Gaining a Foothold in Big Niche Markets, One Small Slice at a Time

Don't Quit Your Day Job
First off, put aside any thoughts of getting rich overnight. Anyone who believes they can get into an online business and be able to quit their day job and lazy around at home all day are in for a very rude awakening. An online business is just like any business. Unless you put the time and effort into it, you're not going to succeed. When you consider all the websites and webmasters currently trying to make money through online business (specifically, affiliate marketing programs), less than 1% of them are truly making enough to have quit their day job and make a healthy income from it. These are forward-thinking people... people who would achieve great success in another area if the web didn't exist. Before you dive into the world of online business, you need to ask yourself "Do I have what it takes to make this a success?" If the answer is YES, then you are already well on your way.

If you plant a tree in an empty plot of land, will it grow?
Before we talk about an online business, let's talk about trees. Yep, trees! We won't talk about just any tree, instead we'll talk about the very unique and rare Blackwood Pine tree! Just like a citrus tree grows citrus fruits, a Blackwood Pine tree grows very rare and exotic Black Oranges that will one day be ripe for the plucking! Suppose you've made an investment in a barren plot of land and your ultimate goal is to build a forest of these Blackwood Pine trees for financial gain. Although you know very little about Blackwood Pines, you know you could make a huge profit on them and feel the investment is a wise one. What do you suppose will happen if you take these new trees and drop them into the ground and leave them on auto-pilot? Will they manage to flourish on their own without any work or help on your part, or do you think they'll slowly wither away and die? The answer is quite obvious. Without proper care, maintenance, and hard work the trees will perish and leave you with nothing more than shattered dreams and empty pockets. The same holds true for an online business. Any business you try to establish is going to fail miserably unless you have the heart and passion to do what it takes to make that business flourish!

There IS room in big niche markets for the little guy
Affiliate marketing covers a lot of ground. To a new comer, it can often be overwhelming as there are endless options and marketing possibilities. Before you sign on for any affiliate program, you need to find one that is best suited for you. How do you know which niche is right for you? That all depends on what you're an expert in. Everyone is an expert in something. Some people are academically gifted, some are gifted in music, others in art, some in sports... the list goes on an on. Take a moment to think of something you have a gift for or a true passion for. Maybe you're an ice skater and your passion is anything related to ice skating. Perhaps you're a computer programmer and you have a strong knowledge on technology. Do you see where this is going? The niche you choose MUST be a niche that you have some talent or passion in. Once you own a website and are trying to sell something to a potential customer, you need to be an expert and know what you're talking about. Don't worry if the niche you're selecting is a niche with a very large base of competition. Many new webmasters and affiliate marketers have a fear of the big niche markets. Conducting a search on the internet for something as popular as "weight loss" will no doubt return 100million results or more. The mistake is focusing on those numbers and not having enough belief that you can compete with them. The difference between a successful webmaster and a non successful webmaster is that a successful one will look at those numbers and think "good, my competition is only 100million and not 1billion". You need to have the mindset that you're site is going to be a huge success because YOU'LL MAKE IT A HUGE SUCCESS! Don't make the mistake of getting caught up in numbers. You'll be doing more harm than good as those numbers very seldom tell you the whole story. So, find your desire and passion and choose the niche (even if it's oversaturated) and stick with it.

Breaking the niche down, one small slice at a time
Breaking the big niche into small slices is your key to gaining traffic in the early stages of your website. Going back to our tree example, the ideas were good and the potential to make a nice profit were there. We took something unique that not too many people have (Blackwood Pines) and planned on entering a big business (Citrus fruit) by targeting a small and unique segment within it. After all, not too many people may be interested in Black Oranges. It's a niche that is targeting a very small percentage of people interested in citrus fruits. The good news is, that's exactly what you want to do! You're no doubt heard the expression "getting your foot in the door". That saying applies to big niche markets. In order to get your foot in the door and stand a chance of competing, you need to offer something very unique right out of the gate. Evaluate the niche your online business falls into and keep breaking it down into small and unique niches that may not have a lot of competition.

Finding the unique niches
Finding the unique niches within the big niche is going to take some work on your part. The good thing is you're an expert in your selected niche so you at least know the industry. Before you start building pages in your website to target specific niches, you'll want to open an account with WordTracker. WordTracker is a service that provides estimates (based on actual data) of the frequency of keyword searches. It also gives you an analysis of competition so you can get an idea on the number of competing sites for any given keyword search. You'll use WordTracker to zero-in on keywords that are unique, have little competition, and fall into the big niche market you've selected. Once you've compiled your keyword list you'll use that list to create separate pages of content for each one. It's important not to create separate pages for each keyword phrase so the likelihood of being indexed by search engines is greater.

Putting it all together
Once you've targeted the unique keyword phrases and put your site together, you'll need to focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and marketing. SEO and website marketing are huge topics that we can't cover here. You'll want to head over to Free Links Direct and view their SEO archive. It contains everything you need to know about marketing, website design, and (perhaps most important) SEO and their services are free.

Conclusion
By tackling the small and unique niches within a big niche and applying quality SEO and marketing techniques, you'll soon find your website climbing the ladder in popularity and search engine placement. All you need is dedication, desire, and a passion to make it happen.

Free Links Direct SEO Team
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