Start Your Internet Marketing Business
by Finding a Niche
If you have been thinking about starting a business in the field of Internet Marketing, you have probably done some research of the subject online. Everywhere you go, you hear the same thing - You must find a niche for your business. If you are seriously considering the area of Internet Marketing, this is the singlemost important piece of advice you will ever receive.
Every day thousands more people come online in search of wealth. Many jump right into markets that are already completely saturated and then wonder why they are not making any money.
Given unlimited time, money and patience, some may succeed. But for those that do not have unlimited supplies of these precious resources, aiming for a smaller niche (pronounced either nitch, or neesh) is a much smarter way to start your online business.
So Just What is a Niche?
If you want the long answer, you can buy any one of the thousands of e-books being sold online about niche markets. You can go to a dictionary and see what definition of niche it gives. But the short answer is, niche simply means distinct or individual.
Everyone and their mother wants to start a business focusing on Internet Marketing. They think that because this is how the big guns are making all their money, it must be the way to go. That is the problem. The market is totally saturated with people who have years of experience in this area. A new person trying to compete in such a broad market does not have much chance of success.
On About.com, Susan Ward defines Internet Marketing as "the strategies that are used to market a product or service online, marketing strategies that include search engine optimization and search engine submission, copywriting that encourages site visitors to take action, web site design strategies, online promotions, reciprocal linking, and email marketing". A new person coming online to start a business probably doesn't know enough about all the above areas to be able to compete in this market.
So how is a new person to have any chance at success?
Think Smaller - Think Niche!
Just from the above definition you can come up with the following pieces or niches:
- Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Copywriting
- Web Site Design
- Promotion
- Linking
- Email Marketing
Even if you are lucky and are extremely experienced already in one of the above niches, you will still have a lot of competition in such broad niches. This may still be what you decide to do in the end, but at least be willing to explore niches within the broader areas. You may find a particular niche that really catches your interest.
When it comes to finding a niche market, a great resource available online is Wordtracker. It's great because it's free, and you can use it to start your search for the niche that is right for you. [Wordtracker can be found at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/]
Using Wordtracker is a breeze. If you want to break "Internet Marketing" down to many more niche markets, just type in Internet Marketing into the "keyword" box and look at all the ideas that pop up. Each of these can become keywords that you decide you want to focus your niche on. Or you can pop in some of those keywords and keep narrowing and defining your niche.
Using Wordtracker, what you will end up with is a list of niche keywords that you can focus your Internet Marketing business on. Having a smaller niche will give you a much better shot at being successful than trying to build a site around a broad topic like Internet Marketing.
Remember, success in any business always comes back to supplying a product that the public has a demand for, and that the market has room for. Find the right niche and you are starting out on the right path.
To Your Success,
Mark Jordan
Author of Sales Copy Samurai