101 Niche Marketing Topics
Gordon Burgett
Copyright © 2011 Communication Unlimited
at Smashwords
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The most important element of a niche book is that its title tells those in the niche why they need to buy it, to find out what it says and to receive the benefits it states or implies.
So on these pages I suggest 101 different ways to address the book’s theme, and usually by asking the driving question that the book answers I suggest all or most of the words that title contains!
When I published the predecessor to my current book Niche Publishing: Publish Profitably Every Time (www.nichepublishing.org) I failed to dwell at any length on what kind of niche topics work by either publishing or by other information dissemination means. Instead, I focused on one topic, as an example, and developed it extensively.
To atone for that shortcoming (or choice) I then wrote a report called “100 Topics for a Niche Marketed Book.” That, in turn, became part of a subsequent book, Niche Marketing for Writers, Speakers, and Entrepreneurs (which is now, alas, out of print, though Amazon keeps finding dog-eared used copies).
Because that segment of the Niche Marketing book was so well received (I’m told because it was so helpful), I’m reproducing (and slightly updating) it here, mostly for the many newcomers to the niching process who, for the life of them, couldn’t seem to think of a niche topic or title that they thought “will sell.” so, what follows is not only plagiarized from me, I suspect it is triply replagiarized by me!
The purpose of this report is to get the reader thinking about how they can convert their area of expertise, or a field in which they want to build expertise, into a niche product that will help others, and in so doing also help themselves.
The alternative is to list thousands of titles in hundreds of fields, which strikes me as useless as if I told you I was going to help you build a house, then instead of suggesting logical steps I simply listed all of the components of that house.
You are singular, your expertise is broad, your audience is varied, and there are many ways you can share your expertise with those who want or need to know more. So what follows is designed to help you see ways you can create that unique link between what you know (or quickly could) and what they want (or need, and thus would want if they only knew more).
Where I suggest a topic as an example, please insert your area of expertise, modify it as needed, and see if that’s the fit you want to share. I suspect there are 10 or 12 good fits for any reader in the 101+ suggestions that follow!
First, there is the most obvious kind of niche-marketed topic. Let's use nursing here as an example.
(1) “How does one become a nurse?” (The precise steps, from schooling through hiring.)
Then, (2) “How does one become unfirable as a nurse?”
(3) “What 10 steps (or 5, 15, or 50) make every nurse excel?”
(4) “Where do you go from nursing—and what can you do while nursing that will get you to your new destination as quickly and as profitably as possible?”
(5) "How can you do today, and in the coming months, that will propel you to the job of head nurse?"
What do nurses—or those so aspiring—want (or need) to know? That is the core question you must ask (and answer) to help others excel. (Focus on people who want to go to the top, move ahead, make a mark, become exceptional. They will buy your information because they want to progress quickly and surely. To do that, they have learned to listen to experts. So you sell core information packaged for easy comprehension and quick application. Forget the plodders. Anybody can plod free of charge.)
Focusing on how one uses that job to create an even better life gives us:
(6) “How do you use your job as a nurse to create financial security, which you can then parlay into true wealth?”
(7) “How can nurses maximize their basic and fringe benefits: health insurance, 401k, Keogh plan, illness or injury protection, _____?”
(8) “How does being a nurse provide a launching pad to change (the world, society, the town, children's welfare, etc.)?”
Let’s stop for a moment to remind you why we are identifying 101 niche topics. If you are to command a niche you must have key, specific, doable information to share (and sell) to others in your field. That almost always comes from asking and answering the very question your colleagues want to ask—and care enough about to hear your reply and even sometimes do what you suggest.