Okay, so I didn’t go to college to get a marketing degree, so granted, I’m no expert when it comes to teaching anyone the in’s and out’s about marketing, but what I have come to realize is that one of the main goals online is to appeal to a certain group of people.
Around a decade ago, when it was a little easier to game the search engines, you could put up a website and write a whole bunch a content and target anyone and everyone out there.
Like the now famous saying goes, from the movie Field of Dreams – “build it and they will come” , was certainly true back then, because it was relatively easy to get placement on the primative search engine.
However, search engines have become a lot more sophisticated these days, but not only that, people who use them are typing in more sophisticated keyword phrases.
You see, as we evolve and get better at using search engines, our search phrases become more targeted as we learn what phrases bring back the best search results.
So not only are the search engines bringing back more user friendly content and content that is more specific to our needs, we are also adapting to the search engines and better defining our search phrases.
It’s A Dance
You could say that is it kind of like a dance between them and us.
The search engines learn what we (as humans) expect to see in the results and we adapt our search phrases to hone down on our search.
So all of this brings us back to targeting a specific group of people. Some may call it a niche, some call it a pocket of people and some an audience, but either way you look at it, it call comes down to identifying who you want you website to appeal to and then designing your website to cater for that market.
So as the search engines and searchers (us) start to collaborate and do this back and forward dance, search becomes more and more specific.
As such you have to become more specific.
Learning how to do this can definitely be a challenge, but what I have come to realize is that all of this can be taught and therefore learnt.
You just have to find the right mentor and training program to be able to take advantage of it.
How To Identify Your Niche
This seems to be a place where most people get stuck, primarily because they’re not sure if their choosen niche is of any use or will actually make them any money at the end of the day.
But what I have been told is that you can literally make money in any niche.
Even the most obscure of niches.
Whilst I am new to all of this, I just have to take their word for it, until such time I have enough data to suggest otherwise.
Most mentors say that if you can make money in just about any niche then why not look at a niche that you have a passion for.
That makes sense, because why not turn your passion into a business.
I mean wouldn’t it be cool to create a business on a hobby?
Lot of people do it, and instead of going to work, you’d be doing something that you really love to do.
Most people love their hobbies, but can only spend a couple of hours on it in their spare time. Imagine, do it as a job.
Steve Jobs
I remember watching a video on Youtube from Steve Jobs who said that you have to be passionate about your business, because business is hard.
Most people give up when the going gets tough, but if it’s something your passionate about then you’d stay the course.
Idenitfying your niche is important because all your other design decision steem from it.
For example, what your websites layout should look like.
All you have to do is look around at your competitors to understand what design options they’ve chosen and why they’ve chosen it.
Some of the design options they choose can actually offer a lot of insight into how you could structure your own website.
Therefore taking note of what happening in the online world could pay big dividends at the end of the day.
What’s Your Competition Doing
Always do a little research in the marketplace to understand what your competitor is up to.
You need to ask the important questions, the why questions.
As in why have they structured their menu a certain way, why have they place only certain menu items a certain way.
The way they designed their website could not only provide you with the insight you need to create your own design, but it can also help you to resolve some of the same issues lyou’ll come across in your business.
For example, you might find it difficult to get people signing up for your newsletter.
So what you can do is, look at a similar website in your niche that has this already setup and look at the language they use to get people to sign up for their newletter.
You could also look at what they’re giving away in their newsletter also and maybe copy them.
So if they give away an ebook then you could do the same.
I like to also add an About Me page so that people can get to build a connection with you.