I thought I would get back to basics in this blog post and share with you an easy introduction to and examples of niche markets. So much confusion surrounds the definition of market and niche that I thought it deserved a whole post to illustrate it.
In this quick start guide to keyword and niche market research we will be taking a look at:
- Understanding what online markets really are
- Understanding niches and how they relate to markets
- Understanding the role of keywords
If you are new to internet marketing you have probably heard many people use the term markets…
The best definition of the term market is “a community of people who share a common interest in a particular subject or activity”
This community can often have their own language made up of terms and acronyms…the sort of words that you or I might not understand unless we were familiar with that community.
The easiest way to illustrate this is for us to look at some examples:
Example 1:
Market – Online Gamers
Area of interest - might be playing World of Warcraft…which is a popular multiplayer game by the way
Market Language -
Zerg – To attack a target in an attempt to win by sheer numbers
AOE - Area of Effect
Squishy - A name given to cloth wearing characters
Example 2:
Market - Rugby players
Area of interest - playing Rugby
Market Language -
Scrum - Pushing contest between the two teams to restart a match
Conversion – Where the ball is kicked over the posts to score extra points after a try
Ruck- After a player is tackled the opposing teams step over the tackler to win the ball
Once you understand that a market is a community with a shared interest and language you will discover that there are literally thousands of markets out there to explore.
Now lets look at the topic of niches…another term which you will hear a lot in internet marketing….
My best definition of the term niche is “a subset of a market that relates to a specific topic”
The easiest way to understand the distinction between a market and a niche is to look at an example. For this exercise we will use the Brides to Be market.
Brides to Be will be interested in a variety of topics relating to weddings such as wedding rings, wedding photography, bombonieres, wedding dresses and reception venues. Each of these topics can be thought of as a specific niche that is of interest to the Brides to Be market.
Next lets take a look at Keywords and how they relate to niches….the best way to describe Keywords is “the words or phrases that members of a market type into a search engine to explore a particular niche”
For example when someone sits down to research wedding photography they might type the keyword phrase “wedding photography tips” in to google. Google would then return a list of results on tips of how to get good wedding photos. Another person exploring the same niche might type the keyword phrase “wedding photography pricing” in to google, but they would get a very different set of results despite exploring the same market niche.
One important thing to note is that the number of people using each keyword phrase can be drastically different. Using the above example approximately 217 people per day search using the keyword “wedding photography tips” and yet only 5 people search using the term “wedding photography pricing”. These terms therefore are seen to have entirely different values based on the amount of traffic they bring to the niche…
“wedding photography tips” = high value
“wedding photography pricing” = low value
If you take these examples in to the real world you would see that someone entering the wedding photography niche would have dramatically different results depending on which keyword they targeted. If they used the keyword “wedding photography tips” as opposed to the “wedding photography pricing” they would have far a far better chance of making their business profitable as they would have the potential of 45 times more visitors to their site. As I advise my clients as a search engine optimization consultant the two biggest factors that will determine the success of their online business are;
1. The market they choose
2. The keywords they target
Becoming an internet marketer has the opportunity to make you the sort of money that can literally transform your life, however get one of these two factors wrong and you are set to become one of the many people who make absolutely no money online. In my experience the main reason people fail online is that they don’t spend the time to do the research first. In so many cases I have seen people rush in to a market, select a random niche, select random keywords and then hope for the best…this is a recipe for disaster.
To the contrary an internet marketer who is successful online is one who research the market, identifies profitable areas, targets specific keywords and follows a proven plan.
Recommended resources:
- Keyword Research Tool : Market Samurai
James is an internet marketer living in Dubai. He makes his living almost entirely online, using internet marketing strategies that generate income for him and his clients 24/7. His tested techniques focus on the core fundamentals that work […] 
