Unless you’ve been hibernating for the last couple of years, you’ve probably heard the term “Niche Marketing” a lot. It’s one of the current buzz-words in online marketing. Which is kind of funny really since niche marketing has actually been around pretty much as long as marketing has existed. But what is it?
First of all, a niche is not a gimmick encased in a silver bullet. A niche is nothing more than a fancy word for a specialty and specializing is the name of the game in growing a small business today.
Niche Marketing is marketing products or services to groups of people (or businesses) who have specific needs or interests in common. Obviously department stores and their online cousins don’t fit that description, but almost everything else is.
In the physical world, your local flower shop, bakery, Hallmark Store, greengrocer, shoe store, etc, etc. all cater to niche markets, some more focused than others.
And in the online world, any web site that focuses on a particular topic is a niche web site, and that describes the vast majority of web sites online today and in the past. So, those that are marketing any kind of product or service are probably already into “Niche Marketing”, and may not even know it.
A small independent business or business professional needs to clearly isolate exactly what their business has or does better than their competition including the mass marketers.
Some niches are more crowded and competitive than others. The niches focusing on internet marketing and making money online are probably the most crowded and competitive online, and getting more so every day.
Whether your business is mature, in a start-up mode or you are just contemplating, you need to identify specific customer needs (NOT wants) that have been ignored, overlooked or neglected by others.
These opportunities represent niche areas that you can specialize in and capitalize upon to grow, start or build your business.
Here are six reasons why every small business needs a niche:
1. A niche increases your chances of survival by insulating you from the whims of the marketplace.
2. A niche increases the effectiveness of your advertising allowing you to concentrate on a clearly defined audience instead of aimlessly prattling on to everyone.
3. You will experience less competition because a niche will position you as a leader in your chosen area and not as just another business.
4. Your business will be more profitable because you
will have better control of your pricing and your promotional expenditures.
5. The hour-to-hour changes blowing through your
marketplace will affect you less because you can spot the change and act upon it immediately.
6. You will be able to build your business faster by making fewer mistakes as regards who you are, who your customers are and how you can cost effectively reach them.
So How Can I Start One of These Niche Stores?
Build a Niche Store, BANS in short, had been around for 3 years, but it is still one of the popular money making product on the internet. BANS, uses eBay affiliate program to generate cash by inserting existing eBay auction listing onto your website. In fact, BANS will make the entire web for you with a few mouse clicks.
The key with BANS sites is not only to make a sale, but to act as a gateway for Ebay. Once a visitor clicks a link on your BANS site, a cookie is saved in their browser and ANYTHING they purchase on Ebay within a certain amount of time, you will get credit for. Hence the reason why BANS sites aren’t the most attractive. You don’t need it to be pretty, just get your visitor to click the link!
There are many ways to build your own niche store, but here I will talk about the most common options, BANS. However, you can also build a niche site using for free using WordPress, Joomla or another content management system. It will just take some time to configure it correctly.
Let us begin with who is suitable for Build a Niche Store and who is not.
Who Is NOT Suitable
If you are looking for a wholesaler, drop shipper, Build a Niche Store doesn’t do that. What they do is to pull existing eBay listing onto your website. Those people who want fast money are also not suitable for BANS. When I just started, I earn less than $200 in my first month. So don’t expect to earn that much.
Who Is Suitable
People who are hard working and are willing to take risk are the one who are most likely to be succeed. Why I said “RISK”, because without “RISK” you won’t actually take up your first step and try Build a Niche Store. Remember I mention just now, you can’t earn that much in your first month. If you are willing to commit and work on it, you can actually let it run auto pilot after it is stable. I see people earn $30000 each year letting it run auto pilot. So if you are in this category, don’t wait, take action now.
In conclusion, if you are ready to make money on the internet BANS is a great way to get started. It is a simple proven method of making money on line that even a beginner can become a pro.
