This is an article describing my adventures in SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and the steps I am taking to maximize traffic to my site. This is my take on the word "niche"

As I plug along on this new career path, I am learning a lot on the different steps that are required to advance a web site. The current step I am taking, finding my Niche, is a bit more involved. I am not even sure that I fit into any one Niche, per se.

According to my online research (Google), a Niche is a noun that comes indirectly from the latin word for "nest". No really, I swear, I just looked it up on Wikipedia.

It can be a noun, an adverb or a verb. It is also found in French literature around the 1600's. In online marketing, it pertains to finding a group that you can market to, specializing in a certain product, or other offers like a distinct segment of a market aimed at surfers. The niche would be surfers in a certain area, surfers that only used racoon skinned surfboards, or surfers that only surfed in the nude at midnite during a full moon. (Get it ?)

Another meaning for the word "Niche", would be a small nook in a wall, like a decorative reccess, where you would place a trophy, or a small statue.

From what I could glean from my online reasearch (A niche?), there is also an issue of the proper pronunciation of the word Niche. In the UK, with all the bad dental care and missing teeth it is pronounced with a long vowel, like neesh. Here in the USA, it is mostly agreed upon to pronounce it nitch, and adding new meaning to the word and mixing and matching vowels until were all dizzy.

Ok, back to the online marketing, the SEO, and the new project that I have been working on this last week. As I learn all the new techniques that are available, I still find myself wondering, just what is a niche and how does it apply to all of this. It would seem, that if it were a small group then it would not be very profitable to try and aim your product at them. Wouldnt you want a larger market to propel yourself upon. I get the fact, that if you were aiming at surfers for instance, then you might put ad's for sandals, and board wax etc etc. If you aim at a small group, you might be able to make a little profit, but wouldn't you want a larger audience.

I am still learning what a niche is, and I am by no means an expert on any of this with my 9th grade education (GED), and there is a tremendous learning curve to all of this as i plug along in my little niche.

Would a group of high school dropout's from the ninth grade be a niche ?

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