Internet Affiliate Marketing: What is a "Niche"?

Internet Affiliate Marketing - What is a "Niche"?

OK - I'll start with a basic definition here, then expand on it. Here is a definition from MSN Encarta:

• "specialized market: an area of the market specializing in one type of product or service"

Yes - that's a very good definition. But - this is something that trips up a number of internet marketers time and time again. And - I believe that a more specific definition to affiliate marketing might be in order. Here's why...

"One type of product or service" might be "shoes". But in affiliate marketing if you try to center any campaign on the word "shoes" you're in big trouble. Why? It's waaaaaaaaaaay too broad. You will get completely swallowed up by competition and will likely eventually give up.

Let's narrow "shoes" down a bit. How about "biking shoes" Now - there's a niche. But even then, when you are working a campaign around the subject of "biking shoes" you're going to have to tear down that term a little more because when someone types that term into Google there are 12,900,000 returns - that's a little much competition - unless you feel up to a good challenge. =)

So let's say for example that you work a campaign around that subject. That's a great subject for an entire campaign - it can be broken down into "mountain bike shoes", "cycling bike shoes", "winter bike shoes" and more (some of those terms that I just threw out I checked - they would even need to be broken down a bit more).

That's where to subject of good keyword research comes in - keyword research with internet marketing is done to find out not only what people are typing in to Google but what those terms break down into, and knowing how to find out what the competition level is like on any terms to see if you can show up in the search engines with less effort than - well let's say "shoes". (ha!)

But - here's the bottom line. It's not just the terms that we're talking about. We're talking about how specific someone can get when they want to look for something. The more specific you get with your marketing the better - I guarantee that if you created a campaign around "biking shoes", and that if you created a web page around the term "lightweight biking shoes in blue" that at least some people would find it - and since that was exactly what they were looking for - how likely would they be to become your "customers"?

Something to think about eh? =)

Later.

Tonya B.