Traditional marketers have defined a niche market as a large group of people sharing several characteristics (for example, men in a specified age group, or men in a certain age group that enjoy fishing. However, when you’re selling online, you need to narrow the focus A LOT more than that! So we define a niche market as:

A group of people who are searching the Internet for a solution to a problem — and NOT finding many relevant search results.

Identifying a strong niche market is one of the biggest challenges on the road to choosing a product. Many people have difficulty being as tightly focused as they

should be. They often try to go after niche markets that aren’t really niches at all, but huge general markets in which they couldn’t hope to compete. For example, all of the following might seem like good niche markets:

• Golfers

• People interested in weight loss

• People over 65

• Pet owners

… But the truth is that all of these markets are WAY too big! Try entering the word “golf” into a search engine. You’ll get millions of results! Do you really want to try to compete in that market?

Narrowing your focus to a small, niche market gives you the following advantages:

• There’s WAY less competition.

• Small markets are much easier to dominate — so you can become the main source for your product or service online.

• Since niche markets are often close-knit communities, your reputation can spread by word of mouth — providing you with an ever-growing base of potential customers.

• You can easily gain the loyalty of your customers — which gives you lots of opportunities to expand your offer with related products and follow-up offers.

Remember, people typically don’t go online looking to buy a product or a service — they go online to find information and solutions to their problems. Your task is to think like your potential customers, which means you must determine what problem they’re trying to solve and what you could offer as a solution.

A minority of those who set out to dig for gold actually did strike it rich. But arguably the ones that made out the best long term were the ones that sold the shovels. In his Ebook, “Internet Marketing Success Formula”, Soren Jordansen strongly suggests that the people trying to build an income on the Internet learn how to sell marketing tools (shovels) instead of jumping from program to program searching for the one push button system that will make them rich. Instead of digging for gold in the vast world of hype and scams, he suggests that the savvy marketers realize that the real money is in teaching the millions of opportunity seekers how to make money on line, and selling them the tools they need to do it.

If you would like to know the best way to capitalize on this Internet opportunity then take advantage of the FREE Ebook called the Internet Marketing Success Formula. You can get your FREE copy HERE.

What they are looking for is a product that they can resell to make money and products that offer them this opportunity without them needing to create it themselves. In other words, it’s a quick easy way to obtain products to sell. However, there is no reason why you can’t also capitalize on the popularity of affiliate and PLR products by outsourcing your work to a freelance writer or developer.

All you have to do is come up with the idea and then employ someone else to do the hard work for you. Then offer the finished product for sale. But to find the right product, you will first need to do a little bit of research to find a niche that is popular and in demand.

Simply research what your potential customers are looking for and then determine whether they would be willing to pay for this information. If there is a need and a willingness to pay for the information you have, then you could create a product that satisfies their needs. If you can do this, then you can be well on your way to generating an income.

You’d be surprised at how many ‘gurus’ have made massive amounts of profits by coming up with the right ideas and then getting someone else to create the products for them. And, with a little bit of work and determination, you could find that same success.

Affiliate marketing seems like the perfect business to run from home. There’s not much of a start up cost other than a computer and Internet access. However, there is an investment in time for anyone that expects to do well.

Research is one of the most often over looked areas for those that do not succeed as affiliates. What are you going to sell, what’s the competition like, who is providing the products or service, what is their reputation for quality, how do they pay and on and on.

Then you should have a web site to promote your product. You can actually promote without a web site, but it’s very helpful to have one. Can you do it yourself, or will you need to hire someone. How will you generate traffic to your site once you have it set up.

Like any other business model, you will greatly enhance your chances of success if you take some time to prepare. The “Ready Shoot Aim” philosophy can be effective in some situations, but I would not recommend it for someone just starting out to build a new business.

An excellent source of information for affiliate marketing is the “Affiliate Classroom” (see the banner on the right side of this page). They provide a step by step process for anyone that would like to be a success as an affiliate marketer. They have a series of steps for the newbie, the intermediate and the advanced affiliates. No matter what your experience you should never stop learning.

Another good source of some basic information is The Affiliate Marketers’s Handbook which you can download HERE for free. If you need additional information on affiliate marketing feel free to contact me. I’ll do my best to assist you.