By W. Lockhart

Researching a niche market is the most important step to creating an online business or online income.

If you spend adequate time understanding niche market research concepts your success possibilities will increase substantially. Not only will you increase your chances of online marketing success, you will also greatly increase the chance of avoiding many headaches that are associated with poor niche market performance.

A great deal of niche market research can be performed on teir one search engines like Google, MSN, YAHOO etc.

I recommend Google. Why you ask? 65-70% of “information, product and service seekers“ in the world depend on Google to find answers to commercial questions. Many start by simply typing in a term or word to perform a search. What better place to do business research. You’re getting the information directly from “the horse’s mouth“ as so to speak… the information is relevant, current and in most cases very accurate.

When performing nich market research the objective is to become very knowledgeable on “your specific prospective market”. This is important and should not be under estimated.

The good news is this… the process is relatively easy if approached correctly. It’s also a good idea if your “prospective market“ or “prospective online business idea “ is related to subject matter that interests YOU…

Many marketers debate this idea, however I’ve found that this will help you stay focused on the research process as well as the subsequent process of content development for your chosen niche.

Many new online marketers target a niche because of it’s commercial possibilities. This is understandable and quite appealing, however, if you’re a new online marketer you may find that you loose interest in the subject matter long before you make substantial progress relative to marketplace penetration. Besides, you can always take that approach later, but for starters, I highly suggest you begin with an area that has personal interest to you. This simply makes your work easier and more interesting.

Many people will reply to this concept by stating what appears to be the obvious, “I’m not sure if I can make any money with the topics that interest me…” That’s usually the initial reaction and it’s a quite normal reaction, however nothing could be further from the truth. People are making money in niches that are quite obscure and non traditional. Don’t limit your possibilities here…

When performing niche research it’s a good idea to leave “no stone unturned” as so to speak. Here are a few ideas as to how you can approach this important task.

Using Notepad, MS Word or even on a piece of paper, list several topics or areas that are of personal interest to you. Be sure to use “specific keywords or specific keyword phrases“ that describe these topics. It’s a good idea to make a list of 15-20 topics and trim them down as you acquire additional information about each topic.

Here’s an example of a few topics that one might target:
Golf
Weddings
Photography
Family Entertainment
High Tech Gadgets…. (whatever you wish…)

After you’ve listed broad or general areas, be sure to return to your list and add more specific terms and key phrases. Specificity is important to the process so take your time developing more specifics.

Now let’s head over to Amazon.com… (heard of these guys?) to get additional ideas about the markets we’re researching. Take a close look at the “Best Seller List“…. Maybe we can find books associated with areas that we’ve targeted. This will also help with specificity and brain storming. Why target the best seller list? Because they are BEST SELLERS! We don’t have to guess as to whether these topics are of commercial interest. Again, they’re best sellers right!

Many authors have identified specifics in their books that are closely associated with your targeted areas of interest. They’ve done lots of the hard work and research for you. Obviously people are interested in the subject matter. In addition, it’s important to note this key fact… few people go to Amazon to “look around“ or “browse”. As a matter of fact, many people have credit card “in hand“ before the Amazon page even loads, confirming the commercial intent of the topics listed on these pages. This is key to keep in mind.

Here’s another idea… go to Ebay.com and search for items that are relative to your area of interest with “high search volume counts. This also indicates high commercial interest… it’s Ebay… yes… people go to Ebay to BUY also!

Now that we’ve look at a couple of viable research sources…here’s a quick but important word about “commercial intent”.

As you perform your research you will want to pay special attention to the “keyword or keyword terms“ that you choose. This is very important with respect to the commercial intent of the keywords you’ve chosen. Remember, not all key phrases are “buying” key phrases. We’re only interested in words and phrases that are associated with the act of purchasing right? This is a common mistake made by many amateur online marketers make. They choose descriptive phrases and keyword ideas that are relative to their chosen market but have no “commercial intent”. Pay special attention to this area.

Another great tool for performing research on your market is Google Insights… this is a great tool for understanding demand of a product, service or idea anywhere in the world… You can find it by searching Google for “Google Insights“…. There is a wealth of information that be gained by using this online research tool.

Last and not least… also try finding “popular trend“ information… by researching topics of interest at Google Trends… Google Trends reports on popular trends throughout the world and can be a great source of information when you’re brainstorming product ideas…

Take your time and perform thorough research before deciding to enter a niche market. Even if you’ve chosen subject matter associated with a hobby, a sport, or a particular area of personal interest, performing preliminary research will always give you addition insight and bolster your chances of online marketing success .

Here are some of the questions that I consciously ask myself:

1) What does it do, and is this something that my subscribers both need and already want? If they want it but I don’t feel that they need it, then offering it to them may cause an ethical dilemma. I don’t compromise my ethics! If they don’t want it, and aren’t already looking for it, then making sales can also be an uphill climb.

If it’s too difficult to explain what it does, then the sales process will have to be protracted. If it’s just “the next shiny thing,” then telling my subscribers about it is probably more of a distraction than a service.

2) Does it really work if my customers will just use it? A skilled copywriter can make burnt toast soaked in hemlock sound appealing! What value does the product actually add to the stream of life?

3) Do I know the product owner and feel that they are reputable and someone I want to trust with customers whom I care about and nurture? I work very hard at building a relationship with my customers and trying to actually help those willing to be helped. I won’t do anything to un-do years of hard work.

4) Has the product owner ever promoted one of my products and how much effort did they put into it. Many people have been trained to point out that they are a subscriber or customer in a joint venture proposal. My question then becomes did you become a subscriber, or buy my $5 product, just so that you could stick that in your joint venture proposal. Did you register as an affiliate, and then promote no harder than making one blog post… which barely generated 10 clicks?

5) Are they a member of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, my membership site, where they are both exposed to the culture of my online operations, and I get to interact with them… and get a feel for them and their business acumen and standards?

This my mastermind where we discuss many complex issues related to marketing, and running an online business. If you are a member, then you will have been exposed to many important concepts necessary for success, and that puts you ahead of many of your competitors.

6) Does this compete directly with one of my own products or projects, or one of my clients’ products or projects? As a business owner, it’s generally foolish to sell a direct competitor’s product instead of my own… though not always. I also feel an obligation to promote my clients products before promoting those of someone that I don’t have a relationship with.

7) Is it appropriately priced for the value that it delivers? After testing/using/studying the product, do I honestly feel that it’s worth the price being charged? Will it deliver many time that much value to my customers who actually use the product?

How good is their customer service? How do they provide customer service? Will my customers who have problems be able to easily reach someone? Do they have a helpdesk so that there is an easy way around email deliverability issues? Do they have an easy to find phone number and mailing address? Is it clear WHO owns the business?

9) When is it being released, and how will the release or launch be handled? Is there sufficient lead time to sequence it into my calendar without interfering with one of my own or one of my clients’ projects? Will the tools that I prefer to use have time to work, or am I forced to only mail for a 2-3 day period after which the product is no long available? How much hype will surround the launch, and what long-term impact will this have on my customers?

10) Will there be long-term demand for this product,or will the market forget that it even exists in a week? Can I use tools that will deliver a steady stream of orders over the long-term, or is this a product that there might be alot of short-term demand for but that customers will likely set aside in favor of “the next shiny object” next week?

11) One year from now, will my customers be happy that I introduced them to this product? Is this something that is easy enough to use, and that they can easily sequence into their business processes/systems in a way that they will still be benefiting from the product a year from now?

12) Would I buy the product if I fit the profile of “the ideal customer?” Knowing the product as well as I do, after thoroughly studying it, would I buy it if I didn’t already own it, IF I were the target customer that it was designed for?

13) If I did a previous promotion for them, did the product owner pay commissions promptly? Running my own business, where I pay numerous professionals for their expertise in a timely fashion, I prefer spending funds recently paid to me over tapping into capital that I’ve already invested/employed in other places.

Late payments combined with a lack of communication WILL result in my refusing to ever do future promotions for a given company or individual. If they mistreat a business partner then they will likely mistreat my customers.

14) Am I really satisfied with all of the answers I gave myself to all of the questions above. Am I being totally honest with MYSELF, and am I… by promoting this product, living up to the standards that I set for myself?

If I can answer yes, to all of the above questions, then I will consider promoting a product. If not, then I should politely decline promoting that product, pointing out why if asked.

——————————

Willie Crawford is one of the world’s leading Internet marketing authorities, and an in-demand joint venture broker. Most of his mentoring is done in a group setting on the member-only discussion forum at: http://TheInternetMarkeingInnerCircle.com Join that discussion to experience phenomenal business growth!