In the previous post (”Information Publishing - The Perfect Online Business!“) I showed you why information publishing was one of the best ways of making money online. In this series of articles, I’m going to show you how you can find your ideal niche in which to make money.

(By the way, I promise that this blog is going to be different from most of the other “make money” blogs out there - not only will I show you specifically how to do something - which most of the others leave out -but if you become a regular reader, we’ll actually make money together! In other words, these aren’t just theories. You’ll see me set up live projects from scratch to prove to you how it’s done. So make sure you’re subscribed!)

So what do I mean by a “niche”? Very simply, a niche is just a smaller subset of a larger market. For example, there’s a big market for “weight loss” products and information - but within this market, there are smaller niches, such as people who are interested in more specialist vegan weight loss plans, or weight loss through hypnosis - these are niches within the larger “weight loss” market. (By the way, I found these two niches using a free tool I’ll show you later on in this series.)

There are two basic ingredients for successfully making money in a niche market.

The first is to pick a niche in which you have (or could easily develop) a passion. While it’s not absolutely essential, it definitely helps to maintain your interest and enthusiasm in the subject. (In this series I’ll show you how to generate plenty of ideas that you’d probably never even considered.)

The second is to find a niche in which people spend money. There’s nothing wrong with blogging about your hobbies and interests, but if it’s an obscure niche where people don’t spend money, then your blog is really a hobby. (In Part 3 I’ll show you how to test whether a particular niche is profitable or not.)

Now storm your brain!

The first technique is simply to brainstorm what interests you. Almost certainly you won’t hit upon your ideal niche right away, but doing this will get the creative juices flowing, and will get you started thinking in the right direction.

So grab a piece of paper, and spend 20 - 30 minutes writing down the answers to the following questions:

• What are your interests and hobbies?
• What magazines do you like to read?
• What TV programs do you like to watch?
• What web sites do you like to visit for fun?
• What groups and forums are you a member of?
• What sports and games do you play or watch?
• What non-fiction books have you read that inspired you?

Now, don’t worry if you don’t find what you’ve written particularly inspiring! That’s perfectly normal - as I said, it’s unlikely you’ll hit upon your ideal niche just yet. However, by the time you’ve finished reading this series, you’ll have so many niche ideas that you’ll be spoilt for choice!

Just keep your list safe for now, and in Part 2 I’ll show you how you can “spin” your list to come up with an almost endless supply of niches and ideas.

Please make sure you’re subscribed to this blog, so you don’t miss it! And in the meantime, I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading the other articles on UpperMoney.com