller, more specific site that you can control. That’s niche marketing!
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Good points. Finding the right niche is the next part.
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San Diego SEO,
I agree completely. That’s where doing some good brainstorming and market research come in (as I’m sure you know!)
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Research is so important now. Simply putting up a site and throwing Adsense on it is no longer a recipe for instant success. If your not willing to do some up front legwork to understand the niche your targeting, be prepared to harvest nothing but pennies.
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James,
I couldn’t agree with you more. I find it interesting that a lot of people would do exactly what you mentioned and then wonder why they aren’t the next internet millionaire… it takes more than what a lot of people think at first.
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Without knowing SEO you cant survive in the internet business.Doing the market research is must.
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Well said Andy!
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I like the idea of having several separate sites dedicated to several different topics, but it seems that the management would just get over-whelming. I’ve always wondered how many blogs one person could practically manage on their own (without outsourcing, etc..). And without working 14 hour days…
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Zen Zoomie,
I would agree that there probably is a point where you can’t handle any more on your own. As long as they’re all bringing in money it’s a good problem to have! At this point most people would probably look into hiring an assistant or two. If you read most of the big blogs, quite a few of them have hinted that they have a few employees. Not all of them, but some do for sure. I guess in the end you have to do what works for you! Thanks for the comment!
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I’ve got several blogs on the go and each one is quite general and I’m finding updating them hard work for (at the moment) little reward.
I’ve now heard a few people mention the recipe for success is using smaller more focused sites. I think your niche advice is good and I should listen to it!
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Niche markets are good but you also have to find one you have some interest in to really succeeder.
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Start by researching keywords. Once you find some that are in demand and have less competition and it is something you like and or know a lot about you have a starting place
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Dan Reply:
November 14th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
That’s the way I recommend people start as well
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I couldn’t agree with you more. I find it interesting that a lot of people would do exactly what you mentioned and then wonder why they aren’t the next internet millionaire… it takes more than what a lot of people think at first.
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I already learn about SEO. I want to sell stuff.But I have problem to find what stuff i must sell in internet
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Rather than trying to take over the whole internet at once, try focusing on one small corner of it first. Especially for your first website, don’t try to conquer the world. Find a category or niche that you know enough about and are interested in enough that you can really get caught up in that website. That’s hard to do when you’re selling 50 different categories of products!
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I read your post and found it really interesting. Cool! Thanks for the post.
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enough about and are interested in enough that you can really get caught up in that website. That’s hard t
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I am always searching online for articles that can help me.Now I think I have found it
now.Thanks a lot.
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You write good articlesI really enjoyed your post. Thanks for your sharing.
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Runescape Accounts is a massive browser based game. Released Runescape in January of 2001 when it started becoming a massive hit.Rs Items is currently the biggest free browser based game out on the internet. It has a broad range of monsters, dungeons,rs gold sell and quests.
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