A New Gym in Town, and My Mind Starts Wandering

This is a bit off-topic, but I'll try to drag Sauk Centre's new exercise place into this blog's sphere of interest.

A Snap Fitness gym opened in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, today. We've had Curves for Women and Fitness Guru in town for quite a while, quietly staying in business. Now we've got three exercise outfits, in a town of about 4,000.

Maybe there's enough differentiation to give each a different set of customers. Curves for Women, obviously, has a particular demographic in mind for its customers. Fitness Guru, where I go, has a sort of neighborhood feel to it. I've run into people I know there fairly often, and I appreciate the way that the proprietors and others who work there know me. Also the practical advice they can give about exercise and the equipment.

Snap Fitness has a very visible location on Main Street, and offers low cost, no contracts, and 24/7 access.

I hope the the new place knows what it's doing. When I moved here, there were three hardware stores in town. I shopped at all three, at one time or another, and couldn't figure out how they all stayed in business. Business was far from brisk and any.

Now, we don't have any.

Now, I'll try to drag this into the area of online business.

How much is too much? Can a market be saturated online?

Just how important is finding a unique niche?

As midnight draws near in my time zone, I haven't a clue.

Maybe I'll have answers later. Right now, all I've got here are questions.

Glancing at an Evolving Media Market, and Niche Marketing

If you're interested in the Web as a new and evolving media market, you've probably already read Seeking common factors in the Web 2.0 bubble, by Guy Kewney in The Register®.

Kewney's piece is partly a digest of a disagreement conducted with bits and bytes between Andrew Keen, author of "The Cult of the Amateur" and blogger Robert Scoble. What's repeated in The Register® reminds me a bit of Twain's "The Literary Offenses of J. Fennimore Cooper."

Kewney also discusses his view of traditional media, what's on the Web, and mass vs niche marketing.

I'm still a fan of niche marketing, but now I'll have to think about it.

Kewney's piece is an interesting, and at a minimum thought-starting, look at this new field of opportunities. If you're still reading this, go back up to that link and follow it. I think you'll find it worthwhile.