TNTbefree

Got niche?  If you are an affiliate marketer and you don't got niche, you don't got game.

What is a niche?  A niche is a portion of a market that the mega stores, and/or sites, feel are too small, or not worth their time, to pursue.  It is also a keyword or keyword phrase used on a site or posts.

A niche can be used as a powerful technique by affiliate marketers.  All they have to do is identify a small part of a larger market that is not being well served, or ignored all together by the big sites and stores.  It is estimated that 20% of the purchasers of a product, purchase 80% of that product.  By focusing on the needs of that 20% and exclusively marketing to them, the big stores leave a large portion of purchasers, the other 80%, out in the cold.

An easy example of this can be seen with music and music sales.  The main purchasers of this product are teens and those in their early twenties. (about 20% of the population) A majority of music is made to appeal to this group.  Thus, the marketing and sales venues of the mega sites are specifically directed at them.  This leaves  many nice niches for others to fill.

That niche could be focused on many target groups.  For example, young adults, with late 80's and early 90's music or information on bands of that era.  Older adults, with the classics.  Even to children, who have not yet received a discerning ear and still listen to "The wheels on the bus go round and round".   Good luck getting that song out of your head.

After targeting a niche group, refining marketing techniques, and fine tuning niches becomes an art form.  Each time you find a niche that works, fine tune it to the target group that it is intended for.  For those niches that do not work, or are flat, get rid of them and try another.

Content may be king, but niche marketing is imperative for developing a website.  This is done by using a niche phrase.  A niche phrase will help in promotion of websites by helping search engines define pages and categorize them more easily and that may result in better page ranking.  This is accomplished by using a "niche" keyword or keyword phrase on a web page or post and building that page or post around that niche.

Keep in mind that each page or post should have the niche keyword/keyword phrase in it's title.  Then, use it as close to the top of the page as possible in the text.  Using too many keyword phrases will over shadow the main purpose of a page and confuse the search engines.  This could cause the search engine to not list that page.

Sticking to one niche keyword or phrase also helps the publisher and or web page creator.  This is accomplished by using the "KISS" method.  Keep It Simple Stupid.  By keeping it simple and using only one niche keyword phrase per page or article, the publisher will be able to stick to the old "W" format.  Who, What, When, Where, and Why.  This is easier because, instead of jumping from one topic to another, trying to correlate them, and then attempting to wrap them all up in the end, they only have to cover the one.

   So,what does this niche have to do with you?  Well my friend, you are a small fish in a very big pond.  Without a niche, you will be eaten alive.  Or worse, never seen.  To make it in this pond, you have to be seen.  To be seen, people have to have a reason to look at you.  That is why you need a niche or two, or three.

Humphrey Bogart quote

   "niche" (pronounced nich, nçsh, or nish)

     A niche is a focused targetable portion of a market.

     It is a business that focuses on a niche market addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers. A niche may be thought of as a group of potential customers.

     A niche usually fills a demand for a product or service that is not met by any supply, or when a new demand arises due to changes in society, technology, or the general environment.

     Niche ventures may become profitable even though they are by nature small in comparison to the mainstream marketplace.
 
     Niche markets may be ignored or discounted by large businesses due to what they consider to be small potential; this in turn is part of the process that makes the niche market available to smaller businesses. The key to capitalizing on a niche market is to find or develop a market niche that has customers who are accessible, that is growing fast enough, and that is not owned by one established vendor already.

     Niche marketing is the process of finding and serving profitable market segments and designing custom-made products or services for them. For big companies those market segments are often too small in order to serve them profitably as these market segments often lack economies of scale. Niche marketers are often reliant on the loyalty business model to maintain a profitable volume of sales.

     Online niche marketing
     An often used technique for affiliate marketers. By seeking out smaller segments of larger markets, a website can be developed and promoted quickly to uniquely serve a targeted and usually loyal customer base, giving the affiliate a small but regular income stream. This technique is then repeated across several other niche websites until a desired income level is achieved.
     More or less from: Wikipedia