Looking for some great niches

iamdog

What are some Awesome niches some of you have found?

dwmgoods35

Hi iamdog,

That would kind of defeating the point. If I did find a great niche I wouldn't be sharing it with anyone on here, LOL sorry didn't mean to be rude with that but that not a question to ask other sellers trying to find that for themselves! :)

baydreams

iamdog ,lol, mistake, sorry but these guys are helpful, but as dwm pointed out, niches are TOP SECRECT!!!! lol, But my friend, they're not that hard to find. It's really simple, just think of something that would be the last thing on your shopping list, but the number one thing you always find yourself needing. Of course, that's not the magic answer, but if you read between the lines and look around, you will have your own niche soon.

grace-salehoo

Baydreams gives a good tip to think about things on your own shopping list. It's amazing how many times you think: I'd like a vintage world map! Search eBay, and you can't really find what you are looking for. What you do find though is an opportunity.

I've also found reading magazines really useful. Like right now there is a bit of a mini trend for Babushka dolls and anything with that theme - tea-towels, jewelry etc, which I recently discovered in the corner of a magazine page. (As a general rule, if you spot something in more than one publication, it's a trend).

Listening to friend's conversations can also be helpful: A while ago a couple of my NZ friends were getting married around the same time, and both mentioned that they couldn't find a decent wedding cake topper. So I bought a small wholesale lot off eBay US and listed them on TradeMe - and wow, they really took off!

So, iamdog: Keep your eyes and ears open and you'll soon find that you're overwhelmed with opportunities.

baydreams

Great advice Grace! well spoken and to the point!

fudjj

Another way to find a niche is to take a very popular product, then dig down several layers.

For example, Iphone is a key seller, so one level down would be I phone covers, then two levels down would be custom designed cases, 3 levels down might be charms to hang from them.

Almost everyone wants to to sell the lead product, but those lead products create a chain of other related product sales, and you can quite often find a sweet little niche by digging down a little deeper than anyone else has.

How long can you maintain a niche market?

Well I doubt any niche market lasts for long these days. As soon as the pack of blood hounds gets the scent of an opportunity, and they're easy to identify with a tool like terapeak, then you will have them all over you in a heart beat!

baydreams

AMEN TO THAT! I would also like to add, that I personaly think that niche marketing is kinda overated, I mean granted,it has its place, but as fudjj pointed out, niches are getting harder and harder to maintain. Folks ebay is still a buyers market, and it really all boils down to having products people want and need at below retail. I am a firm beliver in liquidation (NOT ELECTRONICS) its just the best way to get popular item at prices you as a seller can profit from. BUT do your homework well! before buying!

grace-salehoo

I think there are really two steps to the process, if you are serious about an online business:

1. Finding the niche

2. Consolidating your power!

By consolidating your power I mean shoring up your business in areas like branding, customer support, product quality, product selection. If you are really strong in these areas, then it will be a lot harder for competitors to undermine your niche.

baydreams

Again ,great advice Grace! but if you dont mind me saying, at least for the new ebayer as well as the new salehoo member, niche marketing can be alittle to much to soon to say the least. Its best for new ebayers to use the k.i.s.s formula for a while. And when it comes to ebay, the answer to that formula is great products at low prices,and a small liquidation lot,bought at a savy price can boost a new seller a long way. But again ,DO YOUR HOMEWORK FIRST!

grace-salehoo

Good point Baydreams :)

New eBayers need to get cash first and foremost, and liquidation is undoubtedly one of the fastest and easiest ways to do it.

Establishing yourself in a niche does take some investment, so it's definitely a more advance stage in your business.

fudjj

Liquidation can be a really good one as BD has highlighted, although plenty of pitfalls to watch out for in that market. An inexperienced dealer can make some very fundamental errors when buying surplus stock, and they can end up costing them their entire investment.

For my money, can't beat second hand when you are just starting out, probably not the best place to source products that cater to a niche, but you never know what you will turn up.

Get yourself 50-100 bucks and head out to some weekend markets, yard sales, that type of thing. You know the old saying, one persons trash in another treasure.....well it's absolutely true!

No, you can't buy just anything and sell it for a profit, it takes a level of aptitude to know what you are doing, and the better negotiator you are, the more margin you can make.

You can make money on ebay still with very little outlay, it's getting harder and takes more effort that it used to, but there are still ways to do it if you are prepared to leave your PC for a few hours!

baydreams

Awesome advice! just get ouside the box and you never know what you will find!

xnarfx1

BD what is the k.i.s.s formula?

fudjj

k.i.s.s. (Keep It Simple Stupid)

The best formula to follow!

beachdisney

The k.i.s.s. formula...Keep It Short and Simple.

bizhope

r u looking to sell on ebay, or to build your own website?

larraine888

what is hot right now

larraine888

to sell on ebay

fm1234

Here are some resources to at least get you thinking, along with some thoughts of my own:

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Sort of the granddaddy of shopping info. In fact, maybe a little too much info unless you already have a niche in mind ... but if you do have a nich in mind,

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eBay's pulse and Want It Now pages can be gamed by spammers, so bear that in mind ... but they are still worth checking out to see trends. Terapeak is a third-party research service for eBay that can give you volumes, average price ranges and trends for a given product or product niche, and I highly recommend both the free or paid versions, whatever's in your budget.

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43 Things isn't a shopping site, but a goal site. Look what goals are continually at the top, sell items that are conducive or related to achieving those goals and promote your listings via a mini-site about that goal (little bit of work but worth it if you know what you're doing.)

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Look for forums in various niches and see what people are discussing. I like to look for hot products, and then instead of looking for the hottest new product, see what people are putting up as cheap alternatives. I did very well with this strategy in the wake of the release of the iPhone, using the Let's Talk affiliate program -- never bought or handled the first phone myself but made a nice commission promoting 'the next best to the next best thing' phones from there during all the iPhone ruckus.

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Find what's hot on ClickBank, which is a digital-only marketplace, and dig up some physical products that complement those digital ones. Some cheap eBay auctions, a small website with some useful info on it, and suddenly you have two potential revenue streams -- one selling physical products, and one making affiliate commissions from the ClickBank book.

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Get informed on trending niches at these and other 'social shopping' sites.

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Search these sites for some of the most incredibly low prices on new and refurb merchandise out there. Why would you do that? To get an idea of what NOT to sell, because those products will be flooding eBay within 30 days. Most of the items that make it into the 'so cheap I can't believe it!' price range are either about to be phased out, obsoleted or seriously upgraded to a new version that everyone will want. So manufacturers and distributors and major retailers, who are always ahead of you on the information curve, are dumping them in anticipation of the new stock (there are other reasons, don't get me wrong; I'm just saying that this is a common reason that major deals exist online, and one should be wary of it.)

Hope this is of some help. Click here to buy my ebook on niche research ... no, just kidding. ;)

Frank

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