It’s not uncommon for many new (and even some old) Internet marketers to tend to gravitate towards the “sexy” niches online without doing careful market analysis. Popular niches that might be considered “sexy” include online poker, web hosting, ringtones, acai berry weight loss programs, and well, the list goes on and on.
When choosing a market niche to start your next business or website in have you ever really taken the time to decide what your particular strengths are suited for, calculated the level of competition in a given market, or struck out on a unique path of your own or rather have simply followed lemming like after your favorite Internet marketing “guru” and attempted to compete in one of the niches that they have stated has made them successful?
Often, very profitable markets online may end up being quite the opposite of sexy. In fact, there are many very profitable markets that are just downright boring. Here are some tips to think about when you choose your next market niche to compete in online that will hopefully help you to make the profitable choice and not necessarily the sexy one (although one could say that ultimately owning a very profitable business IS sexy!)
Use Your Specialized Knowledge
I would submit to you that every single person in the world that has access to the Internet and some form of education likely has one specific area of knowledge where they know a great deal more than the average person.
For some this area of specialized knowledge could be something straightforward like cooking delicious recipes with a slow cooker while for others it may be that they know the intricacies of credit default swaps. For example, I am a Certified Financial Planner™ and serial entrepreneur and so I have a great deal of expertise in many different area of financial planning, entrepreneurship, small business planning, etc. This means that when I started a website to compare car insurance I already had a great deal of expertise about insurance that I can use to make my website the best it can possibly be (even though most people will tell you that car insurance is just flat out boring!)
Do you have a particular specialized skill set that you have learned in college or at your job? Do you have a hobby that gives you specialized knowledge? Instead of trying to ride the popular trends and compete in “sexy” markets why not use some of the expertise that you have in a given area to start an online business in that market niche?
Great Information on Almost ANY Subject can be a Money Maker
If you think that your area of expertise is so boring that there might not be strong financial potential in it for you then consider the examples of many types of different very successful websites that are in quite boring and dry niches. Try a test right now. Think of three of the most boring subjects that you could possibly think of (i.e. for me – “plumbing”, “ice skating”, etc.) and then search those keywords in a search engine.
What do you find when you look at the top 10 results for each of those keywords? Chances are that even sites with some very boring and dry subject matter potentially have quite a bit of traffic if the information is high quality and displayed in a professional way. Of course, everyone is different so just because you think a given subject is uninteresting does not mean that there are not people out there that think quite the opposite. There are many do-it-yourself plumbers looking online for great plumbing information. If you have plumbing expertise then why not give it to them?
Your plumbing website will have less competition than many of the hot and ultra competitive niches and your loads of high quality yet boring plumbing information on your website will be a gigantic barrier to entry for any potential competitors not only for the obvious reason that it takes a lot of time and hard work to create great plumbing articles but it also takes a lot of determination to create great articles on a subject that most people would consider to be quite boring.
What do YOU Think?
Can you think of any niches that many people are attracted to simply because they are following the crowd?
What are some good examples of boring but profitable niches?
About joeljonathan
very inspiring blog, people tends to follow the crowd, it is time that we think out of the box. Look at some unexplored niche areas and be very good at it.
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Boring niches… well, I don’t believe in boring but I do believe in the worst niches where only a few are interested such as selling guns and rifles online… you might think it’s almost impossible to sell, since this stuff are all extremely high price stuff, but believe it or not, there are still people who are so rich and crazy that they will spend any amount of money just to collect those high risk weapon…
Another worst niche is growing spider. This seems like quite stupid to most of you… but believe it or not, there products online that teach people the secret of growing spider such as how to make a normal spider to become a fighting spider… ridiculous…
Here’s even more ridiculous niche… selling magic potion such as love potion or hate potion… never heard before… well, I do not buy those stuff… but if you check out Google… you will be amaze at how much people are just crazy about this stuff… lol
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Great article Joel.
What about selling blogs and blog networks? Seems to be a very popular sport this days.
Garden, plants, flowers, lawns, ect..so many people who is engage in it. Huge and borring market..
Nice post and a good thing to think about but for many people their particular skill is going to be in a very popular niche, but you’re right you should do market research before hand and make sure that you can make a profit.
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I totally believe in boring niches. I know some people say you have to be passionate about your topic, but in my experience, some of my big money makers were in niches I couldn’t care less about.
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Boring for some is fascinating for others. There are markets that are saturated with marketers that I find tedious to try to work on, and thus avoid them. Then there are other niches that are right up my interest alley but it seems that no one else is interested because there is low search volume.
For me the best thing is to find a descent search volume niche with not too much competitiveness and then see what I can bring to the table. Some times you done even have to be too awe inspiring of a writer to make a good site in these niches!
To define a niche as boring or “sexy” I think it’s subjective to personal preferences. What’s considered to be boring for some of the people, is very sexy for some others. I think in order to be successful in niche marketing, you shouldn’t rely on your own personal opinion about a niche. If you follow a solid methodology of discovering a profitable niche, then you are bound to succeed, provided you invest the right amount of effort.
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This borders more about your mindset and the purpose you had in starting out, boring or sexy, most times your audience and how events turn out later would also determine a lot.
Thanks for the reminder.
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Yap. I prefer with boring method but always giving me profit every month.
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