5 ms·

Ask HN: What's the best way you've found to reach a niche audience online?

12 points by wheresclark 12y ago

jcr 12y ago
I nearly flagged your recent submission from adventureplaybook.com: "Adventure destinations that slip through the cracks" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7762095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7762095 From the submission title I figured it was just the usual travel spam, but after looking over the site and not finding you selling anything, I left it unflagged. I only visited the site to make sure it was spam before flagging, so it was a close call. Though adventuring sure sounds like fun, unfortunately, I'm not in your target demographic. I really don't know how to reach your desired demographic other than the obvious methods (SEO, A-B testing, cross-promotion with related sites/services, contributing to related forums, gathering email addresses of interested people for mailings, ... and just about everything else patio11 regularly tells people to do). What kinds of things have you tried so far?
- wheresclark 12y ago
  Thanks for letting me know. The title sounds pretty spammy now that I think about it. I'm still experimenting with various ways to reach an adventure audience but I've tried guest posts, SEO, adventure forums and cross promotion are all the usual suspects. I'm not after big growth, just some ideas for reaching the right people at the right time. I imagine there are some interesting case-studies from people who frequent HN.
  - jcr 12y ago
    Patrick (patio11) has a great blog and covers all sorts of interesting topics, including marketing/targeting: http://www.kalzumeus.com http://www.kalzumeus.com https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11 Also, there's plenty of previous HN discussions on niche targeting: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=niche#!/story/forever/0/niche https://hn.algolia.com/?q=niche#!/story/forever/0/niche As for the cross-over between hikers and hackers, I've seen the OpenBSD developers self-described as "A hiking club with a hacking problem." Nearly all of their main hackathons involve a hike of some sort. http://www.openbsd.org/hackathons.html http://www.openbsd.org/hackathons.html
3stripe 12y ago
Blog as honestly as possible about things that matter to your audience. If you don't know what those things are yet you don't have a niche. And maybe you don't actually want a 'niche' in the traditional sense — see http://unicornfree.com/2011/niches-are-for-suckers http://unicornfree.com/2011/niches-are-for-suckers
- wheresclark 12y ago
  Thanks for the link. Good read.
sergiotapia 12y ago
Depending on your target niche, well timed post to a subreddit will do plenty.
webstartupper 12y ago
Hang out where your audience hangs out. As an example, if they hang out at a forum, participate there, offer value and thereby build your brand. Best advice ever - Be your own customer!
singold 12y ago
I've heard that for small niches, Facebook ads work pretty well. An acquaintance of mine used this for reaching some pretty specific niche, like males from a specific country, in a specific age range who like some type of cars. He said that it worked better than other online alternatives, but as always YMMV.
askar 12y ago
Other than Facebook Ads you can try hashtags on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram to reach a few more of those audience.

12 points by wheresclark 12y ago

jcr 12y ago

I nearly flagged your recent submission from adventureplaybook.com: "Adventure destinations that slip through the cracks" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7762095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7762095 From the submission title I figured it was just the usual travel spam, but after looking over the site and not finding you selling anything, I left it unflagged. I only visited the site to make sure it was spam before flagging, so it was a close call. Though adventuring sure sounds like fun, unfortunately, I'm not in your target demographic. I really don't know how to reach your desired demographic other than the obvious methods (SEO, A-B testing, cross-promotion with related sites/services, contributing to related forums, gathering email addresses of interested people for mailings, ... and just about everything else patio11 regularly tells people to do). What kinds of things have you tried so far?

wheresclark 12y ago
Thanks for letting me know. The title sounds pretty spammy now that I think about it. I'm still experimenting with various ways to reach an adventure audience but I've tried guest posts, SEO, adventure forums and cross promotion are all the usual suspects. I'm not after big growth, just some ideas for reaching the right people at the right time. I imagine there are some interesting case-studies from people who frequent HN.
- jcr 12y ago
  Patrick (patio11) has a great blog and covers all sorts of interesting topics, including marketing/targeting: http://www.kalzumeus.com http://www.kalzumeus.com https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11 Also, there's plenty of previous HN discussions on niche targeting: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=niche#!/story/forever/0/niche https://hn.algolia.com/?q=niche#!/story/forever/0/niche As for the cross-over between hikers and hackers, I've seen the OpenBSD developers self-described as "A hiking club with a hacking problem." Nearly all of their main hackathons involve a hike of some sort. http://www.openbsd.org/hackathons.html http://www.openbsd.org/hackathons.html

3stripe 12y ago

Blog as honestly as possible about things that matter to your audience. If you don't know what those things are yet you don't have a niche. And maybe you don't actually want a 'niche' in the traditional sense — see http://unicornfree.com/2011/niches-are-for-suckers http://unicornfree.com/2011/niches-are-for-suckers

wheresclark 12y ago
Thanks for the link. Good read.

sergiotapia 12y ago

Depending on your target niche, well timed post to a subreddit will do plenty.

webstartupper 12y ago

Hang out where your audience hangs out. As an example, if they hang out at a forum, participate there, offer value and thereby build your brand. Best advice ever - Be your own customer!

singold 12y ago

I've heard that for small niches, Facebook ads work pretty well. An acquaintance of mine used this for reaching some pretty specific niche, like males from a specific country, in a specific age range who like some type of cars. He said that it worked better than other online alternatives, but as always YMMV.

askar 12y ago

Other than Facebook Ads you can try hashtags on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram to reach a few more of those audience.