Niche Marketing: 13 Brilliant Niche Business Ideas

The key to successful niche marketing is to pick a niche small enough to dominate, and large enough to be profitable. It's an extremely delicate balance that requires both skill and luck. But when you strike  that perfect balance, and are able to dominate a niche, you automatically become the recognized expert and authority in your field - and suddenly, your cup runneth over!

In this article, I'm going to introduce you to 13 brilliant niche businesses that are thriving in niches you probably never thought of or knew existed. Hopefully, this article will inspire you to create or develop a profitable niche business that matches your individual personality, talent and interest. Enjoy!

Romeo Mendoza

Can't pay your mortgage? Then, paint your house. That's right, if you will allow the folks at Adzookie, a free mobile advertising company to turn your house into a giant billboard, they will pay your mortgage for as long as your house remains a billboard.

Romeo Mendoza, Adzookie's founder and CEO, says his idea serves two important purposes: 1. It helps struggling homeowners. 2. It spreads the word about his free mobile advertising company. With home foreclosures in the news almost on a daily basis, from a PR standpoint, this is an absolutely brilliant idea! Romeo's website: http://www.adzookie.com

Alex Tew

You may not know his name, but I'm pretty sure you know his fame, The Million Dollar Homepage. It's a website that was brilliantly conceived in 2005 by Alex Tew, a college student from Wiltshire, England. The purpose of the website was to raise money for his college education. The home page consists of a million pixels arranged in a 1000 × 1000 pixel grid; the image-based links on it were sold for $1 per pixel in 10 × 10 blocks.

Alex's ultimate goal was to sell all of the pixels in the image, thus generating a million dollars of income for himself. He achieved that goal on January 11, 2006, when the final 1000 pixels were put up for auction on eBay. Mission accomplished! Alex's website: http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com

Darren Berkovitz

Got a chore that needs to do done? Too busy to do it yourself? Imagine being able to go to a website and post a chore that needs doing. For example, walking your dog, mowing your lawn, or doing laundry. Here's how the service works: Individuals or businesses in your area will bid on your proposal online. You simply choose from among the bids. This clever idea of Darren Berkovitz is sort of a combination of Craigslist and eBay. Darren's website: http://www.domystuff.com

Marla Cilley

Who knew being a professional nag could be so profitable? Marla Cilley, "FlyLady" makes millions by nagging her approximately 550,000 e-mail subscribers known as "Flybabies", to do things such as get up and get dressed for work, polish their sink, get their nails done, cook dinner and yes...go to bed! In 2010, sales of Marla's nag business reached 4 million. Marla's website: http://flylady.net

Eric Hozle

What do you get when you combine DNA with online dating? You get ScientificMatch, an internet-dating site launched in December 2007 by Eric Holzle, who, before launching his site spent years doing research about human chemical attraction. The site is based in Boston, Massachusetts where its service is offered.

The company uses your DNA to maximize the chances of finding compatible physical chemistry with your matches. Oh, in case you're wondering, the membership fee is a whopping $2000! Eric's website: https://scientificmatch.com

Dusty Regan

Dusty Regan, a self-proclaimed "geek" and lover of technology, is the creator of FriendorFollow, an extremely useful twitter tool that tells you who you’re following who’s not following you back. This tool allows you to stay on top of your unfollows, as well as "trim your Twitter fat", so to speak. Dusty's website: http://friendorfollow.com

Claire Lamont/Jo-Anne Stayner

I'm a Mrs., an online marriage name change service was created by best friends Claire Lamont and Jo-Anne Stayner, as a result of the quest for the perfect shower gift...and to help newly married friends who spent hours going through the name change process. 

I'm a Mrs. provides all of the forms, instructions and personalized letters new brides need when they embark on their official name change journey. The service is easy to use and can help brides save a tremendous amount of frustration and time.

Launched in 2008, I'm a Mrs. is now available in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Claire and Jo-Annes's website: http://www.imamrs.com

Dmitry Davydov

If you need a memorable, easy to pronounce domain name that exactly describes what your website is all about, you might want to check out PickyDomains. They specialize in finding available domain names that are descriptive, concise and are easily remembered.

And here's the best part: If they can’t find a domain name, or you don’t like any available domain names they suggest – you don’t pay anything - making the service completely risk free. Dmitry's website: http://www.pickydomains.com

Bryan Caplovitz

Bryan Caplovitz, a former business technology consultant, in trying to build market share for his consulting firm, saw the need for a service where non-professional speakers could find speaking opportunities. He thought the Internet was an ideal way to bring speakers and opportunities together, and SpeakerMatch was born.

Here's how the service works: Organizations list their events and speaker needs for free, while speakers pay a small monthly fee to post their profile on the site and pursue leads for possible speaking engagements. SpeakerMatch.com has become the preeminent online destination for those looking for speaking engagements. Bryan's website: http://www.speakermatch.com

Aibek Esengulov/Kaly Mochoev

Looking for a useful, fun blog to help guide you through the web and tell you about exciting, hot websites that you have never heard of, including the best software programs, and all kinds of "how to" tips for computer users?

Then, MakeUseOf is definitely the blog for you. Launched in July, 2006 by Aibek Esengulov and Kaly Mochoev, MakeUseOf has approximately 350,000 subscribers and ranks among the most popular blogs on the planet according to Technorati. Aibek and Kaly's website: http://www.makeuseof.com

Sami Bayrakci

Do you like surprises? SomethingStore is an interesting website launched in October 2007 by Sami Bayrakci, that will send you "something", an item selected randomly among thousands of products from their diverse inventory, for $10 (free shipping in the US), and you will discover what your something is when you receive it. Sami's website: http://www.somethingstore.com

Paul Singh/Aaron Dragushan

Have you ever called a company only to have an automated operator tell you, "Due to an unusually high call volume, you have to wait for several minutes"? Don't you just hate when that happens?

Well now, instead of waiting on hold for an eternity, you can have someone else do the waiting for you. Thanks to a clever new service called FastCustomer, created by Paul Singh and Aaron Dragushan, all you have to do is type in the name of the company you are trying to reach and your phone number, and FastCustomer will call you back as soon as it gets someone on the line. Paul and Aaron's website: http://www.fastcustomer.com

George Burke

Imagine being able to swap unlimited ebooks with thousands of readers nationwide. eBook Fling allows you to do just that. Here's how it works: Simply share an eBook with others and in return, get back the eBook of your choice. You can choose from the hottest bestsellers, classics and even textbooks and tech manuals.

But wait...it gets even better! You can even trade Kindle™ and Nook™ books using your e-reader device, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry™ or Android™ smartphone. ebook Fling is the brainchild of Bookswim.com founder and CEO George Burke. George's website: http://ebookfling.com

In closing, niche marketing may or may not be your cup of tea...only you can decide that. But as you've just seen from reading this article, the possibilities are virtually endless!