I'm currently in the process of launching a new blog/review website. I'll be posting reviews of Canadian products, many of which are also available in the US (although the models are slightly different in many cases). Would it be better to market this website towards Canadians or to all of North America? Targeting Canadians would put me on top of my niche since there are no competitors. On the other hand targeting North Americans could give me more traffic, but would also mean some indirect competition. There's no direct competition for what I'm focusing on in the US but there are a few websites that are similar. So basically what I'm asking is would it be better to explicitly state it's a website for Canadians or not? Would the increased traffic from the USA be worth it to have a slightly less-targeted niche?
i'd focus on all north america, or US first off. You said there's no competition for you directly in the US. I'd count on the USA population over the canadians.
I'm big for US, and so are many of the advertising programs here so you may want to stick with those products first.
Go for North America. Canadian market itself is small and since these products are sold across the border, it really doesn't matter... market for both.