If you are new to Internet marketing and looking for a profitable niche market…. try looking to Amazon for inspiration on finding your market niche.
Amazon.com is the worlds largest online retailer and sells just about everything you can think of under the sun.
It is also a great place to research red hot niche markets for products that are selling in real time.
If you click on the “All” tab arrow at the left on Amazon’s main search bar, it will provide you with a list of categories or current hot niches.
When you click on a specific category and hit “enter” in the blank search engine, a new page will be displayed with a list of sub categories on the left hand side of the page.
These sub categories or sub-niches when clicked on will then drill you down farther into additional, more specific sub-niches.
You can continue clicking on these sub-niches to display more and more specific niches that are relevant to your initial search query.
Talk about refining your niche searches!
Looking to Amazon for inspiration on finding your market niche gets even better because you are viewing the actual products that are currently being sold as you make your searches.
Each of the products you are looking at are products that are selling in real time.
In order to to find the hottest products that are currently selling on Amazon, you can also sort by “new and popular”.
Select “best sellers” from the navigation bar at the top of the page just under the search box to see what the best selling products are that are being sold in real time.
This information is updated on an hourly basis 24/7.
Clicking on the other tabs under the main search bar allows you to tap into current Movers & Shakers, Top Rated, Hot New Releases, Most Wished For or even Gift Ideas.
And if this isn’t enough, you can also see what people in the various niche markets think of the products that have been sold to them by sorting through the various “customer review”s.
This area will help you weed out products that buyers have problems with and that you really would not want to promote.
There is a plethora of information available at your fingertips on Amazon to help you with your niche inspiration, all you have to do is avail yourself and take advantage of it.
The most common debate among Internet marketers when researching profitable niche markets is whether to follow your passion or follow the money.
Follow The Money
Are you better off looking for a niche market that you know something and are passionate about, or should you follow the money and go where the most money is most likely to be made?
Obviously, the best scenario is to combine both in your search for a profitable niche market.
The probability that you are more likely to succeed in going with something you have knowledge in or are passionate about is hard to find fault with.
When you already know more than the average person about the subject at hand, you are probably willing to put more effort into it and enjoy working with it.
It can be difficult to succeed and remain motivated when you know nothing about a topic and have no real interest in it.
It is also harder to create interesting content about a subject you have little interest in and that you are likely to become more easily bored.
In many cases, your audience will pick up on the fact that they know more about the topic than you do. In these instances, your audience will have no reason to listen to any advice you give them.
Many Internet marketers achieved success because they created something they were both passionate about and had some real commercial viability.
You can be as passionate about a topic as you like, but you will not make any money if there is nothing to sell or nothing to monetize.
For instance. If you are a rock hound and your hobby is rock collecting, you probably will not make much money from it regardless of your enthusiasm unless the rocks you collect are ore bearing or radioactive.
Following the money isn’t entirely a bad idea, it just means that you may have to struggle more.
If you crunch the numbers and discover a niche that has the potential to be extremely profitable, you would be foolish not to get involved in it.
However, if you know absolutely nothing about the market niche, plan to write all the content yourself and have little to no interest in the topic, there is a better than average chance you will fail in your endeavor.
There are exceptions to this..
Business minded individuals who are usually laser focused and highly motivated can successfully work on topics that the everyday person could and would not involve themselves with.
Therefore, unless you are very business minded you will probably do better focusing on niche markets that you are interested in and have some passion for, especially if it is your first online project.
Ideally, you should be able to identify a niche market that is both profitable and that you have some interest and passion in.
The first time around, the majority of Internet marketers creating niche websites and online businesses follow both their passions and the money.
After you have had some initial success, it becomes much easier to branch out into other projects where your interest level and passions are not as high.
Regardless of whether you follow your passion or follow the money, it is necessary to thoroughly research your niche before jumping into it if you plan on achieving any success at all.
We all know how huge social media is, so here are some tips on how to take advantage of Facebook and Twitter for your business and get it right the first time.
Since there are well over 150 million tweets made every day on Twitter and well over 800 million users on Facebook; it should be no surprise how important these two social media platforms can be to your business.
From marketing research, to data capture, to branding, to customer service and sales; social media has a plethora of uses in marketing.
When you get it right, social media can provide huge amounts of traffic, sales, brand awareness and SEO to your business. However, when you get it wrong, your business could suffer from the web savvy public.
From a business standpoint it is important to know why you are using social media. Why are you doing it and what are you trying to achieve? Are your reasons valid?
Once you have your goals identified, you can build your social media campaigns around these fundamentals.
Both Facebook and Twitter can be used to increase brand awareness and build both presence and community.
You can add brand pages of Facebook and use Facebook apps for promoting and advertising your business.
Twitter in conjunction with trending topic advertising and sponsored posts is also about to add brand pages.
Since social media is all about people, make your content easy to share.
Identify advocates and devote the primary focus of your time on social media sites to the building of relationships.
Creating great content is important on Facebook and Twitter.
In order to succeed with any social media, you need to create outstanding content that people will want to share among themselves.
Try to capture the imagination of your target audience and post accordingly.
You can boost sales and make your business more profitable on social media by using discounts or promotional offers to drive traffic to your website.
However, displaying the same ad over and over again on Facebook or tweeting the same tweet over and over again on Twitter can kill your click-through rate.
And, this can happen in a matter of days or even hours.
Keep things mixed up and have backup ads using different images, headlines and offers ready to go.
Social media can also help you keep your existing customers happy.
Because customer recruitment can be an extremely expensive proposition, customer retention is important. Use social media to address your customer’s concerns and keep them happy.
Using social media can be a cost effective way of making your business more profitable.
Many large companies use social media as part of their overall brand building and marketing strategy. Zappos.com is a prime example of how effective it can be.
Public perception is important in our society, so how your business is perceived when you use social media is extremely important to it’s welfare.
Being authentic and putting forth an appropriate tone is critical for your brand when using social media.
Setting the wrong tone can be a crucial mistake on Twitter or Facebook and could cost you dearly in your business.
Poorly thought out tweets or posts can backfire. Just look at McDonalds as a prime example. They received a barrage of bad tweets after posting a poorly thought out tweet and suffered for it.
When taking advantage of Facebook and Twitter for your business, build on your company’s strengths. Remember that a long term plan for your social media has a greater chance of success than a short term effort.
Many businesses utilize automation and scheduling tools for convenience however, they should not replace human interaction.
Some social monitoring tools can be essential for increased brand awareness and tools can save a business time, but nothing replaces a human when interacting with social media.
Although learning how to take advantage of Facebook and Twitter for your business takes some time to master, the benefits are beyond dispute.
