niche marketing has become the new powerhouse way of making money in the business world–not just with a bricks and mortars store, either, but also (and perhaps even more so) on the Internet.
niche marketing is a way of doing business that addresses the simple fact that there is such huge competition in the market in nearly every industry and business now that trying to break in and be something like a competitor with Target or Wal-Mart or with any big business interest is almost assuredly going to meet with failure–especially if you don’t have gigantic sums of start-up cash (and precious few do). Everyone’s making something and plenty of places have enough volume of merchandise to allow them to undersell their competitors on small profits margins–something which you probably cannot afford to do if you are starting a new business.
But, with niche marketing, you leverage something that not that many others have: your specialized knowledge of or interest in a focused, narrow field. With niche marketing, just as the name implies you fit yourself into a certain niche, and you target only those people who happen to have an interest in or need of the products within your niche.
Here you will find your competition greatly reduced over what it would otherwise be, because: there aren’t nearly as many competitors within a narrow niche as there are across the broad range of an industry; those competitors that are there have to compete on quality and uniqueness, since they are all knowledgeable and being in the same business need to make similar profit margins; and, people who are shopping within a niche generally care less about price and more about quality, service, and “finding something a little different”.
There are more and more success stories of people who start up or get involved with affiliate marketing niche businesses on the Internet. The Internet provides the fastest, broadest, cheapest way of reaching the broadest possible swath of prospects and customers within a given niche. What’s more, it costs very little money to create and maintain a niche marketing website, or even a handful of them.
With an affiliate marketing program, you earn commissions on the sales of all the products that get sold from your website. Either you can own the business and pay people a percentage of the sales they make for you, or you can be an affiliate yourself, sell something for someone else by driving people to your websites where they make purchases of the niche products and thereby earn you commissions.
The important thing about your niche business is that it must offer a product or service that interests you. If something interests you, you are far more likely to learn everything about it, become an expert in it. And in the niche marketing game, having a level of expertise that sets you apart gives you an enormous competitive advantage. If something interests you, you also project authentic enthusiasm for it, and your prospects will pick up on this energy and be more apt to buy from you.
And the other important thing, once again, is that your niche is something narrowly focused and unique. It may be selling the secrets of growing the perfect tobacco at home, or it may offer a one-of-a-kind customizable discounted greeting card making and mailing service, or it may offer pre-paid legal services that cost only a few dollars a month. Whatever it is just must interest you and be as unique as possible.
Done right, niche marketing can bring you in far more money and give you vastly more freedom and satisfaction than you’ll get from a j-o-b.
Gunnar Berglund
