How to Choose a Profitable Niche for Internet Business Success How to Choose a Profitable Niche	Visited: 1994 1.0/5.0 (1 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Gino Napolitano October 02, 2009

Before you charge off and starting creating a website, getting programmers and help with writing copy, all with dollar signs in your eyes, consider taking a little extra time to plan and do research.  One of the things internet business newbies frequently do is to run off into a bunch of different directions that don’t produce the kind of business success you desire. So often what happens is you see others succeeding, making what looks to be easy money, and you might feel the urge to charge in.   Take a moment and relax.  Spending a little extra time now can save you a lot of headaches later, and can help you get to earning money faster.

It may be helpful to consider that each stage of building your online business is like a little world all by itself.  Choosing a profitable niche is its own world with rules, jargon and practices that are more or less effective.  Once your site is built and you’re looking to drive traffic, there is another world of language an ideas that you’ll find yourself in.  You don’t have to know everything, but being informed can make a difference. 
For now, however, we’re interested in getting started with choosing a profitable niche. 
Start with making a list of topics you have an interest in.  Write it all down. Nothing is too silly to consider.  If you can’t think of anything right off, consider looking at a news paper.  Where does your attention go, what are you naturally drawn to?  What do you spend time reading.  Also try looking at the yellow pages for inspiration.  Seeing what other people are selling already can inspire you to create the product or choose the niche that will work for you.

Do you already have a business, if so, who are your customers?  Why do they choose you over someone else?  And perhaps most important, who is your typical customer?  The clearer the picture you can create of who your target market is, the easier and better your marketing will be.  It’s just that thinking this way, getting into this mindset can be really helpful. 

Once you have your list of topic areas you need to do keyword research.  Selecting specific keywords can help you achieve the success you desire without having to spend so much to get the attention of the search engines.  This can be helpful particularly when you’re starting out.
 
To begin your keyword search try using Google’s keyword tool.  Just search for it on Google. 
Once you’ve chosen your keywords, enter them there and the tool will spit out a list of your keywords or phrases along with information about how many searches have been done in the past month. There will also be a graphic indicating how competitive your keyword is for advertising.  Generally, the higher the number means more people are searching on that keyword.  That’s obvious, right?  You can check on how many people have sites with your specific keywords by doing a search in Google with your keyword in quotes.  This will give you a list of how many pages there are with those specific keywords. 

Don’t be discouraged if a lot of others show up.  One of the things to remember about internet business is, if a lot of other people are in a market, it means there is business there.  Think about what your unique approach to this market will be.  Then build your site around those ideas.

You’ll have to test a little to see if you’re getting the results you want.  But before you do that you need to have some products for people to purchase.  If you’ve taken the time to create your own product, this is a way to get it marketed.  If you haven’t yet created your own product, don’t worry.  Try going to Clickbank.com.  There you can find a host of products others have created.  You can sell them and make money on a commission. 

You can use PPC or Pay Per Click strategies to test your landing page.  If your visitors don’t become buyers, you might have to change your page a little.