Which Came First, The Niche or the Market?

When selling a product, a lot of people make the mistake of developing their product first, and then trying to find a market for it. The process should really be reversed. Find a market first that spends money, then find out what they want and give it to them. 

It is certainly easier said than done, but there are a lot of places online where you can do your market research for free. They’ve done most of the work for you already. You just need to know where to go and what to do to connect all the dots.

Remember, you are looking for niche markets that:

1.) Are easily reached - Do you have an interest or passion for the niche? If not, do you think you can develop one? Or will you get bored with it quickly?

2.) A big enough - but not so big you’ll have too much competition when you’re just starting out? (simply targeting golfers or now even lady golfers would put you in competition with some very deep pockets)

3.) People in this niche spend are spending money.  Are other people passionate about your niche? If not, do they have a desperate problem they want to solve?  What products are being successfully sold right now to this niche? Can you sell something similar? Can you improve it, give them something they want that all other products of their kind are currently lacking?Or are your potential competitors selling cheap on the front so they can upsell, cross sell, or make their money on the back-end?

4.) The obvious one: are passionate about their hobby or topic.

Where to Look:

Social networking

No research would be complete without exploring the rapidly growing and ever-popular social networking sites. This is where people really talk about what they want – AND what they don’t want!

You probably have heard about MySpace, Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook social networks. You probably know there are a few more on the Internet. But you may be surprised to learn that there are dozens of social networks that vary in their focus including descriptions such as:

• Books
• Education
• Green Living
• Baby Boomers
• Investing
• Video Sharing
• Travel

These are only a few of the social network topics. It’s true that there are some networks that are more popular than others, but when you’re researching your niche product ideas, you should check out may of these other social networks based on the categories that interest you most. Find out what people are talking about and see if there’s a product idea embedded in their comments.

Visit this website to find a long listing of social networks that can quickly put you on your way to communicating with a huge community of people sharing ideas about what’s important to them:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
If something is important to them, it might be worth investigating as a niche product idea and it should be added to your list.

Social Bookmarking Sites

Researching social bookmarking sites not only tells you what is ranking higher in search engines, but it also tells you what topics people find valuable and interesting.

• digg.com
• reddit.com
• technorati.com
• del.cio.us.com
• icerocket.com
• propeller.com

What’s Hot

The best way to determine a good niche product is to take a look at what’s hot.

 www.buzz.yahoo.com
 www.answers.yahoo.com
 www.pulse.ebay.com
 www.ebay.com
 www.news.yahoo.com
 www.shopping.yahoo.com
 www.shopping.com
 www.50.lycos.com