Once you have a good idea of what you're passionate
about, it's time to start looking for markets that are related
in some way.
If your passion is playing the guitar or practicing
yoga or traveling or learning languages, I'm sure there's
a market online that could benefit from your passion.
This essay will show you how to find it. After
we've found the market, we're going to research it and find
out what some of their biggest unsolved problems are.
What's this about problems? Two of the biggest drivers of marketing (what makes
people buy) are pleasure and pain.
People are either interested in things that
bring them pleasure or things that stop their pain.
If you come up with a solution for a particular
problem, you're not only stopping the pain, you're providing
pleasure as well.
If you have a headache, don't you look for a
solution to that problem? If your headache goes away, don't
you find it easier to do things that bring you pleasure?
Every market has its problems and every
market needs those problems solved. In today's world
and economy, people are looking for faster and more efficient
ways to solve their problems and they're ready to
pay handsomely for it.
If you can show them how to solve their problems
and enjoy the benefits of living without their problems, you have just become their angel in disguise.
How can you find your niche
market
who's just waiting for you to help them?
Start by doing research on your wider
target market.
-
Go to Google and do a
search on your general field of interest first.
-
If you're interested in baking
cookies, for example, do a search on baking cookies and
then drill down by digging into specifics.
-
Check out informational
sites and product sites.
-
Find e-zines (online magazines)
related to your interest and read them thoroughly.
-
Then, look for websites
already selling something within your market.
What kind of approach do they take? Are they
professional or amateurish? Keep your mind open to all the
possibilities. You're not trying to find a product to sell
yet, you're still narrowing in on your niche market by finding
like-minded communities of people online.
By finding your ideal niche market,
you're going to save yourself from wasting countless hours
and dollars on a business idea that may never succeed.
Just picking a field of interest is not enough
- that's way too wide and won't provide you with positive,
lasting results that lead to success. You need to be very
specific and you need to start looking for a problem that
people are actively trying to solve.
To help you narrow in on your niche try this
exercise borrowed from Insider Secrets to Internet Marketing:
My niche market is people who are (action)
+ (your area of interest)
eg - My niche market is people who are (learning
how to bake) (cookies)
or - My niche market is people who are (trying to build) (a
gazebo)
or - My niche market is people who are (wanting to learn)
(spanish)
or - My niche market is people who are (attempting to sell)
(saunas)
By narrowing your wider
market into a niche market
you gain so many advantages;
-
you've narrowed down the competition
- you're not competing against everyone in your field
of interest
- smaller markets are easier to dominate
-
niche markets are often close
groups of people who share information with each other
and can more easily spread worth of mouth to their friends
who share the same interests
-
it's cheaper to advertise
to smaller, less competitive markets even if it means
less traffic - at least you know you won't be wasting
your dollars on people who aren't interested in your specific
area
- people searching for your solution are savvy
and will usually search for specific solutions and ignore
wide search terms (they're drilling and digging to)
-
it's easier to gain
the loyalty of customers if you provide them with the
good stuff - they will keep coming back for more of your
solutions because you satisfied their needs and increased
their level of trust.
Believe it or not,
you've just learned some very important information about internet
marketing that most other people don't know.
Thousands upon thousands of people have ignored
these principles and have wasted countless hours and dollars
trying either to sell to the masses or trying to find a product
before they've found a market.
If you're one of those people, don't despair (I've
done it too) and it's not the end of the world.
If you already have a product, do some more research
on your niche market (it'll be easier to find now) and listen
to what people are saying in discussion boards, chat rooms,
news sites and e-zines. They will enlighten you as to what problems
they've been having and you can find a way to put a spin on
what you have that will appeal to their needs.
For all the rest, once you've found your
niche market and a common problem among that market - you've
hit gold.
You can now find a product or develop one of your
own that solves all or at least one of their major problems
and you're ahead of the game without losing your shirt.
Once you've come up with a solution for
your niche market, there's a phenomenal, fast, inexpensive way
to test the market to see if it will bring you riches or rags.
