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Niche marketing is a hot topic amongst internet marketers, business coaches and business building experts. It’s strongly recommended online and in books as the way to succeed on line. However, even if you’ve read up on niche marketing, or if you’re new to the concept, you may likely have a few questions. Let’s see if we can help clear them up.

#1 What is a niche?

A niche is a smaller portion of a market. For example, books is a market. Used books is a smaller and targeted portion of that market. Used romance novels is an even tighter niche. You may also hear the term micro niche. Continuing with our example, a micro niche might be used romance novels from the 1980’s. Or used romantic suspense novels. A micro niche is an even tighter sub niche.

#2 Why Niche?

Choosing a niche can help you:

- Increase your profitability
- Create a community of followers and fans
- Establish a loyal group of customers
- Reach your prospects faster because you have less competition
- Build credibility and trust because you’re an expert on a specialized topic.
- Help you build a strong and recognizable brand amongst your fans.
- It’s also often easier to set up, grow and enjoy a niche business.

#3 How Do You Define a Niche?

A niche can be based on or defined by any number of things. For example:
Demographics – the age, marital status, or sex of your audience are examples of demographics. For example, used romance novels for single men. That’s probably not a great niche but it’s a good example of one!

Region – you can define a niche based on a geographic location. For example, Southern used romance novels or used romance novels for Midwest readers.
Culture and/or religion – used Christian romance novels or used romance novels for Latin women.

Skills and abilities – a beginner’s guide to finding the best used romance novels. The word beginners is the key here.

As you can see there are many ways to define a niche. It doesn’t have to be defined by the product or service itself.

#4 How Do I Choose a Niche?

To be honest, unless you stumble upon a niche, finding an ideal one requires patience and diligence. It can take time to find a niche that:

* Appeals to you
* Has high demand – high enough  to warrant a business website
* Low supply – not too low. If no one is marketing to an audience it may mean that there’s no profit potential.
* Profit potential – can you make money from this niche?

Start by brainstorming the possibilities. Get crazy with this step. Really challenge yourself to think about all of the potential niches for any idea that inspires you. Then research the idea using keyword research tools. You may have to go back to the drawing board several times. However the end result of your hard work and patience will pay you back kindly.