How To Do Market Research Online

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Market Research is a process of finding what people are buying and is the first building block of your online business blueprints. It's the most important process as it determines the market potential of your business. Your business survival will depend on how you do your market research.

And please note that market research is not the same as keyword research. Market research simply means assessing an idea or ideas you have in term of its potential needs. You don’t want to create a product that nobody needs or wants to buy!

In this article, I will walk you through a series of steps I normally take when I’m doing a market research online. All the online tools I use will not cost you a dime.

So, let’s get started…

Step 1: The first place I go to is “Google Zeitgeist”. This is a great place to find some ideas, check the hot trends and what people are searching online.

google-zeitgeist


Use Google Zeitgeist only to help you generate some broad ideas and get your creative juice flowing. Jot down any idea that comes across your minds for further research later on. This isn’t the place for detailed examination, I will show you other specialized tools to do more research later.

Other similar sites that you can use to generate ideas are the LYCOS 50 and Yahoo! Buzz.

Step 2: Next, I will visit the eBay Pulse [pulse.ebay.com]. This is a great place to go one level deeper from the topics or ideas you find in the previous sites and look at the sub-niches. For example, if you select the “Baby” category in eBay Pulse, you will see more sub-topics such as baby gear, baby safety, feeding, nursery bedding, nursery décor, strollers, etc..

ebay-pulse


Step 3: Now, visit Amazon.com. Same as the eBay Pulse, Amazon is a great place to look for sub-niches and find out if they are people buying the products. If you see there are many products sold in Amazon for a particular sub-niche, you can be sure that there are people buying.

To double check if there are potential buyers, you can go to Google and enter the terms (eg. baby safety) in the search box to see if there are advertisers online. If there are people paying for advertisements, then it means there are buyers.

google-advertisers


If you go through the above steps, you should be able to find few profitable niche markets to target. Once you have selected your niche, the next step is to do some traffic analysis and analyze the competitions. This is the subject of Keyword Research.

Final note on Market Research: when you’re doing a market research, always keep an open mind. Remember that the ultimate purpose of going through the process of market research is to identify a profitable market (eg. a market where there are already buyers or people spending money on it). You should think like a businessman when doing your research, don’t just select those topics that you’re familiar with. The key is to select a target market where people are willing to spend some money on it.

NOTE: You can download an excellent report “How To Find Hot Markets” for FREE!  This report will explain in more details about finding hot and profitable markets online.

Click the image below to download your FREE report:
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P.S.  Related Articles:

1. The #1 Online Marketing Skill For Internet Marketers.

2. Great Niche Finding And Brainstorming Tool.