When beginners first start searching for easy ways to make money online they soon discover, like anything else worth doing, that one must first acquire a skill set before cyberspace can be successfully exploited.
I can't think of one online business that can begin without a thorough understanding of niche marketing. So before you can proceed with you're first attempt to extract money from your computer, you will have to be grounded in a thorough discussion of niche marketing on the internet.
What is a niche? This is one of those odd terms that has somehow taken root and become firmly entrenched in the lexicon of internet marketing jargon. The first time I ran into this word it was in my ecology class I took at the University of Washington. Basically, it meant the exploitation of certain food supplies by specific species of animals. One of the prime examples was Darwin's research of various type of finches. He correlated bill anatomy to the types of foods they ate. Some ate seeds. Others ate nuts. Each exploited a different niche and rarely came into competition with each other.
Well the marketer has taken this term and applied it to various markets. Some examples of these would be aquariums, gardening, pets and health.
These individual broad niches can be refined further into saltwater aquariums, growing tomatoes, beagles and diabetes.
One doesn't have to go any farther than the EzineArticles directory to see the divisions of these niches. They also start with broad categories and then proceed to segregate them further into sub categories.
Not every niche is suitable for exploitation. Some markets are hotter than others. Many a newbie to this game has spent considerable time and effort creating his one of a kind website and put it online to discover nobody was interested in what he was trying to sell. This is called a failing business.
Also while we are on the subject, many a novice has also tried to come up with the latest, greatest idea and market it to the internet only to discover nobody else shared his enthusiasm. This is also called a failing business.
For those of you hunting for an easy way to make money online it would behoove you to remember you are first and foremost marketers. Marketers sell. Generally it is taboo to foist your ideas off onto the buying public. Furthermore the buying public is absolutely not interested in the marketer's preferences.
So repeat after me, because this is internet marketing gospel:
Find the hot markets or niches.
Find out what the buying public wants in these niches.
And, this is the most important, SELL THEM EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT!
Forget the above and be prepared to get hammered. The above scripture, while etched in stone, is easy, simple and fun to do. So let Steve Jobs have his iPod and Edison have his light bulb and you, well just sell. Don't worry be happy.
What is exciting about discovering that an online business is centered around niches is they now can be tied to keywords. Every time an individual comes online to search for a niche to satisfy his needs he has to type a keyword into the search engines. Google, in all their magnificence, keeps count!!. All you have to do then is to go to the Google Keywords Tool and determine how many times keywords are typed in per month.
But Google does this one better, using the same Google Keywords Tool, they also organize these keywords into categories and you can look these up and see on one sheet of paper the most popular terms used in any category. Marketing research was never this easy before computers! So in essence, little ol' you, from anywhere in the world can now do what highly paid marketing research departments used to do. You don't have to take polls, send out questionnaires or any of a number of ways to divine the desires of the buy public. It is already done for you, free of charge, by Google!
The more the newbie investigates easy ways to make money on the internet it soon becomes apparent that it is not about easy, it is about the power the internet gives to the prospective entrepreneur. And that this empowerment can be relatively simple and easy. But don't forget it all starts with the concept of niche marketing on the internet. Grasp this and money can't help but find you.
