Finding the right niche for your online business is often regarded as being a little like the search for the holy grail. Many thousands of words have been written about how to unearth previously undiscovered niches, micro niches, where there is little or no competition and some would have you believe that all you have to do is find one of these hidden treasures and you will soon be banking large amounts daily.
However the reality is that the real answer is there for all to see, if you just make a study of people's day to day spending habits. Use a few basic rules as your guide. Look for an area which contains a large number of people who are passionate about their interest, hobby or recreation. Then find the areas within that where people have disposable income. This could be young people living with parents or retired people on good pensions. Think about those areas where people have their own jargon. You can find this out by watching the popular TV programmes that your target group are addicted to. Many television series develop an almost cult status for their followers. Another clue is the magazines that your target group buy. A visit to any good local newspaper store or a look a site like magazines.com can turn up some very interesting and possibly previously unrecognised areas to investigate. If you can, get hold of a copy of BRAD from your local library. This is the major reference book for the newspaper and magazine industry, giving as it does advertising rates for UK print publications. Although you are not interested in advertising rates, nonetheless you may again come across publications that you had not thought of and this could be the source of some very good ideas.
Do your target audience hold their own conferences? It is well worth looking on the search engines for exhibitions, conferences and other events. Many of these events have their own blogs where they show pictures of the latest event and you can find useful information from these such as demographic, composition of the audience (single or family) and the number of attendees. It is also worth noting that some of these events can be worth attending yourself to sell your products. Although you may not sell a great deal at such an event, it can be an invaluable source of market intelligence as you talk to your customers. Lastly, look on social media sites to see who your target group's favourite celebrities are. They can often inspire fashion themes which their followers want to copy. Finding the right niche is not so much a matter of "ferreting out" undiscovered areas as common sense detective work.
Peter Robson is an accountant with over 30 years experience in the small company sector. With his business partner, Debbie Crossley he runs a company helping people set up and run e-commerce businesses. For more information go to http://www.yournichebusiness.co.uk/
