Competition in Your Niche Keeps You Product-Less?
The stumbling block I want to smash into a million pieces today is the belief that if you try to enter a niche, and there's competition, it's not worth marketing.
Infoproduct Myth #6: Competition!
False. Even years and years ago, in 2003, I knew people who said the market was saturated with internet marketing products. Saturated with affiliate marketing products.
But let me ask you something, how many affiliate marketing products and internet marketing products have launched in the past six years? Do you think one a day? Do you think even MORE than one a day?
Even if we went on the low end of one new product a day, that's over 2000 new products just in the internet marketing niche.
My definition of "competition" is simply that other people have blazed a trail for you. If you research a niche and no one's selling in it... guess what, it means you probably won't sell in that niche and you saved yourself a lot of time.
If you do have competition, you don't have to compete directly. If you're unique, you can occupy different areas of that niche. Or if you offer a complementary solution, that competitor is now your affiliate or your business partner.
Infoproduct myth number five is coming tomorrow, same time same channel... as long as 10 of you leave comments below this post today.
Filed in: Seven Things
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Robert,
Great point…
Blazing that new trail in the business world…gives you the title of “pioneer”
Ya know how to tell the pioneers? They are the ones with the arrows in their backs…
I like your idea better, count the competition as a sign there is a bank account to be built.
AMEN, Robert!
I agree with you 1000%.
As Dan Kennedy says, don’t be a pioneer, don’t blaze trails, follow what WORKS and apply it.
Totally agree with you and in fact i am on spanish and french markets and I can see that competition is there but not as fierce as in english markets !
I would like as prolific publishing and writing as you but I am not enough focused and delegating tasks is not easy.
Go on, robert
Admin
Totally agree with you… I’m working on a product in the guitar niche and boy is that niche already loaded up!
But I look at the numbers the other guys are posting, in terms of traffic to their sites, long term clickbank gravities, and keyword search volume and I realize there’s room for a whole lot more yet.
Cheers
Jonathan
Competition is a form of market research. If you see lots of ads= lots of sales.
Or high CPC numbers…means people are converting.
Plain and simple!
Cheers,
Brad Spencer
Great advice. Got to love those Trail Blazers. I waiting on the other points. 🙂
If you see a market without any competitors, you have to question whether there is any money in it. There may be less competitive markets, but though are few (if any) “virgin” markets.
John
I like to look at the competition and determine which ones are successful and which are not (as successful)… then just identify what’s making people buy!
Suspense Is A Killer! And, Robert is doing that to us.
Robert–right on brother. The more “competition”, the greater signal that the market is ripe with opportunity, and more willing to buy. If nobody is addressing the market–likely no market exists–unless you are the likely trailblazer. Bring on #5.
Right-on, Robert. When researching a niche, look at the competition. If you don’t see any adwords, you will do well to avoid that niche. The same is true if no one searches for that particular keyword. I like the acronym TLC – think like a customer. Then type in that keyword and see what comes up.
Robert. Do you translate your materials into other languages. If so, which ones?
I also have a problem delegating and I can see that will become a BIG problem in the future as I try to grow.
There must be some additional metrics to tell us when the niche is TOO saturated to enter?
I don’t agree with the idea that if there’s no competition, there’s probably no market. Have any of you heard of the Tapout clothing company that dominates the mixed martial arts/UFC market?
I remember them selling t-shirts out of the back of a van at Southern California Jiu Jitsu tournaments back in 1999. They did like $30K their 1st year in business and today are a 200-million dollar clothing line. Two. Hundred. Million.
Sometimes you have to believe in your vision, your passion and break away from the herd. There are plenty of “virgin” markets out there. Not saying it won’t be difficult to achieve, but I’m not buying that scarcity bill of lading.
Intense competition can be good. If you can stick it out for the long haul, most of the competitors will fold up and go do something else.
John Nada: selling clothing is big business, Tapout found a profitable niche. I agree about virgin markets. And “novelty” has it’s own sort of “virginity.”
One of the reasons why people think of competition as an insurmountable barrier to success is when they start comparing what’s already been done with what they are contemplating.
And first of all, comparing this way will doom you from the start. . . but that’s maybe for another post.
If you have a great idea and a starving market, it doesn’t matter what else is out there — you CAN find a way to connect with your market that’s original and satisfying.
I think the REAL problem comes when people get lazy. It all seems like a lot of work — and it probably is. So what? If it’s worth the reward you hope, it’s worth your investment to see it through.
Competition or not.
There are some good points here about competition pointing to a good market that spends money — but don’t let the “experts” scare you away from their “fish” — it’s a big ocean out there!
Robert,
Very enlightening. This is a great thing to keep in mind the next time someone is ready to shoot themselves down (like I’ve done myself many times) before they even enter a market because “it’s too saturated”.
You can’t let it stop you – there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Neil
Robert some more common sense advice keep it up
Ian
It’s like this: If you’re interested in adventure, take the road less traveled. If you want success, take the highway.
Waiting for myth #5.
Roger, I like it! Is that your quote?
Yes, as far as I know… 😉
“…if you offer a complementary solution, that competitor is now your affiliate or your business partner.”
Great attitude Robert! – Love it!
Another interesting article. I remember a long long time ago a Guru marketer said don’t get into marketing Internet Products. The market is waaay to saturated.
This always makes me laugh. Here’s why…
Do you remember the X-men movies? Well competition is like accelerating the changes in the DNA of any niche.
Let me explain: Take internet marketing. With the intense competition the DNA has changed from better products to products with a twist to niche products to specific niche products to what I believe now is…being a ‘super-on-top-of-it-all’ specialist in one specific niche and I’m sure that will change too.
The point is, as long as there are unique individuals on this earth who are willing to assert their uniqueness than their will always be ‘growing competition’. It’s not the survival of the fittest it’s the survival of your ‘uniqueness’. Anyone who feels that there’s just too much competition is denying their own unique assertion right.
Ken said: “I remember a long long time ago a Guru marketer said don’t get into marketing Internet Products. The market is waaay to saturated.”
Ha! That is because HE wanted to be the product creator in his niche and did not want any competition from you.
The mentor who is afraid of his student is not a mentor at all.
Nick, there is still something to be said about that. I never get into just “internet marketing” … I always drill down into a much more specific niche.