(credit: TechCrunch)

One might think so. But that didn’t keep a handful of entrepreneurs from promoting sites they hope will prove otherwise.

Several picked unlikely niches to address. Footnote plans to use Social Security death records to create profiles of deceased people that visitors, who pay a subscription fee, can embellish.

Closet Couture wants to help women get dressed by creating virtual closets of their clothing and putting them in touch with stylists (for a fee) and merchants. Birdpost intends to appeal to bird watchers, aiding them in finding new bird species to observer.

Perhaps the most promising is Causecast, which wants to connect non-profits with people who hope to make a positive impact on the world (and donate money).

Niche social-networking sites don’t often seem to work well, said Sean Parker, co-founder of Causes on Facebook and MySpace. Yet companies such as Causecast are addressing a “really important space,” with billions of dollars of transactions moving online in the next several years.

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.