Using the E-Commerce Internet ...making money NICHE MARKETS Internet stores have a distinct advantage over brick and mortar stores: The cost of doing business is less. Leasing space in a viable location and staffing that space are major expenses for the brick and mortar merchant. In contrast, the Internet store is frequently comprised of one person with a desk top computer spending just a few hours each week. The niche market is often characterized by products having too few potential customers in any one geographic area to support a successful brick and mortar store. This doesn't mean that it's a small market, just that a broader geographic reach is needed to make selling into it viable. This is where Internet selling starts to shine brightest. MICRO MARKETS Some niche markets are miniscule by normal standards. We'll call these micro markets. Worldwide, there may be fewer than 1000 potential customers in a micro market. Effectively selling into these markets would be very expensive without the Internet. With the Internet, these markets can be the most interesting because they constitute a community of like minded people that you can get to know individually. Speciality, vanity, and information websites often offer a micro market opportunity. Don't shy away from adding a little commerce to your special interest web site. You're probably not going to get rich selling into a micro market but, you'll have fun with the interaction. After all, commerce, trading in goods and services, is one of man's earliest forms of social interaction. And there's nothing like putting a few bucks in your pocket while having fun. Most niche markets are sub and sub/sub categories of general markets and micro markets are sub categories of these. For instance Radio Control is a sub category of the general hobby market. This would be a niche market but airplane Radio Control is also a niche market, simply more specific. Even more specific could be the Antique War Bird Radio Control. This might be at the micro market level. Only the enthusiast would know for sure. What the enthusiast turned merchant should know is that an entry into a micro market with a store on the Internet has the greatest chance of succeeding. Revenues may not be great but, expenses will be low and you'll be staying away from the intense competition of the big guys. Item price will not be a major issue. FINDING A NICHE The number of niche market categories is limitless and the specialties within these niche markets, themselves niche or micro markets, is huge. The way to tell if an item you want to sell is a part of a niche or even better a micro market is to search your local village or a shopping mall. If you can't find the item or something pretty similar you're probably looking at a niche market item. If you think there are some other people anywhere in the world that would want the item, you're on your way to becoming a pure-play Internet merchant. In our next issue of E-ComTips well talk more about niche market opportunities and provide another successful example of niche marketing from our client list. The Staff Team ....ImagineNation FURTHER READING: Don't overlook our LINKS page for information sources. Did you know you can take credit cards at your Internet store without a merchant account. Learn more about our IAMS  service There are lots of advantages to subscribing to an IAMS account and a couple of compelling reasons:   Everything you'll need is in one easy to use location and includes free use of our award winning PeddleGold storefront. Take a look at the advantages of subscribed services. View a demonstration IAMS order management console. Recent     Changes    Improvements    Upgrades    Stories Crimson Cult Video Now here's a niche market product found well down in one of the huge general market categories: Arts and Entertainment/Movies/Vidieos/Cult/Horror/ . Crimson Cult Video serves their market on-line using a PeddleGold storefront with an IAMS account for taking credit cards. Some of their videos are really weird but, by today's standards, are pretty innocent. Our guess is that 98% of our readers will never admit even hearing about such videos. Now that's a niche market. It's a niche market in which Ray, the owner, does a very nice international business. We were going to describe his site and marketing effort but, he said it all in an e-mail to us: > It's really a very simple site I wish I had the time and expertise to > improve upon.. The business is strictly a web site / mail order operation > at this point. It's very much a niche market, not to everyone's tastes. > That said, however, the market for our product is strong and the customer > service I/We provide is a major part of our ability to stay above water. > The site promotion is generated by links to various movie, video and genre > related entertainment sites, which has gone so well that we are > prominently featured on all major search engines world wide as a result of > being linked to a large and wide variety of entertainment web sites. Word > of Mouth is also a primary force for business. I haven't spent a dime on > print ads etc.... CCV has developed a strong reputation among those > interested in our product over the course of the 3 years we have been in > business. While I would like to grow CCV, until it becomes a full time > endeavor, it's not possible. Without our online presence, I don't think > CCV could/would exist. Being accessible to customers by phone and email is > also very important and puts clients at ease when dealing with us. Sorry > if I rambled on too long. Ray, you didn't ramble too long and you told the story better than we ever could. Be sure to drop by Ray's shop and have a look. That's Crimson Cult Video at the URL http://crimsoncultvideo.com or the link CCV Team ....ImagineNation ImagineNation © 1996 - 2002  Products of ImagineNation!    Providing on-line stores for small and mid-size Internet businesses since 1996,   Imaginenation is a full service company meeting all of your e-commerce needs:    Storefronts     Credit Card Processing     Back Office Utilities     Merchant Accounts DO YOU NEED HELP WITH OUR PRODUCTS OR HAVE A GENERAL QUESTION? Please E-Mail specific product questions using the mail form at  ImagineNation.com For general information questions, visit our moderated public Q&A   FORUM For back issues of E-ComTips visit the   ARCHIVE Suffering from overload?  List Removal E-ComTips is brought to you by ImagineNation because you are listed as a user of one of our storefront products or have subscribed to receive the Newsletter itself. To remove your address from our list, go to List Remove and, if your correct address and service ID are not showing when you get there, enter the correct values manually. Please do not reply to this newsletter return e-mail address. Replies here are not processed. Use the Mail Form at ImagineNation to correspond. This e-mail address is: [EMAIL] and the ID is [SID]

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