Niche Research

What niche am I in? is a common question to ask yourself when first starting out with creating your E/course and especially more so later on as it’s important to know as much as you can about your niche when it comes to doing the marketing aspect of your e/course.

A niche is the name or area if you like represented by your products and services that you hold in the market—while the actual market you are in can be made up of a number of different niches that come under the category they fit into.

Your E/course will come under one or another category. When you put it up online and start to do the advertising for example you will be asked by the various media outlets and avenues you advertise with to describe what it’s about—you’ll more than likely be asked or have to allot your E/course to a category, and even more so sometimes it may need to be allotted under a sub-category of that category. The category and sub-category along with your description is in fact the nearest to describing at best for your customers and people to know where to look and what your product and service (ie: your niche) is about.

For example if your E/course is about how to live healthy and eat a balanced nutritional diet,—then it would come under health food category and even more because it’s specifically  about diet is the sub niche, while your market in general is the health industry in general with whole array of different niches to do with health and fitness.

To understand the market you are in and your niche is to use that information to not only create a better product and or service but also for the planning of marketing your E/course.

The key elements which are employed in finding out where your E/course fits in terms of your market and what you can do to make it stand out in your niche, covers knowing how to do three main things which are—“ Niche research”, “Niche selection” and “Niche competition”.

Niche Research:

Niche research is doing some online research through various sources online in order to get an idea and find out about your market and what your customer or prospects interests are first. There are numerous resources but simply start by looking through magazines and doing a Google search on your niche topic and going to sites like Amazon.com to see exactly how popular your niche is and what channels you might use when it comes to the actual selling of your course. Niche research prepares you for finding out what you need to know about your products and services and the market.

Niche Selection:

Niche selection follows on from niche research—it’s not something you do if you already have a subject you want to create an e/course from—it’s more for if you don’t have any idea and are looking for a niche that you would like to try. Niche selection is done by going through a list of categories which can be found for example on Amazon.com shopping directory or any other directory in the market you are thinking of entering and looking at first what appeals to you, or has something you particularly like, or stands out that you’d like to write on and that interest you enough to want to create an information product or service such as an e/course.

The place where to start first is select one out of the main three big markets which are “health and fitness”—“dating and relationship”—and “business and finance”. Then from there to find a niche within that market narrow it down and look for a particular category—and then next even further still, look for a particular sub-category or branch within that category you like to make your niche and from then on simply gather information about your e/course topic and create your e/course, which will go under that category and sub-category when it’s done. There are many directories that you can look in that will help you find a niche—just type in the google search box “how to find a profitable niche” or “niche category directories list” or a good place for starters for an all-round view of categories is the library “dewey classification system” which is how all book subjects are classified and catalogued under and you’ll find there’s a list of different subjects and topics which if you follow up on can lead you to any number of markets and niches that interest you.

If you find that your still not sure as sometimes it can be so overwhelming because of so many different categories and niches—another way to find out a what niches would suit you is to see an astrologer who can help you by doing your chart. As I’m an astrologer and have a website http://www.highermindawarenessastrology.com/ if you like to find out what your niche is have a look at my site and contact me if you want me to do your chart and tell you about what niche(s) and area would suit if you don’t have a particular e/course already chosen that you want to create.

Niche Competition:

Lastly it helps to when researching your niche to get an idea of just how much competition or how many others are in the same niche as you. The market maybe big but you want to find out in particular about your niche. What you want ideally is a “high search volume” and “low competition” however it’s not an absolute requirement. You can find this out by using any keywords tool such as Google Trends or SEObook and also by noting the amount of ads on the search pages results. Even if there is a high competition it can still be okay to go ahead and create your E/course in a niche as it also means that it must be a popular niche because of so many people in it which is a good thing in itself, however because there also is a lot of others in that niche you’ll need to make your/course especially unique and of the best value for your customers.

The key is to try and make your E/course stand out within reason as best as you can. When doing research take notes on what the things are everyone else e/course has common in your niche and try and look for the things that aren’t being done that you see that you can add and or make better in your e/course. That is add extra benefits and little things to it which are especially attractive and appealing and that give your e/course a distinct quality and value that other courses don’t have or the niche is lacking in.

Learning and finding out as much as you can about your niche can never be over stated and is always worth keeping up to date on. It’s important to stay ahead and keep up with the trends and changes in your market, as then you can revise and add the right add-ons later on and information to your E/course and update it whenever necessary to keep it ahead and most suited to the right audiences and prospects as you go along so that it will always be in the top category E/courses.

If you like to find out more about “Niche research” with regards to e/course creation and online business then please have a look at Your E/course Blueprint

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