So, the golden question is: how DO you go about finding a profitable niches?

Well, unfortunately, there is no easy way. You will have to do your homework. Here are some tips you may want to consider when looking for that profitable niche.

* Keyword research

If you've been online for awhile, you'll probably already know what keyword research is. Keyword research, in its basic form, is simply to type in a general word into a keyword research tool and looking at the results.

What you're looking for are keywords that have a good number of searches (i.e. people are actually interested in the niche) but you don't want to be targeting a keyword that's too general and too popular.

* Competition

When you've found a keyword you think would be good to target, do a quick search on Google for the keyword. Look at the results. If you see a lot of authority sites (Amazon, Ebay, Wikipedia etc) in the results, it's best you stay away. This would high likely mean that you have to work hard to get your site in the first page of the search engine results for that keyword.

* Commercial intent

Not all keywords are equal. With respect to commercial intent. Commercial intent is simply the probability that the searcher has an intent to buy something. Someone who types in "order cooking set online", for example, is more likely to buy than someone who types in a phrase like "open source blog script".

So, what you're after are keywords that show that there's a high chance that the searcher is out to buy something. This may not necessarily be limited to the actual keyword. The niche itself may be one that has a high buying intent.

There you go. That should help spark some ideas when you're out looking for a profitable niche. Just remember that getting yourself in a profitable niche is the first step that will increase your chances of you making money from it. So take your time with this. Get this right, and you're on your way to a successful niche business.