Introduction -Why Choose a Niche?
If you did not already know, the answer to the question of how to choose a niche is one of the most important questions you may have have to answer in your online marketing journey; second only to the decision of whether or not to start internet marketing.
This question also comes in different forms.
For example, if you were interested in choosing a niche for affiliate marketing, the question may be how to find a niche product to promote.
In the same vein, persons interested in blogging would ask how to choose a blog niche or how to select a niche topic.
Similarly, eCommerce promoters would be thinking of how to find profitable niche markets.
So in general, it is about how to find the right niche in any business you are interested in.
Now before we dive in, you must realize one thing.
While it is not often said, at the heart of the question and beyond just finding a niche is the fact that inherent in this search is an understanding -whatever the case, it should also be about finding a profitable niche at the end of the day.
Does that make this task harder? Not exactly, but it just goes to underscore the essence and importance of the task.
If you have already chosen a niche, you may as well see these follow up posts on Introduction To Affiliate Marketing, Retirees Guide To Starting Email Marketing, The Retirees Guide To Starting eCommerce and Why Affiliate Marketing may be best entry point for beginners starting an online business.
In this post, I will show you 3 essential attributes that you must have before you decide which niche to launch your internet business with.
For the benefit of those who may be new to the internet marketing business, it is necessary to explain why one has to choose a niche.
As an illustration, choosing a niche is like deciding what course to study if you wanted to go to college.
That is the case as well if you wanted to learn a trade. One of the first decisions to make would be what trade.
Similarly, if you like soccer and you wanted to join a team, the first question the coach may ask you is what position you would like to play.
And these questions are there for a good reason.
While we may want to believe that you could do whatever you chose to do, the reality is that you aren’t equally gifted and as good in everything you may feel like doing.
So that then begs the question of how to decide what options to choose.
That is therefore how we arrive at the question of how to choose a niche to engage in.
From the above illustrations, the first thing you would realize is that you and indeed (not anyone else) has to decide what niche is best for you.
This leads us to the first of these essential attributes:
Self-Knowledge -Get To Meet You
Yes, it sounds very basic. And indeed it is, perhaps even incredulous.
Could a serious business like internet marketing have at the heart of it a decision as basic as getting to know yourself? Yes Of course! I can imagine that one must count oneself fortunate that is this simple so as to enable anyone to get in on the act.
But don’t confuse simplicity with being easy! I can guarantee you it is simple but not necessarily easy.
That is where a lot of people miss it. The knowledge of yourself is key to being able to choose the right niche.
So what does it really mean to get to know yourself? It is about understanding what is important to you. What moves you, what keeps you going. What discourages you. What gets your creative juices flowing…
It is also about knowing the things that demotivate you…especially those the things that wear you out and sap all your emotional energy.
And why would you need to know these about yourself?
The reason is simple.
When the going gets tough -and believe you me these times are a certainty…
It is your understanding of these bits about yourself that will keep you from being discouraged and giving up.
Have we all been there? Yes, I have been.
For many people, the process of starting an online business is the first opportunity they have had to really evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.
If you are able to answer the question of how to choose a niche then there are the chances you have already done such an evaluation.
Psychologists describe self-knowledge as a term used to describe the information about yourself on which you derive answers to a question like “what am I like?” At the heart of knowing yourself, there is also “self-awareness” and self-consciousness.
Self-knowledge helps you determine whether a given course of action or a decision is right of you or not. This is an essential attribute to get under your belt when you engage in a business-like internet marketing.
So one may also ask –“what level of self-knowledge is required?” While not overtly being academic in answering this question one would surmise that based on experience a simple working knowledge is sufficient.
From Visually.
Brutal Honesty
In many cases, you may not get it right at the first attempt trying to decide which niche.
And that is where many people give up.
You don’t have to give up so soon.
But worst than giving up after the first attempt is pursuing what could be termed a dead course.
And so here lies the challenge: How do you then know when to decide that a course is dead?
Assuming having chosen a niche, you later find out this is not really what you expected or even what you want to do.
That is why we have the first of the attributes above: Self-Knowledge.
Your knowledge of yourself will come to your rescue.
Brutal honesty ensures you are able to face the truth and not deceive yourself.
It helps you to make that crucial decision to stop and then to start exploring other options.
It is the attribute you need to decide when to seek help instead of trying to figure it all out by yourself.
And it doesn’t end there.
Even when you are now established and have past this beginning stage of starting your internet business, many of your business decisions in the future would need brutal honesty in order to grow your business.
At the beginning of any business the question of how to chose a niche helps you test and evaluate this attribute.
Your ability to accept feedback (constructive or otherwise) will depend on how brutally honest you are with yourself.
It also determines to what extent you can benefit from less optimal decisions you may make from time to time in your business. Please read the phrase “less optimal” as “failed”.
When it comes to how to choose a niche, brutal honesty comes into play when you can tell yourself that you really aren’t able to do everything no matter how motivated you feel.
We may make declarations and affirmations that tend to make us feel invincible…but there is a limit to how much you can do, within a given time frame and with the resources you have at your disposal.
Brutal honesty helps you tell yourself the truth about what you can realistically do with your capabilities and potentials –because you know you.
So if you do choose a niche that at first looks promising and you discover it is not the right fit, if you are brutally honest with yourself you should then able to do an honest self-assessment and decide on an alternate course of action.
This is where this essential attribute can serve you.
But there is a question you have to answer.
Can you tell yourself the honest truth?
The Power Of Focus
People rarely get into the internet marketing business by accident.
From both mine and other people’s experiences, people usually have a very strong motivation to start an internet marketing business.
I am sure you aren’t an exception to that rule.
Not surprisingly, sometimes our different motivations for starting a business can sometimes cloud our good judgement on our answer to the how to choose a niche question.
And that is not all.
As good and desirable as it is, our strong motivation may also drive us to want to try so many things at once!
I have been there.
For me, It took a person with whom I have a mastermind alliance to point it out to me.
Even now, I still struggle with it at times and I have to keep steering myself back on course.
A lack of focus may impact how you choose your niche by leading you to invariably select multiple niches and to start spending time and efforts on them simultaneously instead of focusing on just one at a time.
A lack of focus witters down your motivation.
It wastes your precious resources and leads to ineffectiveness.
It is akin to a fireman who tries to put out a fire without directing his water hose to a specific spot.
You can be sure he won’t succeed.
True many of us start from a point where we may have to try a few things to find out which works.
But the point here is to focus on just a few at a time.
Again this ties to knowing yourself (point #1) and also being brutally honest with yourself (point #2).
If your motivation to begin internet marketing was to get yourself more control of your time, the chances are that you are already struggling with time allocation and so you don’t have time to waste. So you must waste as little time as possible to chose a niche.
Similarly, if your motivation was to make the extra cash you so badly need, then you can ill afford to waste money trying so many things are the same time.
Reason: Of course you don’t have that luxury!
One cannot overemphasize the importance of being focused in determining what niche to get into or start with
You must avoid shiny object syndrome.
These only serve to distract you from staying on course.
Practical Tip: I now always want to complete one task first and get an outcome before I start another one. So when applied to how to choose a niche, be sure to try out one niche and get to a logical end before embarking on another!
I am well aware that many other discussions on how to choose a niche focus on finding your passions and interests, it is my humble opinion that possession of the three attributes discussed here would ensure you get the best personality niche match as you embark on your journey to select a profitable niche.
So what do you think about these attributes? If you have recently chosen a niche, what process did you follow? Could you share your experiences what your considerations were while choosing a niche?
Please share your comment below.
