Anyone just design for a niche market?

[Harleyman]

Hi everyone. I am interested in hearing whether anyone just designs for one particular industry or type of business. I know many people design under the heading of 'small businesses' which can include virtually anyone, but how does operating in a niche market compare in terms of running your business. Is it a good way to proceed, any pitfalls? Grateful for any views on the subject?

Thanks

[wrmineo]

Hey HarleyMan - welcome to WPW; awesome first post and great question.

I'm sure they're out there, but personally, I've yet to run into them as individuals.

I've seen company's that specialize in doing only real estate website, or the like, but when you dig a bit deeper, they're usually owned by a firm who in fact have a huge and diverse base.

I would think that this could be a good way to go, certainly for starting out in the market so to speak. Find your niche and become the best at it - an awesome concept if you can begin to build a rep for it. Reminds me of my military days, "Hold what ya got, Airborne!" Simply meaning, once you're in the slip/groove - ride it all the way in!

Hope to see and hear more of you soon - awesome question - hopefully there'll be more specific replies as now you've peaked my interest too!

w®m

[Kane]

I think the answer lies in what you define as a niche ? ecommerce could be said to be a niche but guess what ? they could be selling anything so where is the niche ?

So what about sites selling just "one" product ? i.e. cameras. Ya that might work however, sites that sell cameras invariably sell just about everything else that goes with them (and rightly so), so where is your niche ?

The niche, for me at least, is in providing for those businesses that work on newly found niches and need presence, content, product and sales pitch created on the fly and ready to ship out.

So when I call you shouting FIRE FIRE !!! I HAVE FOUND A MONSTER NICHE AND WANT TO BE UP AND TRADING FOR TOMMOROW !!

You then turn up, cape on, with my site ready to go and trade the very next day.

Nows thats a niche :)

[ADAM Web Design]

I have in certain cases.

http://www.durasystems.com is a site I built specifically for a client whose target market consists of engineers and engineering companies. As a result, it's built for 1024x768 resolution and broadband connections.

Most of my other cases revolve around private intranets though, so I can't show you those.

The only pitfall I've ever run into that way is the feedback I've gotten from other designers/developers that X site doesn't fit on 800x600 or something like that. And no offense to other designers/developers, but if they're not the site's target market, my primary concern is not what they think.

[wrmineo]

... The only pitfall I've ever run into that way is the feedback I've gotten from other designers/developers that X site doesn't fit on 800x600 or something like that. And no offense to other designers/developers, but if they're not the site's target market, my primary concern is not what they think.

Touche mon ami!

First, the client writes the check, hence the customer is always right. Granted, I think it's incumbent on the designer, SEO, SES or whatever firm, to ensure the client is fully aware of any and all ins/outs of what they're asking for, but again, it's their site and their customers you want to be happy ... fellow peers be damned :)

[supernatural_247]

unless you're attempting to follow in the footsteps of Ann Rand's Roarke, my suggestion would be to follow the money...

[ADAM Web Design]

unless you're attempting to follow in the footsteps of Ann Rand's Roarke, my suggestion would be to follow the money...

It's the golden rule. He who has the gold, rules.

[Markll]

I design mostly for Photographers and artist.

I'm heavy into Flash and I find that it's very easy to customize template codes from client to client saving a lot of time creating original objects.

[theoart]

I too do a lot of work for photographers and artists but i have found that in most cases niche focuses do not work in every industry. Take photography for instance: There are a number of companies that seem to be focused on photography realted services or sites but this niche is so broad that you can focus on printing, online galleries or personal web sites for photographers. These themselves could be niches within photography. But even these subniches seem to be saturated by service providers.

I like to focus on photographers and artists jut becuase I enjoy both subjects but I think the key is to find a niche that is not oversaturated with providers. This can be hard to do and disappointing if the niche is too small.

My suggestion is to focus on niches but do not limit yourself to one.

[xmx]

My opinion is that once you are able to create
good websites for a niche you already have most
of the required knowhow to build good websites
for other niches too.

So it only depends on your own decision if you
stay with one single niche or you broad your
internet horizon.

[jomariet]

A lot of my work is local - so in Alaska that means tourism related sites. If I focus only on say - fishing guides - I'll learn a lot more about the industry which will let me offer a better product to the guide. BUT!!! The competetive nature of the fishing guide industry means that if I do a lot of guide sites, each site will be competing against each other.

As a design/development company I offer more than a website - I try to offer a competetive website.

That contradiction has kept me from focusing on niche markets.

JM

[Evic]

I always, always design a website for a niche market. After seeing the success of what was wowcensus.com ($700+ a day on AdSense until I drove the main advertiser into bankruptcy, I then sold the site for $8K) which is the definition of niche market, I've decided it's the way to go.

It's to hard, and takes to long to compete with the large names. I would much rather make $70K+ in 3 months, and continue that pattern, than sit in debt for 3 years, and finally come out at year 5 with $2 million in an attempt to compete with amazon, google, etc.

[jomariet]

I think we are comparing apples and oranges. As a designer who builds for a client - I can't specialize in one small niche industry or I'll end up out of business.

As a developer of my OWN websites I absolutely believe in finding a Niche that needs to be filled and sometimes that's local.

I encourage my clients to think niche as well unless they have the budget to go toe-to-toe with the big guys in their local niche.

JM