Affiliate Marketing News

The Following Story is from Associated Content and sponsored by Affiliate

The internet is full of marketing gurus telling you how to increase traffic to your site, sell your product, gain affiliates, use blogging, etc. There are a lot of good techniques out there, and there is a lot of junk as well. But what many newbie online business people fail to realize is that if they don’t have a niche, they won’t have a chance online.

The word niche is thrown around a lot in the world of internet business. If you want to succeed online, you’ll have to understand what niche marketing is and how it can make or break your online business.

Niche marketing focuses on providing services and products to a highly specialized group of people. These people have one thing in common…they are deeply devoted to an idea, an activity or a service. Have you ever met someone totally obsessed with a hobby?

My mother loves scrapbooking, and will literally buy every product that comes her way that will increase her enjoyment of this hobby. I once worked with a woman who competed with her dogs in a canine sporting event called fly ball. Every weekend she went to tournaments where she was joined by hundreds of other fly ball fanatics. These are perfect examples of niches.

When you market to a specific niche, you can target your products, services or affiliate recommendations to their needs, desires and wants. Your marketing, e-newsletter and/or website will be geared toward what that niche wants to know about. People in a devoted niche will be interested and motivated to buy what you have to offer.

Small businesses can benefit from niche marketing because they can serve a small group of devoted people, instead of trying to compete with big companies for the attention of the masses.

In the early days of online commerce, the trend was toward mall style stores that could cater to anyone. Lots of eager people built their own internet malls and tried to turn a profit. However, with competition like Best Buy or Amazon people began to realize that the “mall approach” was not where the money is. After all, who would you rather buy from: Bob’s Big Mall of Bargains or Homedepot.com?

When you choose the right niche, your competition will be very little. You can overstep your competition by providing valuable content, finding products they’d be interested in, and solving their problems through short e-reports or newsletters.

Before any of the other internet marketing material becomes of any consequence to your business, you have to pick a niche. Finding one may be easier than you think. Start brainstorming ideas from your own life. What are you interested in? What motivates your family? How do you have fun? What do you know the most about?

Choosing an activity or hobby that you already have a vested interest in is a smart move. First of all, you are already in touch with the heartbeat of the niche. You know what your niche wants, because you are one of them! You’ll also be more knowledgeable about the subject matter. You can create content for your website and distribute articles on the internet that show your expertise in the subject matter. Finally, you’ll be more excited about your business! Excitement is important because a profitable internet business isn’t built in a day.

Let’s say you have a hobby or activity that is very popular, like golf. In this case, try to brainstorm a small sub-category in this hobby. For instance, your business could be devoted to helping people improve their putting. Remember…think small!

If nothing in your life grabs your attention, or seems like a good niche, head to the bookstore. Search the shelves for some “how to” books and see what is selling. After all, publishers don’t spend time on topics that no one wants to read about. Look at the magazine rack for tightly focused niche magazines. Buy a few magazines and try to pick something that interests you, and that will serve a small niche. Add these topics to your niche list.

Once you’ve developed a long list of niche ideas, its time to do some keyword research. Keywords are the terms and phrases used by internet searchers to find information online, and they are the bread and butter of any internet business. Two of my favorite keyword search tools are Overture and Wordtracker.

Type your potential niche ideas into the keyword search tool, and then see how many people are looking for the terms each month. Aim for something between 100 and 1000 searches per day. Anything above that is two large of a niche, and will probably have a lot of competition. Remember, the key here is to think small. You want to market to a small, devote portion of the population. Specialize your niche until it is narrow enough to have a devoted audience, but large enough to support a business. If your terms are only getting 30 searches a month…. that’s not a profitable niche.

They say that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. And in the journey of online business, it starts with finding a single niche. You may have to spend some time hunting down the right profitable niche for you. However, the time you spend now doing research will have a remarkable effect on the longevity and profitability of your business.

Happy hunting!

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