Hobbyist Niches vs. Consumer Niches
by Steve Johnson
In your quest to become the next millionaire who hit it big
publishing a website, you will need to decide what niche your
website will be marketed to. But while there are many articles
that
explain the importance of narrowing your focus into a specific
niche, few actually explain the various types of niches.
The two biggest types of niches are "hobbyist niches" and
"consumer
niches". Understanding each one will help you understand the
dynamics that shape success.
Hobbyist niches are "activity oriented" niches, where the
majority
of the audience takes pleasure in pursuing an interest.
Scrapbooking
is a great example of a hobbyist niche. Visit several
scrapbooking
related websites, and you'll see two major types: sites built by
scrapbooking enthusiasts simply to celebrate their hobby, and
sites
designed to sell stuff to scrapbookers.
Other examples of hobbyist niches are stamp collecting,
motorcycle
riding, hiking, video games, history, etc.
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The advantage of focusing in on a hobbyist niche, is that there
are
lots of people who are willing to link to your website without
asking for anything in return. If other website operators feel
that
your website offers valuable and unique content, they will more
than
likely promote your website, either through a link, through a
message board, or through a blog, just because hobbyists like to
let
their friends know about a great website. Hence, you can spend
most
of your time developing content, while the content attracts
incoming
links on its own.
Another advantage is that hobbyist niches can develop a large
subscriber base to a newsletter or newsfeed, as folks are always
interested in knowing what's going on in their favorite hobby.
Consumer niches are the opposite of hobbyist niches, in that the
audience is not interested in pursuing a hobby, but to satisfy
a "one-time" need. Real estate is a great example. Few people
look
to buy or sell a home several times a month, unless you're an
investor. Other examples of consumer niches are e-commerce sites
(selling flowers, books, pet food, etc.), taxes, debt
consolidation,
legal service, and product reviews.
Unlike hobbyist niches, most of the websites in a consumer niche
are
professional in nature. That is, the website owner(s) created
their
websites solely for business reasons. Thus, these websites are
not
interested in linking to your website unless there is something
in
it for them. Interestingly, many of the higher traffic websites
in a
consumer niche won't bother exchanging links with you, except
maybe
if you link to them from your homepage, and only if your
homepage
has a high "Google PR".
But one of the advantages of publishing a website in a consumer
niche is that you can command very high traffic volumes, if you
are
willing to put in the effort to compete. Typically, every person
will at some point in their life, need real estate help, or will
need legal advice, or will want to read product reviews for a
digital camera. Consumer niches can reach out to the entire
Internet
audience, whereas hobbyist niches will only reach out to a
fraction
of that audience.
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As a result, consumer niches typically enjoy the most marketing
dollars. There are more affiliate programs servicing consumer
niches, and more merchants buying advertising. Because of this,
a
small website in a consumer niche can actually earn a high
income,
whereas in a hobbyist niche a website will require more traffic
to
earn the same income.
But this is not to say that website publishers should favor
consumer
niches. Actually, both types are equally as profitable
considering
the amount of work it takes build up an audience, and how hard
it is
to compete for advertising dollars. It's actually easier to
build a
large audience within a hobbyist niche, but there is typically
less
advertising money to compete for. But in a consumer niche it's
harder to build an audience, but it's a lot easier to earn
advertising money.
Resource Box:
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Steve Johnson has been publishing websites since 1997, and
operates
Clear Digital Media (http://www.cleardigitalmedia.com)
an Internet
publishing and marketing business. He also authors "In Your Web"
(http://www.inyourweb.com)
an Internet publishing blog.
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BUSINESSMATE EZINE is published and edited by
Jess Guim, MCSE.
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