02.26.08
Is there such a thing as being “too niched?”
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this recently, especially in connection with the PCOS magazine and other information marketing that I do around the syndrome. The first edition of PCOS Today Magazine was a moderate success. I was proud to see my first publication royalties from it. However, it didn’t seem it reached nearly as much of the PCOS niche as I thought it would…hence my question, is this a question of a niche being too small?
With this question in mind, it’s propelling me to think about how to expand the niche. I’ve also been wondering how you position health communication products for such a specific niche like this in the market? What IS the PCOS market, for that matter? IS there a market?
I apparently think too much. I’ve also been trying to learn more about information marketing. There seems to be a strong focus on “tangible” product marketing. However, my expertise, my focus, my capabilities have ALWAYS been focused on providing information (whether it be desktop published, blogged, spoken, etc.). I want to find a way to connect my passions (many, varied, broad though they are…public relations, health communication, polycystic ovarian/ovary syndrome, and many, many more) with this idea of information marketing. I think I have more to learn, but probably already know a lot about it. Just have to connect the dots.
09.22.06
All over the place…
This post is probably going to sound like a ramble. A few things have crossed my mind as I’ve read my PR student’s blogs, as I’ve started working on my Ph.D., as I’ve just sat here reading e-mail.
Po Bronson is an author I ALWAYS love to read. He wrote a book sometime in the past five years about professions…who loves what, who hates what, who does something truly unique to put food on the table. On his Web site is a rant about the Gen X generation, a cohort I belong to and am firmly esconced within, since the day I was born. His rant almost takes on a 1960s Ginsberg-esque quality to it, in the “I’ve seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness…” sort of way. Except Po’s bent is that Gen X has replaced integrity with money and stature, and we are focused on culture consumption instead of good ol’, honest-to-goodness political, economic and societal values. I don’t know. In some ways I think he’s right. He says we don’t vote. We don’t read the newspapers. We walk around like a bunch of birds with our chests puffed out in a proverbial “who’s better” contest. And, being a professor teaching classes in public relations, it got me to thinking…does my generation have an image problem? Or, perhaps, do all generations following the one in current establishment have image problems? I think if this in the “I had to walk to school, uphill both ways, barefoot in the snow” talks our elders have always given us. Anyone younger than the person speaking is considered irresponsible. I joke with my mom about this. I’m in my mid-30s….but I could be 80 and she’d still be “mom.”
Regarding getting my Ph.D., I have to admit I’m tired. I’ve been tired for a while. But I’m very much enjoying what I’m learning. My biggest struggle is that I feel as if I’m meeting myself coming and going. I expected this, so I cannot complain. I’m just ready to be completely done with school and permanently on the OTHER side of the lecturn. 
I’ll continue on later, as more thoughts come to mind.
