Mark Twain once said: “Find out where the people are going and get there first”.

With the advent of the internet you can certainly find out what folks are wanting. Being the first at the front of the line to bill them might not be quite so easy.

But there are ways to find out if there's an existing hungry crowd for your product idea, and more importantly a crowd with pockets bulging with cash to give you.

In this article I'm going to share some tips that will save you much heartache from chasing after the wrong market.

Firstly I believe that it is very important that what you sell interests you, otherwise you sign up for a life of struggle and worse... Boredom!

Motivating yourself to sell something you have no interest or belief in is soul-destroying at the best of times, so don't do it.

Just because *rubber cat suits* is your thing doesn't mean the rest of the planet digs them at all. I mean that's a pretty small niche with less than 560 searches performed a month. Yes I did actually go and check out the stats for it.

One of things I've found in this marketing-malarkey is that I am able to explore interests that I simply don't have the time or inclination to actively get involved in.

Take archery, I can twang a bow as well as the next man, and have done for the past couple of years. But the idea of traipsing off to all those shows every weekend, predominantly talking a load of rubbish just doesn't do it for me.

BUT sell this bunch of Robin Hood wannabees an infoprod, and I'm game. Seriously though, I love archery, it's one of the few sports the British government hasn't actually tried to ban... yet!

And that brings me to my point... What do you have an interest in that also has a large number of people willing to do what I call *the wallet flip*. You need to be looking for markets where the folk won't even blink at spending $100 a year on the products you will be selling.

OK time to take some action:

=> Draw up an initial list of 10 of your interests.

=> Scan your bookshelves to see what reference books you've bought in the past, and on what subjects or hobbies.

=> Pay attention when folk you meet start talking about their hobbies, their passions.

=> Pop down to your local magazine store and see what interests are being catered to.

=> Can't be bothered to pad down to your local store, then click over to Magazines.com and do some searches.

Link: http://www.megastep.com/dt/t.php?id=166

=> Buy a stack of these magazines and go through the classified ads with a highlighter. Call up the ones you've circled and ask for their information packs. Make a note of which ones you've called and see how soon the information arrives. How are they selling? Good, bad, OK? Could you improve on the quality of what they are offering? Over five to six issues how many of the adverts are repeated? Make a note and watch that market like a hawk. If they weren't making money the ads wouldn't be running.

=> Hop over to eBay to research all the different sub-categories. Which ones are active? Which ones are commanding high prices?

Link: http://www.megastep.com/dt/t.php?id=167

=> Are there any discussion forums related to your potential market? Buzz over to Forum Find and do a search.

Link: http://www.megastep.com/dt/t.php?id=168

This is just the beginning. Start paying attention to what people are interested in. This can simply be as easy as listening to folk banter when they're in the checkout line.

Scan the news, open your eyes and mind to opportunities. You'll be amazed at how your brain kicks into “selective perception”. Don't know what that is? Ever bought a car and then suddenly you notice the whole planet is driving the exact same model. It's like everyone decided to buy the car YOU just bought. Well that's “selective perception” at work. Same thing happens when you actively go hunting down niche markets… actually it can work great for an awful lot of other things… building keyword lists is another example, and another story.

Copyright 2004 Rob Taylor

Rob Taylor has been marketing online since 1996. He's sold anything from books, debit cards, security products to art prints. Take advantage of his battle tested marketing strategies that could quietly make you five figure cash profits every single month. Free newsletter at http://www.megastep.com.