Unleash your brain

The first chapter of the ebook will likely be called Unleash your brain. The main aim of this chapter is to start the brainstorming process. What we want by the end of this section is a list of keywords or ideas that will help us find our market and to provide us with a list of niche market phrases.

Market Research

One of the most important parts of starting any business is market research. It doesn't matter if you already have a product or are in search of finding a product or service to sell you must first do some research to see if people are looking for your product and even more importantly are they going to buy it.

We will talk more about this later, but it is a good idea to start thinking about your target market now as you look for your niche. We want to make sure that our chosen keywords will eventually lead to a buyers market.
During your research keep in the back of your mind the following market variables:

Geographic
• Region (East, West, South, North, Central, coastal, hilly)
• Size (Metropolitan Cities, small cities, towns)
• Density (Urban, Semi-urban, Rural)
• Climate (Hot, Cold, Humid, Rainy)

Demographic
• Age
• Gender (Male, Female)
• Sexual orientation
• Education (Primary, High School, Secondary, College, Universities.)
• Income
• Occupation
• Religion

You need to be always thinking about placing your website or product into some sort of market. Let me explain by showing some examples, how a broad idea can be turned into a niche market:

Holidays -> Gold Coast Holidays -> Gold Coast Holidays for Seniors

Holidays are really just a broad concept or idea, but by adding geographic information (Gold Coast) we make our target market more niche. Then by adding demographic information we end up with a very targeted market. Another example can be seen below:

Golfing -> Golfing Holidays -> Golfing Holidays for Seniors -> Golf packages florida

So now start thinking about what people are buying. Questions you might like to ask yourself are:

• What was the last big purchase you made where you needed to research online first before making a decision?
• What was your last big purchase online?
• What new gadget did a friend or family buy recently?
• Think about ads that you may have seen on TV or on billboards while driving in the car.
• What TV shows do you enjoy?
• What stores do you shop at at the mall?

Spend some time brain storming. Next time we will look at some tools you can use to help further broaden your list of niche markets.