What’s a Niche?

That’s a good question and one I’ve heard so many different answers to over the past few years. Let’s take a moment to define what a niche might mean to you.

Let’s start with the dictionary, as that’s always a good place to start. Niche as defined by Merriam-Webster in regards to business and marketing, since we know we’re not talking about recessed wall shelves, book nooks, or other fancy architectural details….

-or even more simply…-
a specialized market

Yes, I think I like those as defining what a niche might be. I’ll go on and add to that a niche can be as broad or as specific as you’d like it to be and as will best suit you, your personality, and your audience.

For example, let’s take “gardening.” That’s a pretty broad topic, there are many types of gardening and different methods used.

A more specific niche within that niche would be vegetable gardening. That might still be too broad for some folks.

An even more specific niche within that niche would be tomato gardening. We’re getting quite specific now, but we can niche down even further.

Even more specific than that might be growing heirloom tomatoes in your garden. That is very defined, but there’s more.

Growing delicious heirloom tomatoes in your container garden on your apartment patio. Whoa, we just got extremely defined on a niche there.

You know what though? Any one of those definitions can be perfect. It can be as broad or as specific as you need to be to fit your vision.

Sometimes I honestly think niche is just a fancy buzzword that internet marketers like to say sometimes so they can argue over how it should be pronounced. (I kid, I joke, I laugh, – well, sort of, a little bit.)