Finding Your Niche on the Internet

Those who are new to the Internet business world -- heck,
even those who have been successfully operating online
businesses for some time -- can attest to the difficulty
in deciding what to sell.

"Newbies" in particular may be led to believe that the
more "stuff" they sell on their websites, the more money
they'll make. They place dozens of banners and ads on
their sites for everything from dating services to internet
marketing manuals, from pet toys to self-improvement tapes.
It's pretty hard to persuade a visitor to purchase anything
from a site like this; chances are -- if they even managed
to find your site in the first place! -- they'll simply go
back to the search engines and find a site that's offering
them exactly what they want. One click-of-the-mouse and
they're gone, probably for good.

You can't be everything to everyone. Choosing a tightly
focused niche market gives you the ability to home in on
a specific group of like-minded individuals: it's easier
to find out what they want, and thus easier to come up
with and develop new products and services. It's also
easier to make your site "stand out"! You'll have a better
chance of success if you take the time to define a niche.

However, the strain of trying to figure out what to build
a business around often leads people to do what they
perceive as the "easiest": copy what other people are
doing.

For instance, many people decide to build websites around
teaching others how to market on the internet. But if you
use Overture's popular Search Suggestion Tool, you'll see
that "internet marketing" received 102085 searches (at the
time of writing), compared to:

* recipe - over 1 million searches
* pet supply - 109975
* jewelry - 449044
* gardening - 787621
* golf club - 548398
* exercise - 129368

As you can see, there's a market for a wide variety of
products and services. Your "job" is to figure out what
people are looking for -- whether it's a new product or
an "improved" version of an existing product -- and ask
yourself how you can fill that need.

As you do your research, try to assess the demand (ie.
how many people are looking for that type of product)
in relation to the supply (ie. how many businesses
provide the product and how well they do at meeting
the demand). Ideally, a great niche market would be
one for which there is high demand but not (yet)
enough supply.

There is always the possibility that there's no real
demand for the product, which is why no one has bothered
to create it. Most people would prefer to find this out
before they invested a great deal of time, effort and
money into creating a product no one wants!

Even if you don't create your own product but instead
decide to promote affiliate programs, a great deal of
work still goes into the promotion of your affiliate
link.

One way to research a new idea is to run the key phrases
that represent your business through the NicheFinder
software ( http://onlinebusinessbasics.com/findniche.html ).
This software will automatically produce several informative
and eye-opening reports and charts to help you assess the
potential of your idea.

Some people start businesses related to their current line
of work because they already have many of the skills and
the experience they need. Others build their business
around specific interests or hobbies. Regardless of what
you do, be sure it's something you *want* to do -- don't
choose a niche solely because "other people are doing it"
or because you think "you can make lots of money". Do what
you love, and *enjoy* the journey to building a profitable
business.