Are you planning to start your own website with the goal of earning a good income from it? If that is the case, then you should know by now that the road to your success starts with the proper niche market research. Because today, it is almost next to impossible effectively compete with the bigger markets. Most of the time your only chance to succeed is by focusing on a really targeted niche.

Do you know exactly a niche to begin with? Here is a simplified explanation. A niche is a subset of a market that still has a high potential of making big money from it. You then focus your marketing, promotion, as well as product design to meet the needs of that market or niche. There are many ways to consider a niche and one is by determining who would exactly benefit from your product. Are they office workers? Are they the homeowners? That would be a great start.

Here are five ways on how you can become better with your niche market research. It mostly includes places or services that you can use to find the best niches.

1. You can use Google’s free services.

There are two Google services or tools that I frequently use whenever I am on the lookout for nice niche keywords. These are Google Trends and the free Google keyword research tool. The first one helps me in determining the hottest keywords that people are searching for on Google. It is usually about celebrities and important events especially those that just occurred recently.

The other one, the keyword research tool, is a mainstay in every Internet marketer or search engine optimization expert’s arsenal of niche research tools. If you have a keyword for a general market idea, you can narrow it down better with this tool and help you find the best niches possible. Just listen to an Ed Dale interview and you will better understand how important it is to properly conduct a keyword research to find your next niche.

2. Look at Amazon’s bestseller lists.

Being the most popular online shopping site today, Amazon publishes a list of its bestselling products on each product category page. This lets you know which products people are buying as well as the ratings that they give to them. It is a fantastic place to start your niche research.

3. Take a look at the Yahoo! directory.

The Yahoo! directory has been around since the 1990s and for many years, Internet marketers have been using it to find lucrative niches. For instance, if you want to go into the health niche, you can start with the Health category and, perhaps, select Sleep Disorders. From there you can find other health topics for your next niche.

4. Magazines

If you pass by a newsstand you will probably notice all those magazines with those exciting and attractive titles and blurbs. Magazines are excellent sources of niche ideas because each one is already focusing on a specific market. Just open one magazine and you will find articles that are tackling more targeted niches.

5. Auction websites

These websites are all providing a list of the hottest trends or of the items that most people are currently placing their bids and purchasing. These are certainly niche market research tools that you should take advantage of especially if you are planning to create a website where you would be selling specific products.

You can learn more about finding niche marketing ideas and other Internet marketing tips by listening to some podcast interviews. These are great learning materials to teach you not just the basics, but some advanced strategies as well.