In the first part of this series, we looked at researching keywords on Overture. The next stage is to put these keywords into the Google search engine and see what sort of competition you are likely to have in each particular area.

Checking "gardening" provides 43,700,000 websites and, by comparison, the keywords "organic vegetable gardening" (which had 555 searches on Overture) provides 2,120,000 sites.

Take a look at the top ten websites in each category and see what sort of products they are offfering, as well as the level of prices. This should give you some idea of the level of profits being generated in this sector.

Also start to think about how you can add your own unique twist to a possible product. You not only want to be the best in your category, you also want to be different.

The way to do this is to play "what if". For example, if you come across an e-book on a particular aspect you feel is a good niche market, consider how you might come at the same market from a different angle, with a different product.

For example, instead of simply offering another e-book, consider combining it with a DVD. This sets you apart from the competition and the higher perceived value of the book/DVD combo gives you scope to lift yourself out of the simple one off book category into the realms of a course.

Because you`re not selling to a mass market, you must strive for a substantial per capita sale value. Selling a course, rather than a one off book, is an ideal way to do this. You could enhance this further with an instantly downloadable e-book or course module, following on with a printed workbook version (punched pages in a binder plus the DVD) in the mail.

Provided you?re well organised and well disciplined, you can write just the first module of the course, initially. Writing a fresh module each month thereafter.

That way, you only risk work on one module prior to starting to market the product and don?t have to wait too long before you see some cash flow.

If you offer the course on monthly payments, your customer commitment is lower than if you asked for the full price up front. This means your conversion rate should be higher and you avoid the need to have to sell a fresh product every month.
Always include an enticing description on the last page of each module, headed "Coming Up In Next Month`s Module"

When you?re looking at possible competitor?s websites, carefully note how they?ve used keywords in their titles, text and page headers. Make a list of the keywords and combinations you can find in the top ten websites. They could give you some keywords and keyword combinations you might not have considered.

Also bear in mind Google ranks the separate pages that make up a website, and not just the home page. So the really clever sites (of which I hope yours will be one) will have separate pages, each with different keywords as their page titles. This allows you many chances of getting into that elusive first page of the search engine for one particular keyword.

Your final task in this research stage should be to visit organic gardening forums. Your mission here is threefold.

• To check the level of current interest in the particular niche you might now be coming to consider as a contender.
• Find out what subjects interest these groups, in particular the problems they have. Always bear in mind you are first and foremost a problem solver.
• Later, when your niche website is up and running, you`ll want to start answering questions posted by other members of the forum, so the readers will perceive you as very knowledgeable on the subject.
  

  For now, read what others have to say to get a "feel" for the protocol of each particular forum. Then, when you start to do your own posts replying to queries, you will slip seamlessly into the "voice" of that particular forum.