The ebiz life is challenging (to say the least). Some people promote that you should do ebiz on what your passions are. The conventional thinking is that is what will keep you motivated and interested. While I agree to a point, I have to disagree if your passion isn’t interesting enough to sustain a business. Of course, this all boils down to your goals as well. Do you want to quit your 9 to 5 job? You’re going to need more than a dollar a day off adsense.
I’m becoming more convinced that the key to success is finding out what people want, not what my passion is. I have a passion for military flight simulators, but that market is practically dead. The Playstation (TM) revolution all but killed it. I’m going to strongly suggest you research what people want first before you start an ebiz.
So how do you find it? One place I check regularly is: Top Sellers! Pick a section and compile a list of what are the most popular sellers. Looking through books on computers/internet, I compiled a list of popular categories.
- Computer Books (like books on Excel, PHP, Software coding)
- Photoshop Books
- Game Guides
- eBay
- Web Design
Top sellers motivate me because these are the things people are actually buying. This isn’t speculation about interest in buying, it’s the real deal.
Take eBay for example. An Overture search shows that the term “eBay” is searched for 454,823 times a day. Looking at the top sellers, books on how to sell things on eBay rank highly. I would venture to say that there is enough interest to explore a niche website. It might not be your passion, but the traffic shows there is ample interest.
The hardest part is being creative in finding that subset of eBay interest. What angle can you approach that others aren’t? What can you do better than others are already doing? Remember as well that you can always buy content. Find the niche and then spend a few dollars for original articles.