6 ways to carve out your own profitable corner of the internet
How to find your million-dollar micro-niche
Yesterday we talked about why specificity beats trying to help "everyone."
Today, I'm giving you our framework to find a profitable niche-within-niche.
As a reminder, the mistake most people make when coming up with a product ideas is trying to solve a problem in a mega-category. For example, Fitness or Marketing. While it’s possible to innovate here, it’s rare. These categories are huge. 90% of the leaders in these niches almost always started with a specific problem first, then expanded once they dominated the smaller space.
Nike didn't start trying to dominate all of "fitness" or "sportswear." They started super specific: Affordable, high-quality shoes for runners. And over time, they expanded into the billion dollar global brand we know today.
Running Nike (pun intended) through our framework from yesterday, it looks like this:
Mega-Category → Fitness
Niche → Runners
Niche-Within-Niche → Affordable Shoes
It’s simple, but it takes practice.
Which is why I want to make this as actionable for you as possible.
Let’s break it down.
6 Ways To Niche Down From Any Mega-Category
There are lots of ways you can niche down further, but I’ve found these 6 to be the best. When someone has a problem to solve, they filter potential solutions through these lenses:
"Who serves people like me?" (Demographics)
"Who works in my industry?" (Industry)
"Who's in my area?" (Location)
"What's in my budget?" (Price)
"Who specializes in the platform I use?" (Platform)
"Who sells the way I prefer to buy?" (Distribution)
This is how the human brain naturally segments and searches for solutions.
Every other niching method (company size, problem type, etc.) ultimately falls under one of these six umbrellas. By choosing one of these proven pathways, you're aligning with how customers already think, making it easier for them to find you and easier for you to position yourself as the perfect fit.
Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Take Your Mega-Category And Pick A Sub-Category Within It.
For example:
“Healthcare” → “Sports”
“Healthcare” → "Addiction Recovery"
“Healthcare” → “Physical Therapy.”
And so on.
Step 2: Apply One Of The 6 Ways To Niche Down From A Sub-Category Even Further.
Pick a specific demographic, location, platform, price, or method of distribution to find your niche within a niche.
Expanding on the Physical Therapy example above, your niche-within-niche could look like this:
By Industry: "Sports Physical Therapy"
By Demographic: “Physical Therapy For Remote Workers”
By Location: “Physical Therapists In Chicago.”
By Platform: “Physical Therapists On LinkedIn.”
By Price: “Physical Therapy For Single Mothers On Food Stamps.”
By Distribution: “Physical Therapy On Zoom.”
See how much more specific (and valuable) each gets?
This two-step process takes you from competing with millions of businesses to maybe competing with hundreds or dozens. When supply goes down and demand is more targeted—prices go up! Which is why it’s way easier to make more money solving specific problems. It’s the law of supply and demand.
Let’s look at another example.
Example: Ship 30 For 30
When we started Ship 30 for 30, we could have said "we help ALL writers."
Instead, we got specific:
Mega-Category: Writing
Niche: Internet Writing
Niche-Within-Niche: Internet Writing for Beginners
That specificity is what allowed us to create something that truly resonated with our audience.
The point is, you will come up with WAY higher-quality digital product ideas if you go through this exercise and get more specific, first.
Whereas if you stay broad, all your ideas are going to be vague.
Now it’s your turn.
Pick A Mega-Category You're Interested In And Try The 6 Ways To Niche-Down ChatGPT Prompt.
This prompt gives you a giant list of niches to choose from.
I am working on creating a digital product, but first I need some help picking a specific niche-within-a-niche.
One of the challenges people have when creating digital products is they start brainstorming in giant mega-categories like Healthcare, Technology, Productivity, etc.
But these mega-categories are HUGE, with different kinds of people who face different problems and want to achieve different goals.
The first step is to niche down:
Mega-Category → Niche → Niche-Within-Niche
Here are 6 ways to niche down:
- By Industry: Take the mega-category and pick a sub-category
- By Demographic: Pick a specific demographic within the niche
- By Physical Location: Pick a specific geography
- By Digital Platform: Pick a specific platform
- By Price: Pick a price range or socioeconomic status
- By Distribution: Pick a specific form of delivery
I am going to tell you the industry (mega-category) I'm in, and I would like you to give me:
- 10 profitable niche options within that industry
- For each niche, give me 6 "niche-within-niche" options using the 6 methods above
Are you ready?
My category is: {Mega-Category or Industry}Here’s a sample from the “Animal Health” category:
After you run the initial prompt, you can dial in your niche exploration even further by brainstorming more niches with the prompt below:
Great, let's lock in on {Insert A Sub-Category}.
Can you give me 10 more {Industry, Demographic, etc.} niche-within-niches?Let’s say you are interested in exploring more industries for Working Dog Health.
Here’s what Claude came up with when we dig into Industry niches:
“Thanks Cole for helping me generate 93 new niches. But now I have a new problem...I’m overwhelmed!!”
Fair enough.
I got you.
Here Are 3 Filters To Help You Choose Your Niche:
Filter #1: Personal Experience Pick something you've actually dealt with or lived through. If you've never struggled with time management as a freelancer or worked with Sport Dog, don't create a product about it. The best products come from problems you've personally solved.
Filter #2: The "Friend Test" Would your friends immediately think of you when this niche comes up? If people already ask you for advice in this area, that's a strong signal you're on the right track.
Filter #3: Who Do You Know? Choose a niche where you can easily find and talk to 10-20 people. If you can't name specific people in this group or don't know where they hang out online, pick a different niche.
Bottom line: Pick the niche where you're already the person people come to for help—even informally. That's your biggest clue you can create something valuable there.
That’s it.
Tomorrow, I'll show you how to identify the 10 biggest problems in your chosen niche (this is where the money is).
Chat soon,
—Dickie & Cole
Co-Founders of Ship 30 For 30
Co-Founders of Premium Ghostwriting Academy
Co-Founders of Typeshare
Co-Founders of Write With AI
PS…Want the complete shortcut to creating your first digital product using AI?