Niche market is one of those buzz terms that gets thrown around a lot. Just about any marketing book, article or blog post worth its weight talks about niche marketing. It’s so prevalent that most small business owners would say they’ve heard the term.

But just knowing about the term niche marketing doesn’t mean you know what niche marketing really is. Or how it applies to your business.

Most service-based business professionals I work with and talk to have some idea of niche market. Often, they think of it as the group of people their business serves or the market they target their services for. And while it’s true that your market is who you sell your products and services too, it doesn’t mean you’re selling to a niche market.

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THIS OFFER HAS ENDED!

You may have heard that we’re expecting our fourth child sometime in the next couple of weeks. My wife, the kids and I are extremely excited and are looking forward to meeting this new little Miracle (sorry, couldn’t resist).

At the same time, I’ve been looking for an interesting and fun thing to do with another birth in my life – one of a website nature. And I think I’ve done it:

Until noon, eastern, on Sunday, August 30th, I’m going to sell my business-ready, template-based websites for the absolutely insane low price of $350. No typo, I mean three hundred and fifty dollars. Sounds pretty good, huh?

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Word-of-mouth is certainly the most powerful form of marketing.

You know how it works, you find some amazing product or use some stupendous service and you can’t help but tell people about it. It’s as though you’ve found something unique that you have to share with others.

As a small business owner, word-of-mouth marketing can be your best friend. The cost is low and the affect can be huge.

But on thing that always gets in the way more effectively using word-of-mouth marketing is the idea that you have to create the greatest product or service in the world. If it’s even possible, it’s not necessary.

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I’m certain that you market your business. But, do you advertise your business?

I’ve heard so many web-based small business owners do their best to avoid using the word advertise that I’ve begun to wonder why. I’ve worked with enough clients offline to know that it’s not small business owners in general. Offline businesses use advertising constantly to get the word out about their business.

But it seems different for online small businesses. Somehow it seems that the word advertise is unclean or dishonest or something. While I haven’t quite put my finger on it, it is obvious that online small business tend to look at advertising differently. They often don’t consider placing ads – even Google Adwords.

This strikes me as odd because a few, well-placed advertisements can often drive far more than business than their cost.

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If you run a small business you’re likely making decisions all the time. If it’s not what product to develop it’s where to publicize your business. Or perhaps you’re considering hiring a virtual assistant or looking for a joint venture partner. Either way, you’re business is forcing you to make choices all day long.

But to be successful, you’re ultimately not the decision maker. And if you want to be successful, you shouldn’t be.

I know what you’re thinking (other than this Dawud cat is crazy), “Then who makes the decisions if I don’t?”

Your market does, of course.

You can sit back everyday, all day and make decisions about where to steer your business. Sure you decide what emails to respond too, what phone calls to take, and where to put your marketing efforts. You decide to develop this product or refine that service or to build this relationship or that one.

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A number of the clients I work with blog. Either they want to get started and need to learn how or they’re already blogging and want to make a greater impact with their blog.

But one thing is similar between almost every client…they somehow see their blog as their business. I’m not sure where this developed exactly, but I see this all over the web as well. Perhaps there’s a misunderstanding between those who have made money blogging and those who want too.

But a blog is not a business. Blogging, in it’s own right, is no more a business than your gasoline is a car. Sure, the car and gasoline are forever linked, even dependent on each other, but you’re not going to step inside a can of gas and make it to the grocery store.

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According to some, email marketing is dead because of beefed up spam filters. Others say that interruption marketing – where you’re life is interrupted by some marketing pitch has reached the end of its effectiveness. Email marketing is definitely a part of interruption marketing.

But what’s the truth? Have we reached a point where we should dump our email lists and find other channels to market through? Or is email marketing still as viable as it always has been?

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