A Niche To Scratch

I’m obsessed with gardening now…it started last year when we owned our house but couldn’t afford to get it ‘finished’ enough to move into (it didn’t have floors and stuff) and so I was into using the yard to try and grow vegetables!! It worked out great except when a heat wave came while I wasn’t feeling well and it dried up…so NOW we’re back in the house and it is going full swing…I have seeds sprouting inside, plants going outside, lots of bulbs planted, and it is all just so exciting!! I decided that I wanted to connect with other local gardeners and created a community for it…Seattle Urban Garden if you are interested check it out!!

Moms with MS is an online community created in July of 2009

One recent niche that I have just started scratching the surface of is that of Mothers who are diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. It is one of those demographics that upon doing some research seemed almost painfully obvious as an under-represented group. Most people diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis are women who are between the ages of 20-40 years old, years described as being the fertile years of a woman’s life! All of these woman either have kids, want kids, or have consciously decided they do not want kids and are taking actions to avoid getting pregnant. Upon doing some basic user research, I found that most sites that cater to those diagnosed with this chronic illness group these women along with parents whose children have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, which is a VERY different demographic. Out of this research, http://www.MomsWithMS.com was born! From the lovely letters I have received since launching this site in July of 2009 it is clear that it was needed in so many ways and that the mothers who have joined the site have access to what other moms have researched, experienced, learned, heard about and more regarding pregnancy, nursing, childrearing, relationships, diet, medications and so much more!

So what is the niche that you have on your mind that you know just needs to be scratched? Have you started researching it? Are you going to build a community? A wiki page to spread knowledge? Blog?