A few months ago AWAI co-founder Don Mahoney e-mailed me an article about the National Enquirer.

In that article, Editor-in-Chief David Perel revealed the secret of the tabloid’s outrageous success:

“The big news organizations tell people what they think they should be interested in, whereas we try to give them stories that they are interested in.”

I think Perel has hit upon a key principle that applies to all writing, not just newspaper publishing.

And it is especially relevant to information marketing.

Namely, that your sales will be many times greater when you offer your customers information they want to read and learn instead of information you think they should read.

The late Gary Halbert went even further, advising marketers to sell exclusively to what he called a “starving crowd”.

A starving crowd not only wants what you are selling but has an insatiable appetite for it.

Therefore, even if there are a lot of players in that market, they can all do well, because the market’s demand is a bottomless pit.

In particular, there are 3 “starving crowd” markets that have an especially consistent and unending demand for information:

>> Hobbyists—hobbyists read about antique collecting or quilting not because they have to, but because they want to.

Those who are heavily “into” the hobby, whether that hobby is calligraphy or macramé, can’t get enough of it.

In these niches, a lot of competition is a good sign, not a negative sign, for two reasons.

First, it proves the niche is viable. If others are making money selling information online to this market, you can too.

Second, you can make joint venture deals with these other marketers to sell your products to their lists and vice versa.

>> Business opportunity seekers—there is an insatiable appetite for information on how to make money in your spare time, start a home-based business, change careers, or earn a living without a job.

I believe these business opportunity seekers can be divided into two groups.

The first group is doers. These doers are serious about changing their lives, and they actually pursue the course of action you recommend.

The second group is dreamers. The dreamers enjoy learning about small business, yet take no action beyond buying and reading how-to information products.

You can’t usually distinguish between these segments when marketing. But you really don’t have to, because both consume an unending stream of info products purchased online.

>> Money making and investing—it is a nearly universal desire to make more money and increase one’s wealth.

If you sell information that helps people get greater returns from their investments with less risk or accumulate a 7-figure net worth or become financially independent, you will never run out of eager buyers.

Of course, there are other starving-crowd niches for information marketers, including: self-help, relationships, sex, health, beauty, fashion and fitness.

But the 3 above—hobbies, business opportunities, investing—are by far the largest and most active.

One of the biggest mistakes beginning information marketers make is choosing, as their primary niche, a market that is not a starving crowd.

Reason: without a starving crowd of buyers, you will always be fighting an uphill battle to peddle your info products.

And you will be forever frustrated that your prospects aren’t buying your valuable information when you know it’s stuff they absolutely should have.

But people don’t readily do what they should do—or what you think is good for them.

They are much more easily convinced to buy what they already want rather than what you think they need.

And when you select as your primary niche in information marketing a starving crowd…like hobbyists, business opportunity seekers, or wealth seekers, you can sell your prospects the stuff they want over and over again.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.