Choose Your Niche

How do you begin?
It’s actually easier than you might think. Look within you: what are you absolutely passionate about? What do you find interesting enough to share with others? For me, music is a passion, always has been. I chose to make it the focus of my toolbar business. If you’re going to deliver something, it should be something you know well and that you’re good at. Do something you love doing. It might be a cliché but it’s true nonetheless. If you do what you love, you’re more likely to be good at it.

Here are my tested and proven methods for choosing a niche that will online profits. Follow them step by step to build your own money-making toolbar.

• Start a little research
  ist all your know-hows, professional skills, hobbies, interests. This could have something to do with your profession, your studies or hobbies. After you look within, look around. Ask your friends and family to share with you their opinions on how good you are at the things you listed.
  
  
• Search for keywords
  Type your keyword (skill, hobby, profession) in overture’s Keyword Tool and check-out the results. How many searches have been conducted during the last month on that particular subject? How many on related topics? This is a great way to see what’s in demand on the market.
  Another recommended site to check out is Google Trends. There you can find the hottest, best selling topics of the hour. Check out your passion: is it trendy?
  
  
• Take a reality check
  The next step is to check what the world says about your passions. Are they in demand? Haw many people will be ready to download your toolbar? Remember, you have to create something the market is interested in. Spending a month building a toolbar nobody cares about is a complete waste of time and energy.
  
  
• Join forums
  Find the groups on the internet discussing the topic you’re passionate about. Join their forums to see what they’re discussing.
  By addressing like minded people you’ll soon find out what kind of issues need to be tackled. Ask them what kind of questions they think need to be answered. Listen carefully to what they say: these are your potential customers. You are just discovering your own niche. While you’re at it, why don’t you make a habit of writing down your ideas? Get a notebook, keep it within arm’s reach and jot down your insights and ideas real time.
  
• Collect and grade your findings
  Compile all the info you collected and start grading it. Use any scale you wish and just grade it as per your desire to be involved in this kind of project. I found this method very easy to do and very effective.

• Think of the toolbar as a web portal
  If you could build your own web portal in 24 hours, what would it be about?

• Remember: Usability = Download - Usability is key to online profits from your toolbar. The more value-adding it is to your users, the more downloads you’ll get. Make yours a killer toolbar by including popular components such as search box, a radio component and useful links related to your niche. Build it so that it would be hard for your users to give up such a great service.

• Address a wide niche, but not too wide
  Select a niche that would attract as many users as possible. There are plenty of wide niches in which the chances of success of an effectively built toolbar are close to 100%.