In the last chapter we touched on some ideas that we’re going to look into in a little more detail here.
Specifically, we spoke about the fact that some demographics have more disposable income than others and that some people are more likely to spend money too.
Thinking about your audience is an entirely different approach to your niche selection and can be an interesting way to come up with a topic to cover.
Shrinking Your Audience
If you choose to operate in a large niche like fitness, then you will likely find that you struggle to stand out and compete with the other blogs there. We have discussed this already. Fortunately though, there are some ways you can have your cake and eat it.
One option is to take a broad category but to aim your blog at a very specific niche. For instance: fitness for the over fifties. Or maybe ‘parenting for people who work from home’. This is again very similar to the aforementioned ‘Nerd Fitness’.
Honing in on a small target audience is a great way to make your blog stand out in a crowded niche and it creates some great opportunities for marketing and for promotion because you now have a specific crowd you can appeal to and a number of ways you can reach them. This way, you go from being a ‘small fish in a big pond’ to being a ‘big fish in a small pond’.
What demographic based slants are there that you can pick from then?
Here are just a few ideas that might be able to get you started:
- Location based slants (LA, London?)
- Age
- Gender
- Illnesses (fitness for diabetics)
- Interests (fitness for the fashion conscious)
- Careers
- Sexuality
- Religion (Christian blogs are very popular)
And of course there are many more – so get creative!
Choosing Your Audience
Of course any niche you choose is going to affect the type of audience that you end up writing for. Some topics will naturally appeal to older or younger readers, some will appeal to one gender more than the other… etc.
This is just one more reason that you need to think carefully when selecting your niche. As stated, no niche has it all – and one that is highly profitable won’t necessarily have the best demographic.
So to provide the best guidance in selecting your niche, let’s consider what makes a great target audience.
Here are some considerations:
- Passion and commitment to the subject (here’s where something like a football team is ideal)
- Free time (meaning they have more spare time to spend on your site)
- Disposable income (so that they can spend more money on your products)
- Personality (you want them to be friendly participants in your community)
- Impulsivity (or at least, a willingness to spend money on products)
So ask yourself, what type of audience meets all those criteria?
As mentioned, the ‘silver surfer’ is a particular demographic that’s very popular at the moment, mainly because they have a lot of spare time and a lot of disposable income. This means they are more likely to spend a lot of time on your site and to spend money on the products and services you are offering.
A site that does this well is called ‘Writers’ News’. This is a site about the hobby of writing, that appeals to a lot of older women. These women spend a lot of time on the forum and generate a huge amount of user-generated content, which has a big earning potential.
But then again, silver surfers are also less than ideal in some other ways. For instance, they likely are in a happy relationship, they’re probably retired and they might not have quite the same interest in spending money on new computers, holidays or books on fitness.
So consider every aspect of the target audience you’ll be reaching before you finalize your niche!
