What about asking yourself these 4 important questions:

Who is your target customer?

This is about who your customers really are. For example are they male, female, do they make a certain amount of money each year, do they make a lot of money, do you think they're wealthy? Are they middle class, do you think they're only located in Russia, United States, Europe or are they in fact world-wide?

These are the kind of questions you could be asking yourself particularly if you're just starting out with your own online business. Even if you've been around the industry for some time now, it doesn't do any harm to revisit your research strategies every now and then.

The more you find out about your customer, the higher the chance that you're going to be able to drill down and know exactly what they're looking for and you can provide the product or the service or the website that they need.

Where exactly do they go when they come online?

Your target customers are out there right now, because they're hanging out on some websites. It's about trying to find out where they are and getting in front of them. They're online because they're looking for something and this is normally something that they hope is going to change their lives for the better.

For example, if you were selling guides to lose weight and your product enabled people to ‘lose up to 10lbs in 10 days,' then this is going to change certain people's lives for the better.

You should visit forums within your niche, find out the types of questions people are asking and position yourself so you are able to provide a solution within this means.

Who is your competition?

This is simply Business 101. It's the same thing on the internet as you would do to succeed in the offline world. It's also useful to know who your offline competition is as well because it's only a matter of time before they too come online.

One way of finding online competition is to use the weight loss example above. If you go onto Google and type in ‘weight loss', you're immediately going to see who your competition is because all their websites will come up. Research those and find out how your competitors and potential customers are using the products and services.

What is your product and how can you enhance your offering?

Is your product a physical product or is it an info product that can provide a solution to your customer?

Think about supplemental products. Going back to the weight loss analogy; you could offer info products that could help solve their problems, go after their burning needs. If your online store only sells weight loss products give some thought to what else your customers may buy online.

They may buy work out equipment, additional weight loss guides, running shoes, gym memberships, motivational materials or anything else that could increase their weight loss. You could become an affiliate of these products so you are able to offer a total solution that meets all your customers' desires.