Start an Internet Business - Search for your Market
by Derek Jones
One of the more time intensive tasks when you start an Internet Business is the
one of finding your niche market, as well as a product that will sell well in
that market. For the purpose of this article it is assumed that you have racked
your brains, as well as your family and friends memories to create a list of
possible businesses that you would be happy working in.
In order to clarify things, it would be best to state what the term "Niche
Market" means. A niche is defined as a "specialized market" or "an area of the
market specializing in one type of product or service". In other words it is a
narrowly defined group that have the same specialized interests and needs, where
the group as a whole will have the following characteristics:
1. A strong desire for the product or service that you offer.
2. You can create an offer that will interest them more than those of your competitors.
3. You can create a method to present your offer to individuals within the group.
4. The group will provide a sustainable volume of business.
5. The group is small enough that your competition is likely to overlook it.
With the above in mind, and taking one business at a time, you will now need to
decide on the best keyword or keyword phrase that defines the niche, and then
use it to research the volume of traffic being searched on that keyword, and
also the amount of competition that there is for that particular keyword.
For example, if you were interested in "dog training", then start by researching
the keyword dogs. This keyword is searched for on Yahoo over one million times
per month (demand) - when searched in Google it returns in excess of 100,000,000
results (competitors). This indicates a very large market plus a very highly competitive market.
Now research the keyword phrase "dog training". There are over 130,000 searches
per month on Yahoo for this phrase, and the Google results are greatly reduced
to around 10,000,000. This is still a large demand, but it is still highly
competitive. Next check the keyword phrase "dog training aids". This is searched
for 770 times per month and has 1,500,000 results.
The demand is now greatly reduced and there is still a lot of competition here.
However, if you check Google for the full keyword phrase "dog training aids" in
inverted commas, the results drop down to just under one hundred thousand. Now
the competition is not so fierce. Maybe this could be your niche.
Once you have found a appropriate niche it is necessary to delve more into its
depths. Forums are an ideal place to find out about your niche, in particular
what your niche market is looking for. To find your forum, enter into Google the
term "your keyword+forum", without the inverted commas. Then search the results
for a forum that you feel reflects your needs.
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