Something REAL....

Impossible question to answer I'm afraid. I could give you hundreds, probably thousands of ideas, but implementing them is another thing entirely. You need to consider your expertise, your knowledge, your passions, your level of start-up capital. Use those to somewhat govern your research into potential markets and type of business.

- Tom

If you can find a good niche that has been untapped or not yet saturated then you're just like hitting the lottery jackpot. Nowadays, almost all niche markets have already been saturated not to mention the existence of mainstream marketers that have been operating for years, earning 6-7 figures, attracting every single traffic available and devouring startups and putting them on sidelines. However, inn the midst of all these, doing things differently should still make an impact. So it doesn't matter what niche you are in.. if you do it better, you'll outperform your competitors.

Opportunities are available to be acted on all around you, all the time.

Learning to recognize them, however, is a challenge.

It helps if you have intimate knowledge of an industry. Speak their language, read their magazines, attend their industry meetings. That is how you get to the point of discovering (and creating useful solutions to) their problems.

If you can develop or *create* a great tool that people can use in the IM niche, and offer it for FREE.... that might fly.

Mikes-marketing-tools.com is a good example. You can earn money from your own products, affiliate, and even AdSense.

Well your goals are on the right track. You want something that's top quality...which is the only business that will last and pay off long term.

However, be careful about getting stuck on trying to find something "new and never been done". For one, you'll get stuck do nothing. That's a super hard feat and risky. Number two, choosing what's already making money out there is the best choice and less risky. Just do something that's already making money online...but do it better or find a unique twist as your "USP".

As for marketing...if you have money to invest in creating a software that would save time or eliminate some sort of frustration that marketers have, then you'd have a real winning product.

There are sections of this member base that are very vocal about the direction of this IM forum. There's your need, go fill it.

As others have implied, the aswer to your question is yes. But that's not hard to answer. The million dollar question is can "you" capitalize on them?

For example people still want products and services that are ...

• Faster!

• More convenient!

• Easier to use!

• More affordable!

• Bigger!

• More portable!

• Safer!

• Longer lasting!

• More Dependable!

• More Scalable (or easier to scale up)!

• Easier to Promote or Market!

- and -
Much More!

Name any existing product or service and people still crave the above benefits I described.

So, do you have the knowledge, tools, creativity or skill to fill it? That's the question "you" have to answer.

I'll answer your question with a question. Do you still notice people in the I.M Business who have ...

• Problems?

• Irritations?

• Worries?

• Complaints or disappointments?

• Disadvantages?

• Limitations?

• Obstacles?

In fact, that's all you hear in the section you're in now.

Then that alone tells you All needs are not being filled as well as they could be. So, can you fill any of them better? They're waiting ... with money or credit card in hand.

Thanks to all the members that provided helpful input.

Right now I'm wanting to create two very different sites, and maybe later I'll figure out which one I want to continue based on whether or not either makes money.

One is an entertainment based site which focuses on a niche I think I may be able to capitalize on in a way I don't see other sites doing. I didn't realize it till this morning. I've considered doing this site in the past, but I think I'm finally realizing several ways I can monetize it.

The other site, which I may start before long, would be more of a site that doesn't get updated regularly, but has some really helpful IM related stuff. I do think this could potentially make some decent money with the right traffic, but I wouldn't have much I'd be likely able to post regularly due to the nature of the site (not info based).

Great post (again) by The Niche Man!

I believe that something cool visitors will want to return to would be an authentic, unfolding real-life story. If you can tell yours in the context of your business, this may be worth considering and could warm the market to you considerably. Depends on the site though I suppose.

You could go into practically any niche and find an audience that desperately wants what you have to offer. The secret ingredient to the success formula is YOU.

We all bring a unique perspective to any subject we approach. That's what gives us the potential to be successful in any niche.

Think of Pat Flynn (who is extremely successful and inspiring). He is not discussing anything previously unknown, groundbreaking or earth shattering...In fact, blogs and websites that cover his main topic are a dime a dozen and clutter the web on an ever-increasing basis.

So what exactly makes his blog so popular to the tune of him bringing in multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars each year?

The Answer: Him!

He a REAL person. Open, honest and willing to share his story and give us a front row seat to his life and journey to becoming a successful internet marketer. That is his only unique angle, and that is what has made him stand apart from the masses and carve out his prominent spot in the online marketing world.

You can do it too!

Take the time to explore and discover your perfect niche and more importantly your special positioning and angle.
Do this properly and no one will be able to replicate what you have to offer because it's coming from your unique view of the world.

This endears you to a very specific audience and keeps them completely hooked and spellbound by what you have to say.

Eventually, these people will pull out their wallets and buy products and services you recommend because they trust and believe that you will only suggest the ones that are beneficial to them.

OP,

There are literally thousands of businesses you can start no matter how saturated the niche is. The more saturated the better!! If it's saturated that means there's a demand for products.

Think about it this way, how many restaurants are there that sell burgers? How many new restaurants open every year that sell burgers? Surely the burger market is saturated and yet people continue to be able to penetrate the market.

Create your unique selling proposition and go for the same people that current people are marketing to.

That's easy! What frustrates you most?

Solve it for yourself and others.

-DocH

I think a couple of people already said it better than me, but the one product that nobody has ever done before is YOU, and you are the only one that can do it.

Think about your factors: your gender, your age, your educational and professional background, your life and business goals, your unique hobbies and interests and skills. There are probably others out there who would identify with a lot of those factors and how a person with those factors would approach business.

I'll give you an idea for free--how to integrate tools with the human touch/community--since we live in a "device" world that both connects and disconnects us.

Good luck in all you do .

do it better and offer it cheaper, donar

If money is the only motivation, it is better to get the very best job you can. I say this because without something bigger as the driving force behind a business idea (like you LOVE helping people or you LOVE the system, product or service you're selling) it's likely that your motivation will fizzle and you'll quit, thinking you need a "better" idea which leads to shiny object syndrome. (thinking it's the idea and not US that keeps us from succeeding).

I think the mistake most people make is trying to go too broad. If you dig a mile wide and an inch deep, you won't find much. On the other hand, if you tunnel down a mile, you will have a better chance of striking something valuable. Specialize in something and go from there.

If you look for a space to capitalize on, you won't find any. Rather, you have to create a site on something that's already proven,. has the market and capitalize on it.

Marketing and business related is a good niche but you have to be an expert on the field and prove yourself thousand times before you can be heard.

You can try a sub-niche on health or career to get a quick place. What say you?!

I'd say how to deal with information overload and just focus on one thing at a time. And getting people to eliminate their fear of taking action. It's just much easier to daydream about the lifestyle you want rather than taking any action.

If you are not following a passion you cannot have the energy to become the best at what you do. Following money as a reason ( or the market need ) is insanity, as these topics are always unstable .
I think you should follow what you like to do, and adapt that to the market needs.

It's better because your insecurity will make you chase tail for a long time, instead of hard working and investing everything you can give best into your passion.

There are still plenty of opportunities out there.

My niche sites that had poor quality articles in competitive niches have pretty much died. But sites with REAL goods and services are doing very well. For all the protests here, Google has got much smarter at ranking good sites well.

My advice is to think beyond the blog. Don't even install Wordpress. Do something else.

You can get into over saturated niches if you want. You just need to be more entertaining and offer better value then some (not even all) of your competitors. You'll also need to focus on paid traffic rather then relying on organic traffic. I think it's Ryan Deiss who said something like "the guy who gets the traffic is the one who's willing and able to spend more for it"... Or something like that.

It's all being filled. You need to simply rise above your competition. I look at it with the mindset the more competition the better.

It's adding your personality to your content. People want to read you.