Niche market is a subset of the world you are trying to market to. There are many advantages in having a niche market. It allows you to focus your effort and utilize your resources more effectively. Niche markets are smaller, less competitive markets, where fewer people are going after. For example, selling made-up to "Women" is a broad scope, and it properly has too many competitions. Try selling made-up to "Environmental conscious women", is a narrower population. "Environmental conscious women" would properly "Environmental conscious" in other products too, there you have indentify and a cross selling niche market too. Going after a niche market also differentiates your business from your larger competitors'. Who knows you might start up small, and become big someday. With advent the internet the dream could be realized sooner, rather than later. So it's important to find a niche as you do your marketing plan.

How do you find a niche? First look at yourself, and ask "What is unique about me?" You would be surprised the things you can come up with, or if you don't know, ask a love one to tell you. Your look, your education, your ethnicity, your background, your experience, your religious believes, your family, your political views, your hobbies, your values, your temperament, your believes, etc. Look for ways to blend "Your uniqueness", your niches, into your business.

Then ask yourself, "What are my passions?" Are you passionate about art? Teaching literature? Breeding horses? Raising children? Find cure for cancer? The environment? Or what are your childhood dreams? Your passions are your forces to lead you through obstacles. It's the passion that would allow you to pour out your heart and touch the audience. Connecting with your audience or your prospects is a key to making sales. If you have a book of clients, you can also indentify the commonality between them, are they from a certain profession? Do they all share the same culture background? What is sepcial about this group?

After jogging down the niches markets you have in mind, start doing some research on each of them to see the popularity. You need to find trade offs between a vase audience with lots of competition and a tight niche market with a small population. If you can turn everyone in the niche market into a customer, you are much better off than staying in the general market.

Type some keywords into the search engines, and see the number of sites that is returned. If the search result comes back as a small list, congratulations, you have found a good list. If the result contains a large list of sites, that it is a saturated market, you should find another niche. The internet is very resourceful, you can visit forums, read up on eBooks and articles to collect your information about the viability of your idea or niche market.