There Are Riches in Niches

The launch of Stripe Generator - admittedly a one-off with limited appeal - caused Seth Godin to raise a point:

Not a lot of room to make stuff that everyone thinks is great. I think you're a lot better off delighting and amazing the niches.

There's a lot of truth there. When I was recently mulling over two podcasting ideas, I shared my ideas with a new media colleague. Here's roughly how the conversation went:

Me: So I've got a couple of podcast ideas in development. One is for a social media podcast; the other is a literary podcast.

Him: Doing one podcast is a huge commitment; two would be even greater. Let me ask you this: is anyone else doing a literary podcast in the space?

Me: No.

Him: Then make that your focus. There are tons of podcasts about podcasting, blogging and new marketing. But is anyone else doing a podcast about this literary character?

Me: No.

Him: Then you should own it. Be the first. Be the best. You can stand out.

He's absolutely right. If you want to brand yourself, if you want to be remarkable, you need to give people a solution that they need, no matter what the size of the audience. If you're doing what's already been done and you have no unique angle, you aren't going to have many evangelists who will be loyal to you. Plus - if you actually enjoy what you're doing and you're really good at it, you'll be rewarded.

Go out there and build the next Stripe Generator.