Google Hijack Or How to Choose Your Niche Market
There’s a lot of advice floating around about how to choose a niche to market to. Typically this advice polarises into two camps; the “choose something you know about” camp, and the “choose something - anything - and get going…. it doesn’t matter what, just do it” camp.
Both these options are valid, and in order to make the decision there are other factors to take into account. Basically it’s a quality versus quantity issue, and your choice will likely be based on two things; the practicalities involved, i.e. whether you have the knowledge and skills required for the former, and your personality.
If your desire is to build a business around your chosen niche, developing your own product or building up a membership site for example, the former is probably the best way to go. You’ll benefit from the in depth knowledge you have of the subject, and if it’s a hobby or passion of yours you will probably enjoy the time spent on it, or at the very least will be far less likely to tire of it, and whether it’s hobby or profession you’ll have plenty of knowledge to impart and resources to call on.
This, though, is where personality kicks in. Can you impart that knowledge to your patrons? Can you write well? Sales copy, articles, blog posts, newsletters, books etc. all have to be written by someone, and if that’s not you it will have to be outsourced. Whilst that is an option that can work very well, it tends to be better suited to quantity than quality….
If, on the other hand, your goal is to build a business based on having lots of sites, built quickly to what is commonly called the “rinse and repeat” model, then the latter approach is probably more appropriate. You are unlikely to have sufficient different hobbies or professions to build the number of sites required, and although you may be able to launch two or three on that basis you will be extremely unlikely to reach the double and even treble figures that marketers with this business model typically build.
Another danger is that it is all too easy to get “involved” in sites about subjects that you are passionate about, or which you have a great deal of knowledge of. No “off the shelf” articles for you - other peoples material will likely not be up to the standard you will set, and you will find yourself writing or re-writing everything before publishing. Again this makes it hard to churn out the volume required by the “rinse and repeat” model.
In summary - play to your strengths and do what appeals to you. If you have the hobby or profession on which you can base a site, especially if it’s coupled with a talent for communication, (not necessarily writing - audio and video are big now) then go for that. If not, stick a pin in a list, churn it out, and move on!
? John Edgley
2008
For more than thirty years John Edgley has worked in IT, mostly in freelance contract work for small to medium sized businesses. He has considerable experience in consultancy, system design and implementation, and his communication skills have been honed throughout many training sessions - both giving and receiving!. He has also authored articles and technical manuals, and the odd short story…
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