CBC Kelly: Choosing A Niche Market & Teaching In The Manner The Market Wants To Learn

Continuing with my Cross Blog Conversation with Kelly McCausey at Sparkplugging WAHM 2.0 after reading her response to my questions to her here, I now have a bit to say and will attempt to answer her questions to me:

Do you see yourself as a Master Translator for the Baby Boomer crowd? How do you think being a Boomer affects how someone wants to learn about making an income on the internet?

First I want to respond to Kelly’s post about specialized learning. She totally steered me away from my rant about the internet marketing gurus and the email overload I’m experiencing (see my last post in this CBC)…and that’s a good thing. I was just in fit about the whole situation. However, having had some time to reflect, having unsubscribed to some lists, and totally relooking at the information I receive from the gurus, actually there’s a lot of good info there. So, totally cutting them out of my learning experience isn’t in the best interest of either my readers or myself. Plus, at least it keeps me up to date about the market, how it’s progressing, and what’s new. That allows me to report that information here on my website.

Having said that, Kelly is so right about how there is an entirely different layer of people who want to learn in a different manner than what the gurus offer. They want closer contact with their trainer. They want small chunks of information so it’s easier to manage and afford. They want a “small school” experience verses “big state university” education.

That’s where I think I want to fit in for my niche. I don’t want to be a “big guru celebrity”. I don’t want to do presentations in front of 100s, if not 1000s of people. I don’t want a big staff and big launches. I want to help a lot of people, but in a “boutique” kind of way. And to be successful, I need to find the people who want to learn in that manner.

And that leads to Kelly’s questions for me:

Do you see yourself as a Master Translator for the Baby Boomer crowd? How do you think being a Boomer affects how someone wants to learn about making an income on the internet?

Kelly, I can’t say I’m a Master Translator for the Baby Boomer crowd, not that I don’t want to become one, but I’m having a hard time finding my “groove”. I’m finding the Baby Boomer crowd to be a bit massive and it spans over a huge age range. For that reason, I’m starting to think that having Baby Boomers as my target market won’t work because it’s too large and diverse.

And actually, if I speak honestly, I’d have to admit that I errored in choosing Baby Boomers as a niche. You see, they really are not a niche, they are a demographic, and just because they are in the same demographic does not mean they have the same interests. Because their interests are so diverse, it’s hard to write to them, it’s hard to market to them, it’s hard to do anything specifically for a Baby Boomer. I need to find a niche within the demographic so I know who I’m talking to when I write, teach, and try to sell to them. And that’s a lesson anyone reading the article must consider when choosing their niche.

Answering your question about whether I think being a Baby Boomer affects how they want to learn, probably not since being a Baby Boomer doesn’t really change how a person wants to learn. There may be some characteristics of being a Baby Boomer that would lead me to believe that a “boutique” learning experience would be preferential for the demographic but I can’t say that for certain. Because the demographic is composed of so many interests, ages, income levels, etc., there’s really no way to tell and any conclusion I would draw would be an assumption. So again, I’ve chosen a demographic, not a niche and that is something I need to correct if I ever want to find success.

So, lots of self-revelation going on here. I’m actually going to have to sit down and figure out how to tighten the focus of the site, while keeping in mind that I want to maintain a “boutique” or “Master Translator” method to my information presentation.

Kelly, was there a point in time that you realized you needed to “tighten” your focus or that you realized you had chosen a demographic instead of a niche? If so, what occurred that helped you realize you needed to make a change and how did you go about making that change? If not, are you just that smart or did you just get lucky? LOL No really, I’d love to hear your comments about how people sometimes “get it wrong” and how an evolution needs to take place before they are able to make a success of their business.

Looking forward to your response.

Ciao!

Reba

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