Would You Still Be in That Niche If You Were Working for Free?
January 5th, 2009 | 
Author: Do you sometimes feel like a gerbil in a cage – running around and around on your little wheel so fast that you don’t pay attention to anything else going on around you? If that sounds like your life, it’s time to slow down and ask yourself if you’re working because you enjoy what you do – or only working this hard to pay the bills?
As an Internet marketer, you may have found a niche that makes money, but doesn’t satisfy your sense of creativity or of having reached a very important goal. Or, you may currently be successful in a niche that you were excited about in the past, but now you aren’t so sure. Perhaps it’s time to search for a special niche and pursue a business model that you have a passion for.
Money is important for the freedom it provides – freedom from worry about paying bills, providing top educations for your children and a nice retirement for yourself. When you’re making money doing something that you believe in and love, the money will follow.
Finding a niche in Internet marketing that you feel passionate about will improve your chances of success because you’ll want to devote time and energy to it – you’ll be excited about building a terrific website and driving traffic to a targeted audience.
After you’ve done the research and narrowed down one or more niches that appeal to you, it’s time to create a business model. A business model basically dictates how your niche will make money for you.
If you have a product to sell, you’ll need to research how you’re going to produce the item and sell it to others. Who is your targeted audience and how likely are they to want your product enough to spend money for it?
The Internet has produced a whole new definition of “business model.” Back in the days when you had to shop at brick and mortar businesses, the plan for making money would be how to draw certain people of a town or city into your place of business.
Now, the world is your oyster, thanks to the Internet. Anyone, almost anywhere, can merely point and click to purchase your product without ever leaving his or her house.
The trick is to find something that you’re passionate about and have a basic knowledge of the subject. Then, make sure that you drive high traffic to your site by catering to those who share your passion.
For example, you may love dogs, but “dog” is too wide a category. You may narrow down your passion to particular dogs – Pomeranians, Chihuahuas (my favorite) or rescue dogs – and then narrow it down even further, perhaps training a Chihuahua or keeping a Chihuahua healthy.
Finding a niche that you’re passionate and excited about involves research and planning. You’ll know when you find it because it will immediately catch your interest and inflame you to learn more.
The hours will pass more rapidly and you’ll be much happier than you ever were when you worked for someone else – or simply to pay the bills.
If you need help narrowing down your niche or finding things you’re both passionate about AND which will be profitable for you, go here and sign up for the FREE videos he shares with you: http://www.tiffanydow.com/MNF.html – it can help you tap into a market that could satisfy you more!
Tiff 
Posted in 
Tags: 
Love the post Tiff!
great information…
I think that if your passionate about something you’ll do better with it.
I love what i do and a good way to determine whether your in the right market is too realize how you feel when your working on it.
When I’m blogging or tweeting… or meeting people… writing about my topic I feel inspired and I just keep going! It’s because I’m passionate about it!
thanks for the post!
glad I’m the first to comment I feel privileged!
Have a great night!
David King
So right Tiffany, If you love what you do it’s not like work!
At ArticlesBin we tip our writers to use this technique for writers block. Write about something your are passionate about to help ge t your focus back.
Tiffany, I couldn’t agree with you more. My primary niche is in a market with virtually no online traffic to speak of… hardly anyone searches online for related terms. However, I’m passionate about it and had a very successful start in that niche by focusing on my passion and seeking to help others through my business. My advice to anyone who is still trying to decide on a niche is to take Tiffany’s advice!
Def Tiffany I love helping people make money online , and my other niches are video games been playing since mid 1980′s and Computers which I have worked in and just thinks so fascinating
I agree when you said that we have to love what we do, money comes after, despite we need to survive and to have a good life. Money provides what you called “freedom”.
Great post as usual.
Man, I’m glad I’m on your list.
This is what I tell everybody too !
So many people go at it from “make money” and then they just burn out on someone elses widget because there’s no connection to their soul.
Thanks, Tiff
I have so many passions & interests & not loving what I blog about -it’s more like I need to be a dozen or more people to keep up with my ideas!
That’s why I love niche blogging so much. Let’s you explore all your different interests.
Passion versus focus? I think it depends on your starting point,pure blog or a marketing site; a hobby or a business model.
If you want to develop an income and can find a profitable niche within your span of passions/interest, then that’s a bonus. But passion without income potential remains a hobby. Knowledge you can always develop.
Loving your voyage of discovery Tiffany! You are consistently generous with your insight and tips: one of the very very few Must Have sites. Many thanks Tiff!
Hey Colin!
I agree – some passions have no profits. LOL There are indeed freebie niches where the niche consumers may not be willing to spend for the information, but more often than not, you can make money on a topic you love somehow. Thanks for the kind words re: my journey and site
tiff
How about if in my niche not a lot of traffic and
Yes! Passion produces profit………not the other way around. Unfortunately, the majority have the paradigm wrong.
JC
Tiff,
You are right, the passion has to be there, but just reading all of my subscribed blogs and newsletters, writing articles and using tools for promotion, I eat up 10 hrs a day pretty easily, and it can get old real fast, no matter how much you LOVE the business. You try to find the best tools to give you back a little time. I tried the article writing software and found that it takes even longer to do the spins, make the changes,add new words etc, so i just went with who I affiliate myself with and after I submit one to the service, , I just sit and wait and then when the articles are done in 2-3 days, the service submits them by email to me and a set of article houses, and i submit the rest. You cannot imagine how much time I’ve saved…or maybe you can!!. be well..J & S
Hard to focus — I’m interested in everything! But I seem to be most interested in the least profitable niches, and the least interested in the most profitable ones. Could be an advantage, as I’m not tempted to compete where it’s overrun with marketers.
That’s already what I am doing – working my niche sites while earning very little money – so it must be a passion, right? I would love the day I see money coming in whether the site was my passion or not. Still working toward that goal!
I agree with you completely. I have tried to work a Niche that was boring and research was painful and a chore. I am now working Niches that I like and it is now fun to “work”. When it comes to research do you think MNF or Market Samurai is better?
Indeed, you have to love your niche. Or leave it. For years, I wrote tips and tricks for the computer, Internet, etc. Many tips about how to make new folders in Windows, how to do something smart in Excel, and stuff like that.
In the beginning, I made less than nothing, but I loved doing it, so I kept working on this site. Eventually, it began to pay very well, but I switched to Mac, and I became bored at writing those tips.
So I stopped.
Funny thing is that this site still pays our rent and then some
But even though money is nice, there’s no point in giving up a job to gain freedom, and then lose that freedom again by doing something you don’t like.
So, yes, it’s a good question to ask yourself: would you still be in that niche, if you were working for free.
Hey Tiff,
Great blog, as always. I agree with you completely. Trouble is that my niche has a hard time finding products to promote….have to work on that. I know thereá always a product somewhere, but mine are really limited. I love to write about it anyway. Would really like it if I could build a list on my squidoo lenses. So far I haven’t figured that out yet. More researching to do, I guess! lol!
Sometimes it’s hard to get the niche you want and you may have to settle for something else – especially if you NEED money now!!! There’s jobs out there that I had when growing up that I didn’t like and even hated them – however, it brought the money in to pay the bills – we all are not fortunte to work in our cozy little niche – just the facts!!
A person might not have a favored niche, but be interested in a process. For example, building websites or graphic design or just writing.
So that person could be happy working on those things and produce websites, graphics, or articles in many niches for the niche people to use.
Not only should you blog or write about what excites you, I have found that I find more things that interest me and I have a passion for when doing my research for the niche I’m in.
It really helps to not have all your eggs in one basket.
I agree wholeheartedly Tiff. Passion is what it’s all about. If you don’t feel it, it won’t last. Finding the niche that ignites that passion is the key.
Best,
Bob
Tiff,
I once told a client, “Passion is what drives you. It gets you up in the morning and keeps you awake at night. Find a niche that satisfies you from every angle – monetarily and mentally – and you’ve got yourself a winner.”
I still believe that wholeheartedly.
I don’t agree that people should start a business which stems from their hobby because hobbies are no longer hobbies once you treat them as a business.
They are then… a business!
Frankly, a hobby should be a place you escape to after a long day, you unwind, and detach yourself from the stress of business. How is that possible when your business IS your hobby?
It’s not, IMHO.
Sorry for the rambling…
Bonnie
That’s a unique outlook on it Bonnie – I guess I see it both ways. As someone who loved to golf, I always wanted to make a living doing what I loved. Now, I love teaching people this stuff. lol
That is so spot on… it’s finding a niche that you are passionate enough about to want to ‘work it’ every day, but not your personal hobby that you want to be able to relax with.
Sure, you can include mentions and some blogging about your hobbies as a bonus, but don’t make them your business model, or it stops becoming relaxing and just another job to do on the list.
I believe that most of us have the diversity in hobbies, interests, skills base, and subject passions that there are more than enough to go around and serve you both professionally and personally – so you never need to paint yourself into a corner.
Hi Tiffany,
My mother, who was an English and Reading teacher, tried to get me to follow in her footsteps.
I would shudder, back then, at the thought of being in charge of so many kids, while trying to get them to pay attention.
Now I find that I love the teaching aspect of Internet Marketing. Go figure.
Anyway, your point is well taken.
Excellent, excellent post.
Sincerely,
Ralph
Ms. Tiffany, if I tried to work on niches that I would do for free, I probably wouldn’t make any money.
The types of subjects that I like are sort of crazy such as history of organized crime, modern organized crime, world war II, true crime, psychopaths, that sort of thing.
If I were to work on relationships, I think that also I would bomb out: I have too much interest in sexual relationships. The type of women I go for are large women.
To top things off, Tiffany, I am also a Pentecostal Christian. I like Christian tracts and I like end times prophecy.
Then I also like to do graphic art. I like photoshop, illustrator, Corel Painter.
Roberto I bet you COULD make a profit off those niches. Why not research it a bit and see how you could capitalize on something like that? Have you tried and not lucked out or are you just assuming there wouldn’t be any money in it?
I am assuming there would be no money in it.
Most of the niches I see are making money, fixing relatinships, getting new relationships, health issues, pets, sports, wine, home improvement, crafts, and hobbies such as playing golf which is the biggest money making topic because so many millionaires spend so much money on golf related equipment and information.
Hi Tiff
Always enjoy reading your blogs.
Just one BIG thing maybe for you to know.
I have only ever clicked on two links over the past month and both have not worked.
Todays link for me came up a 404 error (http://www.tiffanydow.com/MNF.html)
And once before I was unable to make a link work…Just an observation
Keep up the motivating one day I’ll get it together… still working out exactly your subject of niche..nearly there though
Kind regards
Dick
Thanks Dick! I routinely find links that were from my cloaking days
The correct one for that is http://AFFILIATE.kickbutt.hop.clickbank.net
MNF is an excellent tool and the link you gave in your blog worked perfectly so not sure why Dick was having a problem.
There are several schools of thought on finding niches to work with and both have their merits.
One suggests going where the money is and working the evergreen (health, wealth and relationships) markets. The other suggests focusing on your number one passion.
I actually use both.
With affiliate marketing you can quite easily set up any number of basically “set and forget” sites each focusing on a product (sometimes 2-3 products) in a sub-niche within the chosen market and these require very little time to maintain.
Providing those mini-sites are producing reasonable revenue this then leaves you free to devote most of your time to a topic closest to your heart that gives you personal satisfaction even if it is perhaps not as profitable in dollar terms.
Another article I read the other day confirmed the strategy I had used with domain name selection. The writer suggested buying relatively generic domains in your chosen market rather than a restrictive micro-niche domain. For example in the health market “acneremedies.com” won’t readily allow you to promote products for other skin ailments whereas “healthychoices.com” leaves you almost unlimited scope.
As always I enjoy receiving your emails and reading your posts even if time (or lack of it) stops me commenting very often.
“Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.” ~Les Brown
When I’m writing about something I am passionate about, the time flies by and I feel like I haven’t been working at all! Great post! You hit it right on the head! And thanks for the video hook-up…definitely gonna go check those out!! Who knows, maybe I’ll find even more exciting things to write about! <3
Thanks Jodie