Choosing a Niche – Profitability

Choosing a Niche – Finding Your Passions

Choosing a Niche – Practicality

To summarize: In order to build a successful online business, it is important to select a niche that fuels your passions,  and offers practicality. You have be on fire about your subject matter in order to stay motivated, and you have to have a reader base that is just as excited.

Now, let’s look at the third “P” of internet marketing success: Profitability.

So if you’ve been playing along so far, you’ve identified quite a few niche markets that fuel your passions, and discarded those that won’t attract much interest. The next step is determining if a niche can be profitable.

When you evaluate a niche market, consider the products that might be relevant to that topic. After all, products and services are what will bring in the profits.

As an example, let’s look at one of my passions, vegan cooking. Suppose I’m thinking of launching a website or blog that offers vegan recipes – what types of products would my  readers likely be interested in?

• General cookware (pots, pans, utensils, etc.)
• Specialized cookware (dehydrators, spiral slicers, etc.)
• Small kitchen appliances (food processors, blenders, juicers, etc.)
• Cookbooks
• Culinary courses/instruction
• Specialized ingredients (spices, flax meal, organic flour, etc.)
• Vegetarian/vegan “convenience products” (tempeh, seitan, veggie burgers, soyrizo, etc.)

And more loosely associated:

• Fitness equipment
• Vitamins and herbal supplements
• Yoga instruction/equipment
• Spiritual/conscious living products
• “Green” household products

These are just a few of the potential products I could offer. Keep in mind that this is a fairly small niche market – larger niches will present more opportunities.

Now, once you’ve come up with the potential products and services, the next step is to see if you can sell them online, or if anyone else is selling them. This can be accomplished pretty easily through a Google search for the products you’ve come up with. If you come up with sites selling relevant products, then there is profit potential in your niche.

When you search for a product on Google, pay special attention to the listings on the right side of the results page. These are “paid listings”, meaning that the advertisers have bid a per-click fee to get you to see those listings. Chances are, if people or companies are paying to get their products in front of you, there is a sufficient market for those products online.

We’ll get into several way to market your products later – right now, we’re just trying to determine if there’s any money to be had. What I mean by that is that, if you’re going to start an online business, you should be reasonably sure that the money making opportunities exist before you spend your time and money launching your site.

Ok, your list is probably now full of strike-throughs and tick marks. Take a look at the ideas you have left – the ones that meet the three criteria for a successful business venture:

1. They ignite your passions;
2. They are practical, in the sense that you can reach a sufficient reader base without wading through immense competition;
3. They have the potential to bring in profit.

These are your core niche markets. Congratulations – you’ve already made it further than 99% of internet marketers!

Lee

Twitter: @JJMbuzz

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