Ways To Find A Profitable Niche To Dominate

Successful businesses have learned that finding and exploiting a profitable "niche" is the key to profitability. This should not be a "guessing" or "I think" matter. You need to be as certain as possible that the niche you choose really has potential be cause it has been mostly ignored by everyone else. So how do you go about making this determination?

First, make sure you understand what a profitable niche is

A niche is merely a segment of a larger market. You have to identify it, target it and approach it with a highly-focused approach. Most niches only contain a small percentage of the total market, perhaps 1-3%. When you successfully identify a niche market, it becomes much easier to realize a good profit. If you have identified it properly, you will be marketing to a smaller, select group of prospects who really need the product or service you are offering because your competition has ignored them. There just isn't an available supply to meet the demands of the niche marketplace.

Start identifying the niche with keyword research

If you plan to do business on the Internet (and who doesn't today) start looking for your profitable niche by doing keyword research. Keywords are simply terms that apply as specifically as possible to your suspected niche. You can surf the Internet and come up with a good idea of "needs" that aren't being met. When you find one, you can use a keyword suggestion tool. Here's what that is: Let's say you think that there is an available niche for upholstery cleaning solutions. Do some research to locate keywords related to this subject such as upholstery cleaning, cleaning solutions and upholstery. If you don't find anything much, you have a good niche. When you locate a keyword that is frequently searched for which there is a short supply, you've learned something important.

Market trends can also be found on ebay and yahoo!

eBay and Yahoo! are good places to look at current market trends. Research the products on eBayt to see which ones are getting the highest bids. Find out which niche markets products are targeted to and what similar products are available. You may even be able to find out about other less-suspected niches at the same time.

Check out affiliate markets as well as the primary ones

The Internet has no shortage of affiliate programs used for networking purposes. Look over affiliate programs to determine just what products or services they are offering and which ones are selling best. Ask yourself just which niche each product is aimed at. You, too, can utilize affiliates and sell their products on your website in addition to your own. People make a great deal of profit on the Internet through affiliates.

Create traffic to your website through writing articles

You can write articles and submit them or have someone write them for you if you're not a good writer yourself. Good writers can be found on any of a number of websites for freelance writers such as GetAFreelancer.com, elance.com, freelancewritersguild.com and others. It costs very little to prepare articles and submit them to available Internet article directories. If you include keywords in your articles, they will lead people to you when they search the web with major search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, AOL and others. You can determine which of your published articles have received the most "hits" and this can provide you with valuable information about your niches.

Check out bookstores online and offline

It's also a workable technique to check for suspected market niches in bookstores like Barnes & Noble or online via Amazon.com. Look for books that are targeted to your niche. If the shelves are crammed with them, it's probably not too good. However if the opposite is the case, and there are few books aimed at your subject, you may have identified a winner. The same method can be used by looking over the magazines at your local newsstand, reviewing advertisement for the general market so see if any are targeted to your niche, etc.

Persistence wins out

Nobody ever said that being successful is easy! Stay on top of these techniques and keep your mind open to others. Most of all, stick to your guns and don't be discouraged if your initial efforts don't produce immediate results. They will, in time!