Breaking Down A Niche
Deciding on a suitable niche can be one of the hardest things to do, especially if you're confused by the word niche. Kyle has just written a blog explaining what a niche is - and if you haven't taken a look - do. A Niche Is A Group of People Looking For Stuff
I have only produced this post for people who are visual learners and may want to get an idea in a graphical form. Kyle's post is the business!
Scared of small niches?
One of the things I have noticed is that many people are scared of small or narrow niches. You shouldn't be. The world famous Amazon didn't start out selling the hundreds of thousands of items it does now. I remember when it was famous simply as a book retailer (and even then the choice was distinctly limited)
The advantage of starting with a smaller niche
People often worry that if they have a smaller niche they will get bored or won't have enough to write about. Well it's true you might come to a point where it no longer holds your interest but that can happen with whatever niche you choose. Having a smaller niche to start with helps you to control what you are doing and stay much more focused.
Here is a pictorial example of how you can break down a niche. I chose fashion but you could use this method with any niche you chose. Also you can choose to break niches down in different ways - so be flexible and play around with ideas before you make your final choice.
You can view the full-sized infographic here
Recent Comments
124
Very nice visual Beverley! It definitely gives a good breakdown of how you can narrow down a niche! Great graphic!
Patty ;)
And to add to that Beverley if anyone has 10 such smaller niches each making only $500 per month that's not bad at all.
LoL - if you're the sort of person who is happy running that number of niches. It wouldn't be my choice but clearly some people do and they do it very successfully.
I did say $500 per month when you and I both know sites make that in a day.
I was merely trying to say that even small niches making little amount of money add up.
Should you name your site according to your niche?
If my niche was dogs, breaking it down:
Dogs
Training dogs
Training Labrador dogs
If I call my site traininglabradordogs.com, will that limit me to be able to post about training other dogs with different requirements?
Or would it be better to name it trainingdogs.com and just focus posts on training Labradors as a niche? What are your thoughts or am I over thinking it:)
Hi John
If you choose to set up a niche on training dogs - that is very board - and personally I wouldn't advise most people to do. There are hundreds of breeds of dogs and if you're a dog owner and you own a Jack Russell - you generally want to know how to train a Jack Russell specifically and not how to train any dogs in general or any other breed of dog. That's why if I was setting up a site about dog training I would go for a smaller niche. But it could be broken down at any point - it could be
" small dog training",
"training for small pedigree dogs"
"training for small mixed breeds"
The examples above are still smaller than "dog training"
As for the domain name - I am not that keen on EMD's - so I wouldn't choose one. I would much rather just choose a brand name. I'm a believer that it's the content that will ultimately drive your traffic - not your domain name. And if you've chosen a brand and later wanted to expand - you could.
Beverley
Great post here. I am actually working on a video series talking about niche marketing ....
That is great, instantly accessible and crystal clear! Love it. I will look at breaking down my niche a couple of levels I think.
Some peoples niches may not need breaking down so much and may start at level 4 or 5 but trying to break it down another level is clearly a good idea.
Though possibly brand x model y vacuum cleaner bags for people called Elsbeth Emily Jones is a bit too precise :)
Thanks :)
Oh Josh - I love that - yes vacuum cleaners bags for an individual person probably won't make you much money. I agree not every niche is the same - but I think generally unless you choose a very targeted niche in the first place, most can be segmented far more than your original thought.
Hi Beverley - I love mind maps, it's how I organise current corporate meetings etc - and your visual ways of making this simple is fascinating - it sort of fits into the way I think. I don't know how you do it, if it's just a different mindset or whatever, but your diagrams just click with me.
Thank you very much for them,
All the best, Mark
Thanks Mark. I appreciate the compliment and the time you made to make it.
I love mindmaps too. I tend to use them a lot to help me organise my thoughts.
Beverley
See more comments
Beverly you always have such great points and tips, you do inspire me and get me more excited about what might be possible. Great post :)
Thanks Chris. That's kind of you to say so.