Finding my niche
I am in the process of finding my niche. I see a lot of inquiries of the same topic. I am going to share my thoughts here to encourage others to share theirs.
First, let us think what niche is. I define niche is a small group of people who are categorized by their unique interest (how do I find this group of people: using keyword search by that unique interest). That interest can be a desire to move towards something or some ability (like owning a new smart phone, or singing well or speaking another language); or to move away from something or some conditions (like mice in the house, over weight, smoke addiction, anxiety).
Many inquiries imply that niches are physical things like mountain bikes, cell phones. TVs, Computers, other imply that they are activities like reading, riding mountain bikes, singing, fitness training.
I see these things and activities are devices or ways to help to meet that unique desire of that group of people (that niche). So they are closely related to that niche. But things and activities by themselves are not niches.
A niche is composed of group of other people by a unique interest and it does not include my own interest.
Some say to select a niche based on my own passions; but I say based on my ability to assist that niche to pursue their interests or passions.
I am going to give my real life experiences to prove my point.
At the beginning of this year, one of my friend told me that he just retired and bought a piano and registered in the University of Maryland for piano lessons. I always like the sound of piano from childhood and I thought I could do the same thing. So I bought a used piano. But I dislike spending time in driving especially during rush hours. So I searched piano teachers on YouTube. I found one teacher who played very well and who studied piano non-stop since age 5 and got his Master's and Ph. D. degree in Music, and he was an assistant professor in the University of Utah teaching piano. He offered subscription based piano course online as video lessons and I could select any classes to watch at any time.
I bought the subscription and started from the lessons appropriate to my ability to perform at that time. He stressed on building finger strength and independence so everyday I spent a lot of time practicing drills for that purpose. After three months, I started to experience finger joint pain from one finger, then to two fingers. The pain became very severe and I stopped practicing for 3 weeks to see if the pain was related to my practicing. The pain was gradually diminished and I started to play again and the pain came back. At that point I knew I could not possibly continue playing in this way, so I searched on YouTube again and check alternative method to play.
One Lady, who has built a reputation for relieving pain from playing piano had a demonstration of her class on YouTube said: if you feel physical pain while playing, you play badly, you are not playing correctly. Through further search of the topic using keyword: pain while playing in piano, I found several other sources addressing this issue. I bought CD, other free online videos and finally, I landed on one website: pianocareeracademy.com. This teacher on this site teaches the way I though was the correct way. I paid $45 per month subscription fee and it renews automatically each month till cancel. I have been there for 5 months now and I do not feel pain anymore while playing similar drills and I play almost every day.
Through the above example, I want o demonstrate that if you have a passion in something, like the first piano teacher, who enjoys playing piano and have played 26 years non-stop since age 6, this may not be your niche, because you do not have a better ability to assist this niche (a group of people who wants to lean piano) to further their interest. One the other hand, my current teacher, who does not play as well as the first one, can offer her assistance better in advancing her niche's interest, has found the better niche for her and has been gaining market shares (percentage of people who buy her service in that niche).
So if you enjoy doing something, like reading and you spend a lot of time on reading, reading may not be your niche unless through your passion in reading you have developed some ability to help follow readers to further their interest in reading. For example, you felt eye fatigue after long period of reading and you have developed ways to alleviate that eye fatigue though eye exercises, nutritional supplement or eye drops and your ways are better than the ways other people on the market offered. Then reading can be a good niche for you because you can effectly help your niche to move away from something undesirable.
I hope this article can trigger you to think what is the best niche for you.
Hope to hear from you very soon.
Weijun
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Well, I would say that a "good" niche is normally that you find a way to solve a problem or to help someone because it makes people click on it. However, I am not sure about the definition of a niche.
I think "instruments" is a niche within "music", "the piano" is a niche within "instruments", "playing the piano" is a niche within "piano", "pain while playing piano" is a niche within "playing the piano", etc...In that way, it is all niches.
But "pain while playing piano" is a "good" niche cause it solves a problem.
This is such an interesting concept that I have never considered before. Thank you so much for this perspective.
Peace
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Thanks for sharing Weijun. However you can help others is always a good niche.