The Niche Marketing Blog

Tools for understanding and reaching your market

Archive for the ‘niche markets’ Category

2010: David vs. Goliath

By Scott Spooner

This year I find myself thinking about what I want to accomplish. As Internet marketers, we have many business models before us: product creation, affiliate marketing, CPA marketing, joint ventures, and product launch marketing – the list goes on and on.

If we are smart, each of us will focus on one, or maybe two, of these strategies and then get busy with setting up efficient processes that will generate both profits and a long term business model. Before we are finished, however, we must also decide the approach we want to take in developing a market position. In short, we need to decide if we are David or Goliath.

In this example, David is a niche marketer. He or she has limited capital, lots of ideas, and a desire to gain a foothold within a niche from which his or her sales can expand. While David may want to dominate the niche, he or she understands that every journey has a beginning, and that beginning starts with a single step.

Staring David in the eyes is Goliath. Goliath is a large well-establish company, with an authority presence in the marketplace. Goliath has lots of capital, time, resources, and ideas. Goliath’s strength is also his or her weakness.

The Goliaths of the world tend to be cumbersome and slow to seize opportunities. David is better positioned to take quick action; but sometimes needs to be prodded into taking that action.

I mention all of this because, as we look everywhere we see many Goliaths; the big corporations that are generating lots of sales and revenues. Too often, the Davids of the world try to emulate the Goliaths, both in form and function. We set our eyes on branding our products, services and companies, instead of attacking a poorly defended niche to gain our foothold.

Ultimately, most Davids lose the battle simply due to lack of capital and resources; that is, we simply can not compete head to head with the Goliaths of the world, and we burn through our time and money in the process of doing so. Goliath wins because he or she has the capacity to outlast David.

The answer for David is to realize that he or she is, well, David. Do what David does best. Find your opportunities, take action, and strike. Re-set, and strike again. Gain a foothold, then another then another. Allow the branding to occur as a result of your interlocking niche building, and not the other way around.

So, as 2010 unfolds, consider your marketing approach: are you a “David” (niche marketer, nimble and focused), or a “Goliath” (capital and resource rich, with branding in mind). If you are a “David”, then set your marketing and business strategies to make the most of your strengths, while minimizing your weaknesses.

Here’s to a prosperous year.

 


As Featured On EzineArticles

Niche Marketing: The way to benefit from Social Search

by Scott Spooner

Google has recently added “social search” to its ever expanding catalog of “Google labs” experiments, and this is great news for on- line organisations which are involved in niche marketing.

For people who are comfortable with, and rely upon, seo strategies, “social search” will come as a welcome supplement to your SEO toolkit.

Search engine optimization was once defined by paid and organic search parameters. However, as the Internet has evolved, newer search platforms have become crucial Internet marketing tools. These tools include well known properties like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and alternative social networking websites.

Here are but two examples of the way newer search platforms are making their presence felt.

Surprising to some, YouTube is presently ranked as the number two search engine online. The sheer volume of videos served up each month by YouTube accounts for this high ranking.

Additionally, both Google and Bing just announced that they are indexing – and thus displaying in search results- Twitter posts(tweets) , leading many internet business owners to rush towards having a comprehensive “Twitter plan” in place as soon as possible.

It is due to the emergence, and prominence, of these newer search platforms, that “social search” is being developed. Indeed, these recent developments have many ‘Net watchers speculating about whether social networking will be the next big thing in internet niche marketing.

That brings us back to Google and their newest experiment.

At the Web 2. Summit(2009) Marissa Mayer announced latest experimental feature offered by Google, noting that it is aimed at improving the user’s search results by including web pages created by that user’s social connections.

This is how Marissa Mayer describes this new experimental lab:

“Due to the ever- increasing popularity of social networks, we’ve been thinking about how your social network could influence and improve your search results. Social Search does just that by surfacing content in your search results that is written by your friends or people you follow. That way, you get the best resources from the web overall, plus the best results(blogs, reviews, travelogues) that are relevant to you, since they were written by people you know. Social Search will be launching soon on Google Experimental and Google Labs. ”

In brief, social search is all about developing greater relevancy to the individual user who is conducting a search through Google.

That’s wonderful for the individual user. But, what about the internet marketer who is attempting to gain a better foothold in their niche? Well, this new function could prove to be a boom for the savvy niche marketer that is already mining the internet social networks.

Businesses owners who have established followings on Facebook, Friend Feed, Twitter, YouTube, and similar sites will now be able to search targeted key phrases on Google and monitor the buzz(or lack thereof) around their company and/or products. Trend spotters will be able to identify emerging trends to capitalize upon, or potential problems that need quick remedies.

Just think what this means to the internet niche marketer: real- time, direct access to the thoughts, posts, and musings of those in your social(and for the smart marketer, that can be read as “business”) networks.

So how does the feature presently work? Let me state right off the top that, because of issues relating to privacy, social search is set- up as an opt- in feature, and is directly connected through Google Profiles and Gmail. So, to participate, you’ll first want a Google account.

Once you’ve created your account, you add links from your Twitter, Friend Feed, and similar pages, to your Google profile. Google will then explore those links to identify your followers and the content they produce; content derived from their blogs, photo albums, videos, and reviews.

Then, the following time you’re searching at Google, if your search query returns helpful results from your social connections, Google will display the results at the bottom of the search results pages.

To view how this function works, log into your Google account, and then type your query at Google. com. If you don’t see a OneBox at the bottom of the search results pages, click on “Search Options” and select “Social” to include the results to your social circle.

Now, you may be wondering just who is included in this new social network. A Google help center page tells us that the network includes:

• people you’re connected to through social services(such as Twitter or Friend Feed)
• people that you’ve listed in your Google profile
• people in your Gmail(or Google Talk) chat list
• People in your Friends, Family, and Coworkers contact groups for Google

Additionally, Google Reader subscriptions can be added, so it’s now simpler to search Google Reader.

Keep in mind, these connections are on an opt- in basis, and you’ll be able to include, or exclude, any group or social service that you wish. If you fail to opt- in, your social networks won’t be included, and you will not see their content in your search results.

So, have a consider this new experimental function. Get good at using it, because it’s likely that your competitors will likewise.


As Featured On EzineArticles

Technorati Tags: ,

Creating a Keyword List for a Niche Market

In this Snowcast ( http://snowcaplabs.com/blog ) Loren demonstrates some simple techniques to finding “keyword seeds” and expand them to get hundreds (or thousands) of keywords relevant to a given market niche.

Using freely available tools, such as the excellent (and free!) Keyword Tool available from SEOBook (http://seobook.com), we see just how easy it is to learn a lot about the web traffic available to your markets.

For more web marketing screencasts, advice, and consulting, check out http://snowcaplabs.com

Duration : 0:9:58

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Using Google’s SKtool To Find Niche Ideas

How to use Google’s search based keyword tool to find niche ideas. This short video is brought to us fro mthe folkjs at Noble Samurai, the creators of Market Samurai.

Duration : 0:1:56

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Discover Niche Markets For Your Online Business

Looking beyond the numbers in your market, this video discusses how you need to bring your own knowledge and passion into the mix in order to succeed. Focus on what you know, what you are good at, and what you enjoy doing.

Duration : 0:6:11

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: , ,

Niche Marketing: Niche Market Research

The key to niche market research is finding the needs of your target market. Watch this short video as the author dives into market research for a niche.

Included in this video is a tour of Big-Boards.com and how to use forums in your market research. This is a good video if your are having trouble coming up with niche ideas for your on-line business.

Need more ideas? Download a free report on hot niche trends on http://NicheTrends.net

Duration : 0:9:55

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: , ,

Niche Market Secrets – Keyword Secrets

In this video, Marcus Campbell discusses how how to find profitable niche markets in seconds by focusing first on keywords. He offers a free Market Niche report on his web iste.

To learn more, go to: http://www.simplesiteprofits.com

Duration : 0:2:48

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: , ,

How To Find Hot Niche Markets

Working out what your niche market will be to start your home business is something that can elicit much excitement. This is when you can put all those great ideas you have had for your business into a plan of action. Give yourself a number of options to work over. Some will be great and some won’t fit. Get more than one so you always have a back up when you start a home business.

Look to 3 sources for ideas:

* A hobby you love: You won’t find many hobbies from which you can’t build a business. And since you enjoy doing it, it won’t be tedious to “go to work” every day. When you pick something for your business that you sincerely like, you will have fun at doing it.

* Your experiences: In life we go though many experiences and you can use these to build a business. For example if you have raised children you can then put all your parenting experience together and start a business related to parenting.

* Your talents: Everyone has one or more talents within them. Dig down and see what yours are. You can start a freelance business using your talents.

Defining your niche market:

1. List out some ideas then put them in the order of what you like the best.

2. Go to the site listed here and put a key word into the overture suggestion tool box: This will bring up the amount of searches that have been done for your keyword and will represent demand.

3. If you search out that same key word on Google search engine http://google.com then you will see websites supplying that item and you will know how many competitors are out there that will be competing with you when you start a home business.

4. If you find a topic that is demanded in quantity but low in the suppliers, you will then make money. This should be your special market for which you do your niche marketing. You will make more money with a niche market as you will reduce and sometimes even eliminate competition. Go through your list of ideas until you narrow it down to about

5. Then go through them again and see which one will fit into a niche market.

Establishing your USP:

Once you have found the concept that fits into a specialized or niche market it is time to establish your USP, Unique, Selling, Point. This is when you will take your idea, and see how you will make your business uniquely different from your competitors. Often neglected, finding the USP is something that new business owners need to do to set their item above the competition. Online businesses are very competitive and you have to stay ahead of the game.

There are two reasons you need to set yourself up as different from others:

1. Get ahead of your competitors

2. To clearly define to your potential customers why your product and service is better than your competitors.

Deciding on your business model:

Part of your business concept will not only be consolidating your ideas but also choosing your business model. There are a few that you can choose from:

* Affiliate marketing-Getting involved with affiliate programs will target your efforts

* Network marketing (MLM)- again this will target your market and idea.

* Marketing-taking the product and selling it

* Service- you should use your talents, which includes freelancing.

You can see there are a number of things you will have to do to get your business concept into operation. But it’s worth it to plan and take care in developing it. It will be your foundation, after all.

Uncovering Profit-Producing Niche Markets

Jeff Smith, from Infomarketerszone.com discuses a strategy for uncovering highly profitable niche markets to make money online. Learn how to use Google Trends, Ezine Articles and Google Search to track down money makeing online niche markets. Jeff walks through an example in the “happiness” market, going from topic sources, through market trends, and, finally, to profitability assessment.

This 9-minute video will help you identify profitable trends and niche markets.

Duration : 0:9:18

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Finding Profitable Niche Markets – 5 Step System

 

 

 

 

This video comes to us from the Jeff Smith at InfoMarketersZone.com. The video description reads,  “Applying this 5-Step system for uncovering profitable niche market opportunities is as good as writing yourself a lifetime’s worth of checks to your own account. Watch as we share this proven, simple and highly effective 5-step forumula for uncovering niche markets for online businesses and information products to sell online.”

The steps referred to in the video include: size and scope of the market, distribution channels, keyword research, trend watching, testing the market, how to position youreslf in the market.

Duration : 0:7:47

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: , ,