How to Find a Good Niche
To find out how to find your niche, suspend everything you have heard and read about it here. Finding your niche is easier than you think and writing content about your niche is easier than you might think.
I wrote this article because, too many times on the net, you will find encouragement to “Find Your Passion” etc. The truth is something quite different.
What is a Niche? [GOOD]
Meaning of Niche: “A comfortable or suitable position in life or employment”.
In Internet marketing we need to be more precise:
“A product or service I feel comfortable marketing and will make me a profit.”
In fact there are a few more details.
- Enough people are interested in the product or service general area.
- The competition is not too great that we are competing against major international companies with big budgets for buying.
- We have enough interest to research and write good content about the products.
Notice that there is nothing about
- passion or
- detailed knowledge or
- specialist knowledge here.
Many new business people struggle with finding a Niche because they do not feel they have a, b, or c above. It is a natural fear, especially if you have never written articles or reviews before.
Honestly, you do not need it. The passion you do need is for building a long-term successful business.
Look at [1-3] above. These are your conditions.
You are more likely to find a good profitable niche in mundane everyday goods that everybody wants and few people can be bothered to write about.
How many ball-point pens and clothes pegs are sold every day?
Where to Find Customers [Niche]
Remember the size of the “customers” on the internet. Let’s look at some numbers. I have trawled the internet for these statistics and taken the lowest ones I could find. These numbers are generally agreed upon on most websites.
So here are the numbers of internet users in the USA and Europe as of about 31st March 2017:
Internet users: USA..286,000,000 Europe… 260,000,000 (including the U.K.)
Facebook users: USA..200,000,000 Europe…103,000,000 (including the U.K.)
I have put the figures in full because some people are not sure what a million or a billion are.
I have not shown all the other English speaking areas, such as Australia, New Zealand, S. Africa and other African countries.
There is nothing to stop you targeting S. American countries or India.
If I put the figures down for China and India you might find them mind boggling.
The point is this:
Of course, there are more conditions for profitability, and some research is needed.
Can I Do It?
Many people question their ability to learn something new and yet some of the things most people do all the time are really complicated.
Driving a motorised vehicle with several gears, a combustion engine and complex steering, ventilation and audio systems, i.e. a car, is complex.
Finding relevant channels on cable TV
There is a machine that transmits radio waves at 2,450 thousand cycles per second. These waves agitate molecules of water at the atomic level so that they “vibrate” faster. This vibration raises the temperature of the water molecules and…
Your microwave dinner is cooked
Most people can use a microwave. It takes a few practice runs to get the timings right.
I remember the first time I bought one and put 3 baking potatoes in. I could not believe the instruction book timings, they seemed so short, so I added a bit on. MMM
I had to use a metal saw and a hammer to break one of the potato rocks in half to find out if there was anything edible in the middle. BTW there was a tiny bit of soft potato left in the middle. It had baked them solid.
Technical Jargon
You are reading this, so you are certainly up to reading detail, i.e. doing research, about your chosen niche. There is so much on the net on almost every subject you could wish for.
Words like “Niche” and “content” are trade jargon. They can’t scare you if you translate them into everyday language: Niche becomes: “What I am interested in” and “Content” becomes “sentences in stories.”
There are so many different explanations of everything that getting a few different views is easy.
Just for fun, I “Googled” “particularism,” a word I thought I had made up. It turns out there are many different types of “particularism” and I will not bore you with the details. It would seem to have an opposite in “pluralism.”
What Can I write about?
Finally, if you really are here at this point now and really struggling to find something you are interested in, then consider writing about the one reason you are here: “Making Money on the internet.”
There must be several aspects of this to look into.
Just as a starter, I have made a simple Mind Map of The subject to give a few ideas about the Niche content you could write.
If you assemble these into sub headings Like this:
Making Money on the Internet
1. How long will it Take Me?
This will depend on how many hours a day you can dedicate to……….
2. What Capital Do I Need?
You do not need a lot but the more you can invest the faster things will move, be careful…..
3. Should I sell a product or drop-ship or become an affiliate?
If you have little capital or are unsure then affiliate marketing is a good place….
4. What Skills do I need?
This depends on how much you already know. You may need to build a website…..
5. How Do I learn Those Skills I Need?
a. Do a Word Press course, Internet Marketing course etc
b. One way is to join a community like Wealthy Affiliates where you can get all the training you need, support from others…..
6. What Should I Sell?
Probably the most challenging part, finding a niche and then finding those products in the niche. There are marketing tools like Jaaxy…..
I hope this can give you an idea about how to put together a Niche or area of interest which will enable you to start practicing this skill.
Practice Makes Perfect
You do not need to be an expert on one area of interest (niche.) You do need to start practicing going from the idea to a working plan of what to write about.
Once you have done this process several times, you will find it gets easier and easier.
Recap: How to Go From the Idea to the Writing (Content.)
- Make a list of things you might like to write about
- Draw a Mind Map of one of them, adding the things you associate with that Niche.
- Make a list of the associated items in their order of importance. These are your sub-headings.
- Begin filling in the detail under the sub headings.
- Read what you have written and correct grammar and spellings (we all make mistakes with both.)
- Go back and read the whole thing again as though you are a client desperate for this information and you need to learn all about it.
- Rewrite or add as necessary. You may find your order needs rearranging, it does not matter.
- One final check through and publish it.
All Things Get Easier as We Practice and Become More Familiar With Them
Write an article about “Writing better articles.” Keep it and read it again in a year. It will help you to understand how much better you have become.
Read other people’s articles about your niche area. There are plenty on the net. Become a positive critic and learn from the good ones. (Believe me, there are plenty of not so good ones.)
If you really want a community that can hold your hand and support you through all aspects of building a business, try Wealthy Affiliates. They are undoubtedly the cheapest way to get into the business, especially if you, like me, need help from the basics.
The wonderful thing about this business and WA is that everything is possible.
Make money and have fun while you do it.
Hey there! I just finished reading your article about finding a niche and just wanted to drop you a quick comment to share my thoughts.
I have been into building websites for a long time now and I have made a few mistakes along the way. One thing that I have learned over the years is that you shouldn’t over complicate the process of choosing a niche. As you mention in this article, it need not be as hard as you might imagine. I started out trying to find niches that I thought would bring me the most money rather than choosing something that I was really interested in.
After a lot of trial and error, I can confirm that by far the most important thing to bear in mind, when choosing a niche, is that you should have a real, genuine interest in your subject. If you are going to produce a great website then you will no doubt be spending months on it. Make sure its something that really interests you, that’s my advice!
I like the advice at the end of this article. It really does help to re-visit content that you have written some time ago. I do this on a regular basis now and can confirm that it helps to develop content greatly.
Thanks Andrew,
This is really helpful.
I can see what you mean about not prioritising “making money” over finding a niche you are happy to write about.
I also agree that having an interest in the niche is essential.
What I have found is that there is not just one niche I am interested in. By writing blogs, articles and comments about other people’s articles, I have found other areas which I am interested in and can develop a niche out of them.
Not sure if I have explained that well.
Anyway, thanks for the advice and help. It is greatly appreciated.
Hi there,
No niche is ever a new niche…and no niche ever fails. The marketer can fail, sure I was in a very good niche, read multi billon dollar a year niche (yes, billion with a B!) and hardly made anything! Just not suited to me, not passionate about the subject! Yet another niche .. I am succeeding in..one I do have a burning passion for!
Go figure how important having that interest is!
(It’s critical!)
Thanks for the comment Jack
I like your statement: “No niche fails, the marketer fails.” That is so true.
Was it simply that the form of marketing was not right for your multi billion dollar niche?
Maybe content needs to have that “behind the scene” passion to seep through into the content.
I am glad you are succeeding in your current niche.
I personally find there are some things I simply do not want to write about. No matter how much research I do, those subjects are just taboo.
Outside of that, I do have a wide range of interests so I find that researching a new niche can turn into interest and then I find it easy to write about.
Thanks again for your comment.
Niche selection is critical when it comes to making money online. Sure, it’s possible to make money from just about any niche, but the one I’m currently focused on is just so competitive it’s not funny.
I’m looking to switch over to something a little less competitive than the make money online niche I’m in now. What niche suggestions for 2018 would you recommend?
Thanks for the comment Darren.
You are right, selecting a niche is critical, and “making money online” is a really competitive market.
The secret is to refine your niche and find a part that has not been saturated. There are some.
I genuinely believe that starting with keywords in Jaaxy, it is possible to find those niches within niches that can bear fruit.
Once you have learnt the techniques of SEO and producing good content, it can be applied to anything in any area of business.
My own opinion is that your niche does not have to be something you are deeply interested in or one you have prior knowledge in.
Once you have mastered the relevant skills, you can apply them to any niche, as long as you feel comfortable researching and writing about it.
Rather than advising you on trends that are upcoming, I would say: play with Jaaxy, starting with any oddball ideas you can come up with, until something catches your eye. Then you dig and read and dig until you know that niche inside out. Then write.
I would not advise a newbie beginner to do this because you do need to refine your skills and that is easier with something you are already familiar with.
2 areas to definitely investigate are
1. Health foods and drinks.
2. Sustainable long life products rather than cheap throwaways.
3. Non plastics
I know, I said 2 but the third is worth digging into as well.
Hi HappyB, nice to meet you in WA.
In fact I have been looking into internet marketing business for quite a long time.I just joined WA a few months ago and I am struggling to finish my first site.Your site “Knowledge is power” is what I am looking for. It gives a lot of assistance to improve my site and I like it.
Thank you.
Sukiman
Hi Sukiman, Since you are in WA, My advice is to do all the training courses, ask for help if you get stuck and use my website as an extra resource.
The courses in WA are very thorough and will give you all the training you need. The community are a wonderful source of extra information and support.
It is very important to decide on your personal niche and I hope this article has helped you.
Good luck with your training and business.
I really enjoyed this article, I remember when I first started on this internet marketing journey, there were so many terminologies I wasn’t familiar with, and “niche” was one of them.
I was too ashamed to ask because I thought I would look stupid and although I usually google everything for some reason I never googled what a niche is.
Anyway, this is a really good introduction on how to find a niche, it’s important people actually research and not jump onto something that may be trending or something they personally enjoy but there may be no market for it or the market is too competitive.
Thank you Minhaj.
You are right, it can be difficult to ask. Always ask in WA, I would say because there are so many helpful people here.
To find a good niche is the key to an online business.
As you say, it does not have to be something topical or fashionable or exciting, it needs to be a niche where there is potential for business.
We all need to make money.
There are thousands of niches and it is a question of doing the research and checking the keyword software like Jaaxy.
We cannot all be experts on everything so using software and asking for help is better than struggling on your own.
Good luck with your own business Minhaj
You made finding or figuring out a niche seem really easy. I can say that you really hit on some great points too. A niche where enough people need or want the product or service. Competition should be not too great and you have enough interest to do some research and you have a niche.
Find a good niche, that is the focus of any good internet business these days.
I Love your title as well Knowledge is Power but I want to add on to it “Knowledge ACTIVATED is Power.” Because its not good to be a “know it all” who never puts in any work to show and prove your understanding. Thanks for the links to Wealthy Affiliates and Jaaxy as well.
This is another reason I enjoyed your site because you know something and you are doing something with it so I encourage you to keep pressing forward and continue to elevate my friend.
Frankie Trillz
Thanks for you comment Frankie.
I wrote the article “How to Find a Good Niche” because I struggled for a while myself.
There are ways of developing a product and having it branded for your own company. It is complicated and can cost a lot, especially if it then sells very slowly.
Becoming an affiliate is one way to bypass that problem.
You still need to decide what to write about and what to sell. That is when finding a good niche becomes critical.
It is easier than most people think, it just takes some hard work and research.
Thanks again for your comments Frankie and good luck with your own business.
Probably the most over complicated thing based around earning money online is finding a niche! I really love how you talked about the matter and I feel as if this will really help some of the beginners out there that are trying to learn what it takes to make money online!
A piece of advice for anyone reading this! No matter what niche you’re in, success wont come unless you put in the effort. Work hard and never give up!
Absolutely Thomas.
The hard work comes at the beginning to get a system going and then again, once you are earning money, to sustain the business.
There really are no quick fixes that are legal and moral.
I believe one of the secrets is to enjoy what you are doing. If you hate some part of the business and only do it under duress, then it will fail because you will neglect it. Perhaps look for something different to do.
Building a business on your own can be a really big challenge so it helps to enjoy what you are doing.
Sometimes it is necessary to really try things that scare you and see if you can find something interesting or pleasant about them.
Certainly, for me,. the people in WA are one of the biggest attractions. To be able to hold “conversations” with people all over the world is fascinating. The support and encouragement from other people in WA is really exceptional.
The other attraction for me is the constant learning process. There is always something new or improvements to be made.
Thanks for your comment, it is very much appreciated.