The Secret to a Successful Niche Market

Can anyone be successful online?

The answer is "yes," but only if you put your best foot
forward.

In order to start a successful home based online business
you need 3 legs to stand on: Interest, Credibility, and
Existing Need.

Before spending a dime on any online business these are the
three things you should focus on: Interest, Credibility,
and Existing Need.

STEP 1: Brainstorming about your first 2 legs:
Interest and Credibility.

Tips to get you thinking:
* What do you do for living?
* Do you have an area of expertise within your job?
* What do you do for fun? Hobbies?
* What are people always asking you for advice about?
* What do you do on your time off?

Remember, you are just brainstorming...don't rule anything
out yet, just write it down.

Do not overlook this brainstorming step or take it to
lightly, it could be the difference between long-term
success or endless frustration, internet burnout, and
failure.

Lets take a quick look at these first two legs:
Interest and Credibility.

1. Interest: While "interest" in and of itself is not
essential to make money, it is essential for your piece of
mind and sanity.

Why start a business on something that you are not
interested in?

Where is the fun in that?

More importantly though, starting an online business takes
time, a considerable amount of time. In fact, most new
comers are shocked at the amount of time running an online
business takes, so it better be something you are
interested in or you are in big trouble.

An online business is basically no different than an
offline business.

Could you imagine starting a tailor shop if you hate to sew?

The bottom line is that you are much more likely to
persevere through the frustrations (and there will be some)
if you have a genuine interest in the topic.

2. Credibility: This is simple.

Why should I buy a product from you when I can buy that
product from someone else who is a known expert in the
field. You definitely need to establish credibility in
your area if you expect to make sales.

However, for now you are simply brainstorming, you may
actually have more credibility in a particular area than
you think, so don't shut anything out just yet.

STEP 2: Find an existing Need

Once you've spent a good amount of time brainstorming (I
suggest spreading it out over a couple of days) it's time
to start doing a little research.

It is extremely important that a need already exists for
your particular area of interest.

You do not want to have an "if you build it, they will
come" mentality.

You want to sell product(s) that people are already looking
for.

Think about how much more successful you will be if your
product is not only being searched for, but there is very
little, if any, competition.

The good news is that you can easily find out if people are
searching for products in your area of interest. There are
programs available that not only tell how many people have
searched a particular keyword in the last 24 hours, but how
many competing web sites exist for those keywords.

Imagine the advantage you give yourself if you start your
business selling a product that others are already
searching for AND there is no competition.

Wordtracker (http://www.money-teacher.com/wordtracker.htm)
is just such a program.

With wordtracker you can type in any keyword and
wordtracker will come up with a list of 500 matching
keywords. You can then click on any of those keywords and
find more matches. Basically you just keep digging deeper
and deeper into a niche market...your key to success.

Here's the best part though...once you have a list of
keywords you can then do a competitive search. A
competitive search will not only tell you how many people
searched those keywords in the last 24 hours, it will not
only predict how many will search them in the next 24
hours, but the competitive search will actually tell you
how many competing web sites there are for those keywords.

Wordtracker will also take all the information and come up
with a KEI
(keyword effectiveness index) and rank your keywords from
best to worst.

Your KEI is based on both the amount of people searching
those terms as well as the amount of competition.

Therefore it may actually be better to create a site using
keywords that are not searched as much, but have very
little competition.

You can buy a one-day subscription, one-week subscription,
or a one-year subscription.

Wordtracker even has a trial version, but it's fairly
limited. For more information on how wordtracker works log
onto:
http://www.money-teacher.com/wordtracker.htm

This is the key to success on the internet:
Simply find a niche market within your area of interest and
credibility
and your success is a sure thing!

----------------------------------------------------
Adam Waxler is a middle school social studies teacher and
ebook author. Adam also owns and operates The Money
Teacher web site and publishes The Money Teacher's Weekly
Newsletter.
http://www.money-teacher.com