No matter how many times we talk about “niches” there always seems to be some confusion surrounding this term. People tend to get started down the wrong path and become sidetracked to what this term really means, and they end up failing to see any success online as a result.
In today’s post, I want to share with you 5 of the most common mistakes people make when choosing the direction they would like to go in and what group of people they initially would like to target.
#1- Having Multiple Niches On 1 Site
Believe it or not, I see people make this mistake all the time and it makes me think to myself, what are they thinking anyway? When you start building your website it’s extremely important that you only focus on 1 niche per site. When people visit your site they’re looking for precise information on something and your job as an internet marketer is to deliver that information to them in the best way possible.
If they see an ad for something that’s totally unrelated to the overall theme of your site and doesn’t fit in, they’ll likely get confused and end up leaving your site.
Think about it! If you visited a site that had an article talking about the best iPhone 6 cases and then right next to it there was another article that talked about how to make money online wouldn’t you get confused?
I’ve worked with many people over the years and when I ask them why they do this they tell me they get bored writing for just 1 niche. This is why I always tell people to choose something that you’re interested in and could see yourself writing about for years to come without getting bored with it.
If you focus on only 1 niche per site you’re much more likely to be successful and you can always branch out later and build other sites once your first site is generating revenue for you on a consistent basis.
#2- Choosing A Niche That’s Too Broad
Far too often I see people making the mistake of selecting a niche that’s too broad. To be completely honest with everyone here today, I did the exact same thing when I first started here. My first niche was electronics and little did I know at the time that there were 1,000’s of sub niches inside this massive niche alone.
Luckily I had someone point me in the right direction and tell me that I needed to narrow this down and find my targeted audience. A great example of breaking down a niche so it’s more targeted would be the health niche. By itself, this is extremely too broad of a niche, but let’s break it down so it’s more targeted OK?
I find that the best way to break a niche down is by going to Dmoz.com and typing it into their search engine. This way I get a multitude of sub-categories for this niche and close to 50,000 niches inside this massive niche alone.
Take a look at the screenshot below!
As you see above, there are 43, 838 potential niches in the health niche with another 20,000 niches inside other categories. There’s no way you could handle this massive of a niche on your own, even if you hired a crew of 100 writers.
My advice to you would be to narrow this down as far as you possibly can so that you can find your targeted audience.
For example, let’s go with the addictions niche!
This could be….
Someone looking for help to quit smoking.
Someone looking for help to quit drinking.
Someone looking for help with their gambling addiction.
Someone looking for help with their porn addiction.
These are all massive niches on their own and a whole lot more targeted than just health.
So we took the health niche and broke it down to addictions, then we broke that down even further by targeting a specific addiction. The more you narrow this down the better and this will give you a chance to get to know your audience better and provide them with the answer to their search queries.
#3- Getting Involved With A Niche Strictly For The Money
Many times people tell me they are going with ____ because they heard there’s lot’s of money in it. The main goal when entering into any niche should be to help people, not just be here to collect a paycheck. If you help people and build a relationship with your audience first, the money will come later.
Not only is this a recipe for disaster, but you’re likely to never make any money at all. If this is something you have absolutely no interest in, or if it bores the crap out of you then I don’t think it would be in your best interest to pursue this.
There’re millions of dollars to be made in just about any niche imaginable so don’t feel like certain niches have a limited earning potential.
Do you wanna know what determines how profitable a niche will be? I’ll let you in on the secret! IT’S YOU! Only you can determine how profitable a niche is. Depending on how thorough you are with your research and the amount of knowledge you currently know about it will determine how profitable it will be for you.
I would advise you to go with something you’re passionate about because it will be a whole lot easier for you, rather then going into something you hate just cause you heard it was profitable.
#4- Failing To Understand The True Meaning Of A Niche
I think we are all guilty of this at some time or another when we first started. I know I was guilty of this myself when I first started here. It took me quite a while before I understood the true meaning of this term.
It’s important NOT to confuse this word with something that it’s not.
PEOPLE!!
A specific group of people searching for something in particular. That’s it! I buy many things online all the time and I’m part of many niches. The other day, I was searching for information on how to fix my dryer. I researched many niche sites before I found out which part I needed to complete the job.
This is another massive niche and one that lots of people are leveraging to earn a full time income online.
I’m also a huge gamer as many of you may already know. I’m always looking for the best deal on gaming accessories or the hottest game out there to hit the market. That means I’m also part of the gaming niche. What niches are you a part of based on your purchases online?
#5- Choosing A Domain Name That Doesn’t Describe Your Website
In the past couple of months, I’ve seen many people make this mistake when first getting started online. If you choose a domain name that has nothing to do with your niche, then you are starting out down the wrong path and you’ll experience limited or NO success online.
You should be able to read your domain name and be able to get a good indication as to what your overall site is about.
For example, If I had a site about truck drivers I would want to make sure the keyword “Truck Drivers” was in the domain name somewhere. You wouldn’t want to talk about truck drivers on waystoquitsmoking.com would you? Of course not!
Always make sure that you choose the right domain name for your business if you want to experience any level of success in the online world.
Here’s What I Think
When I first started here 3 years ago, I made some of these mistakes because I was a newbie and had no idea what I was doing. This is perfectly natural and something that can’t be helped. The important thing is that you learn from your mistakes and don’t continue to make them.
I really hope that this post has offered you some insight on some mistakes for you to avoid when making the decision to start an online business. If you can avoid making these mistakes when you first get started, your chances of becoming successful have just doubled.
Have you made any of these mistakes when you first started online? Are you guilty of making these mistakes right now as we speak? I would love to hear about your experience and how you handled it in the comments below.
Also, if this post has helped you, or you think it would help a friend feel free to share it using the share buttons below. I’d really appreciate it.
Cheers
~Scott~
Chris
Hmmm well I entered the fitness niche a few months back and now I’m really struggling – I have been advised that maybe I have been too broad with my choice of niche….would you agree with this?
Do you know of any SEO tools that would maybe put me back into the race?
Scott Newkirk
Hi Chris,
The fitness niche can be one of the most competitive niches out there and this isn’t something I would recommend a newbie start out with. In order for you to have any success with any niche, you’ll need to narrow this down so you can find your targeted audience.
I would say you’re definitely too broad with this and this is the main reason why you’re struggling.
By failing to narrow this down you are basically trying to take on all of the niches below plus many more all within 1 website.
Here are just a few niches that you’ll find inside this massive niche.
Sports performance
Bodybuilding
Weight loss
Rehab
Your targeted audience could range anywhere from athletes and trainers to seniors and couch potatoes looking to get in shape and stay fit. You need to ask yourself what group of people do you want to help within this niche?
There isn’t any SEO tools that will help you with this you’ll just need to narrow this down to a more targeted group of people and provide people with the information they’re looking for and lead them in the right direction.
I hope this helps and if you have any other questions or need my help please let me know Chris.
To your success online.
~Scott~
jschicanha
Thank you so much for such an informative and helpful article Scott!
I’m guilty of making all 5 of these mistakes when I first started here and I kept wondering why I wasn’t seeing no results. The one I’m guilty of the most, is failing to narrow my niche down.
I had no idea that there were thousands of mini niches inside 1 niche and it makes complete sense why I haven’t been getting anywhere.
I’ll definitely implement these things that you have mentioned here and keep you updated on my progress. Thanks again for sharing these valuable tips with us and I’ll be looking forward to much more helpful articles from you in the future.
~Jose~
Scott Newkirk
No problem at all Jose!
I’m glad this article has helped you out and has pointed out some mistakes that you’ve made starting out and ways to fix them going forward. Like you, I was also guilty of all of these when I started here as well.
I actually went through 3 niches myself before I found one that worked for me and one I could make lots of money from.
Please keep me updated on how things are going for you after you make these changes and let me know if you have any additional questions or need a helping hand.
To your success!
~Your Friend, Scott~
Jan
Hi Scott,
Coming across your great website here has helped me realise what I am likely doing wrong after a couple of months of building my website: too broad with more than one niche, choosing the website’s name and more.
Thank you for your straightforward advice and showing me directions in how to make changes, I definitely learned from my mistakes.
I would really appreciate your valued comments on my site so I know where to go next.
Thank you for your support!
Jan
Scott Newkirk
Hi Jan,
I’m glad that this post has helped you out and that I was able to show you what you were doing wrong. Being too broad is the main reason why so many people fail when getting started online. Over the years I’ve seen many people make the same mistakes that you have made in your first couple of months of building your website.
You are most welcome Jan and I also want to thank you for stopping by and letting me know how much this article has helped you. If you know of anyone else that could benefit from this information then please feel free to share it with them via the share buttons at the bottom of this page.
I will also take a look at your website and give you some feedback on it.
Thanks again for stopping by
Cheers
~Scott~
Alyssa
HI Scott,
I made a newbie mistake when I chose my first niche. Not only was it too broad, but it was super competitive. I spent three months spinning my wheels, not getting past google page 7 despite having used proper SEO techniques and having a couple hundred comments. I was buried by the big players, giants of the industry. So, rather than beat my head against a wall out of sheer determination, I switched niches 🙂 Much better. Much less competition, and higher traffic. Great article for newbies. I wish I’d seen this article before I’d started several months ago!
Alyssa
Scott Newkirk
Hi Alyssa,
This is one of the very first mistakes I made when I started here over 3 years ago as well and this seems to be one of the most common mistakes that I see other people make all the time. Like you, I also wasted 3 or 4 months on the hamster wheel and I could never seem to get my content to even rank in the first 20 pages of Google.
It wasn’t until someone finally pointed out my mistakes and told me that my niche was entirely too broad and the competition was out of this world. Once I switched niches and narrowed this down to a specific group of people I was able to start seeing results of my hard work and it made my job a whole lot easier.
Once you narrow your niche down and target a specific group of people you’ll find that it will make your job a whole lot easier and you’ll be able to reach out and help your audience a whole lot better like I said in my post above.
I’m really glad that this post has helped you Alyssa and I hope that I can save other newbies from having to go through the same thing that I went through when I first started online. I really appreciate you stopping by and sharing your story with everyone here today.
It’s really appreciated and if I can help you out in any way please let me know.
Cheers
~Your Friend, Scott
Robin
Hi Scott, I really enjoyed my visit to your site. The information you are providing in this particular article is invaluable to a person starting out in online business. Like many others here who first started out online, I also struggled with narrowing my niche down.
I also had a hard time understanding why I couldn’t have multiple niches on one site. This article has really helped me understand the importance of both of these things and I really want to thank you for pointing these mistakes out for newbies like us who are just getting their start online.
Sometimes excitement gets a hold on people and they don’t think things through. They also seem to not want to take the advice of people who have ‘been there done that!’ I hope newbies take your advice. It is sound and true!
Scott Newkirk
Hi Robin,
I’m really glad you have enjoyed the information I’ve provided here about what NOT to do when you’re getting started in the online world. Narrowing down your niche is the #1 mistake that I see the majority of people make when they decide to start a business online.
I have also seen many other people think it’s OK to have multiple niches on one site and this really bothers me. By doing this you’re confusing your website visitors and they’re more than likely to leave your site. (I know I would and have several times) It’s best to focus on 1 niche per site and don’t try and overwhelm your audience with too many choices at one time.
I agree that many people get excited about building their first website and don’t think things through like they should. You would think that they would want to take the advice of someone who has already been there and done that but many people are stubborn and refuse to listen.
I can only hope that people will take heed and follow the tips I have provided in this article. Thanks so much for dropping by Robin and sharing your story with everyone here.
To your continued success online!
Your Friend, Scott
Matt
Hey Scott,
Great tips you have here! Actually, when I started my website I started thinking of all different directions I could go in, and at first, I wanted to pursue them all. I thought it would be cool to make a super well-rounded site, but that’s not how niches work. Like you said, you have to pick 1 niche and stick with it. Scams BUG me to DEATH, so I will NEVER get bored tearing them apart for what they truly are!
Thanks for the great tips and extra motivation to keep to my specific niche and to not spread outwards!
Best,
Matt
Scott Newkirk
Hey Matt,
It seems like many other people think the same way that you were thinking and they don’t seem to understand why it’s not cool to mix up multiple niches on your site and try to cover everything at once. Even though this may sound like a good idea it’s not and you’re only setting yourself up for failure.
It’s best to stick with one topic and once you have conquered this topic and are making a steady income from it to move on and create a separate niche site focused on another topic of interest. Like you, Scams also irritate me and I can’t stand them.
I’m glad that this article has motivated you and has helped you narrow down your niche to a specific targeted audience. Thanks for stopping by Matt and please let me know if you need any additional help with anything.
I’m here to help man.
To your success online
~Scott~
conformancefugitive.com
Aside from #3, I’m pretty sure I’ve made ALL of these mistakes, and am possibly continuing to make them :/ thank you for the reality check – maybe I should be reviewing one or two of my online practices!!
Looks like you have a really useful site here… I’ll be sure to check back in the future!! 🙂
Zoe
Scott Newkirk
Hi Zoe,
Yes, I think we have all made most of these mistakes that I’ve listed above when we first got started online. Like you, I’m also guilty of all of these except for #3. In order for you to be successful with anything, you need to fail a couple of times.
It’s important that you learn from your mistakes and don’t continue to make them. I’m glad that this post has helped point out some mistakes that you may still be making today and show you how to avoid making them in the future.
Thanks so much for stopping by Zoe and sharing this with everyone here today.
It’s much appreciated!
Cheers
~Scott~