Checklist: Defining Your Niche

When starting an online business, defining your niche is one of the most important first steps to take in order to get things off the ground.

It’s not really as hard as most people make it, but there are certain things that you need to iron out so that you can take your business in the right direction.

This is certainly not as daunting of a task because everything is at your fingertips online.

Compared to a traditional offline business, starting an online business is relatively cheaper in terms of the associated financial burdens, business structures, as well as ease of entry.

For instance, the affiliate marketing business model requires a considerably lower capital, a simple business structure and the barriers to entry next to none.

This means that starting an online business can be done by pretty much anyone that has the desire and work ethic to make it happen.

⬆️ If You Prefer a Different Format, Here’s a Video Version of this Blog Post with Added Commentary ⬆️

However, due to the low barriers to entry, online businesses are often characterized by high competition.

As such, when seeking to delve into the online business market, it is important to identify factors and strategies that are likely to make you stand out from your competition.

The first step to starting an online business is defining and identifying your niche.

When defining your niche, always start by identifying a need in the market and ensuring that your business is able to sufficiently meet the need.

Before jumping on a business idea, it is important to know who makes up your target market.

This calls for extensive research in order to not only gain a comprehensive overview of your target market but to further understand their behavior and purchasing patterns.

This checklist highlights the factors to analyze when defining a niche for your online business.

FYI: This checklist can be used as a guideline, whether you are a product creator or an affiliate marketer.

✅ Find a need in the market and identify ways to fill it

✅ Identify potential industries for your niche

✅ Consider a niche that no one is providing solutions to sufficiently

✅ Identify gaps and opportunities in your selected niche

✅ Identify your value offering

✅ Frequent online forums and communities to find out what people are interested in

✅ Conduct keyword searches for your niche

✅ Analyze potential competitors in your niche

✅ Analyze the scalability of your selected niche

✅ Check that your potential niche is digital friendly

✅ Evaluate your marketing infrastructure for the selected niche

✅ Check the business’ opportunity scope for the long-term

✅ Identify your target market

✅ Determine your target market’s interests

✅ Identify your target market’s pain points

✅ Analyze your target market’s behavior online

✅ Segment your target market in terms of demographics

✅ Determine whether or not your target market is willing to pay premium prices for your products/services or the products and services you are recommending as an affiliate.

✅ Identify your target market’s source of information

✅ Identify appropriate ways to reach your target market

Additional Notes:

📌 Determine whether to sell physical goods, digital downloads or services

📌 Avoid new niches that may not have the required traffic to boost your business

Going through this checklist should help you define your niche for your online business with a lot more clarity, knowing you are covering all of your bases.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day 🙂

To Your Success,

P.S.- Be sure to grab your free gifts below as a Thank You for visiting my website 🙂

About

Nicole Lynn

from

Resources for Online Success

My Online Journey

You don’t know me. I’m not some flashy internet marketer with my name and face all over the internet.

Nope. I’m actually way too introverted for that 🙂

I’m just an ordinary person that had to figure out a way to make money online when I lost my job in 2008, due to health issues.

In the offline world, I gained several years experience in Customer Service, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable and various other clerical type positions.

Much of it was drudgery, especially working in call centers.

I was good at my various jobs, but I did not enjoy being hostage to a cubicle and headset..lol 🙂

But, you do what soul sucking jobs you have to do, in order to make money to pay the bills.

As a free spirit, I always had the deep desire to break free from the cubicle-zombie-robot rat race world and have full control over my time, income and life, without having to have permission from a boss.

I was tired of being just another “number” that was expendable, no matter how dependable I was or how hard I worked (just to help build someone else’s wealth and make their dreams come true).

I wanted to create MY freedom…not just build it for someone else.

Unexpectedly in 2008, severe neck issues forced me out of the 9 to 5 corporate world rat race (before I was actually ready financially, which really sucked a lot and was pretty scary).

My neck issues got worse after years of being trapped at a computer, with little to no permission to get up and move around and stretch.

This is not good when you are suffering from old car accident injuries.

This was especially the case in call center jobs with low cubicle walls. They didn’t want you standing up, due to the noise while on calls.

And although losing my job and the paycheck was a less than pleasant experience, my goal was to be an online entrepreneur anyway.

But, I was forced to make it happen at that point…which was not ideal.

Wasted Time Dabbling

It’s better to have a 2nd income already coming in regularly before losing your main source of income, but I had no control over what happened.

I had already been “dabbling” in internet marketing, on the side, since 2004…basically wasting time.

I treated it as a hobby, instead of an online business.

I actually made a little bit of money with affiliate commissions and some advertising revenue, but it was nothing to write home about because I did not build it up.

If I had realized that my health was going to go sideways so badly in 2008, then I would’ve taken my online business “side gig” much more seriously.

I would’ve hustled, even while still working a full-time job, because 4 years would’ve been more than enough time to have built that online business into a full-time income.

Just an extra 1 hour per day consistently over that 4 year period…would have made all the difference.

So, after I lost my job in 2008, I was in a real bind for more than one reason.

I needed to get serious and stop dabbling and start hustling to make money online, but it takes time to build an online business that brings in consistent income.

I was out of time. My household went from two incomes to one and I needed to get moving.

The problem was my severe neck issues and the accompanying dizziness from nerve damage in my C1 Vertebrae, the Atlas.

So, this meant that I couldn’t exactly hustle like I needed to because being on a computer for hours each day at home is no different than doing it at a job.

I was no longer able to do this, if I wanted to not end up completely disabled or bed-ridden.

The years 2008-2011 were extremely tough in trying to heal, but with proper therapy, the worst of it got better, but it’s not 100%.

Even now in 2022, I still can only be on a computer so much each day, without causing flare-ups.

So again, if I had taken it all more seriously, then I wouldn’t have ended up with so many financial worries, when I lost my job.

I would’ve had something more substantial to fall back on during times that were difficult money-wise and health-wise.

Then, add in beating my head against the wall, jumping from one “program” to another and basically flushing more time and money down the toilet.

Losing my job made me act in desperation because I wanted to make something happen right now.

So, I ended up doing what a lot of people do, which is looking for a shortcut and something “quick” or “push button”…which is not realistic because it doesn’t really exist.

Then in 2012, I joined Wealthy Affiliate because it had the tools and resources I needed all in one place, to help me build an online business.

Fast forward to 2020, I joined The Home Business Academy to add even more great tools and resources to my online business arsenal.

I now use both of these resources to build my online business.

I talk more about this over on my Recommended Resources page listed under Resources #1 and #2.

I enjoy making money online because I can work from anywhere and on my own schedule, while still being able to take care of my health.

You Can Do It Too

So, why do I tell you all of this?

I share all of this with you, so you’ll know it’s possible to make money online and have total freedom from the 9-5 grind.

It takes time to build an online business, but it’s worth it to build either a side-income to supplement your full-time job or replace your job.

If you have found yourself in a similar situation to me or you simply want to get ahead of things and plan for the future, your goal going forward should be to not waste any more time.

Whether you love your job or hate your job, it’s always a good idea to have a Plan B to supplement your income or replace your income.

You never know what can happen with your job or even with your health.

Don’t waste time, like I did.

Just get started and keep going.

Hustle.

Do not dabble.

Take action now.

And most importantly, believe in yourself.

You can do it!