Everywhere I look there seems to be some new product that is supposed to make you rich using niche marketing. I guess the first question you have to ask is what the heck is niche marketing anyway? Niche marketing is just finding a product or service that appeals to a specific audience. For instance a niche market would be selling diet books. You're targeting people who are trying to lose weight. The key to successful niche marketing is finding a niche that doesn't have much competition. The hard part is finding a balance between low competitive markets with enough consumers in your niche to consistently earn good profits.

Finding your niche

So how do you go about finding a niche? Different marketers will have a variety of answers for this single question. In my experience you should start thinking about the hobbies and activities you like to do in your leisure. I personally recommend finding a niche in an area you are already well skilled in. This cuts down the time you would have to spend on learning and researching, thus making you able to start working on your niche sooner.

After you have a possible niche you need to research it. First do a Google search for your niche market. For example I'm consulting a lady whose niche is gardening. I Googled common keywords associated with gardening. I take note on how many websites are in the search results. This gives me an idea what the competition is like.

I suggest getting a keyword tool such as “Good Keywords”. This program lets us see how many times a specific keyword has been searched in one month's period. Test a few keywords that get searched a good amount of times. Than Google those keywords and see how competitive those keywords are. I do this process until I find a keyword that has low competition, but gets searched for many times per month. I will warn you this process sometimes takes days before you find the right target keywords.

So we have our niche, now what?

Register a domain name that has to do with your niche. If possible use one of your target keywords in your domain name. I personally use godaddy.com for quick cheap hosting and domain name registration. If you're not experienced with html it may be a good idea to use Microsoft FrontPage, or higher an experienced designer.

I cannot stress enough how important it is for your website to look professional You can have the greatest product in the world, but if your webpage looks unprofessional consumers will not purchase it. This is why I recommend teaming with a web designer who can put your ideas into a professionally designed webpage.

The common style of a niche marketing page has pretty much been the same the past few years. You will notice most pages are long scrolling with a great sales pitch and pictures. Recently more of the experienced marketers are moving away from this concept. Be innovative and find a new way to present your sales pitch. Using video technology is a great new way to entice your potential customers to buy.

There was a study done showing that it takes an average of 7 e-mailings before someone buys. There are many impulse buyers who will purchase your product or service their first visit, but some people won't. So how do we get these consumers to buy? Well we must build a relationship with them first.

Opt-in lists are essential to the success of your niche. I have written an article on Opt-in email lists and how to use them effectively. If you are not sure what an opt-in list is please read that article thoroughly.

Using Affiliates to Skyrocket Profits

Now that we have our niche website set up we need to start promoting it. Using affiliates has been my secret weapon for a while now. I always use Clickbank.com to manage my affiliate program because of its simplicity. If you are unfamiliar with Clickbank and how it works I suggest visiting their website and taking a look around.

When setting the commission I usually start off with 75%. I know that's a bit steep but right now it's more important to get loyal affiliates. I offer incentives like cash bonuses to the affiliate that generate the most sales.

I have gotten to the point where I never spend capital advertising my niche. I acquire affiliates and let them advertise my website; which minimizes my out of pocket cost and maximizes my profit.

Keep note of the affiliates who generate a good amount of sales. You want to keep in contact with these affiliates for future niches. Try to build a great team of affiliates that will make every venture profitable. I have a team of 50 super affiliates I contact as soon as my niche goes public.

Points to Remember:

1. Find a niche with minimal competition to increase your chance of success.

2. Create a professional webpage for your niche

3. Use opt-in list to increase sales

4. Utilize affiliates to maximize your profits