The niche is based on your passion while the audience's view and understanding is what you need to approach i order to get visitors to your site.

I think they're the same, actually.....

I think they go hand in hand. Your niche is going to have a particular audience and then you require keywords related to that niche and what that audience may search as. How would you search for your niche? Follow the training and use the methods that work and you should be ok. Regards, Lisa

You have to think like your audience, what would they ask and search for, translate that to your niche.

to me that sounds like a redundant question, If you build a website based on a niche, that niche has a certain type of person who is interested in that niche so therefore you're building it based on that audience.

Your audience are the ones who will buy what every you are selling. If they don't like you or don't visit your site you don't sell anything. When you choose a niche you need to also understand who will be interested in that niche. This becomes your target audience and, hopefully, your customers.

A website should be blended (hybridized) to include both areas for maximum effect. Keywords can nest in discourses related to both.

I think a little bit differently. You are the audience and if you work on what makes you tick, what gives you the greatest joy you create something from your strongest desire not only are you basing your site on your audience but you have also found your niche. A niche for me is my take on a corner of the market. I had a very successful printing business for 16 years until I got too old for it (just mentally...the passion had died) and I was in an area that had dozens of printing businesses around me, what I did was I decided to go onto the second floor of a city building (rent was cheaper) and you only knew about me if I wanted you to. My niche: I would find every self development organisation, travel agency, employment agencies and health products and would only work on getting their business...I didn't want any other business...funny thing is when I did get other peoples business I would refer them down the road but they wanted to get their printing from me. I hope this has been helpful for you...it's a bit long winded.

This is my take on it: Your audience is a broader category and your niche is specific to your audience. Your keywords can relate to both your audience and your niche. Again, just my thoughts on this subject. I can be totally wrong.

Your website is about your niche. You need to know who your audience is so that the niche content will attract your target audience. Look for keywords related to the page or post content.
Laura