Practically all the money spent online is spent by regular people. Internet Marketers, as customers, are a tiny fraction of all the buyers that are out there. If you're looking for wide-open spaces and little competition, go to the "Average Joe" as your target audience. Selling IM products and services can be competitive, cutthroat and flighty. Nailing down a niche in this area (and keeping it) is very hard.

The worst place to focus on has to be "How to make money online", especially if you're new and losing money every month. Sharks can "smell" blood in the water from a mile away. IM sharks are no different. If you're hemorrhaging red ink, you'll leave little, telltale signs of it in your marketing efforts. Other marketers will avoid your products like the plague, and figure out ways of marketing to you. Your desperation will draw them to you.

Unless your core competence will serve the IM sphere (programming, design, graphics, content creation and the like), leave the get-rich offers alone and strike out on your own. There's nothing more satisfying than identifying and exploiting a niche of rabid customers that the "big dogs" and the bulk of your competition ignore. If you can make your target income easily and effortlessly by serving people in a niche you have mastered, why butt heads with folks who have harder heads?

Locating profitable niches takes more than just a bit of keyword research and checking Google for your competition. The very first step in your quest for open wallets and purses is exploring your own interests and passions. Think of all the things you know about different subjects and pursuits. Then go online and find as many examples of marketers who are selling to that group of like-minded people. See if there's money being spent already.

Now, take a look at a newsstand or bookstore that has a big magazine section. Look carefully at "niche" magazines, with a relatively small circulation (15,000 is a good number). If you can browse a few back issues, see who is advertising on a regular basis. Those will, most likely, be the ones who are making a profit. Now you can start to figure out a way to reach those same customers with your own "spin" on the same product or service.

You can also look at consumer Web sites that either review or feature consumer products and services. Those marketers are making a killing by becoming "Authority" sites for their niche. You might have a tough time competing with Wal-Mart if you're considering selling products that compete with their sales machine. Instead, consider using their affiliate program, which gives you a piece of the total sale as a commission!

Discount coupons and merchandise offers have been springing up all over the Internet. Everything from day spas to infant formula have coupon programs that you can cash in on. There are actually people that clip coupons out of the paper and resell them online. The infant formula market alone can make you a tidy profit every month. New mothers need to save every cent they can, and will gladly pay for infant formula coupons that still save them money.

The point here is to start thinking outside the box of Internet Marketing as a market itself. If you're having trouble imagining how to make money online, selling info on that subject will be a very tough sell for you. Despite the "anonymity" of the Internet, people can still tell that you don't "walk the walk", despite your big talk about earning a red-hot flood of cold cash!