I've been working now online for 2 years first my passion was public domain and I felt really cool going out there and re-writing all those heavy going instructions into decent up to date straight to the point modern slang. However, being a newbie I wasted months and months with a crazed enthusiasm for my projects but my sales where zippo!

Where did I go wrong? Heck I made some dough - around $200 a month mainly selling my downloads on eBay. But my website had as many visitors as maybe Marc Almond in concert. It floated along lonely as a cloud. ......it's still kind of stuck in a cyber rest home with nobody much coming by with a healthy paypal account or even fruit basket.

I'll tell you where I went wrong. I did not research the niche. I fell hook line and sinker for its ready-made charms instead of doing a low-down on its pedigree. Now what's a good way to find out if a niche has legs?

Well the first thing you can do is see if there are any other people actively interested in the niche you want to specialise in. A good place to find these passionate people would be on forums - are there any forums pertaining to the niche subject? There is a search term you can put into Google and it will bring up forums on any topic if there are any and it's:

allintitle:subject filetype:html forum

The subject being what your niche will be!

Other ways to find out is by seeing if you might have any competitors - is there any other Joe Schmoe selling stuff in this niche???? Don't worry about competition - it's a sign of good profitable health. You don't want a sick pup on your hands. Put it out of its misery soon or you will be wasting time and money just like I did! Also are you finding there are a lot of new products coming onto the market in that particular niche? Do you see a lot of mailing list offers to join?

If only I had known these few things back then I wouldn't have been boo hooing to the bank.

Remember it's a myth to worry about too many competitors - a fresh face and a fresh product will do wonders - it will sell if you stick with it!