CHAPTER 1
LESSON 1
DECIDING ON YOUR NICHE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
2.0 OBJECTIVES
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 What is a Market Niche?
3.2 How to Decide on Your Market Niche – Step by Step
3.2.1 Identify Your Audience
3.2.2 Do niche market keyword research
3.2.3 Analyse the competition
3.2.4 Research the trends in the industry
3.2.5 Take decision
4.0 CONCLUSION
5.0 SUMMARY
6.0 ASSIGNMENT
1.0 INTRODUCTION
After your decision to do Online Business or take your existing brick and mortar business and set it up on the internet as well, the next decision you have to make concurrently is: which market niche you are going to be doing your online business.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
- To discuss the meaning of market niche
- To encourage individual learner to use free online tools to do research on different market niches in Online Business
- To help each participant to decide on the particular market niche that they want to do their Online business
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 What is a Market Niche?
A niche market is a small segment of the market which you plan to focus on in the course of selling your products, services and doing your business generally. It can further be sub-divided into sub-niches.
Thus, the first thing to do as you set out to establish your Online Business is to decide ab initio the particular aspect of the market that you will be operating your business from.
I can also say that Niche Marketing is the art and science of defining your particular small but profitable segment of the market (niche) and thereafter focusing all your products and services toward that particular segment.
Let me use this example: Weight Loss => weight loss for women => weight loss for women under 20 => weight loss for diabetic women under 20, etc.
One other thing about doing business online is noteworthy here.
When you are doing business online you must define as early as possible on the kind of products you want to market. Are you planning to deal on (sell) virtual or physical products?
Take for instance, the weight loss products cited above, there are virtual or informational products as well as physical products that can be sold to that market.
For most newcomers in Online Business, it is a good idea to start with Virtual Products for obvious reasons…
Virtual products have higher profit margins, sells more often than Physical Products, and is relatively easier to setup and market than Physical Products.
One of the major reasons for this quick and easier sales is the principle called INSTANT GRATIFICATION.
Your buyers will be all too excited to get the product they just paid for, instantly – by way of instant download, which is only possible with information products.
This decreases BUYERS’ REMORSE, the anxiety commonly associated with online buyers as they are buying from a stranger most of the time and, any delay in getting the product into their hands may cause them to think twice and possibly, even regret and can requesting for a refund as a result of the distrust emanated by the delay.
That being said, in general, the principle is the same (though more acute in information product market) irrespective of the market in which you are doing your business.
3.2 How to Decide on Your Market Niche – Step by Step
To decide on the niche you want to do your online business, you should take the following steps:
3.2.1 Identify your audience
This is very important for two reasons – products come and go but audience abides forever; this approach will also connect you with the market that have a burning desire and the capacity to buy.
From the next paragraph you have to be connected to the Internet for practice.
For different types of niches and sub-niches that you can possibly go into see this website – note the categories and click on the + sign in front of each category to see the sub-categories: ClickBank
Each category and sub-category forms a niche and sub-niche of its own respectively as referred to previously.
3.2.2 Do niche market keyword research
Google AdWords Keywords Tool is the notable free leader in keyword research. It is beginner-friendly and you can start using it immediately if you have a Google mail account.
You must have a Google mail to create an account or sign in to use the tool (see top right hand corner).
As you go professional, you need a paid version, but the free version is quite useful to start with. If you are not familiar with it, check on the right top side of the site and you will find the instructions (‘Before you begin’) on how to use it: Google AdWords Keywords Tool
3.2.3 Analyse the competition
As you type in keywords into the Google keywords tool search box, click on Get Ideas. From the result, check on the Competition (low is recommended for beginners), Local Monthly Search (1000+ is okay), and the Approximate CPC (how much and how many people are willing to pay for the keyword).
See the red pen marks below.
The keyword I computed into the search box is ‘Network Marketing’.
This is a reflection of your Competitors Appraisal of the market. Few people will be willing to pay for keywords in a market that there is no money to profit from. The more they pay for Keywords the better the market for business.
Additionally, when you pick low competition keyword that you want to target, type it into Google Search and see how many pages are returned – representing the websites that are targeting the keyword.
Also check the number of pages in the first 10 links that have that keyword in the name of their websites. Later, I will say more on this in another lesson.
Check if there is any Ads on the right side of each page targeting the keyword.
Also click on the first few links to observe if there is any ad on those sites (right side). If there is none, then the keyword is worthless! Otherwise advertisers will pay to attract traffic to their sites using the keyword.
3.2.4 Research the trends in the industry
Also use Google Trends Explore to see the Interest over Time in the market you intend to go into: Google Trends Explore
In the above, take note of the country, period, categories and the search topic (highlighted yellow). These can be varied according to your niche and target, but it is generally good to use the past 5 years period as you plan to enter a new market. All these can be varied as you accumulated experience.
There are also country-specific Google Trends. Search for Google Trends Explore+your country or the country that you want specific information on, e.g. ‘Google Trends Explore+Nigeria’
For an example search for and visit the site cited above, where it is written worldwide, click the small triangle, find and click your country, after a while it will return the country specific result.
Scroll down the page and you will see some surprises.
There is no use going into a declining market.
Declining markets are markets that other people doing the same business that you intend to do, are already booting out.
The lesson to learn here is that your business, even if it is profitable at inception, will not last for long. Using Sweden as in above search, the market for the search term ‘make money online’ have been trending in that country for the past 5 years.
Remember, trend, is an Investor’s best friend – Robert Kiyosaki.
3.2.5 Take decision
The above step is educative enough to enable you decide on the niche market you want to do business in. Further delay and research will result in confusion, information overload and paralysis analysis.
4.0 CONCLUSION
In our day, it is becoming increasingly easy to start or set up any type of business online and run it profitably. This is because there are free and effective online tools that will help you do a kind of feasibility study and market survey no matter where you are located in the globe.
This way you can know from the beginning if your planned business has good chance of success.
5.0 SUMMARY
As in any other business, the easiest way to start your business online is by focusing in one particular niche from the beginning. Lessons learned on successfully operating in that niche can then be easily applied to others over time.
6.0 ASSIGNMENT:
Just Do It, Now!
Start to practice what you have just learned right away.
Suffice it to say that you don’t need to spend ages on these steps since you can go over them again and again and get perfect with time and experience.
The most important thing for you is to start making money as soon as possible, after a while you will make enough money to be able to even outsource some of these tasks to experts.
Take Action, Now!
Module 1 Chapter 1 Deciding on Your Niche
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