Niche marketing is all about making the most possible money with the least effort. This article will help you find a strong niche market so you can get into profit as quickly as possible.

The first thing you'll need as a niche marketer who is destined to make your fortune is a hot market of eager prospects. Notice I didn't say anything about an amazing product.

Naturally you'll want a great product, but that comes later. The first order of business is to identify a group of people with a very specific want or need.

This is called finding your niche market. And it takes only a small amount of focus and effort to achieve.

Your first step is to list a few general areas you'd like to explore. Start with things you like, know something about, or simply find interesting.

For instance, do you enjoy camping, playing the saxophone, the latest and greatest DVD releases, or fixing up old cars? Make a list of anywhere from 10 to 25 general areas you want to explore.

Once you have a basic idea of the kind of market you might want to explore, you're ready to find some numbers and data to back up your initial idea. Thanks to the invention of keyword research tools, it's actually quite easy to figure out what people are looking for online.

All keyword research tools work from the same basic interface. This is a form where you enter a word or group of words and click a submit button.

The keyword tool then finds data on how many times the terms were queried at sites like Google over the past 1 to 30 days. Good keyword tools will also come up with a list of terms similar to the keywords you entered, and this of course will lead you to ideas you may not have even considered before.

Your goal with basic keyword research is simply to get a better idea of what people are looking for relative to your initial list of concepts. You may have to spend some time brainstorming or looking into the suggested terms that come up during your research before you really hit on anything solid.

As an example, let's say you know something about remodeling kitchens. You might start your keyword research with terms like "kitchen remodel".

The tool you are using could indicate people are doing a good deal of searching for terms like "kitchen remodel under $1,000" or "remodel kitchen cabinets" or "do it yourself kitchen remodel". As you begin to sift through more and more specific data you will see an emerging pattern and come up with a more refined idea of what people are looking for in terms of information about remodeling their kitchens.

Ultimately, you'll want to make a list of the more popular search terms. And you'll want to go to your favorite search engine and do your own direct searches on these exact terms.

The results pages will tell you whether or not a substantial amount of competition currently exists in these areas. By finding out what information and services currently exist you'll be able to determine where you can fit into things; i.e. you'll get an idea of where your potential niche might be.

You can also browse sites like Ebay, Amazon, and Buy.com to get an idea of what people are currently spending money on, relative to your area of focus. And you can browse popular blogs and forums to discover what Internet users are saying about the current marketplace.

In particular look for questions being asked. If you can identify a few core questions being posed in a variety of places you will be well on your way to fidning a solid niche market.

It's beyond the scope of this article to go into complete detail about the research process, but just by following the steps above you'll be able to target a potentially profitable niche market. Once you understand what people are looking for, all that remains is to figure out how you can offer these people what they want and/or need.