Now you have the basic idea of how dropshipping works and how you need to get started, you can begin to think about how you’re going to build your own business. This all begins with choosing your product and choosing your industry/niche.
The product of course is going to be the item that you intend to sell and this is going to be dictated by the industry or niche that you choose to enter.
An industry or niche of course is the subject matter that you intend to write on and the industry that you want to operate your business in. This is important: this choice is going to impact everything from the price of your products, to the type of person you’ll be selling to, to the type of businesses you’ll be working with.
How to Choose Your Niche
The reason we call it a ‘niche’ when talking about an online business, is that a niche is a particular category. This is not only your subject matter but also the type of person that is going to be reading your content. It’s very important that you choose this correctly because the niche will affect the size of your potential audience.
When you choose a subject matter, you want it to be one with a ‘niche appeal’. This means that it is aimed at a particular type of person who is specifically interested in that type of thing. An example of a niche might be ‘knitting’. If you have a blog about knitting and you sell knitting paraphernalia, then only people who are interested in knitting are going to read your blog and buy from you. This way, you have cut out a niche for yourself rather than trying to appeal to everyone and that in turn means you have drastically reduced the amount of competition that you’re facing. Now you don’t need to compete with the biggest companies on the net and you’ll find that paying for things like AdWords advertising is considerably more affordable than it would be for a more general topic. Likewise, getting to the top of Google for relevant keywords like ‘buy knitting gear’ online is going to be far easier than trying to get a general ecommerce keyword like ‘shop online’. The latter would put you against mega-companies like Amazon and pretty much every other online business on the net!
But the problem with choosing a niche topic is that sometimes it can be too narrow, to the point where nobody is interested in buying from you. If your niche is ‘puppies with three legs’, then you’re going to have a very small number of amputee puppy owners who can buy from you. You’ll find it relatively easy to dominate the search engines and to be the number one supplier of products in that area. However, once you’ve sold to all 200 readers… you’ve pretty much reached the limit of what you can sell.
On the other hand, a niche like ‘fitness’ may be considered too broad. ‘Buy fitness clothes online’ is a hugely popular search term that companies like Men’s Health, Under Armor and Bodybuilding.com. Ranking for search terms like ‘how to build muscle’ is even going to be very difficult.
The perfect niche or industry then is one with a broad appeal but that still gives you a unique ‘twist’. This way, you’ll be able to appeal to a lot of people but you’ll also be able to avoid directly competing with the biggest competitors. This will also give you a better ‘route to market’ – which is a term that describes any direct access you might have to your target audience. An example of a route to market for example would be a forum that is dedicated to the subject matter you’re writing about, or an industry magazine.
These Are the Perfect Niches to Pick…
With all this in mind, how do you find the perfect niche for you?
There are a few things to consider…
Your Current Niche
A lot of people reading this are going to already have a blog or a website. In that case, the best niche is obviously going to be the one that you’re already in. All you need to do then, is simply pick a product that your current readership will enjoy. You should already have their trust, so all that’s left to do is offer them products and explain how and why they can benefit from them.
An area of Interest
This will often align with that last point – but you should always pick a niche that you find personally interesting. This makes a gigantic difference to the quality of the content you put out, to your ability to pick the best products and more.
Remember, as a blog owner, you’re going to be required to write thousands of lines of content on this subject in order to demonstrate your expertise and gain the trust of your visitors (see the relevant chapter). If you don’t know anything about the niche, then this is going to come across in your writing and you’re going to find it a very dull job.
On the other hand, if you have a legitimate love of the niche you’re writing in, then you’ll find it no chore to write all that content and you’ll meanwhile find it much easier to wow your readers with what you know. What’s more, you’ll have a better idea of how to pick a truly great product that will stand out and attract your audience. You’ll have your finger on the pulse!
Niches Where You Have an Upper Hand
Again, this relates directly to the previous two examples in many cases. Suffice to say, that most of us will have contacts and advantages in some niches that give us an edge. Perhaps for example, you happen to know the owner of a very big fitness website, or of a very big fitness magazine. Knowing this person will thereby make it much easier for you to get a cheaper advert, or maybe even an article, inside the magazine. Now you can reach out to that audience directly and hopefully sell more product.
Have a long think about your lists of contacts and friends and then consider finding a product that will let you make the most of those advantages!
Niches With a Strong Value Proposition
If you look at affiliate marketing, digital products and internet marketing as a whole, you’ll notice that certain niches stand out as being by far the most popular. Those are:
- Fitness
- Making money
- Dating
Why are these the most popular niches? On the one hand, it’s because they have the broadest appeal.
But the biggest reason is that they offer the best ‘value proposition’. A value proposition is basically the way in which your business is able to offer value. This is the way that your products can change people’s lives. What is the end result of owning your product?
If you’re selling a hair dryer, then what you’re really selling is convenience and dry hair! If you’re selling clothes, then what you’re really selling is the ability to feel good about yourself, to look sexy and hopefully to thrive in your career and in dating as a result.
This is what sells.
Try and sell a book about cats and you’re really not offering much beyond a few hours of entertainment. But sell a book about making money and you’re selling a dream.
By choosing a product that can really change people’s lives, you are providing much more value – even if the manufacturing costs stay the same. This lets you charge more and make more money as a result! And it basically comes down to the niche.
Combining Niches and Finding Sub-Niches
In order to tick all these boxes, one strategy you can use is to target a sub niche; a niche within a niche. An example of this is targeting a specific type of person within the fitness niche. How about ‘fitness for the over 50s’? Or ‘dieting for the diabetic’? You could even do ‘strength training for martial artists’. In this latter example, you’ve actually combined two separate niches in order to offer something truly unique and interesting!
