"Say your target customers are everyone, and you will sell to no one."

If your website is not producing as much revenue as you'd like, chances are you're guilty of not targeting your audience sufficiently.

Todays business environment is so competitive that a small business's best bet is to focus on developing niche products where there is less competition from large firms.

Take the online book market. Amazon.com dominates the field, so smaller start-ups are wise to focus on books in specific niches. There are sites for best sellers, out of print books, used books, Oprah's Books, teen books, 3-D popup books, e-books, Christian books, and so on and on. Imagine a small company trying to compete with Amazon's huge inventory and variety. Then imagine that same company aiming for more depth in a much smaller field.

Another reason for niche websites is because you want to get listed in the top 100 sites on any particular search engine. By making a website based around a highly focused niche you reduce considerably the number of competitors that you have. This makes it easier to rank well in the search engines (first 3 pages, or top 100 sites). Without a high Website ranking it is not possible to attract free search engine traffic and hence free visitors.

If youre an affiliate that thinks big and joins dozens of programs, youre in for a bit of a shock. Your site is indistinguishable from a myriad others, no one knows it exists, and youre very lonely. Am I right?

You need to promote what you join, and its impossible to promote that many programs effectively. You wont succeed at any of them, youll lose interest, and your business will disappear.

Instead, you need to focus on one thing that you love and create a lot of good content.

Everyone who has a website is constantly trying to improve their search engine rankings by carrying out optimization and getting inbound links etc. However one of the easiest ways is to create content that no one else has- unique content. Unique content written for an extremely focused niche market is a sure ticket to promotional success.

If your website contains your main keywords as well as a variety of related ones, used in a natural way throughout your pages, you will outperform your competition with fewer, less targeted pages. Using all these keywords throughout your pages also makes your content more interesting, rational, and satisfying. Imagine that...the question isnt whether you simply occupy a niche, but how much obscure secret stuff you know about it, how much of an expert you are about it, how passionate you are about it, and if your site is interactive and fresh.

Yet another example of "build it and they will come."

Over 360 MILLION keywords are searched for daily, so there's plenty of room for everyone's niche!

Kathryn Beach

Kathryn Beach has been building websites, promoting online businesses and blogging since 1998. Her expertise lies in all kinds of writing, and in helping others succeed in affiliate marketing. Her side interests include health issues and children. She homesteaded for 30 years, living off the grid, homeschooling children and raising much of her own food. She began a local community center and farmers market to provide what she calls "her variety of life insurance" - community support, wholesome fresh foods, and local markets to promote healthy economic lifestyles. She truly believes in the power of the individual to create a healthy lifestyle and a healthy planet.