If you've read anything about home business conducted on the Internet, you know how important, even critical, it is to choose a specialized niche, one that you can compete in successfully.
Generally, you want to be involved in a niche that is vertically deep as opposed to horizontally broad. If you don't know what that means, here's a simple explanation:
Every niche market has a different dynamic, a unique structure based on the various parts or segments of that niche. In addition, each will have a different set of enthusiasts.
Optimally, you would want to concentrate on depth rather than breadth of the market you're in.
Wide and broad markets are usually serviced by large companies: Wal-Mart, Costco, etc. "Stack it high and sell it cheap" is the battle cry of such giants. Chances are pretty good that you, as a small business owner, can't profitably compete with these giants.
They sell a broad range of products, and sell them cheap on very thin margins. In order to make this business model work, these big boys have to sell great quantities of goods.
Deep and narrow markets, on the other hand, tend to be ultra specialized. If you sell books, for instance, you would do best if you drill down into a very specialized niche.
Don't try to compete with Amazon or B & N or Borders. These guys sell every book title they can find. Their market is shallow and extremely broad. Forget that.
Instead go deep. Pick a book topic like "gardening" then go deeper. OK, "vegetable gardening".
Don't stop there, go deeper. How about "organic vegetable gardening"? Keep going deeper if you can - the deeper the better. OK, how about "organic vegetable gardening in a greenhouse"?
You see, the deeper you can go, the more specialized your audience. Once in this very special niche, you can become the resident expert by writing an ebook on the topic without 20 million competing web sites and online products. How about a membership site specifically for folks that want to learn this skill?
Maybe the biggest advantage to deep niches is that you can easily target your customers with less expensive searches on long-tail keywords. You know right off the bat that anyone searching on the phrase "greenhouse organic vegetable gardening" is going to be a prime candidate for your products and community of customers.
Now, let's get back to the topic at hand: turning your hobby into an online business.
I would suggest that you seriously consider creating your business in a niche market that is related to your passion, past education, acquired skills, or formal training.
Why? The reasons for emphasis on a niche that you know and understand include:
So in review, if you want to turn your hobby into an online business: (1) concentrate on going deep into your market niche, (2) don't try to compete with the broad market sellers - the big boys, (3) choose a niche that you have experience in, education on, training for, etc., and (4) make sure you have passion and zeal for the subject.
We'll expand on this topic a little more in the next post . . . see you then!
