One of the key secrets to making any business succeed, especially web hosting businesses, is to find a specific niche and to pursue people within that niche as a target market. In certain industries, such as the web hosting industry, startup costs are very low which makes it very it easy for new companies to enter the industry. In industries like these, sometimes there are hundreds if not thousands of different companies for the consumer to choose from.

In an industry like web hosting that has literally thousands of different companies for the consumer to choose from, how do you differentiate yourself? Many of the top companies in the industry spend hundreds of thousands a dollars a year to build a brand for themselves as leading hosting providers in the market. Most companies, however, do not have the sort of funds required to build this type of a brand. So what can they do? Well, it’s simple, find a niche!

What is a niche?

According to Dictionary.com, a niche is a distinct segment of a market. In other words, it is a certain group of people within the entire market.

What are some examples of niches?

Well, there are many. Example niches of the web hosting industry include a YouTube clone sites niche, phpBB forums niche, WordPress blogs niche, etc. Essentially, any “community” or “grouping” of specific but related websites can be considered a niche.

Why is this important?

A previously stated, in today’s hosting industry where there are thousands of different providers out there; it is extremely difficult to develop a recognizable brand name for your company. However, if you choose to target a specific niche instead, you are decreasing the amount of competitors that you have drastically. This will make it a lot cheaper and more realistic for you to develop a brand name for yourself and thus for you to succeed in the industry. In essence, you are creating a “specialty” for your company, which would make it more appealing within that niche than one of your competitors who does not target the same niche.

Should I only accept sales from people within the niche that I target?

Absolutely not, you should still be open and willing to accept sales from everyone. However, it is important to invest a large majority if not all of your marketing resources towards your niche.