Last Updated on April 19, 2024 by Eric Cantu
Learning how to find your niche is step number 1 for any business. Whether you’re trying to find your niche on YouTube, or for affiliate marketing in general, I’m going to show you the major mistakes so many people make and the number one key to finding your golden ticket.
You’re In the Wrong Niche! How to Find Your Niche on YouTube
The number one key to choosing your niche is choosing something you have a genuine passion or interest in. Choosing a specialized niche is key and will lead to strong engagement and scalability in the future. Don’t chase commissions! Chase hyper relevance!
Key Takeaways
- Every single niche can be lucrative when approached right.
- Choosing a niche based on your true interests and passions places you right in the middle of your target audience. This brings instant relatability, authority, and connection.
- Choose a specialized segment of the market. Don’t go too broad. You can’t be everything for everybody.
- Don’t chase commissions or try to find an untapped market when choosing your niche.
- Choosing a niche based on dollar signs rather than true passion and interest leads to low engagement, lack of ideas, and zero profit.
Let’s dive in and find out how you can hone in on that perfect niche and start building your online business and soon-to-be viral YouTube channel today!
Watch my full tutorial in the video above! And don’t forget to subscribe to my channel on YouTube! Here are the video chapters for quick and easy navigation.
0:00 Intro and Class Outline
2:11 What is a Niche in Online Business?
3:10 Samples of Niches that are “Niched Down” and Why
4:09 Signs You’re in the Wrong Niche
5:13 Tip for Figuring Out if You’re Niched Down
6:39 Number 1 Key to Finding Your Niche
9:05 Excerpt from Neil Patel speaking on How to Find a Niche
10:00 How to Nail Your Niche Down
10:30 “But I don’t have any interests…”
10:54 Self Assessment to Find your POV
11:41 Market Research to Find Content Ideas for Your Niche
13:38 Common Pitfalls to Avoid
14:20 Misconception about Market Saturation
16:29 Free Tools You’ll Need for Growing Your Niche YouTube Channel
17:44 Niche Finder Tool at Wealthy Affiliate
19:21 What Have We Learned & Conclusion
What is a Niche?
For the purposes of online business and YouTube, a niche is defined as “a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service.” It’s a specific audience that you are targeting with your online business.
- Understanding Your Target Audience: The key to selecting your niche lies in understanding who your target audience is, including their problems and challenges, and what answers they are seeking.
- Identifying a Specialized Segment: It’s crucial to select a specialized segment of the audience that isn’t too broad to ensure effective targeting and relevance.
- Potential Niches in Online Buyers: Any segment of an audience that purchases products online can be considered a potential niche, offering almost unlimited possibilities for niche selection.
- Passion and Interest as Primary Criteria: The number one key in finding your niche is to choose one where you have genuine passion or interest. This places you smack dab in the middle of your own target audience instantly making you relatable.
- Creating Content Within the Niche: By being part of the niche you’re targeting, you can create content while empathizing with your audience’s challenges, offering them solutions based on shared experiences and understanding. This is key for YouTube keyword research.
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Signs You’re in the Wrong Niche
Here are some signs that you may have chosen the wrong niche:
- Low engagement: If you’re not getting traffic even though you’re ranking at the top of search results, your niche may be too specialized. Broaden out slightly.
- Difficulty generating content ideas: If you’re struggling to come up with ideas for content, your niche may be too narrow.
- Lack of passion or interest: If you’re not interested in your niche, it will be difficult to create content that resonates with your audience.
Choosing a niche solely based on the potential for high commissions or popularity is not enough. You must have a genuine interest in the niche to create content that resonates with your audience and builds a loyal following.
The Costs of Being in the Wrong Niche
Choosing the wrong niche can have significant costs, both in terms of time and money. Here are some of the costs of being in the wrong niche:
- Limited growth potential: If you’re in a niche that’s too small or not growing, you’ll find it difficult to expand your business and reach new customers.
- Wasted time and effort: If you’re creating content or products that nobody wants, you’ll be wasting your time and effort.
- Missed opportunities: If you’re not in a profitable niche, you’ll be missing out on opportunities to make money and grow your business.
- Difficulty building an audience: If you’re in the wrong niche, you’ll find it difficult to build a dedicated audience that’s interested in your content or products.
Ok, So Is This YouTube Niche The Right One For Me?
Alright, now that we understand what a niche is and why it’s important to choose the right one, let’s talk about self-assessment. You need to ask yourself some important questions to determine if a particular niche is right for you.
Here are some things to consider when doing a self-assessment:
- Do I have a genuine passion or interest in this topic?
- Can I see myself creating content about this topic for a long period of time?
- Is there a demand for this niche?
- Are there potential products or services to promote within this niche?
- Am I knowledgeable enough about this topic to create quality content?
- Are there other successful creators in this niche?
Answering these questions will help you determine if a niche is a good fit for you. Don’t think you need to be an “expert” when creating content, you just need to be a part of that audience you’re targeting.
For example, if your niche was travel photography, all you need is to be someone who loves taking pictures while traveling. That’s the audience you’re after, right? You don’t need to be a professional photographer.
It’s important to choose a niche that you’re comfortable creating content for for a long period of time. YouTube videos can be a bit tedious to put together in the beginning. Are YouTube videos highly profitable? YES! But you won’t get there if you’re not enjoying the process.
Market Research and Refinement
Market research is all about gathering information about your potential audience, competitors, and market trends. It helps you understand your target audience and their needs. Refinement is all about narrowing down your niche to a specific audience or market segment. It involves identifying the most profitable and sustainable niche for your business.
Here are some key points to keep in mind when conducting market research and refinement:
- Conduct a self-assessment: Identify your skills, interests, and passions. This will help you narrow down your niche to something you’re passionate about.
- Use free tools: There are several free tools available online that can help you with market research and refinement. For example, Google Trends can help you identify popular search terms related to your niche.
- Identify your target audience: Conduct surveys, ask questions in the YouTube community tab of your channel, etc. to understand your target audience’s needs, preferences, and pain points. “What do you guys want to see from my channel?” “What problems have you been facing regarding xyz?”
- Analyze your competitors: Identify your competitors’ YouTube channels and analyze their reviews, informational videos, and marketing strategies. This will help you identify gaps in the market that you can fill.
- Refine your niche: Use the information gathered from market research to refine your niche. Identify the most profitable and sustainable niche for your business.
Remember, market research and refinement are ongoing processes. You need to keep updating your strategies to stay relevant and competitive in the market.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
When trying to find your niche, there are several common pitfalls that you should avoid. Here are some of the most important ones:
- Choosing a niche for the wrong reasons: This is a mistake that many people make. You might choose a niche because you think it will be profitable, but if you don’t have a genuine interest in the topic, you’ll quickly lose motivation.
- Being too specialized: While it’s important to choose a niche that’s specific enough to be profitable, you don’t want to be so specialized that you can’t generate enough content or attract enough traffic.
- Lack of passion or interest: As I mentioned earlier, this is the most important factor when choosing a niche. If you don’t have a genuine interest in the topic, you’ll struggle to create engaging content and connect with your audience.
- Difficulty generating content ideas: If you’re struggling to come up with ideas for content, it might be a sign that your niche is too narrow. Try broadening your focus a little to see if that helps.
- Low engagement: If you’re not getting much engagement on your content, it could be a sign that you’re in the wrong niche. This could be because you’re targeting the wrong audience, or because your niche is too specialized.
By avoiding these common pitfalls, you’ll be much more likely to find a profitable niche that you’re passionate about.
Free Tools You’ll Need to Succeed
When starting a YouTube channel, it’s important to have access to the right tools to help you succeed. Here are some free tools that I recommend:
- YouTube Analytics: YouTube Studio is where you find all the relevant metrics for your channel. It’s a great way to see what’s working and what’s not.
- Canva: This is a free graphic design tool that allows you to create perfect thumbnails for your videos. It’s easy to use and requires no design experience.
- Jaaxy: Jaaxy is a great keyword research tool for finding the exact searches your audience is making. I also have a full tutorial on keyword research WITHOUT keyword research tools for YouTube that you’ll love!
Want training that delivers? Check out my detailed review and full walkthrough of the affiliate marketing training platform I owe all my success to! The training is straightforward, affordable, and you can test drive it first to see if it’s a good fit. Click here to check out my full review!
Final Thoughts
Understanding how to choose your niche for YouTube is paramount. Choose wisely and you’ll have super high engagement, watch time, subscribers, and a sweet piece of that YouTube ad revenue! Choose poorly and you’ll be creating all kinds of content that no one will ever see.
Have you had hurdles to overcome when choosing your niche? What were the big hiccups you faced along the way? Are you new to creating your own YouTube channel? Have you subscribed to my YouTube channel already?
Let me know what you think in the comments section below!
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Ashley says
How do you recommend someone who might have multiple interests and passions narrow down to the right niche? Do you have any advice on balancing passion with market demand when selecting a niche? Or do you just focus on interest and passion?
Keep up the great work on your YouTube channel, Eric!
Eric Cantu says
Honestly, the only way you’ll succeed starting off is when you build a business based on a niche you love. Of course, you want to think about potential products and services associated with it, but you can build full time income on traffic alone when done right. Go with your passion! Thanks for the comment!
Matias says
hey eric,
first of all, thx for the article, it’s very helpful. i’m kinda curious about something. since my accent isn’t the best, do you think it’s possible to use AI to help me create youtube videos? like, can AI generate the voiceover or subtitles to make my content more understandable? would love to hear your thoughts on this. thx, man! 🙂
Cheers
Eric Cantu says
Great timing for this question. I’ve just published an article on YouTube automation. Check it out, it may be exactly what you’re looking for. Thanks for the comment!
Dave Sweney says
You mention that the number one key to selecting a niche is having an interest or passion for whatever genre that you may select. Are there cases of people who achieve success without having that passion? I am sure that this is a key factor but there may be cases where it is a matter of running the numbers, figuring out what sells, and then mechanically covering a subject or genre.
Eric Cantu says
For sure. But when you’re starting off, making that connection with your audience is the absolute key. When you don’t have interest in your niche, 9 times out of 10 that business never gets off the ground. Thanks for the comment!