Niche

 

1. Identify your interests and passions.

This may be something you've already done. But, if you haven't, make a list of 10 topical interests and passion areas, immediately.

Business isn't easy, and at some point it will test you. If you are working in an area that you don't care about, your odds of quitting will greatly increase -- especially as a first-time business owner.

This doesn't mean that you need to find a perfect fit. If you are passionate about some aspect of running the business, you will stick with it. If you don’t care about the topic, you may not be able to find the drive within to persevere.

Here are a few prompts to help you determine what your interests and passions are:

• How do you like to spend your free time? What do you look forward to doing when you aren't doing it?

• What magazines do you subscribe to? What topics do you like to learn about most?

• What clubs or organizations do you belong to?

2. Identify problems you can solve.

With your list of 10 topics in hand, you're ready to start narrowing down your options.

With your list of 10 topics in hand, you're ready to start narrowing down your options. To create a profitable business, you first need to find problems your target customers are experiencing, then determine whether you can actually solve them. Here are several things you can do to identify problems in specific niches:

• Have one-on-one conversations or idea-extraction sessions with your target market. Make sure to find or create a framework for asking questions that helps you uncover pain points.

• Peruse forums. Search Quora, or find forums related to your niche, then take a look at the discussions that are taking place. What questions are people asking? What problems do they have?

• Research keywords. Explore different keyword combinations on Google Trends and Google AdWords’ keyword planner. This can help you uncover popular search terms related to pain points.

Related: 7 Steps to Defining Your Niche Market

3. Research your competition.

The presence of competition isn't necessarily a bad thing. It may actually be showing you that you've found a profitable niche. But you do need to do a thorough analysis of competing sites. Create a new spreadsheet and start logging all of the competing sites you can find.

Then figure out whether there's still an opportunity to stand out in the crowd. Can you still rank for your keywords? Is there a way to differentiate yourself and create a unique offer? Here are several signs that you can enter a niche and be successful, even if there are already other sites serving it:

• Low-quality content. It's easy to outrank your competition in a niche where other business owners are not creating high-quality, detailed content that serves the audience.

• Lack of transparency. Many online entrepreneurs have disrupted entire industries by creating an authentic and transparent presence in a niche where other sites are faceless and overly corporate.

• Lack of paid competition. If you've found a keyword that has relatively high search volume, but little competition and paid advertising, an opportunity definitely exists for you to upset the market.

4. Determine the profitability of your niche.

You should now have a pretty good idea of what niche you're going to get into. Maybe you haven't narrowed your list down to a single topic area, but you've likely found a few ideas you feel pretty good about. At this point, it's important to get an idea of how much money you have the potential to make in your niche. ClickBank is a great place to go to start your search.

So, browse top products in your category. If you can't find any offers, that's not a good sign. It might mean that nobody has been able to monetize the niche.

If your search does turn up a decent number of products -- but not an overabundance of products -- you're in luck. Make note of price points so that you can price your own products in a competitive manner.

Also keep in mind that you don't have to start your business with a product offering of your own. You can partner with products creators, advertisers and site owners in your niche to begin generating commissions while you're working on your unique solution.

5. Test your idea.

You are now armed with all of the information you need to choose a niche, and the only thing left to do is test your idea. One simple way to do this is to set up a landing page for pre-sales of a product you're developing. You can then drive traffic to this page with paid advertising.

Even if you don't get pre-sales, that doesn't necessarily mean that you aren't in a viable niche. It could be that your messaging isn't quite right, or you haven't found the right offer yet. By leveraging A/B split testing, you can optimize conversions and find out whether or not there is anything stopping your target market from taking action.

Final thoughts

Once you've confirmed the viability of a niche, start developing a full-fledged website. You'll want to learn how to create a blog, and generate more traffic to your site to boost your revenue and scale up.

But, do keep in mind that there isn't necessarily a perfect process for finding a niche. You'll want to do your homework, but if you get stuck in the planning phase, you'll never actually get around to starting. As an entrepreneur, you need to become a good starter.

Related: 5 Steps to Determine Your Ideal Niche Business Even in an Unfamiliar Market

If you believe you've found a business idea you can invest yourself into, take the plunge. The learning and growth that comes from doing will be far greater than the rewards of just planning.

The Riches Are in the Niches

https://www.entrepreneur.com/video/348961

David Tao, editor and co-founder of BarBend, shares his thoughts on how to identify an underserved niche. (The Playbook)

You should have passion, people can smell what you say.

Sooner or later, the truth comes out. Don’t blow things out of proposition. 

Subconscious – sleep coaching – 

David Tao, an entrepreneur and co-founder of BarBend, talks about how his beginnings in business journalism inspired him to find a niche audience in need of content and shares insight into the process of finding the right mix of content to serve that niche.

Tao and The Playbook host David Meltzer discuss a range of topics, including how to find niches or sub-niches that aren’t saturated and strategies to improve your content. The pair also provide guidance on some of the best ways to create diverse revenue streams once you have built up an audience.

Mindset.

Strength is a broad topic. Everything impact : Sleep, health,

Empower two people, who can empower two people.

Consistency important to address the niche.

Keep sending out to find the niche.

Strength for weight lifting for weightlifters. 

You have to provide lot of content over your niche and 

Monetization is important. 

You know the product and audience, when you know the niche, the pitch is direct. 

Once you stabilize, diversification of audience and revenue stream.

Sponsor contents, build stories around. Podcast revenue, affiliate links.

You tube gets bigger everymonth.

Fastest growing revenue stream, since Jan 2020 increase in traffic, onsite advertising, 

Get broader – produce resources in your niche. Established media brands. 

If you want to get rich, find your niche.

Is Focusing On a Specific Niche Really That Important?

 https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/333695

To specialize or not to specialize, that is the question. (The answer is yes.)

Why Do I Need to Be Niche-Specific?

Practice makes perfect, and that applies in the business world as much as anything else in life. By being niche-specific in whatever your business does, you are constantly getting in repetitions and practice at the same things over and over. It allows you as a business to become an expert at your craft in one particular vertical, often times making you the subject-matter expert for this particular niche.

Niche-Specific Doesn't Mean Turning Away Business

Well, yes and no. First and foremost, you can specialize in a specific niche, but still work with clients in other niches.  Specialization doesn’t mean you only work within that niche. You can also refer that business out to a partner who specializes in other niches. In the long run, however, as you begin to specialize, you will focus your marketing and sales efforts into your niche, which will lead to a decrease in leads outside your area of specialization and a dramatic increase in leads in your new vertical.

How Do I Find My Niche?

You can find your niche through research and marketing into a particular vertical. For example, if you're a marketing agency, pick a vertical that interests you and doesn't have a ton of competition. However, in my experience, more times than not your niche will find you.  

For example, many of my family members are in the legal space. My dad is a lawyer, sister is a lawyer, mom is a court reporter, and many of my friends and their friends are also in the legal space. This naturally has led me to understand this vertical, and over time, I’ve continued to gain more and more clients in this space. This vertical fell into my lap, and once I started to actually focus on it as a target, our agency quickly grew to service dozens of legal clients.

How Will Being Niche-Specific Help My Bottom Line?

One of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs is scaling their business. Being niche-specific and engaging in the same tasks and processes over and over is one of the easiest way to scale. Once you perfect these processes and procedures, it is much easier to train employees to do this at scale when compared to a business that does not vertically specialize.

A business can certainly succeed without niche specialization, but in my opinion, having a particular niche will increase your changes of success, make your business more scalable, make you a subject-matter expert in that industry and, perhaps most importantly, improve your bottom line.  

6 Niche Social Media Networks Changing the Ways We Connect, Collaborate and Discover New Opportunities

https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/317173

In 2008, there were 100 million users on Facebook. Fast-forward 10 years, and 2.19 billion active users are on the platform. It's safe to say that social media has seen ample growth.

However, such rapid growth comes with its own set of challenges. From fake news to data breaches and an incredibly crowded marketplace, sometimes it feels like these platforms are simply so big that the companies can't even control them. Of course, that doesn't mean they're slowing down any time soon. In fact, their rampant growth is actually helping pave the way for other, more effective digital platforms.

These niche social media platforms are tailored specifically to certain groups of people or industries, offering a more personalized approach to connecting with others who share common interests and goals, in addition to discovering new opportunities and receiving curated content.

"The key here is finding the right platform that allows the user to cut through the noise to achieve their intended goal," says Anis Bennaceur, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Mixer, a private network for creatives. "No two industries are created alike. Different user needs require different social ecosystems for professionals to connect, engage and collaborate."

The ROI of Social Media (Infographic)

From Mixer to SERMO, a network for doctors, and Spiceworks, for IT professionals -- more and more niche networks are appearing, each with the intention of offering an easier way to connect with the right people and access the right information. To learn more, here are six niche social media networks.

Mixer

With Mixer, the term "starving artist" might soon be outdated. By providing a private digital network for professionals in art, fashion, entertainment, music and various creative industries, the platform is helping to build a creative middle class by making connections and opportunities more accessible. With a thorough vetting process, a small monthly subscription fee and a digital framework in place that makes it easy for members to personalize their profiles and import work to an online portfolio, the app provides an alternative way for creatives to connect, exhibit their work, post jobs and find new opportunities. "We believe our hyper-focus on the creative industry will drive more meaningful engagements through the Mixer app, making it an intangible part of the creative professional lifestyle," Bennaceur says.

AngelList

AngelList is a niche network geared towards connecting startups and angel investors. After a person or company applies and is accepted, they can begin "swiping right" or "swiping left" on investors or startups.

However, getting accepted might be easier said than done. With an average 1 to 2 percent acceptance rate of startups, AngelList carefully monitors who is allowed to use its platform. Once accepted, a startup is provided a carefully curated list of recommended investors based on market, stage and location. Companies can also search for investors using filters, funding types, activity and more. Investors are also provided the opportunity to filter through startups.

ResearchGate

ResearchGate is a social networking site for scientists and researchers to connect, share research, ask questions and collaborate on projects. It boasts more than 15 million users worldwide.

Like Mixer and AngelList, ResearchGate also has a strict vetting process for applicants, requiring scientists to sign up using their institutional email addresses or undergo an individual process to prove their research activity. In the scientific industry, there's a strong commitment to uncover information and research for the greater good of humanity, which is why ResearchGate's mission is "to connect the world of science and make research open to all." Launched by a group of scientists, the platform not only seeks to help connect scientists from around the world, but provide them an online place to share publications and data, find out who has been citing their work, ask questions, post discussions and find new opportunities.

SERMO

SERMO is a niche social network aimed at connecting doctors around the globe. With a three-stage application process to verify a person's medical credentials, SERMO offers a safe platform for doctors to connect, discuss important topics, ask questions, learn and crowdsource information. Unlike ResearchGate, SERMO creates an exclusive professional community where doctors can connect and feel comfortable discussing confidential information, and to even do so anonymously if they choose.

Spiceworks

Spiceworks, geared towards IT professionals and digital marketers, provides an online space to connect with peers, start conversations, gain access to educational content and take advantage of various planning and management apps. Spiceworks also allows tech companies to join and connect with tech professionals and offer company-backed advice and tips to users. Unlike a number of today's niche social networks, Spiceworks is a public platform, but with its major focus on IT workers and business, there's not much appeal to people outside of the industry.

Sportifico

Sportifico is a network for aspiring soccer athletes and coaches, aimed at helping players and professionals connect with people and opportunities, with the end goals of jump-starting their own athletic careers or building a team. After a person applies and is accepted, they can upload their sports resume and create a profile. In addition, they can import achievements and personal statistics and times to help them get noticed or recruited. Then, users can connect, send messages, search for opportunities and build teams.

Understanding the Concept of 'Niching Down' for Budding Entrepreneurs

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/339399

Chidike Samuelson

ENTREPRENEUR LEADERSHIP NETWORK CONTRIBUTOR

Entrepreneur, Lawyer, Author and Freelance writer

“Find a niche if you want to succeed in business.” This age-old advice has been handed down to entrepreneurs for generations. Finding a niche market is a piece of great advice — as long as entrepreneurs understand what exactly is meant when that advice is dished out.  

The purpose of a niche

For the purposes of marketing and customer satisfaction, finding a niche and sticking to it is necessary for new businesses and/or small businesses. The logic to this is simple: Catering to a larger market or audience will require the investment of more marketing dollars to reach that market, as well as more technology or personnel to satisfy their needs, if and when you do reach them.

This is often difficult if not impossible for new businesses, especially for those who are bootstrapping it. This being said, a new business can reach a wide market if it starts off with significant funding and can afford to acquire the necessary technology and personnel. In essence, the advice to find a niche is a logical one for convenience, but it's not necessarily a strategy for business success across the board. 

Another reason businesses might focus on a specific niche, or niche down, is for the purposes of competition. A niche helps set the business apart and helps it hook customers by catering to very specific needs. This pushes other businesses to either niche down themselves or expand.

A niche market is not the same as a niche product

I have often seen budding entrepreneurs mix up these concepts. When advice is given to niche down, it is often in reference to finding a specific demographic that you can cater to as a business. In other words, it often refers to finding your niche market.  

A category like "males" is a broad market for a clothes manufacturer. However, if the business targets teenage boys, it has found a niche market within the broader one by narrowing it down by age.  

Working with a niche product, on the other hand, is centering your business around a specific product type amid a broader category of the same or similar products. For instance, "jackets" is a broad category, but centering your business around trench coats adds some ease to your production processes.  

Entrepreneurs must understand the difference and also understand where they overlap. It is very possible to find a niche product that also trims down your niche market automatically. An example would be “adult men’s shoes” as a niche product within a greater category of shoes. A business that manufactures men’s shoes will naturally cater to a broad category of adult men. If a business decides to focus on the manufacturing of men’s athletic shoes, this also naturally niches down their market to men who are into fitness.  

This distinction is necessary because it means that small businesses can niche down their market without niching down their product. In fact, it is advisable that businesses offer all the products it can to their niche market. This could translate to offering running sleeves, shin pads, athletic socks, and other ancillary products. In this way, the business might not offer a niche product but is still be catering to a niche market.

Niching down is not a permanent verdict

Facebook began as a platform connecting college students, and now it's a mega-conglomerate with a toe in almost everything the internet has to offer. It has does so with gradual but intentional growth; maintaining a niche can become obsolete once a business has grown enough to effectively move beyond its present audience or niche. 

The niche is comfortable, but it can easily become an enemy to an entrepreneur’s ambitions. Niches are by definition small, and this makes them risky. Better technology, changes in policy, or a search engine tweaking its algorithm can instantly put you out of business. This is why it is advisable for businesses to start with a small niche but aim to grow beyond it. 

That said, it is a significant risk to leave a niche, especially one that has worked well for your business. But it's no secret that leaders are people who take risks, and most are ready to fish where the sharks are when the timing is right.

Whatever stage your business may be in, it's worth it to figure out if you want to market a niche product or stick to reaching your niche market. When you niched down enough to create a business, make the best of it and scale your business within that niche. Only then should you invest growing within that market.