On our journey to become an internet marketer, so far we have explored the concept of niches, keywords and how they relate to the information people are searching for and I have shown some free, useful tools to explore the demographics of the buyers for that market. Put simply:

1/ Find a market that has buyers who are willing to buy to satisfy their needs.
2/ Know just who your buyers are. Age, income, education, interests.
3/ Create and/or promote a product which fills one or more of the needs of those buyers.

In this article we will be looking at two more ways to gauge interest in a niche. Just as computer memory is expanding exponentially, so are the possibilities of the internet. These changes occur every day and they are distracting from the focus to earn money online. Which is not to say that we should ignore the advances that are being made, but rather that we should be aware that not every new bright bauble is absolutely essential to our quest.

I have spoken previously about the many emails which find their way to your inbox once you commence to show an interest in making money online. Suddenly, offers of new, must have ebooks, software, concepts and loopholes appear like clockwork in your inbox. My advice is to find one person you find interesting and has a good reputation and receive his emails. Unsubscribe from everyone else. Believe me, if something revolutionary appears, you will hear about it.

These emails often set off an autoresponder series which sends you emails every few days. There is a marketing saying that the sale is not made until the seventh offer. Autoresponders are one of the ten or so major developments in the actual business of selling something to somebody in the last ten years. They allow marketers to present their offers to their double opt-in list over and over again. Without a doubt, emails to a targeted list, sell. So much so that it becomes statistically useful to work out how much each name on your list is worth each month. That reliable!

Like memory, emails have exploded exponentially. Seemingly an allegory to the old saying that “work expands to fill the time available”.

Just quickly, there have only been around a dozen or so revolutionary developments in internet selling in the last ten years. In no particular order:

1/ Autoresponders.
2/ Online auctions, especially eBay.
3/ Paypal.
4/ Pay Per Click advertising.
5/ The rise of social networking such as Facebook and Twitter and their siblings.
6/ Blogs.
7/ DIY websites and shopping carts.
8/ Live chat.
9/ Streaming audio and video.

There may be others, but , whatever.

To further research into the market activity of a niche. Go to Amazon. Choose “books’ from the drop-down menu and type in your niche and search. Check the number of results. Greater than 150 is encouraging. There is considerable activity in this niche. Now choose “movies and TV” from the drop-down menu. Once again check the number of results. More than 25 is good. If the niche meets either of these criteria, then people are interested.

One further site that gives an excellent indication of the activity and actual buying within a niche is eBay. To be banal, people are buying and selling on ebay all the time! What better place to use to gauge activity and competition? The difference is that this time we are going to type in a far more generic niche to get the most related results. So if your niche is mp3 meditation downloads, start with meditation to get a feel of what the market is offering and, most importantly, buying.

In the left hand pane of the screen, scroll down from “refine search” and click on “All categories”. This will show you how many books, dvds, movies, television and downloads relate to your niche. Now go to sales and type in “completed sales” and scan down the list of completed sales for products relating to your niche. You can swiftly gauge how many sales are being made, what is selling and for how much! This sort of information is priceless, and crucial, when you begin selling or promoting your products.

Spend some time playing with these tools and analyzing the results to further refine your decision on what you are creating or promoting. Taking action is essential for the internet marketer. You cannot follow a plan without taking action. Without action you are just reading a novel and imagining being able to earn money online.

You need a plan to achieve your purpose. You need to take action on that plan. Get a plan. Follow it.

Kindness is more important than wisdom.

Author Bio: Want to download a plan showing how to create a $35k per month income? Then visit: Free Internet Marketer Plan right now, and grab your 100% free report which shows you a step by step plan, exactly how to reach a cool $1k per day online, from the comfort of your own home. Martin P Kerrigan is an author, martial artist and successful internet marketer.

Category: Internet
Keywords: internet marketer,passive income,earn money online