If you plan on building a money-making business online, niche research is crucial.  In order to make certain that you can make money with the idea or product you are considering, you first have to do a little investigating to make sure that people are even looking to buy what you have to offer.

If you have no idea yet what you are going to market, then this research step is even more important.  When you set up a business blindly, without researching the needs of the market and the competition, you may be setting yourself up to fail.

Niche research is simply using a few strategies to find out what is popular, how much competition there is in the market, and determining which keywords would be most profitable for you.  All too often, new marketers start out with niches like “make money online” or “weight loss.”  These terms are broad, and highly competitive which means that you are going to have a much tougher time making money using these terms.

A good idea for beginners is to start out in a niche that interests you, or that you are familiar with.  Maybe a hobby, such as golf, cooking, photography, or anything else that you are really passionate about.  Then, you need to make your topic even more narrow like black and white photography, or how to improve your golf swing.  The more focused you are, the higher your chances are of seeing success in that niche.

People who are really motivated to build a successful online business, do their homework.  They find out what people are looking for by visiting forums, social networks, and other areas where a good number of people congregate, to determine what problems people have, or what there is a need for.

You can then look for products to solve that problem, or create your own product, such as an ebook.  After you have chosen your niche, you can start delving into keyword research to determine which terms and phrases would be the easiest for you to compete with.  So, do you need to do niche research?  Absolutely!