3 Common Niche Research Myths
If you’re looking to start an online business, or perhaps you already have, then you’ve likely come across the term, “Niche.” You’ve also likely heard several myths about them. Most of these myths center on the research aspect of Niche marketing. Let’s take a look at the myths and the truth and explore what’s important to know about niche research.
Niche Research Myth #1 Niche Research Takes a Long Time.
False.
Like many things in life, it takes as long or as short as it takes. Generally, with a focused mind and a plan, it shouldn’t take more than a few days. However how long it takes also depends on how much depth you want to do your research. Generally niche research can take as little as an hour or as much as just a couple days.
And isn’t it worth whatever time it takes? Particularly, when skipping this step or rushing through it means spending days, weeks, perhaps even months with website traffic or revenue. Niche research is a small investment in time. To find your perfect niche, determine your profitability and traffic potential and to pick out keywords you want to target. That’s it.
Niche Research Myth #2 Niche Research is Hard to Do.
False.
The truth is that there are very strategic steps you can take to work your way through the niche research you need to do to be profitable. It’s not rocket science and it doesn’t require any special skills. Niche research is seriously nothing more than following steps, like a recipe. You’re simply looking at a series of pre-determined factors to see how the market you’re considering stacks up.
If you don’t know how to do your niche research, it’s possible for it to feel like you’re stumbling along lost, making uneducated guesses. It’s important to learn how to do niche research before you jump right in. However, once you know how to conduct your research, it becomes just an easy step by step process.
Niche Research Myth #3 Niche Research Doesn’t Make That Much of a Difference.
Again, false.
Niche research makes all the difference in the world. If you look at successful internet marketers, you’ll find that most of them stress the value and importance of good research. This is a step that makes a huge difference.
Consider for a moment how you search for information online. You visit your search engine of choice enter your keywords, keyword phrase or question and wait for the results. The results show up and what do you do? You scan the first few, click on the ones that look helpful and relevant and you’re off to the various websites.
Those sites that showed up on the first page of the results and whose site you visited – they did their niche research. You want to be those sites. They’re the ones getting the traffic, the opt-ins and the customers.
Niche research isn’t something you have to do. However, if you want to achieve online success and profits as quickly as possible, then it’s worth the time and effort.
Bruno
Mobile Websites and Internet Drawbacks
With new technological modes of communication, there are bound to be glitches, problems and drawbacks. The mobile web is no exception.
For starters, its operating systems are not the same as those on PC’s, and they vary with each model and device. Oh, there are a standard handful – but if you want to conduct business on the web, you need to research each type of mobile device very carefully, to see what it’s internet-ready capacity is.
One good thing, however: Mobile phones and even palm-type devices have been around for over a decade. This does help cut down on buggy behavior, since some things, developers don’t have to worry about (unlike the virgin days of personal computing, when everything about them was new.)
And being able to stay connected is far more unstable than on a PC – coverage remains an issue, even if it’s not (properly speaking) an internet issue. (This holds especially true for rural areas in North America – but then again, many rural areas also can only connect to the net via PC by dial-up.)
There are far more weighty problems to consider, however, when switching over to conducting business on your mobile. And the foremost of these is:
Personal Safety – yours, and other people’s! I recently read a study which scientifically rated people talking on mobile phones while driving as legally impaired. Their reaction time was slowed, and their attention distracted. Road safety was not their priority – their conversation was. Bluetooth technology (hands-free) has helped somewhat – but surprisingly, the distraction and slowed reaction time was still a factor, when tested.
Issues of liability have been brought up already: If you cause or get into an accident while conducting company business on your mobile, is the company liable at all? Common sense might tell us "no" – but the law often looks at things differently; and there are very few existing precedents (in spite of a staggering number of accidents).
Legal issues and site security issues are still being ironed out – not so much how to keep sites secure, but who is liable for what. It’s up to you, if you’re planning to access the web via mobile for business purposes, to practice due diligence, and make sure you thoroughly understand liabilities and legalities before you engage with a site.
In spite of these drawbacks, however, one must look at things from the viewpoint of the end user: As in "your potential customer". Mobile phones have become like a third arm to many people – and that number is growing every day!
The best thing you can do is make sure your websites are mobile ready (and secure!) Then "go with the flow" – after all, we’re living in adventurous times!
Bruno