Sure, keywords need to be SEO’ed, traffic generation is an important issue, so is finding quality content and promoting your blog. But the first and foremost task of any first time internet marketer or online business is to identify a niche strategy - that is, to carefully decide and choose a product or service which will appeal to a niche or a targeted segment within a larger market.

It would obviously be futile generating loads of traffic looking for Italian food to a Chinese food blog. However, if Cantonese food can be identified as a possible niche within the Chinese food sphere, then it will save a lot of time and effort to focus and concentrate all efforts on attracting Cantonese food lovers.

There are countless ways of going about to identify a suitable niche. The competitive nature of the on-line business means that literature on just about any topic is in abundance and is usually free of charge. Successful entrepreneurs identify their niche strategy based on having good knowledge of a particular market and then being able to spot a gap or shortfall within that market that customers are looking for. Obviously the gap needs to have sufficient demand and many people make the mistake of targeting too small a niche and end up with little or no traffic.

A great example which I came across recently is the niche for meals which are cooked ahead of time. This niche was spotted by a busy and successful career woman, soccer-mum, avid foodie and savvy on-line marketer who was time-poor and wanted good recipes for meals which could be cooked ahead of time for her family during the week. She searched on the internet and found none. Instead, she wrote her own recipes and published them on her own food blog and hence, makeaheadmeals.blogspot.com was born. If you search the term “make ahead meals” on Google, her page comes out on top and is even ranked ahead of the domain makeaheadmeals.com which is owned by none other than home-maker diva Martha Stewart. She was savvy because she focused on a niche which perhaps millions of busy mothers and career women were looking for rather than one which might appeal onto to a select few.

In short, the cliché of “knowing what your customers want” and having a niche strategy that hits the mark right from the start will ensure half the battle won.

Micro Niche Finder

This is a great resource to help you find that elusive niche and ensure you will be targeting your niche market every time. The key advantages include:

• Comprehensive Keyword research tool that saves time and effort
• Easy to follow videos
• Quick-to-market squeeze pages