How To Find A Micro Niche

by pkmcr

There is an increasing focus on Micro Niches within online marketing. But how do you find them? Let's take a look at How To Find a Micro Niche and help you to be successful

We took a look at What is a Micro Niche in another article but let's just remind ourselves what a Micro Niche is.

A micro niche is a small segment of a larger market. It is often easiest to understand these things by looking at a specific example.

So let's take a look at Furniture which is a market. Within Furniture we might decide to focus on Wooden furniture which is a niche albeit a very large one. Wooden dining room tables is another example of a niche and a little smaller than our Wooden Furniture niche.

But let's now take it to micro niche level!Wooden dining room tables made from sustainable materials is one which we can define as a micro niche. One thing you may have noticed is that the phrase becomes longer as it becomes narrower. The original keyword or market of Furniture was just one word. By the time we reach the micro niche we have eight words.

The reason I believe Micro niches are both important and effective is because people are no longer typing one word searches into their preferred search engine.

Using our example they know that if they type “Furniture” into Google, or any other search engine, they are going to get millions of results with most of them not meeting their needs. Nowadays searchers are tending to type exactly what they are looking for which is often, what we call, a long tail keyword phrase.

So let's now take a look at some different approaches to how to find Micro Niches.

Ideas On How To Find A Micro Niche

Brainstorming Your Niche

As a trainer brainstorming has always been one of my favorite approaches to coming up with ideas! There’s something really powerful about being able to let go of all rules, doubts, and judgments and just allowing your mind to explore the possibilities. I find that it can be both freeing and empowering at the same time.

When it comes to brainstorming micro niches or even potential business ideas, there are a variety of approaches you can take. Which approach you take or prefer will largely depend on how comfortable you are with brainstorming and also how you prefer to organize your thoughts.

Remembering what we said earlier about what a Micro Niche is let's take a look at a few methods that you might want to consider:

Pencil and Paper

Yes the trusty pencil and paper still has a place in today's internet world!

Make sure to set some time aside for yourself when you are feeling relatively relaxed.  Then you just need to grab an empty notebook or some sheets of paper together with your favorite pen or pencil.  Then start writing down any ideas that occur to you. As a start point you might want to consider starting with topics that you are interested in.

Just write as the ideas come into your head.  At this stage don't start judging them for their profit potential or even for what you perceive as a potential interest from others. That will all come later because at this stage we are looking at potential micro niches.

Just write down what you like, what you know and what you’re good at. If you are good at making lasagna, then write it down, and follow through with the micro niches or long tail keywords that flow from it - so as an example how to make lasagane quickly for 4 people might come to mind!

Mind Mapping

I have used mind mapping in so many different ways ever since I had the good fortune to work with the Buzan Organization.

Mind mapping is a really powerful way to do brainstorming because once you have created your mind map you can add to it and change it as you start your niche research.

There are variety of free, and paid mind mapping software programs found online.  My personal favorite is the one for the iPad or iPod Touch which you can get when you Shop on iTunes

Alternatively you can simply use a piece of paper. In the center of the page on which you are going to create your mind map write down the words "Possible Niches" or something similar. Then for each new main or major niche idea create a new branch. You can then create smaller branches coming off the main branch for each main niche idea as you think of smaller niches and then your micro niches.

Spreadsheets

You might think that spreadsheets are not that suited to brainstorming because they are quite structured. However for some people they can provide organization to an otherwise unorganized process. Again, you can find free and paid programs online.

The first column of your spreadsheet might be the one you list your niches in then your second, third, fourth columns might be where you start to get down into the micro niches of your main niches.

Of course there aren't just three options when it comes to ways of finding micro niches and brainstorming is just one approach.  However, it is one I used extensively when I first got involved in online and niche marketing.

Just a reminder that when you are preparing to brainstorm do make sure that you are reasonably rexaled and comfortable.  That is going to help you to be even more creative. If you are stressed you are unlikely to be able to think outside the box. It's when you are really creative in your brainstorming, that the real potential shows up.

More on Niche Marketing

What is niche marketing and why do so many people encourage us to focus on niche markets and to create niche marketing strategies? Let's take a look at why Niche Marketing works!
The trend for marketing to move into micro niches continues but what exactly is a micro niche? How do you define a micro niche and do you need to focus on them in your marketing?
We know that Niche Marketing is the way to go but then comes the challenge of choosing a niche! How do you choose a niche to market to and how do you decide what to market to them?

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Updated: 05/28/2013, pkmcr
 
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BrendaReeves on 04/01/2012

Thanks for the great advice. I'm going to start using it right now.

janices7 on 03/09/2012

Interesting read! Personally I'm a spreadsheet kind of gal.

AJ on 02/23/2012

When it comes to mind mapping with a paper and pencil or with software, I find that resorting back to the more "old fashioned" pencil and paper actually unlocks more creative thinking for me :) I really should do it more often!!

Annie on 08/21/2011

very interesting Paul thanks

Joan Haines on 08/20/2011

Thanks for the idea to use mind mapping!

happynutritionist on 08/13/2011

Very helpful...I've been wondering about longer titles, like the encouragement here that, done within reason, they provide more keyword possibilities. Looks like a great book, and a concept I should explore more.

PeggyHazelwood on 08/07/2011

Great idea here. I flit from one thing to another but can see the benefit of writing about a niche using micro niches. Thanks!

annie on 08/07/2011

great

petunia on 08/07/2011

I have tried before to use mindmaps and so far, it has not worked for me. I am going to try your idea of free-handing my mindmap for ideas today. Maybe that will work better.
Generally making a list of 100 has proven most effective for me. always the last 10-12 ideas are the best, it seems...
I always learn from you, Paul, and I appreciate this peek into how you research for niche ideas.
:) I did notice this week that we are both targeting the same niche. :) different sites we are writing on and that's a good thing. maybe we will together take over page 1 of google on this one!

Spook on 08/07/2011

This is indeed excellent and well worth reading. My problem remains that I'm locked in a world which has since passed us all bye and I just can't get into the mindset of catering to the youngsters who think so differently to me. Looks like that just leaves me with older people who also seem to have quite different tastes to mine? Thanks for giving me something to think about and most importantly I'm finally beginning to realise what you mean by a long tailed keyword.


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