What is the Key to Discovering Your Niche Online?

Who hasn't seen this word, "Niche" especially in Internet Marketing? We come across this word all the time. What does it mean? The literal definition: Niche is a recess in a wall especially for a statue~ Insert statue(you) here! Now obviously this word has evolved into different meanings but you get the idea. It is your own little crook or nook. However in describing Internet Marketing itself as a niche you will find that it is not quite as private as you might want it. You are going to find several people all huddled inside your Niche doing the same thing that you're doing. Wait a minute, now that is not necessarily a bad thing. If you were to try to find a niche that is untapped then you may be going down a path that is long and arduous. I am not saying that your idea can't be the new Facebook or MySpace. But essentially you would have had to come up with the very first idea of "Social Networking Site", make it appealing to all, and create a craze (new niche) about it. If you will notice that although MySpace was the first social network site, Facebook has surpassed it becoming more popular. SO you don't have to be the first one out of the gate for anything, in fact sometimes it is better not to be. You will see that there are now hundreds if not thousands of social network sites. Not any of them as popular as say Facebook but they all have an audience, and I will tell you why. It is because most of these sites have been narrowed to a more targeted audience or sub-niche. Example 1: There are social network sites for everyone ranging from pregnant women to car mechanics. Social network sites are the evolution from forum and online chat rooms. They allowed us to create a more online identity with self expression that wasn't available with anything else before it. We will go into more of the true value of social network sites later, but for now I was attempting a point with what I was saying. Oh yes and here it is, sorry for the tangent. Creating your own niche might be a might a bigger battle then you prepared for. Besides we want the niche that is already in existence because that means it has been tested; it has a good track record. Another, more apt definition for Niche is this, 'A place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted.' So...when you are discovering what your niche is keep in mind that it should excite you and you should find it fun. Start thinking about that now. Defining Niche Marketing. Niche marketing (with or without the internet) is the system of finding a subset to market towards under a larger set. These subsets are more targeted and therefore are less competitive. An example is Nike. Nike releases specially designed footwear for specific sports. They use a method of segmentation marketing to sell Air Jordan's as basketball shoes. They obviously don't just say they are selling shoes. They cater specific shoes to a specific audience. Tennis player, basketball players, long distance runners, cross-trainers are all specific groups or niches. In internet marketing it works the same way. We have to dig deeper than just internet marketing. So, again how do we do that? Why is Niche so Important? Many of us are plagued by this question. It's a great feeling making the decision that we are going to be internet marketers but what's next? When I began I was personally overwhelmed. How daunting it was to facilitating through this beast of the internet trying to absorb all the information that was out there. I had many long hours and sleepless nights (to my wife's chagrin) of surfing the web trying to establish what it meant to be an internet marketer. It was sensory overload being faced with all the various aspects of internet marketing such as article writing, forum posts, social network funneling, pay per click, adwords, video marketing, blogging, SEO, traffic generation, etc. It was data overload. I didn't know where to begin. Then it made some sense. I am sure most of you have heard of a few of these: article marketing, forums, social networks, ppc, blogging, SEO, etc. Right? These are the internet marketer's techniques and they are of tremendous importance. They are the TOOLS used to gaining your audience; your prospects. Do you think the Great Wall of China could have been built without the proper tools? Silly question, I know. How about Microsoft? Of course not, the tools are in the ground work, they are the implementation of your vision. However, in that same notion, if the idea of the Great Wall of China did not exist, then nothing would have been built. It doesn't matter how well you have mastered the tools, without the idea the tools are useless. But this is easier then you think. And you could also look at it this way. What if your idea was a tool? NO one is saying you have to come with a fresh new idea such as Microsoft or anything like that; you can go down a path that has already been paved by someone else. Therefore, what you and I will establish in this book is the most important aspect of gaining success in this business. That is, discovering your sub-niche. Chapter two-Sub-niche Not "niche" but "sub-niche". The distinction between the two is that sub-niche is more precisely defined category. Sub-niche is what falls under the larger umbrella or "niche" of Internet Marketing. This niche, as it has been called of internet marketing is quite vast. We think that once we decide to commit to internet marketing, that's it, we're ready to go. That's not the case. NOT AT ALL. There are so many refined sub-niches that fall under that umbrella that before you know it you'll be reading "The Lion-Tamers guide to internet marketing", wondering "how did I get here?". But before you go out and attempt to discover a new sub-niche out of frustration, let's examine some of the common sub-niches that are known to be successful in internet marketing. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3363485