Profitable Niches

tastey niche...

I hate forums. Why?

The suck up my time. The provide little value.

Now, this is a gross generalization. There are some GREAT forums out there…

And there’s a good chance that my hamburger is your filet (and vice-versa). That’s cool.

So you know with a lead in like this I have a little story about being in a forum… Actually, I was trolling the Nanobloggers forum and came across some folks that were talking about finding a niche. And unable to keep my mouth shut I decided to insert my foot and start speaking.

Here’s what a nice guy wrote originally…

I think finding a niche is the hardest part of all.  It’s a huge decision because you’re about to dedicate a good portion of your life promoting the niche, so you’d better pick a good one.  I spent 5 hours yesterday doing market research and finally decided on exercise regimens.  I just needed to pick something because I wasn’t going anywhere.

And here’s my “Dave in dick mode” reply:

No, it’s not. Really.

The hardest part is coming to grips with not every campaign being successful and learning how to fail faster. In this light, niche selection is simple and easy.

Find people who have pain or passion. It’s that simple.

And it doesn’t matter if you are wrong. Especially if you aren’t at a point where you are new or not experienced at making money online. Speed of failure trumps everything.

30 minutes a day is not a lifetime. It’s 30 minutes. So you pick a niche that you already know has people in it (pain or passion, people already selling shit) and you enter the conversation. Maybe it’s a dud for you. Spend some time thinking of why and then do it again. And again. And again.

Exercise regimes is a great niche. They don’t call a segment of that little world “HIT JEDIs” for nothing. People are very passionate and irrational there.

Walk into a mall.. see all those designer hand bags, shades, lip sticks, dresses? All great choices. Some women would rather die than give up their Beijoo purse or Manola Blahnik shoes (spelling is wrong I am sure on both these).

The three largest markets on the planet are “PPC” — pills, porn, and casino.

If there is a pill for something there are people desparate for a solution.

People are always looking for sex and pleasure. Look at the seduction sub-culture. THEY are a living and breathing NB cesspool (kidding there!).

Casino.. think an NB around poker, craps, or blackjack would do well? Yep.

Tom Bell likes to talk about Debt, Diet, and Money. People always want to get out of debt, lose weight, and make more money.

Do you think Melinda – 36 years old stay at home mom with 3 kids is worried about making some more income after learning that her husband Pete won’t be getting that promotion?

There are THOUSANDS of Melinda’s online in forums.

I am not trying to be rude. I get that lots of people spend 5, 10, 20, 100 hours on picking a niche (no joke). Pick ANYTHING and start. Starting is more important. And give it time. 30 days if you need a number. Probably 2 weeks is better to see signs of life (aka traffic) if you want to rush it.

Dave Tate has a great four levels of skill description that applies to each aspect of IM:

shit, suck, good, great

Pretty much, we’re all “shit” at something. You can make a killing just sucking at something. May not be efficient but you’re way ahead of the curve. Good and great take time. Think 10,000 hours of time in the Gladwell sense.

Honestly, I think I am spot on here. But my words were a little harsh and direct.

What do you think?

p.s. there needs to be an entire post on “shit, suck, good, great”