Feature Article

What's Your Niche?

by: Elena Fawkner AHBBO

Internet has been likened by many to the vast frontier faced by those who took to the wild west in search of gold. The enormity of its potential certainly draws many a gold seeker ... but just as the gold diggers of old had to stake their claim before digging for gold, so too must you. Online, it's called finding your niche.

Chances are, your online business idea has already been done. To death. Does this mean that the market is saturated and there is no room on board for you? No. Not by a long shot.

To be successful in an online business, you need to be the best. Now, that doesn't mean the best overall, or even the best in your general category. What it means is being the best in your specific category ... your niche.

If the niche you're interested in is already occupied, can you be better than the best in that niche? If so, go for it. If not, find another niche!

So, how exactly do you go about finding your niche? Here's five steps to staking a claim to your share of the Internet bounty:

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1. IDENTIFY YOUR GENERAL CATEGORY AND SUB-CATEGORY

To start with, you need to have some idea of the general category you're interested in becoming involved in as a business venture. It may be something to do with health and fitness, nutrition, pet care, home-based business, internet marketing, whatever.

Now, see if you can narrow down your area of interest a little. Let's say your general area of interest is health and fitness. Can you be more specific? Does your interest lie in aerobic exercise, weight training, nutritional supplements, diet? This is your sub-category.

2. HANG OUT WITH PEOPLE INTERESTED IN YOUR SUB-CATEGORY

The object of the exercise is to identify an unmet need that you can fill. This will become your niche. How do you identify an unmet need? By listening to what the people interested in the sub-category you identified in step 1 are saying. A good place to start is to sign up to various mailing lists and read newsgroups relevant to your sub-category.

Let's say your sub-category of interest within the general category of health and fitness is weight training. You would sign up for mailing lists and read newsgroups that deal with this subject. Pay attention to the kinds of questions people are asking each other. It is likely that the reason many of these questions are being asked is that the questioner hasn't been able to find adequate information online that deals with the subject matter. These sorts of questions are good sources of potential niches.

Continuing with our weight training example, the results of this step may suggest that some potential areas of unmet need exist, such as the benefits of weight training for: seniors, injury recuperation, weight loss, bone density, mental health, blood pressure, and so on.

3. IDENTIFY UNMET NEEDS IN YOUR SUB-CATEGORY

Armed with your list of potential niches gathered during step two, go off now and do your own research. See if you can find sources of information that answer the questions on your list. If not, keep it on your list as a potential niche. If so, get an idea of how much information there is out there and whether you think you could do a better job. If so, keep it on your list. If not, delete it.

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4. INVENTORY YOUR EXPERIENCE, INTERESTS AND COMPETENCIES

Now that you have a shortlist of potential niche categories, think about your specific experience, interests and competencies and which niche(s) you could best serve.

Pay particular attention to what interests you the most. It's all very well identifying a niche but if it holds absolutely no interest for you, you won't put in the time and effort to turn that niche to your financial advantage. So, go with what interests you first and foremost even if you have more experience and expertise in a different area. What you lack in experience and expertise you can learn and your natural enthusiasm will do the rest.

5. FILL THE UNMET NEED

Now that you've identified your niche, fill it! Create a website, publish a newsletter, write articles, promote related affiliate programs, write an e-book, and so on and so forth. Because you are meeting an unmet need, you are, by definition, setting yourself up as an expert in your niche. This gives you an enormous competitive advantage, at least in the beginning.

Not exactly brain surgery is it? The Internet has unlimited potential for virtually anyone prepared to put in the hard work. But it rewards the innovators, not the imitators. By taking the time to find the right niche for you, and then building your business around that niche, you will make a valuable contribution and addition to the Internet community and the Internet community will reward you for it.

Don't rest on your laurels, though. The nature of competition, offline or online, is that your success will entice new entrants into your niche. To stay on top of the heap you need to be continually evolving and ever-vigilant within your niche. So stake your claim and make sure no-one moves the pegs while your back is turned.

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Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical ideas, resources and strategies for your home-based or online business. www.ahbbo.com

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Second Article

What Is DSL?

by: Toh Poh Dsl Upgrade

DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. It is a service that makes the use of existing copper telephone wires for delivering data services at extremely fast speed rates. It does not hamper the existing telephone line. You can surf the Internet and talk on the phone, simultaneously.

DSL offers speeds that are around 5 to 25 times higher than a typical 56Kb dial-up connection. It is an always-on type of connection. This implies that websites would load quickly, downloads would be faster, buffering of videos would be fast and smooth and the domain of Online games would be illimitable.

Based on the types of service, DSL can be can be categorized in three divisions which are ASDL, IDSL and SDSL.

ADSL stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. It offers download speed of 1.5 Mbps and upload speed of 384 K. In order to acquire a ADSL connection, your location has to be within 3 miles of your local telephone office. Also, a DSL router is needed for this type of connection.

IDSL is a ISDN Digital Subscriber Line service which requires an ISDN router. It provides a connection speed of 144 K. in this type of connection distance is not a component to be considered.

SDSL means Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line. The speeds available under this type of DSL connection depends on the distance between your location and your local telephone office. The speed of downloads and uploads can go up to 1.1 Mbps.

Advantages of DSL

No installation of new wires is required. DSL uses the present telephone line to connect to the Internet. It provides extremely fast connection. Depending on the offer, you would not even have to pay for the DSL modem installation charges, since it is provided free by some of the companies on selection of the appropriate plan. The download rate is much higher in DSL connections. Many business organizations have gained the benefits of DSL. A DSL connection is very secure.

Disadvantages of DSL

The quality of your DSL connection depends on the distance between the DSL providers office and your location. Nearer you are, the better quality connection would you get. So, consumers located far from the local DSL office may face some trouble. DSL provide high speeds for downloading stuff but upload speeds are not that good.

DSL vs Cable Modems

The services provided through a cable modem can sometimes slow down or get hanged. It depends on the number of users accessing that particular service. But, in a DSL connection there is no such problem. The speed of DSL is consistent and high. This does not allow any kind of conjunction on the network. It provides more security than the cable modem connections. The popularity of DSL has risen to new heights which has resulted in disconnections and up gradations of the cable modem connections.

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Toh Poh Leng owns and operates Dsl Upgrade

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