Desperate for help!

[BizPilot]

Hey guys and gals, I desperately need some help here...I'm staring an internet business and trying to figure out what to market (sell) online, but I haven't come up with anything which would be unique (like my own niche market). Any suggestions would be GREATLY apreciated.

[Andilinks]

I can tell you what worked for me. The longer you can conduct it as an experiment before turning it into a business the less risky it will be.

Post informational pages on as many different possible businesses as you can. Pick things that interest you. Watch your traffic very carefully using a good stats package. Which ever pages generate the most traffic/interest develop those. Research those areas as businesses--the more research you do the more likely your success.

When the web traffic justifies it, you'll have your business and you'll know how to run it.

[BizPilot]

Thanks for the reply Andilinks, but right now, time is a luxury I cannot afford. I have a deadline to meet, plus creating multiple sites with different topics will take up too much time (for me at least). I really like your suggestions but I am looking for a relatively quicker way of determining what's in demand and what might not be a good prospect.

[Andilinks]

...but I am looking for a relatively quicker way of determining what's in demand and what might not be a good prospect.

Yes, so am I. If anyone posts the answer here I'll use it too--giving you at least one competitor. That is the flaw in asking for hard won data for free. Fortunately there are other ways of gaining this information but most take time as in the example I gave above. Any solution to this problem that is untested will necessarily be risky.

You actually can buy this information from marketing gurus but it is not cheap and comes with no guarantees.

Your best bet would be to determine what are your strongest skills or special areas of knowledge and try to develop a business around those.

[Feydakin]

Andi has it pretty much dead on.. And internet business is a business first, and must be treated as such.. It's never as simple as saying "ther's a quick way to make money, I'll do that".. So is everyone else, making in not so niche any more..

It's always better to start with something you enjoy and work out from there..

[begabloomers]

Just my two cents worth,

my most visited page from organic searches is to my international size conversion chart. The chart is embedded in the website and hopefully leads people to oyher areas of interest. Apart from google adsense ( which i don't want to use because I want people to stay on my site)I have no way of monetizing this interest.

BTW some people have their site links in their signtures and some don't, guess who has ideas which are working ?

Susan

[BizPilot]

Come on guys, no need to be agressive eh? What I menat Andi was that instead of creating MULTIPLE pages and hosting them and then WAITING for traffic to determine if it's viable or not is a loong process. I have used Overture and wordtracker to find out the demand and competition but again I'd like to know if there are other options out there. For example I just discovered a software called P.I.P.E that does the job of quantifying the number of potential customers a business can attract and how big the competition would be. Again, Andi, I don't mean to be condecsending, but your method is not really very scientific because it doesn't really show if people would actually BUY what you are going to offer them.

Again, what I woul like to find out from all you smart folks out there (just for the record, I'm not being sarcastic here) is, how can one go about finding out WHAT is a niche market.

Any comments will be highly appreciated

cheers.

[Andilinks]

Again, Andi, I don't mean to be condecsending, but your method is not really very scientific because it doesn't really show if people would actually BUY what you are going to offer them.

But science can't help you here, you need a mindreader.

No, I'm not smart enough to tell you how to get rich quick, sorry.

[MickleVonTickle]

Hi,

Ideas aren't useful if they aren't coming from your customer- Andi's idea will at least allow you to determine consumer interest within a given context. Search results aren't very good at this.

There are very few things that aren't already being sold on the internet that can be sold. If you do come up with something new and really successful, you'll have a competitor soon enough. Frankly speaking, if you aren't creative enough to come up with what to sell on your own, you'll likely buckle in the face of serious competition for lack of good creative ideas to compete. If search results are the only way you know your customer, you'll have a rough time because you won't know how to tailor your ideas, your products, or your advertising to better compete.

If you are looking for a more scientific approach, consider something similar to a straight forward marketing approach:

Talk to the people you intend to sell to and ask them what they want or need. This is the first step in marketing- determine what your customer needs ("I wish I didn't have to apply hemorrhoid cream every day") within the scope of what you can offer (medicines over the internet). Your customers' need helps define your "niche". Second step is to come up with a solution to fill that identified need (provide a cream that the customer only has to apply every 3 months). Third step is to find out from your target consumer (people with hemorrhoids) whether your solution is of interest, and how much they are willing to pay (and lots of other extraneous information about your customer for use later). (Your customer doesn't want a cream- repeat step 2 with a hemorrhoid pill this time). Step four- determine whether you can bring your product to the consumer for a price that also allows you to make a profit. (you find out you can). Step five, create a website targeted to your specific demographic, selling your product, using the information you gathered about them before, and using that information to advertise in sites they typically look at (mostly old - webmd, etc.) in ways they can identify with.

You can hire market research companies to help with this. If you are determined to do it yourself or money is tight, you could use a small group and start with a pre-defined demographic (host a party for parents of local middle school kids, for example).

Note that this isn't quick, but if you don't invest time in the research for your business, you aren't minimizing your risk and are doing little more than taking a gamble. Further, if you don't have time to get to know your customer, then how can you hope meet their growing or changing needs. Andi's solution sounds quick, simple, and straight forward, and is a bare-bones way to determine what your customer wants. It may not be scientific to you, but it is a method that worked for him and seems pretty sound. If you are simply looking to get rich quick and don't mind taking a gamble, try Las Vegas :-)

Since you are asking for ideas- I should at least offer one: Sell a successful locally produced product that doesn't see great exposure (only sold in a boutique, art gallery, etc.) and isn't overly tied to its community. Don't pay full retail price for the product, but negotiate something as you are providing an internet storefront.

Mickle von Tickle (B.R.)