What's Your Niche?

By LindaJM

Everyone should have a niche, or so I've heard. My focus (like my mind) has been divided over too many niches to the point where I was absolutely confused about what my niche(s) might be.

Recently I resolved the problem by creating a spreadsheet page listing my niches. I tried to include every website, lens, and hub I'd created in a niche, and even added a few articles I've got on sites like Ezine Articles and Xomba.

I boiled it all down to nine niches. (Help!!) This may seem like way too much for one person to handle, but I'm happy to say at least now I know what I've got and have an organized way of seeing what's available in each category.

This helps with backlinking. For example, in the clothing area I can link from my Squidoo lens about hippie clothing to my Hub about warm scarves and hats, to my website about hippie and boho bags. I know immediately of every page and linking opportunity I have that fits into the clothing niche.

Here is another favorite niche: Writing, with these websites: Perspectives on Writing, Literature For Kids, Cali Childhood, Mystic Movie Reviews, and of course my own writing site: Linda Jo Martin.Com. I have lots of hubs and lenses that fit this niche.

More niches: Home education, home/health/herbs, gifts, horses, philosophy & politics, regional & outdoors, spirituality, and webdesign/business. In February I created a business site, Online Small Business: LJ Martin Web.

My most recent project is a site to document and record the events surrounding the nuclear meltdown in Japan. I was so upset about the tragedy and subsequent radiation dangers in Japan and here in Northern California, that I decided to use my angst and focus to build a website covering the topic.

I'm a web worker, like many of you. At this time I've managed to raise my online income to a point where I can support myself. It took years of effort on my part; there was no fast overnight success. I floundered a lot. I got involved in too many niches. I didn't have the SEO formulas right. But I've managed, finally, to have an income at a time when I need it most. I'm extremely grateful to God for guiding me in this because I've probably made every mistake in the book!

At this time I own 40 domains, most of which don't produce any income, including this one. But the few that do manage to provide about 3/5 of my income with Squidoo providing the other 2/5. I'm trying to change this by developing my Amazon income with Fresh Store Builder (FSB).

So far I've got two FSB stores on the web. The first one, Hippie Bags, is fairly successful though it is only 2 months old. So things are looking up. I'm not making many lenses this year because my focus is on creating 15 FSB stores, and they are time-intensive. But I did manage to make one lens regarding the current world crisis: How to Survive a Nuclear Disaster. This fits into my philosophy & politics niche fairly well!