Let’s get real here: if you pick the wrong niche, it’s only a matter of time until

you fail. This is guaranteed. Maybe you would fail immediately, or it will take

several years. Regardless, if you build your online business on the wrong niche,

that business is never going to live up to its fullest potential. In fact, in 90% of

cases, it’s not going to live long at all. That’s how crucial certain decisions are in

niche marketing.

You have to select the right niche getting out of the gate. If you don’t and you try

to fix it later on, it’s going to take too much time and money, assuming you are

able to fix it at all. It’s like building a building and completing it, only to discover

that there is something wrong with the foundation. How in the world are you

going to swap out the foundation of a 100-storey building? It’s going to take a lot

of time and money.

Worst of all, all those expenses and wasted resources did not have to be

wasted. Learn about the seven leading causes of niche marketing failure, so

you can build your business in a more systematic way. By understanding what

doesn’t work, you put yourself in a position to create something that does.
You don’t want to build a business around a demand that doesn’t exist or isn’t

big enough. Unfortunately, this is precisely what so many online marketers do.

They create a business, trying to chase consumers that are too and far between.

You spend a tremendous amount of time, effort and money, looking for these

customers, only to end up with little to show for all your efforts. You would have

been better off doing something else.

Please understand that just because you think an idea is hot, it doesn’t

necessarily mean that it’s true. Sure, you’re excited and pumped up, but your

passion may not translate to actual market demand. A little bit of research on

market demand can go a long way in saving you from unnecessary tears and

heartaches.
It’s very easy to get on a bandwagon. It really is. For example, when the fidget

spinner craze hit America, it seemed like everybody was selling fidget spinners. I

can’t say I blame them. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Everybody wanted fidget

spinners. It was the hottest thing. It was a trend.

The problem is, you don’t want to be the last guy to get on the trend. You don’t

want to be the online business owner who puts up an online catalog listing all

the fidget spinners you can get your hands on at precisely the time the

American public has fallen out of love with that gadget.

Unfortunately, people do this all the time. They look at what’s hot and they

come up with a business to capitalize on that trend. I’m not saying this wrong.

What is problematic is the timing. You want to hit a trend before it peaks. You

don’t want to be the guy who’s building a business right after a trend has

peaked. You end up losing out.

If you don’t have a niche selection system, it’s very easy to select niches that

have already achieved peak popularity and are slowly dying. The problem with

this is that they look very healthy at first. You don’t have any idea that the

bottom is about to fall out of the niche you have built your business on.
I’ve seen this a lot in all my years as an affiliate marketer. I would find a niche

that has a lot of demand and is far from peaking in popularity. A lot of people are

marketing in that niche, but competition is still manageable. There are all sorts of

advertisers selling in that niche. What’s not to love, right? Well, look more

closely.

Sure, there are lots of products and services in that niche. The problem is, when

you go to those websites actually selling those products and services, it turns out

that they’re not charging much money. This is a serious problem. You don’t want

to pick a niche that has low commercial value.

Considering what you’re up against, and I’m not just talking about the

competition, I’m also talking about all the costs and effort needed to put up a

viable business, the return on investment might not be there. You have to

understand that when you’re building a business, it takes some time to get it to

produce a profit. What do you do before that point?

Unfortunately, if you are targeting a niche that has low commercial value,

you’re not going to earn as much as you need to earn to make your venture

worthwhile.
Many niche marketers get really pumped up about much money they can make

per sale, the huge demand for their niche, as well as the fact that their niche is

far from peaking. They’re all excited about their niche. This is all well and good

until they realize that they simply have too much competition. It turns out that

everybody and his dog have heard of this niche and they’ve already built their

own websites or created their own software or mobile app. Whatever the case

may be, there’s simply too much competition.

I understand what you’re thinking. You’re probably thinking, “Well, if the pie is

really big, then there’s enough to go around. Everybody can come in.” That

would be great if that was the truth. You have to understand that there is such a

thing as network effect.

If you the first player in a niche and you have secured a fairly big chunk of the

market, it makes it harder for newer people to make a dent in the industry. In fact,

your initial dominant position enables you to create a network effect.

You basically tell your customers and prospective customers that you have

something better coming or you have related products.

coming out with a competing product. You are already a tried and proven

option, why would people take a chance with a newcomer? Do you see how this

works?

Competition can easily kill your business. It doesn’t matter how awesome you

think your product is. It doesn’t matter how much time, money and effort you

spend on your business. If you have too much competition, it’s going to be an

uphill climb. You had better be prepared to buy out your competition or come

up with a truly breakout product so as to break away from the crowd of

competitors you’re up against.

significant commercial value. They also have manageable levels of competition

and are far from peaking. The problem is that there are few existing businesses

willing to advertise for that kind of niche. This puts you in a bind.

If you cannot monetize and otherwise awesome niche, then there’s really very

little money in it. Sure, there’s a high commercial value in theory, but theory is

not going to put food on your table. Theory is not going to pay your rent. You

have to focus on actual monetization. This is a fancy word for the process of

turning online traffic into cold hard cash in your pocket.

You have to have a clear idea of how to monetize your online brand,

otherwise you’re just wasting your time. All those YouTube videos you

created, your tweets, your Facebook shares, your blog posts, your content,

everything, was a massive waste of time. Don’t be the last one to find out.
I can’t even begin to tell you how many websites out there are actual gold

mines, but their owners are completely clueless about that fact. Talk about sad.

Unfortunately, this happens all the time. The owners of these websites know

that their sites get a lot of traffic and that they cater to a high demand, high

commercial value market.

Then, they put up some AdSense ads and maybe a few affiliate links and call it a

day. I’m not saying that they are making zero dollars with their online properties.

Maybe they’re making four figures or even five. The problem is, their brand is

capable of so much more. Why settle for four figures when you can potentially be

sitting on a business that is worth six or seven figures every single year?

Believe me, this happens quite a bit. I don’t know if it’s laziness or just lack of

vision. What I do know is that this happens all the time. Don’t be one of those

people. Select a niche than can scale with your brand. Next, make sure it

happens.
Have you ever come across a website that looks like a ghost town? You check

out the posts and a lot of them are high quality. You check out the dates on the

posts and it seems like the owner was very active for some time and then, all of

a sudden, the website no longer got updated. It’s as if they hit some sort of wall.

Welcome to zombie website land.

Trust me, there are hundreds of thousands of websites scatters throughout the

internet that are essentially zombies. For all practical purposes, these websites

are dead. Now, don’t get me wrong, they’re not dead in the sense that you

can’t access them anymore. Obviously, whoever owns them still renews the

domain name for the website. That’s how you are able to find them in the first

place.

But when it comes to actual content being published and engagement with

visitors, there’s none of that. These websites are basically abandoned. I’m sure

the owner may be making money from these websites, but I’m also sure that

they’re not making as much money as they could.

This is due to the fact that they may have created a website that they have

simply lost interest in. I know you may be scratching your head. If a website
produces $2000, $3000 or even $10000 a month, wouldn’t the money make you

care? Wouldn’t the extra income push you to be more excited about your

project? Well, that’s you. Other people may not have had their heart in their

project to begin with.

This is a serious problem. If you want a business that would truly live up to its

fullest financial potential, you need to have a strong personal interest in the topic

of your online property.

Unfortunately, a lot of online entrepreneurs simply focus on trends. They try to

build businesses on trending market demands. Maybe they’ve heard that a

certain topic is very popular, so they build a website around it. They couldn’t

care less about it, but they know that there is money to be made.

These online publishers may be able to do well enough for some period of time,

but eventually, their lack of interest in their niche is going to catch up to them.

They’re not as motivated in updating. They definitely couldn't care less about

audience engagement. Sooner or later, their website hits a plateau. It stops

growing. It can still make money, but it just stops growing. Eventually, it starts to

decline.
Don’t put yourself in this situation. Make sure you pick a niche that you are

actually excited about.

Keep the seven causes of niche marketing failure above in mind as you plan

your business. Niche marketing is not a hobby, nor is it a joke. I can be a great

way to make a living. Can you imagine going on extended vacations throughout

the world and earn money at the same time? Can you imagine going to sleep

and waking up to find out that you made a few hundred bucks overnight?

This is not a fantasy, nor is it speculation. This happens quite a bit. Welcome to

the world of online passive income. Setting up online properties that run on their

own and generate money can provide you with a substantial passive income.

However, you have to build them right. Niche selection is a crucial part of that

process.

I would venture to guess that 90% of your success turns on whether you

selected the right niche or not. Avoid the niche marketing failures I have

listed above, so you can build your online business on solid foundations.

Click here for a systematic blueprint that will help you achieve the kind of

niche marketing success you have always dreamt of.