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Everything you read today about Internet Marketing mentions how important it is to use Niche Marketing. Ever wonder what Niche Marketing means? Very simply, is means selling to a small, very targeted group of people, as opposed to selling to a really large and diverse group of people.

Niche Marketing is a fairly simple concept to understand, and it’s mentioned in most Internet Marketing courses because it works extremely well, especially for inexperienced or beginning marketers. The biggest requirement of niche marketing is information.

First you need to know as much as possible about the needs and wants of the group you are targeting, your niche. What do these people have in common? What makes them a niche? Do they enjoy a common hobby, or do they share a common physical or mental problem? Do they love golf or tennis, or do they all have chronic pain? Exactly what makes them a group and what are the group members looking for?

Next you need to learn as must as possible about the individuals who make up your niche group. For instance, are they male or female? In what age group? Single or married? With or without kids and do the kids live at home? What is their income level and what is their educational level?

All of this information is important because it helps you understand who you are selling to, what their wants and needs are, and what method of selling will work best. Because you sell differently to a group that is made up mainly of men versus a group made up mainly of women. You sell differently to people in their 20s versus people in their 50s, and to people who have kids at home versus singles.

Finally, you need to learn if the individuals in your niche are buyers or tire-kickers. You are looking for a group that buys products online that address their needs. So once you find that they are buyers, then find out the exact products they buy. Are there plenty of good products available, including some you can sell as an affiliate? If there are not many products available, how about creating a product that is specifically targeted to this niche?

When you start selling on the Internet you want to use niche marketing because you can not compete with the huge mega-sites like WalMart or Amazon or eBay, and it’s foolish to try. You want to provide something that the mega sites do not, products that are highly targeted to your niche group. Focus on your little niche group and their problems and then sell them exactly what they are looking for. This is niche marketing, and yes, it is the best and easiest way to begin your career in internet marketing.

Read just about any internet marketing book or report and you will find that they all talk about niches, and finding your niche. They tell you that finding a good, paying niche is vital to your online business, which is true. But no one tells you how to recognize a good niche, or where to start looking for a niche. So let’s talk about what a niche is.

First — a niche is a small segment or part of a large market. And markets and niches are always made up of people, groups of people who share the same interest or problem. This is important to understand, because many beginning marketers run into problems because they target too large a group.

For example, “Pets” is a huge market with many sub-markets like Dogs, Cats, Fish, Reptiles and on and on. None of these topics qualifies as a niche, remember a niche is very small. Pets is too large, Dogs is too large, Dog Training is closer but still too large, and How to Potty Train Your Dog is a niche.

Do you see? Dog Training is not a niche because it’s too large and covers too many possible areas, like Potty Training, Leash Training, Agility Training, No Bark Training, Therapy Dog Training, Clicker Training and on and on. To get to a niche you have to drill down further into your market and subject.

How does this apply to you? Well, if you are starting an internet marketing business, one of the first things you have to decide is what market you are going to target and what product or service you want to sell. It’s fine to decide that you want to be in the “Pets” market, but what on earth do you sell that is about Pets? The Encyclopedia of Pets? By drilling deeper into the market you will find various target groups that are already looking for products in very specific areas.

Finding a small, focused niche makes the decision of what product to produce or sell very easy because your research has already shown you what your niche group is looking for. Think about this a minute — you already know what they want — so give it to them.

This is the beauty of doing niche research, by the time you have your targeted niche you also have some great ideas for products. If quite a few good products already exist, pick one or two and sell them as an affiliate. And if there are very few or no good products, you write or produce a great product and sell it.

When you first get started in Internet Marketing, finding a good niche to start selling to is very important. Some people will know exactly what niche they want to target, but most people

have either a vague idea, or no idea at all.

If you are concerned about your ability to pick a good niche, then spend some time now doing some thinking and researching. Make a list of at least 10 different niche topics you find interesting, topics that you might like to sell. Once you have your list of topics, do some research so you can decide which of your listed topics is a “good” niche.

What makes a niche “good?” Here is the simple answer — you can sell to the group and make money. That’s all, you can make money. The term “niche” is another name for a group of people that are all interested in the same thing. They may all be interested in golf, or home-schooling, or curing some illness, or building chicken coops. They have a need or a problem and are looking for help solving this problem.

So, you are looking for (1) a group of people who are looking for the solution to a common problem they all have, and (2) a group that has money and is willing to buy something that they think will help solve their problem.

It’s really important that your target group is BUYERS. You want to KNOW that as a group they spend money on products similar to yours. Why? Because you don’t want to spend your valuable time creating or marketing a product that no one really wants to buy. You can use eBay and other online sites to see if your niche group buys products, and to learn exactly what types of products they prefer.

Think very carefully about targeting a niche group that is made up of teenagers or college students, because as a group they generally have very limited funds. They are looking for information, but usually they don’t buy much. And if they do buy, the items are normally very low priced. Having a niche group that has limited funds is a problem because it makes it harder to sell to the group. Your product prices have to be low, and you end up working hard to make low dollar amounts.

So before you buy a domain name and start a site, or pick an affiliate product to sell, or start creating your own product, make sure that your niche is filled with BUYERS. This is so

Important that it can not be emphasized enough. Now is the time to do your research, not three months from now, when you have busted your behind to get everything going, and you realize that no one is buying. Do your research now, and look for buyers.

A lot of people are interested in selling on the Internet, but they don’t have a niche and don’t really know how to find one. Well, how do you find a niche? Is there somewhere you can go to research niches? The answer to both questions is yes. Finding a niche is actually not hard.

The first step to take when looking for a niche is to sit down with a pen and some paper, and write down all you interests and hobbies. Do some brainstorming and write down all the ideas you come up with, this is not the time to be critical and cross items out.

A little note here – you do not have to pick a niche that you are passionate about, but you do want the niche to be about a subject that interests you and that you are willing to learn more about. Because you definitely will have to learn a lot about the niche so that you can create interesting and informative content for your web site, and if the subject bores you, it’s going to be hard to stay involved and motivated.

Do you have your list? Now let’s go to a couple of online sites and see if we find any information on your ideas.

Two excellent places to go for niche research are eBay.com and Amazon.com. Why? Because the people who go to these sites are BUYERS. Some may still be in the researching stage, but most people on these sites are planning to buy something. And you want to find a niche that is full of buyers, not lookers. This is the key to finding a “Good” niche versus just a niche — buyers. There are many niches, but not all are made up of buyers.

So start at eBay, go in and look at the categories and sub-categories and see if any match up with one or more of the ideas on your list. In general eBay sellers are very smart and extremely motivate sellers, so if a product does not sell well, they remove it quickly. If you find some of your niche ideas on eBay, this is a very good sign that people in that niche are buying things, so keep looking and get a feel for what they are buying. Make notes on what is selling.

Once you are finished at eBay, go to Amazon and go through the same process. Look at the categories, and find out what is selling. Be sure to make notes about the products, you may want to sign up as an affiliate to sell Amazon products, or you may decide to sell your own physical product on Amazon.

After you finish at eBay and Amazon, look at your original ideas list again. Just doing this simple research should give you a much better grasp of which of your niche ideas are worth pursuing. There are plenty of other sites you can use for research, but eBay and Amazon are simple and interesting to use and explore. And remember – they are full of BUYERS.

What niche should a beginner internet marketer go into? For most people this is a scary question. There are thousands of niches, and no one can tell you which is right for you. One of the easiest ways to find your niche is to start with your own personal hobbies and interests. A lot of people will tell you that you need to get into a niche that you are passionate about, but this is not really necessary. However, you do want to find a niche that you find interesting and would not mind learning more about. Unless you have a lot of money, you personally will be researching and learning about your chosen niche so that you can create interesting and informative content for your web site.

A good tool to help with niche brainstorming is “Google Trends” – it gives a summary of the current hot search trends. eBay and Amazon also have similar tools that will tell you what people are looking for on their sites, and this can be very useful information, because most people who go to eBay and Amazon have a product in mind that they want to buy. And one of the things you need to know about your niche is if it has lots of buyers. Amazon and eBay are great sites to use for niche research, just take your time and explore and you will find a lot of interesting and unusual niche ideas that you would never have come up with yourself.

Another simple but effective way to research niches is to go to a news stand or store that has a large magazine section and browse the magazines. You can bet that if there are magazines on a subject, there are also plenty of interested buyers. Magazines will give you a very broad niche so you will have to drill down a bit further to find a smaller niche, but you can find great starter ideas in magazines.

There are also quite a few niche-finder-type tools available, a few are free or have free trial versions, but most require you to either buy the tool or sign up and pay a monthly fee for using the tool. If you have the money to invest these tools can be very helpful, but it is definitely not necessary to use one. With just a little bit of effort you can find a niche yourself.

Be sure to note what your friends and coworkers are buying and talking about, you can get some excellent ideas here, too, just by paying attention to conversations. When you hear or see something interesting, write it down, and then do a little more research later.

Niche research is not difficult, and it gets easier the more you do, so start looking at trends and listening to conversations and reading magazines, and you might find that most of your research has already been done for you.