How to Find Your Perfect Niche to Target for Resume Clients

One of the best strategies for success for your resume writing business is to be a specialist, not a generalist. I've written about targeting a niche numerous times on this blog, but it's a topic that can't be examined enough!

The question of who to target with your resume writing services is one that shouldn't be skimped on. It will affect everything else you do and can determine your success or failure with your resume writing business.

Finding the perfect niche involves weighing a lot of different factors to find the perfect one. Here's how to find the perfect niche.

==> The Niche Brainstorm Process

Start by brainstorming as many niches as you can think of. Get out a note pad and jot down ideas.

Once you run out of ideas to jot down from the top of your head, go to Amazon.com and browse some of the different magazine and book titles. If there's a magazine for it, chances are the market is big enough to support a website.

Jot down more ideas, then head over to eBay Pulse. Again, browse the categories and products that are selling and see if those spark any ideas.

Keep brainstorming for a few days to get all the ideas down on paper.

==> Evaluating Profitability

There's generally a trade-off between ease of ranking and profitability. In other words, if there's a lot of money to be made in a certain market, chances are it's going to be fairly competitive. One example is executive resume writing. While writing executive resumes can be lucrative (generally, these command fees from $400 up to $1500+), there is a lot of competition in this market. There is less competition if you segment this further -- for example, women executives, or manufacturing executives.

For most resume writers, the goal is to find a niche market that has profit potential but isn't too difficult to attract prospective clients. One way to determine your online market is to evaluate online traffic for the niche.

Start by using the Google Keyword Tool to evaluate how many searches your keyword(s) get. Then head over to Google, type in the keywords, and take a look at the top results.

Which resume writing sites are ranking for those keywords right now? Check their PageRank and backlinks using Bing Webmaster Tools. The lower the PageRank and the fewer the backlinks, the better your chances of ranking.

Once you've checked out the search engine competition, evaluate how much money there is to be earned in the niche.

Do this by estimating the average customer value. How much is the average sale worth? (For executive resumes, like I said, the average is probably close to $800).  Can additional products be sold to the same customer, and if so how many products and at what price? (Many executives will be open to high level resume distribution services, like Bob Bronstein's ProFile Research.)

After this process, you should have a few potential markets with relatively low competition that have high profit potential that you can target.

==> Evaluating Personal Passion

Once you have a few potential markets to get into, it's time to look at your own resume writing passions. Which market(s) hold the most interest for you, personally? Remember that you're going to be working with these clients, so even if it's a lucrative market, if you don't want to work with these type of clients, do NOT choose that niche!

Be sure to choose a niche that has both profit potential and personal appeal.

Introduction to Affiliate Marketing for Resume Writers

I get a lot of questions from resume writers about how to avoid the "Time for Dollars" Trap -- that is, how to unlink your income from billable hours. Affiliate marketing is one way to start this journey.

You may be doing affiliate marketing without even knowing it. For example, if you write a resume and refer your client to Bob Bronstein at Profile Research to research employers and distribute the resume and cover letter, you’re engaging in affiliate marketing. If your client mentions that you referred them to Bob, he will send you a check for a percentage of the order. That’s affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is a revenue sharing opportunity between two companies. Business one (the “advertiser”) pays business two, the “publisher” (that’s you) for sending new customers to them. They may pay you for “traffic” — which is visits to your site; they may pay you for “leads” — which are qualified customer names who may end up purchasing their products or services; or they may only pay for sales, or when a purchase is actually made.

You can choose to be an affiliate for an individual company (on their website, look at the very bottom of the page and you might find a link for “Affiliates”) or join an affiliate network. Affiliate networks connect advertisers with publishers. Companies that offer their affiliate programs through networks often are making a significant commitment to their affiliate program, because they’re paying anywhere from $500 to $6000 or more to be a part of that affiliate network. Advertisers that also have a dedicated individual to serve as their affiliate relationship manager are also more committed to the success of their affiliate program — which means more support for you.

You can also work with individual providers. Profile Research is an example of this. Bob tracks the business you refer to him without the use of an affiliate network, and without a formal affiliate program. If you are a resume writer, you might also set up this type of relationship with a career coach, if you don’t offer career coaching yourself. The client mentions they were referred by you, and the career coach might pay you a flat fee or percentage of the client’s order. The same might be true if you are a career coach who refers to a resume writer. (If you're interested in pursuing this type of informal relationship, I suggest the "Developing Strategic Alliances and Partnerships with Recruiters" Special Report, which also covers developing referral relationships with other third parties, including career coaches.)

There is also a third type of affiliate program. I mentioned the terms “advertiser” and “publisher” to describe the companies. The placement of ads on your online content is also a type of affiliate marketing. The most common of these relationships is with Google’s AdSense program. Any business can purchase ads through Google’s AdWords program. If your website or blog matches the demographics of the customer the advertiser is looking to reach, his or her ads will appear on your content, and you’ll get paid for people who look at the ad … and you’ll get paid more when they click on the ad.

P.S. One of my most popular blog posts was an interview I conducted with Steve Shellist with ResumeSpider.com on affiliate marketing for resume writers. Check it out here.