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.