Discovering Your Niche Market
October 2, 2007
Yesterday, we briefly discussed how you will be using this guide to become a “Super-Star” Successful eBay Affiliate with Build a Niche Store. The next 2 days are going to discuss some of the most important factors toward success, discovering and researching your niche!
Discovering or Thinking of a Niche
On Saturday, I was sitting in my home office working on a Niche site, when a very close friend Greg called me and asked me to look something up on the web. Apparently, he was at an estate sale, noticed a crowd gathering around one of the tables and out of pure curiousity, he walked over to see what everyone was looking at. The man selling the items on the table was simply full of himself, telling everyone how popular the item was… how much demand there was for these items, etc etc. As soon as he told me what the item was, BEFORE I looked up info for him, I immediately began thinking of ways to use this for my next eBay Niche Store!
The whole point to the above paragraph… “Niche Markets present themselves to YOU every day!” You just have to look for the opportunity in every conversation, or everything you observe throughout your normal day.
Discovering a Niche can be as easy as thinking back to the last time you went to a store for something. What did you look at, what did you buy, what did you WANT to buy, what are OTHER people telling you THEY bought? Think about your own interests first - what sports or hobbies do you like, do you like fast cars, auto accessories, or maybe even something as simple as custom car decals?
Have a pen (or pencil) handy with a notepad on your desk or in your pocket as often as you can. If you are like me, you will have a “Niche Thought” at 10:00 am, think of it for 5 minutes, then as quickly as you thought it was a GREAT opportunity, you got distracted and moved on to something else and forgot about it!
Write your Niche Opportunites on a piece of paper, and KEEP IT!
If I have time to spare and no matter what I do, I just cannot focus on a Niche to develop, I will always shoot over to the Open Directory Project and just browse through the shopping category. The ODP, with all its faults, is still one of the most complete “Authoritative” directories on the web. Why do I use ODP versus eBay’s own categories? Maybe it is just me, but the way the eBay categories are displayed on the page make it a hard read and even though they call it categorized, I dont always see it that way! The ODP, for the most part, is also Non-Brand specific in its categories. Thus offerring a WIDE selection of markets you can drill into the Niche market on your own!
Try this, go to the shopping directory of ODP (Open Directory Project). Choose the first main category that you have interest in, in this case for example, I will first choose “Antiques & Collectibles”, then “Toys and Games”, then “Cars and Trucks”, finally, “Pedal Cars”. Over the past few years, I remember hearing several conversations from people about how they wish they still had their old time pedal cars - the value of these things has gone through the roof!! At this point, I will write “Pedal Cars” down on a piece of paper and have it ready for when I begin researching the Niche.
If all else fails - walk around your own home. Remember, we are setting up an eBay Niche Store and I am willing to bet EVERYTHING you have in your home right now, is listed on eBay! Go into your kitchen… see your dishwasher, your refrigerator, Yup, they are both on eBay! How about the kitchen cabinets, stove or even the stove hood? You got it… on eBay! (Nicely priced, I might add) Walk into your basement… Hot water tank, heating and air conditioner system, even the water pipes that carry water through your home… ALL on eBay! Write down 4-5 things that may be worth investigating further, you can use them as a reference when you start your Niche research tomorrow!
I have heard a HUGE misconception from some folks in other forums about marketing a Niche store. One of the common misconceptions is that people JUST WONT BUY large ticket items online! Tomorrow, you are going to see that people buy EVERYTHING and ANYTHING on eBay.
All you have to do with your Niche Store, is market those items BETTER than the current eBay sellers! By the time you have completed this guide, you will have a great start on the skills and resources that the majority of eBay sellers never use, Niche & Product Marketing through Effective Search Optimization!
Remember - you dont have to SELL the product, just show people where they can buy it! It is truly a middle man market you are getting into and carries HUGE rewards for those that do it right!
Throughout today, keep your notepad handy! Write down ANYTHING that may even resemble a Niche Market. Tomorrow, I am going to write a very detailed method for researching your newly found niche, to determine whether it is worth pursuing!
Go to the next segment: Effectively Researching your Niche Market
Comments and suggestions of how YOU find a niche are always welcome!
Mark
Comments
12 Responses to “Discovering Your Niche Market”
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[…] Discovering Your Niche Market […]
Basically what you are saying is nothing and everything around us could be a potential store. So if i write down 5 potential niches, how do i know which one will be profitable and easy to market because not all things are created equal.
Would you also say amazon would be a ood place to find more niches like their magazine section?
regards
engi
Hi Engi -
All in all, you are absolutely right! EVERYTHING around you right now is a potential market! Some will perform better than others, no doubt about that, but there is a market for everything from ball point pens (small earnings) to forklifts (much better earnings).
I have not used Amazon to choose a Niche myself, but ANYWHERE that provides a way to drill from a category to a specific product type, would be a great resource!
I would love to get into more details about how you can determine the viability of a niche market, but then, I would spoil tomorrows article!
See you tomorrow! It will be a very good read for ANYONE, not just a Niche Marketer.
Hi there,
First, thanks so much for writing this guide. This is a very generous thing you are doing, so please don’t let any negative comments derail you. Your efforts are appreciated!
I am also a huge fan of the BANS script-in fact I was one of the first to buy & implement a site using the script. I did zero SEO and still was making about $30 a month on average.
There is indeed potential here if one wants to do the legwork.
Cheers & good luck!
brian
@Brian -
Thanks for the words of encouragement!
After looking over your site for a few minutes, you will likely make some hefty gains by implementing some of the practices I will be discussing over the next few days.
Mark
[…] Build a Niche Store Process Series Discovering Your Niche Market […]
@ Rochelle -
Doh… Thank you for picking that up!!
Fixed..
Thanks again Mark
This is like free schooling. I don’t see how anyone could find negitives about someone giving out free information on how to make money. Theres a million books that cost $39+.
Maybe a couple paragraphs on what to do with keyword domains that have 0 searchs would be helpful. Ive jumped the gun a couple times buying domains.
I will be here every day.
Thanks once again
Magpie
How do you find a niche?
Ok,
1 As all ready said look around, your hobbies, other peoples hobbies,shops that specialize in a product etc etc.
If you go to vretoolbar; it specializes in the niche market with several tools to help including suggestion for a niche site.
As an example don’t have a CD music site but have a one artist or genre site. Many artists have their own E bay cat: no. (Look at memorabilia
2 Check google to see how many pages come up. If its over 2 million then you will have an up hill struggle to get noticed.
3 Is it on Ebay. Of course it is, what isn’t. But perhaps more importantly check to see how often its selling. The quantity shown on sale will help and look at how many have been sold in recent times.
If the product fits into the above then you may have a winner.
My Pink Floyd site I have done because I love Pink Floyd but to be honest its not that popular as there are 3,500,000 web pages listed on Google. To much competition. but if you go there it might give you some idea what you can do with a Bans niche store. www.pinkfloydforsale.com
[…] « Discovering Your Niche Market […]
Well - I have had several very nice comments and emails of encouragement over the past 24 hours! I am thrilled to know that this will be helpful to the BANS community as a whole.
I hope we can get a few new users involved at the same time to expand the community, it numbers that make us stronger!
Mark
Hey, awesome advice on finding a good niche, I especially like the use of the ODP. Thanks.