Just curious - when people offer links, they describe their websites/blogs as having [fill-in-the-blank] niche, i.e. "I'm offering links with these niches (business, travel, health, etc.)" or "What niche are you looking for?" From what I understand, niche basically is a strategy/position that a company takes to define and differentiate themselves. Or according to entrepreneur.com, "A portion of a market that you've identified as having some special characteristic and that's worth marketing to." For example, Target is a super discount store (topic), and its niche is targeting middle to upper middle class with affordable chic products. It seems like more and more people use the word to mean "topics, what the blog is generally about" when describing their websites. How did the meaning of niche come to mean "topic"? Or why do link sellers use niche instead of topic? Looking forward to reading your answers!
Well, to use 'niche' to mean 'topic' appears to be perfectly valid. That is, according to dictionary.com... a place or position suitable or appropriate for a person or thing: to find one's niche in the business world. a distinct segment of a market. Ecology. the position or function of an organism in a community of plants and animals. Hope that clears up some confusion you might have...
the term niche has many different applications. for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niche when people say my niche is SEO, they usually refer to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niche_market
Skye is right. There are many words to describe a topic, a market or a business, for example phones. A niche in phone market can be people interested to browse the web with phones. It is also true that this niche can be associated with the "smartphones" topic, which can be a niche of phones. But a niche is not a smaller topic, a niche is a portion clearly defined of another topic. I hope it is clear enough.
Thanks for these points. However, your statements actually support my point more than yours, especially "a distinct segment of a market." "Distinct segment" means specific part of the market instead of a broad categorization. thedark used a very good example of what a niche is supposed to mean instead of a broad categorization like my blog's niche is business - "business" refers to the category that the blog belongs to instead of a specific market in business that the blog targets. Overall, I have no confusion, and these points make that case. Niche can be different depending on the industry. I was referring to the business industry since I mentioned how sellers use "niche" to describe their blogs' categories. Also, in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niche_market, it states a niche market means "specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality, and the demographics that is intended to impact." When sellers refer to their blogs' "niches" (i.e. auto, health, etc.), they don't describe the blogs' price ranges, production quality, nor demographics. This article further supports my and thedark's statements.
No matter what kind of languages, when all the people are using the same "word" to mean "something", then it become "new word" or "normal"
It depends on how you use the word niche, but it SEO related world, niche is often referred to as target market.
However, in SEO, people are using "niche" to refer to a blog's overall topic instead of a "specialized" theme, which differs from the definition specified in Wikipedia. I sort of see your point but disagree. Would you further specify and provide an example? In my experience, bloggers and link providers use "niche" to describe the overall theme of the blogs instead of the target market/customers they wish to seek. Great to hear all of your point of views!
Im still quite new to DP and this really confused me at the beginning. I agree with others, it being another word to describe a topic etc. I wonder if maybe this word is used as it is easily translated and understood by other languages?