How do I find the best niche to sell into on eBay?

First off today, I must tell you that I’m currently working on the finishing touches for this year’s E-Seller Mastery Programme and am very excited to be able to tell you that I will be re-opening the doors on this next month, so look out for more information from me very soon! If you want to be one of the first to receive information about my mentoring programme, please make sure you pop your name down on the early-bird list so that you don’t miss out. You can do that here So, now on to other matters… Choosing a niche depends on many factors! Here’s what you need to consider for your own personal circumstances This week I received an email that read like this: Hi I’m new at this. Can you let me know which market I personally can earn the most money in quickly? It doesn’t matter if the one you tell me to do isn’t for a beginner. I just want to know which one will make me the most cash as soon as possible.

Mobiles
Clothes
Gadgets
Toys
Make Up
Shoes
Web Hosting
Dropshipping Stuff
Games
Photography

Thx. So, let’s gloss over the fact that there are no ‘pleases’, ‘thank you’s’ (I’m not including the ‘thx’ at the end because that doesn’t count), or even a name at the end of the email…. Let’s also gloss over the fact that the list wasn’t even a list, it was written as a paragraph – I’ve numbered it so you can read it – and let’s finally gloss over the fact that the sender has asked me to decide for him ‘personally’.

Note that I have never met this person and I don’t even know their name! Glossing over done, let’s concentrate on the question. Which of those 10 niches will make the most money? Well, the answer is none of them…and all of them! The amount of potential income anyone can earn from any niche depends on lots of factors including:

How much your initial investment is
What your buying power is
Which product lines you choose out of those overall niches
How good your contacts are
What you have knowledge or an interest in
How much time you have available to build your business

So you can see, there is no definitive answer. It depends on everything and there is no rule that says selling one type of product is better and will make you more profit. That’s why it was almost impossible for me to answer this question with a straightforward response. So let’s have a look at the factors I’ve listed above. First of all, your initial investment. If you had £5000 to invest in a range of clothes or shoes for example, you would be pretty certain to be able to establish a viable business with plenty of stock and some good profit margins, but that same £5000 invested in, lets say, mobiles is likely to give you far less scope for stock, not to mention lower profits. So, the type of products you choose to spend your investment on within those niches will have a bearing on profitability too. You could blow the whole 5k on a specific type of clothing that you haven’t researched as a hot seller – and sell nothing. Or you could have researched the market thoroughly and know that for example ‘tank tops’ are hot – and sell hundreds! That’s why it’s important to choose wisely and do plenty of research before investing any money. Add to this ‘buying power’. The higher your investment, the higher your buying power, so if your buying power is low, anything with a really low margin – i.e. cheaper products – won’t bring you huge profits. In this case, if you have a low initial investment, it’s always best to go for unbranded products or brand your own products. For newbies with low investment you’ll find a selection of unbranded product suggestions, including net profit calculations inside The Source Report Along with ‘buying power’ come contacts! You may have a good network of suppliers and a good rapport with each of them in which case you may find that sourcing products and getting discounts comes easily. On the other hand you may be starting from scratch with no contacts and have yet to do any research in which case negotiations must start from scratch. When negotiating, it is very useful to have some knowledge of or an interest in the products you are sourcing. It helps when you are chatting with suppliers and often you can find some common ground which helps with building a relationship with the supplier. Knowledge is power! But not only that, quite often the business you will be most profitable in is one that suits you, interests you and is one that you will enjoy continually building day after day. For instance, if you love keeping fit, listening to dance tracks and looking good then it would make sense to run a business that incorporates one or all of these things…running accessories, keep fit gadgets, waterproof cosmetics and so on. Because you will probably be an actual ‘user’ of the type of products you sell so you know what’s popular, what’s up and coming and what buyers want from a product. If you hate all those things, don’t have any knowledge about them or even a passing interest in them, you may struggle to hold an interest in what you are selling and you will know very little about the type of customers you are supposed to be targeting. Finally it comes down to time. How much money you earn in a particular niche is also about the effort and hours you put in. If you only have half an hour to spare twice a week, then you probably won’t earn as much as you would if you had 3 hours spare each week to concentrate on starting and building your business. The more you put in, the more you get out. That’s a definite cliché, but in this case it’s absolutely true. So, in the end, my response to my anonymous emailer was all of the above (in a rather more condensed form) with an added piece of advice: Do a little bit of soul-searching, ask yourself what it is that you enjoy, you like, you have an interest in, you relate to, you are excited by, you are enthusiastic about. Research and decide on a realistic range of products in a niche and then get started. This way it will be more enjoyable and you will be far more likely to have a successful, profitable business, whichever niche you choose. As always I wish you the best of success,

How do I find the best niche to sell into on eBay?

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