It’s the Market, NOT the Product!
(How to Find a Perfect Niche Market)

From: Andrew Minalto  eBay PowerSeller  Registered TWF Seller  CEO of SpicyAuctionTemplates.com  Contact Me | FAQ

Hello & Welcome to the Easy Auction Business video newsletter!

It’s already February and we’re moving full speed ahead into the year 2010. For many of you, it began with some kind of dreams, plans and resolutions. And for many of you one of the resolutions in 2010 is to start an online business. Maybe you’re still in a position when you have some money to invest and you’re eager to get started but simply don’t know which way to go?

What to sell? - I hear you say! Right, that’s the question I hear on a daily basis, no joking! And to be honest, no one can tell you exactly what you should sell – creating a business concept depends on everyone’s own unique experience, capacity and so on. You can’t do it without a serious market research and some painful brainstorming sessions.

But I guess we can agree on one thing – whatever you do, you really want to narrow everything down and create a niche business and not try to come up with another Amazon, Play or eBay rival. Remember – there’s no need to re-invent the wheel! Everything is already done for you; you just have to put it all together!

Here’s the thing – and I want you to avoid this costly mistake – It’s the Market and NOT the product you’re looking for! I’ll repeat that – It’s the Market and Not the Product you’re looking for!

Yet so many people are doing the opposite – they’re desperately trying to find that secret product that will make them rich. Some may even try to create one. No probs with that – it’s still possible to come up with something unique and make yourself a millionaire! BUT the odds of success in this case of scenario are very, very low…

Would you be rather playing the lottery OR create a profitable business based on a number of well known facts? I’d go for the 2nd option day or night! Let’s take a look at how to find that perfect niche market for you using some simple, proven market research techniques.

Who’s who in the Niche Marketing?

So, why you should be looking for a Market instead of Products? I could talk hours about this but the most important reason is the following: Market gives you the money, not products! Just think about it – customer is what matters most, he will make those purchases, he will come back for more stuff, and he’ll talk about your business.

You don’t want to look for products in your research process! Look for customers instead!

Simply look for a group of people that want something and then give it to them. As simple as it may sound but hat’s all there is! You simply need to find a group of people with needs you can fulfill.

A typical example would be:

Scrap bookers – people who are into scrapbooking. They’ll look for supplies, business advice, tutorials, forums, books – everything really! It’s a typical niche market, a typical group of people with specific needs. This can be narrowed down to scrap bookers in the UK, or for example – Newbies in Scrapbooking. Sub-niches like these can be an effective way to get into markets even with a limited buying power.

But even if you narrow down and go into a sub-niche, keep in mind that Market is still what’s important (and not the products). That’s what we call a Niche Marketing and that’s the way to go for people like you and me to build successful online businesses from scratch, without investing millions in branding, marketing and management activities.

There’s no way around it! Forget about selling everything for everyone! Yeah, sure – you can do that on eBay if you have the needed buying power but I would call it a waste of your resources. If you sell everything to everyone you simply can’t use all those social, e-mail, and marketing techniques that niche marketing comprises.

What Makes a Good Market?

So what makes a good market? Obviously, you could come up with dozens upon dozens of different ideas but how to filter out which ones would be better than the others and how to come up with the winner?

	Passionate customers – this one is huge, really! It can literally double or even triple your sales you’ll get from the same traffic levels. You should always try to find a market which is passionate about what they’re doing as they will spend a lot of money! Passionate customers often act irrationally; they love what they’re doing so much that they don’t care how much a particular product costs – as far as it’s the one they need. The same example with scrap bookers would be a good one. Any kind of hobbyists, professionals, fans, gamers and so on! Find that passion and you’ll have a winner!
	Great in numbers – there’s nothing wrong in creating a small online business. If that’s what you want – go for it! But in general, niches where you can have only a few hundred customers around the world wouldn’t be the best option. So make sure the market is huge enough in numbers – so that yearly sales in that niche are at least a few million pounds worth.
	Easily reachable (online) – the most typical mistake a person can make – start building an online business without knowing how to get targeted traffic! Don’t do it! Don’t go into markets where you have no idea on how to generate enough targeted traffic! In your research process, take a look @ what’s going on with AdWords in that market, are there many blogs, forums, websites you could advertise on. How about YouTube, Facebook? Any activity, traffic generation possibilities there? Check out Google Keywords tool and see what kind of search volume can be expected via search engines and so on! Map out your traffic generation plan so that you know exactly how you’ll get at least your first 100 unique daily visitors.
	Proven buyers – lastly, you want to work in a niche market which is proven to buy. There may be many people in India who would like to learn English for example, but how many of them will be actual buyers of language learning programs or books you would sell? Not many I’m afraid, they would more likely look for free resources than pay a premium price for a home study course. So make sure there are proven buyers in your market, with a credit card in their pocket!

Here you go – 4 criteria to instantly filter out the best ideas with the highest potential of creating a sustainable and profitable online business!

Testing 1,2,3

Ok, so far so good! But how do you actually find that perfect niche market? How can you be sure that it will work for you? The simple answer is – you can’t know for sure, there will always be risks you can’t calculate! That’s why we’re entrepreneurs! But here are few things to remember before you spend any money on stock or a fancy website:

	Never ever guess! I have done it previously; trust me – not a good idea! You don’t want to guess whether your idea will work or not! Nowadays we have access to so much information that it would be really stupid to base any decisions on pure guessing!
	Use proven data to verify market! In good old days, you would have to spend days or weeks analyzing market trends by reading business newspapers or expensive reports. Luckily for you – not anymore! We have Terapeak, Google Keyword Tool, PPC bid analyzers, free business magazines, blogs, reports and plenty of other resources! Use that data to verify your business plan!
	Start small and build your business gradually! Rome was not built in a day, funny – right? But so true! So many people think that everything happens instantly online! What can I say – it’s a totally wrong assumption! It will still take time to build up your online presence to the necessary level and it will still take time for search engines to start loving your site. It will still take time for customers to start spreading a word about you around the Net.

Everything takes time! So there’s no need to take huge loans or re-mortgage your house just to get more stock in or order 10k custom printed shipping boxes. Take it slowly, step by step – as long as you keep moving, you’ll still be better off as each day passes by.

Conclusions

Niche marketing, niche marketing….yeah, I know – you’re already tired of all this niche talk! But what can I do? I can’t let you make those wrong choices! And you don’t want it either, trust me…

If you’re looking to build a long term business, from scratch, with limited investment – finding a niche is the only way to go. Period. Why? How about:

• Traffic
• Conversion
• Newsletter
• Social web
• Repeat sales
• Up-sells
• Branding
• Reputation
• Profit

Next time we’ll cover these aspects in detail and you’ll learn how to take un-fair advantage over your competitors by making most out of each one!!

As always – feel free to send in any comments or suggestions!

Until Next Time,

Have a Question? Click Here!

About the Author Andrew Minalto is founder and CEO of the Web's largest auction templates company SpicyAuctionTemplates.com. Andrew runs successful information publishing business as well as an eBay store and an online retail store. At the age of just 23 he has achieved a phenomenal success in selling both physical and information products online. Hard work and belief in his dreams enabled him to leave a dusty Dublin warehouse in winter 2006 to go full-time online. The recently launched EasyAuctionBusiness.com website is dedicated for all people trying to achieve financial freedom or just to make some extra money by selling on eBay.co.uk

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