There's nothing worse than spending time, money and effort developing a niche product, only to find that it just doesn't sell.

How do you avoid this happening to you?

By researching your chosen niche first.

The great thing about the Internet is that you can carry out niche research fairly quickly and easily without it costing you anything more than a little time and effort.

Here's a quick and dirty way to check out if you have chosen a viable niche. (I would suggest you open a spreadsheet to record your research information)  :

Free Search Engines and Directories - Google and Yahoo should be sufficient for this. Enter your search term(s) Check out the first ten results from each search and list in your spreadsheet the number of search results, the products being offered and the pricing.

This should give you a pretty good indication of whether or not there's a market for your proposed product, the size of the market and the sort of pricing you need to aim for.

Pay Per Click (PPC) Search Engines - Go to : http://www.content.overture.com/d/, enter your search term. When you arrive at the results page click on "View Advertisers' Max Bids". This will list search results with the amount the advertiser is paying for his clicks - check out the first ten results and make a note of the products being sold their price and the cost per click the advertiser is paying - the higher the cost per click the more lucrative that particlar niche is likely to be.

This will tell you if peolpe are buying and whether the niche is likely to be profitable - savvy marketers "don't" spend money on advertising that doesn't show a profit - you will also get an indication of how much your marketing costs are likely to be if you go the PPC route.

Niche Related Forums - Go to Google and enter your search term with +forums added to it to find forums and discussion groups on your niche subject. Run through the recent posts and on several of these forums and make a note of what subjects are being discussed.

This will give you a pretty good idea of the sorts of products consumers in the niche are looking for and you can tailor yours accordingly.

As I said earlier this is a quick and dirty way to check out if a niche market looks viable - it's not infallible, but it will give you a pretty good indication.

Niche research really isn't that hard and will save you a bundle of wasted money, time and effort.

Copyright © 2006, Andre Anthony Niche Market Know-How

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andre Anthony has been running his own businesses on and off the Internet since 1983. He owns and operates Niche Market Know-How a resource for beginning Niche Marketers. Visit http://www.NicheMarketKnowHow.com today to find strategies, tips, tools, products and resources for effective niche marketing. Get his Free Niche Market Know-How Course here: http://www.NicheMarketKnowHow.com/course.htm