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| 'cause girls don't wanna grow up either |
we just have to focus on reaching the people who will love us.
Popular doesn’t mean what it used to mean.
Everyone can be popular now. Yes, everyone. The cool kids may still be sitting at the best table, but guess what – we don’t have to look at them anymore.
(with their perfect skin and their perfect clothes and their perfectly straight teeth - wait, actually I have perfectly straight teeth, don't hate me)
We have our own table. We have always had our own table. But now thanks to this amazing thing called the internet there are a whole lot more people sitting with us and we only have to see each other.
The days of everyone seeing the same TV shows on a Friday night are gone; now everyone sees different things – the things we want to see.
(yes, the world is like Facebook now)
Those different things are niches.
(pronounced neeshe rhymes with quiche or like geese with a lisp, although here in New Jersey most people rhyme it with fish or itch)
Your niche is what separates you from the pack. It is also what helps the right people find you.
Forget the internet and Etsy for a minute and think of it like this – you are a chiropractor in a small town. If you focus exclusively on golf injuries you will probably be out of business, your small town will not support this type of specializing – you probably need to be more general.
But let’s say you move your practice to the big city – suddenly your general practice is getting lost in the shuffle. There are gazillions of clients for you now, but they can’t find you because there are gazillions of other chiropractors, too – suddenly a golf injury specialty becomes a good thing. In the big city you need a niche.
As cuddly and down home local as it looks, Etsy is the big city folks, yes, we need a niche. But there are some tricks to this niche thing.
Pop over to the TEAM ECOETSY BLOG for my niche tricks.
(and then say that five times fast and come sit at my table and check out my teeth)
13 comments
First, let me say that I love your blog and have been a reader for several years. Your business advice is spot on and always speaks to me.
The only problem I'm having with this post is about the pronunciation of niche. I've always pronounced it as nitch, rhyming with glitch. I just verified this with the talking dictionary app on my phone.
I know! That's how I always say it, too- but more like fish than glitch (but I'm from Jersey) with nitch being like a nook, but meaning like a special place for something which is kind of the same thing since we are talking about our special place - my ear doesn't like the neesh thing either ... I have it on good authority it is neesh - I did some very intense research on this subject Vicki ie google http://www.forvo.com/word/niche/
(there is one US guy who says nitch!)
I had a debate with people on facebook over marry, merry and Mary because everyone was telling me they are all pronounced the same way ... which still makes me say wth! You are not originally an east coaster are you?
Your comments are fun.
I found my special place (I am not even going to jump into the niche debate.)
Stringing nice stones in a nice pattern with an nice sterling clasp creates a really nice necklace well worth the $$$ I charge. Very quick, very straight forward, all very nice. However, there are always another 20 people at every show I have ever done who do very similar work. I came into this using tiny seed beads. There are never 20 people doing bead weaving at any show. I differentiate myself with what I love, on Etsy or elsewhere.
Kathy- yes! and the more skill you have the more this whole niche thing is just about finding people that appreciate that ...
I say nitch too. (but I try not to say the word at all because of all this mispronunciation) My mom says neesh, and it makes me want to laugh when I hear it out loud. I don't know why.
Very well written article Cat. But we shouldn't expect anything less from you... Your thoughts and words always make perfect sense. :)
thanks Janell! I avoid saying it out loud, too- because I am thinking no matter which way I go, the person I am speaking with will probably pronounce it the other way and think I'm an idiot...
Yes Cat, I'm from New York -- Staten Island to be precise. Before moving there, I went to kindergarten in Bloomfield NJ!
I'm sticking with the guy who does the pronunciation on my dictionary app. Yes, I'm stubborn!
I have a friend who says nitchy. Drives me nuts. She's from the east coast too. Go figure.
And on the marry, merry and Mary thing -- I pronounce them all very differently!
maybe nitch is like Jersey - you just can't take it out of the girl Vicki! I still get the shivers when Martha says the h in herb, but I pronounce the middle syllable of family which I have been told makes me sound like english is my second language ...
these are the dialect maps that started the Mary, merry, marry debate http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/dialect-maps_n_3395819.html
Wait, we're not supposed to pronounce all three syllables of fa-mi-ly???
I know - they tell me it is pronounced famlee - it's nuts right?!!
Nuts indeed. I have seen those dialect maps and found them very entertaining!
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