Finding Your Niche

Friday, August 18, 2006 at 11:38am by Angela Gilltrap in Marketing

The easiest way to market yourself, is to find a niche and fill it. Attain some buzz from the media as an expert in a particular field. Offer your services to radio stations, magazines and newspapers as the person to seek out when newsworthy pieces that are relevant to your area of expertise pop up. Writers need experts to quote in articles, radio shows need knowledgeable people to contribute content to their program, if you can make their lives easier by putting the information, your information, at their fingertips you will always succeed. Even if a particular talk back show, newspaper or magazine doesn’t call on your expertise, it’s one more person that knows about you and your services. It is one more person that may divulge your information to a desperate friend at a BBQ who is looking for a service or product that you can offer. So how do you find those contacts?

First of all, grab a copy of the Writer’s Market ($49.99 at Barnes & Nobles/Borders). It lists all the magazines, publishers, trade journals and editors of publications dealing in your field. It also lists the different ways you can contribute, ie. columns, feature article. Secondly, head off to your local library and ask to see the Media Listing book. I’m not sure if that is its actual name but they should know what you’re talking about. It lists all the television, radio and newspaper contacts relevant to your expertise. To buy, it costs about $400 so most likely it will be held under lock and key in the reference section of your local library.

Lastly don’t limit yourself to your country of origin. It’s a big bad world out there and you should not stop yourself from going global. There are different versions of the Writer’s Market covering various countries; think of how much more credible you sound when you contribute internationally to various publications in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.

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