New Niche vs Old Niche

[mmeadwolfe]

This is a question to all you experienced challengers for us noobies.

Last year I joined in the middle of the challenge and got stuck at one of the basic concepts of the challenge: finding a niche. I looked at what I do and what I enjoy and I continue to come back to the same answer as far as my niche, computers and electronics. As you may have guessed, on the internet that topic is beaten to death and just about everything has been covered. On top of that, creating a site that does try to compete is a challenge in itself.

So my question is twofold:

1. Is it better, in the sense of profit, enjoyably and sustainability, to stick to an old niche that I know well or to develop a new niche that I may be interested in but not know as much about. Is knowing my niche going to give you an edge over those new and learning their niche?
2. Is choosing a well established market going to hinder performance, or are there still ways to make a website grow despite being in a saturated market. (Saturated being lots of supply and demand as opposed to supply and no demand).

Thanks in advanced.

[alanwebninja]

In my opinion, building a long term business online will require a niche that you have an interest in, purely because you'll spend so much time involved in the subject that it may become too much of a chore if it's not something that floats your boat.
Finding a viable niche is the first challenge, then building it out to be a sustainable business is the second. It may be perferrable to find a niche in the electronics field rather than to position yourself as the go to guy for earwax removal, dog training etc.
While computers & electronics is a massive saturated market, there will be micro niches within the market that will be underserviced - maybe a particular piece of equipment, a specialised topic where you will be able to test with physical product affiliate links and develop your own info product how-to guides, market update & product alert mailing lists etc.

If you do decide to test a niche because of popularity rather than interest, then i'd stay away from the dog training, forex, internet marketing & weightloss and look for an obscure niche that you have half a chance of ranking for.

Hope this helps.

[kathypop]

You can stay within that niche- just dig deeper into a very specific sub-niche. the more specific you go the better your chances are in that niche. Just get creative w/ key phrases and keep narrowing down the topic.

For your first one, I would definitely recommend sticking with a subject you enjoy. You'll be more likely to see it thru and more likely to do any forum marketing or blogging, etc. people usually enjoy talking about things they like. This is something that you want to be able to look forward to each day and with a topic you have no interest in, may be seen as a burden and you may find yourself getting distracted.

Once you have experience, then go for the other niches.

For the Challenge- enjoy yourself! You'll be more receptive if you're doing something you like or love.

Good luck,

Kathy Pop

[mpossoff]

Hi speaking of niche's.... There is a niche I'm very interested in and enjoy. But it's not product based, it's a 'how can I say it', maybe a subject, topic and/ or belief system which is a micro within a very broad market.

With that being said how do you incorporate products into the picture? I was thinking about starting a blog on the subject/topic/belief.

Regards,

Marc

[alanwebninja]

Hi Marc,
there's more than one way to monetize a cat.....
If you can start a blog that attracts a lot of traffic, then adsense can be a lucrative option, but you need LOTS of traffic to make a living from it.
If there are books on the subject, then placing an amazon offer on the sidebar will be a test to see if your readers are buyers or just lookers.
If they are buyers, then if you can deliver ebooks, podcasts etc you can charge for them.
Wayout beyond the scope of the challenge, if your readers are fanatical about your content, then you can start a paid membership site & keep your best content inside the members area.

One word of caution however. It is a good idea to test whether people will buy, or whether they are just looking for free information before building out your site into something significant. People have invested thousands of hours into sites on
subjects like song lyrics, magic tricks, recipes, myspace themes etc where people want free info but refuse to spend a cent.

Good luck with the challenge.

Alan

[Bill Thomson]

One very important thing that you will hear time & time again from more experienced Challengers - Don't prejudge & above all don't get attached to a niche till you test it out.

This Challenge is all about learning how best to research & test market niches & quickly discover whether something is worthwhile. Whether you are working with a new niche or an older revamped one - If it's going to fail you want to find out fast & move on to the next one.

As to the original question - whether you are best to stick to topics you like or know - I avoid topics that I hate but have discovered that I quickly develop a lot of interest in a topic that has the potential to make me money!

Bill

[camcorderkid]

"..have discovered that I quickly develop a lot of interest in a topic that has the potential to make me money.."

LOL - So true Bill, especially when you outsource all the boring cr*p to someone else ;-)

Pete :-)

[mpossoff]

Hi Marc,
there's more than one way to monetize a cat.....
If you can start a blog that attracts a lot of traffic, then adsense can be a lucrative option, but you need LOTS of traffic to make a living from it.
If there are books on the subject, then placing an amazon offer on the sidebar will be a test to see if your readers are buyers or just lookers.
If they are buyers, then if you can deliver ebooks, podcasts etc you can charge for them.
Wayout beyond the scope of the challenge, if your readers are fanatical about your content, then you can start a paid membership site & keep your best content inside the members area.

One word of caution however. It is a good idea to test whether people will buy, or whether they are just looking for free information before building out your site into something significant. People have invested thousands of hours into sites on
subjects like song lyrics, magic tricks, recipes, myspace themes etc where people want free info but refuse to spend a cent.

Good luck with the challenge.

Alan

thanks!

In the broad spectrum of my potential niche, there are sites that offer books, ebooks and the like. In fact I have been a customer in the broad.

I do have a product and products idea for this niche that would be related to the niche. Other sellers offer this product but not nearly as unique as my ideas. This particular product and products/items are also a niche to offer in addition to my niche. So a blog or whatever is a niche in addition to my own creative products/s that if unique enough will sell because the people of this niche is a great possibility they would like and it's a tangible product/s.

By accident while I was doing keyword research for my niche and I stumbled on a site that I did some time ago and forgot about. It's on page 2 of Google, 9th. But after doing the research for this particular site for the keywords, I discovered that no one is searching for this keyword. I just happened to type the phrase into google to see what was out there and there is alot and my page is on the 2nd page. As I said although it's 2nd it's not a phrase people are using. Is there a way to do something with this or is it a shot in the dark cause no one is searching with this phrase but are searching with related phrase.

I'm just thinking out loud here.

Marc

[Bill Thomson]

thanks!

In the broad spectrum of my potential niche, there are sites that offer books, ebooks and the like. In fact I have been a customer in the broad.

I do have a product and products idea for this niche that would be related to the niche. Other sellers offer this product but not nearly as unique as my ideas. This particular product and products/items are also a niche to offer in addition to my niche. So a blog or whatever is a niche in addition to my own creative products/s that if unique enough will sell because the people of this niche is a great possibility they would like and it's a tangible product/s.

I'm just thinking out loud here.

Marc

Marc what you are discussing is appropriate once a niche is proven but when you are considering a new niche product is the last factor to consider. The starting point is to see whether a potential niche even has the numbers to be worth considering. You can have the best product ever but if there are no buyers around then it's a waste of effort.

Bill

[mpossoff]

Marc what you are discussing is appropriate once a niche is proven but when you are considering a new niche product is the last factor to consider. The starting point is to see whether a potential niche even has the numbers to be worth considering. You can have the best product ever but if there are no buyers around then it's a waste of effort.

Bill

maybe jumping the gun... I've used market samarai for the numbers. Are you referring to actual tangible numbers compared to what the likes of market Samarai are telling me?

Marc