Have you ever envied, as I have, those fortunate individuals who seemed to know from a very early age exactly what they wanted to do with their lives? And who seemed easily to avoid the series of false starts and disappointments with which most of us have to contend early in our careers.

They had their setbacks, no doubt, but dealt with these confidently and comfortably in the knowledge that they were securely embarked on their true course in life.

Most of us are not so lucky, and if we come eventually to the idea (the very sound idea) that our future lies in having our own business we face a bewildering range of possibilities, to say nothing of the untold hazards and pitfalls.

So the question is: just where do you start?

Richard Branson, multi-millionaire creator of the Virgin empire, is one stupendously successful entrepreneur who has no doubt. "Have fun and the money will come", he likes to say. Easy enough for him you might think; for who needs to worry about their niche when their empire includes music, media and books; an airline; holiday and rail companies; personal finance and credit cards; cell phones and now, with Virgin Galactic, even space tourism!

But Branson's first successful operation was a student newspaper, which quickly branched out into selling records by mail order, almost an archetypal niche operation. Why did he start there? Simply because it was what he knew about, and what he loved to do.

So in business as in life, it might be said that finding your niche is the key to success. And the things which you are truly passionate about are as good a place to start as any. I suggest you begin by brainstorming a list of ten such things. Start with a blank piece of paper and be totally honest. But don't restrict yourself to the things you do now or have done in the past. Include your dreams - the things you're certain you'd love to do if you only had the chance (and getting this business going, by the way, is far the best way to give yourself that chance). The reality check comes later. For the moment, just let your imagination run riot.

Now that you've got your first list, put it to one side for the moment. And get ready to begin the next. What we want now is a list of the things you know most about, are good at doing, or would like to spend time researching (such as the things you dream of doing from your first list). One tip: don't neglect your day job here. As much as you may long to escape from it, your work experience can be a rich source of skills, knowledge and expertise. And I use the word "rich" advisedly, here. Customers will often pay handsomely for this kind of "hands on" know-how.

Once again, shoot for a list of ten items. You'll find that this list overlaps substantially, but will probably not be identical with, your first one. For as much as I love to play golf, I can't kid myself my level of expertise will ever trouble Tiger Woods. You get the idea. But cross-matching your lists you should find a number of items that feature in the top five of both.

Now's where things gets serious, because now you have to match the thing you love to do, and which you're good at doing, with the fundamental motivations of your prospective customers.

Because for an information products business, which is where I strongly suggest you start, you need to understand this key point. Information in this sense is not just a collection of facts or anecdotes about the passion which you and your potential customers share, as fascinating as they may be. Your prospects on the Net aren't coming to you for that. They're not passive consumers, but dynamic hunters of active information which they can put to work to help them achieve their goals.

So to determine your information products business niche, you first have to understand what these goals might be. Find out what really motivates people, what drives them to action, and you're well on the way to success. Because believe me, people will pay, and pay very well, for well presented, easy to access information that helps them succeed in the action they've determined on.

Fortunately it's not so very hard to work out the kind of things that motivate people. Likely they're fairly similar to those which motivate you, because as human beings we all share certain basic drives. And an understanding of these, by the way, is at the heart of all successful marketing. So all good copywriters know that a product must appeal to one or more of the core human emotions.

Interestingly, these have been found to correspond quite closely to some of the biblical "seven deadly sins" of greed, lust, pride, etc. Most obviously, perhaps, greed will translate easily in to the very human desire to get rich, to which very few of us are wholly immune. But this near universal drive contains a vast range of possible product niches, from guides to starting your own business, to stockmarket or real estate investing, to protecting your money off-shore, to owning racehorses or collecting fine art. The list is potentially endless. Likewise lust, or the basic desire to be sexually attractive, could include all kinds of health, fitness, beauty and cosmetic products, as well as clothing and fashion. Pride gives us all kinds of self-development and educational information products and these, too, are limitless in number.

Space doesn't allow here, but I'm sure you get the idea. You need to submit your proposed niche to the test of whether it falls within one of these basic and very strong drivers of human behaviour.

Find that it does, and you're ready for the next test. You now need to determine that there will be a ready market for a product within your niche by finding out how many people are currently searching the web for information on it. Fortunately this couldn't be easier to do. Check out the free toolbar at www.alexa.com or get over to http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/. Simply enter a term related to your proposed niche and see how many times it was searched for last month. Above 5 - 6,000 is generally regarded as the minimum viable figure to look for.

You might also check out the hot sellers on Amazon and eBay for more ideas.

So here it is in summary:

List what you love, or would love, to do

List what you know, or would love to research, how to do

Match the result against a core human drive or "buying emotion"

Check the numbers of people actually searching for information in your niche

And there you have it; every prospect of a highly profitable niche in which the massive and growing market place that is the Internet will ensure you access to all the eager customers you can accommodate. And of course, there is no limit to the number of different niches you can develop and explore. No limit to the lifetime of potentially galactic profits they can generate for you.

There's just one more test though; and it's perhaps the most vital of all.

Does your proposed niche excite you; I mean really excite you? I don't mean the "uh, uh, sure that could be interesting", type of "excitement" we all feel everyday. I mean like the shiver you felt the first time you saw your partner across a crowded room. If you're not feeling like that about your idea, go back to step one and start again. I promise it'll be worth the extra effort in the long run.

Steve Smith December 2006