Paul ~
A technique to uncover a market which has proven itself to me in the past is the following.
First of all you need to have an interest in a particular area, hobby, activity or other interests. Because if you do not really enjoy the "niche market" you've chosen, it becomes drudgery fairly fast! I know this firsthand from my Beanie Baby days with eBay in the late nineties.
Log on to eBay, and spend a few hours searching and reading through different listings in the area of your choice. When you find a listing which appeals to you, click on the 'View Sellers Other Items' and see what else they are currently selling.
Many times they are extremely diverse, and other times you'll find dozens of the same listings! This tells you something is working for them and may possibly work as well for you.
After you find a Seller of interest, go to the eBay home page and click on the 'Search' link at the top of the page. Then do your search specifically using the 'By Seller' criteria. Be certain to include 'Completed Items' and check the radio button 'All'. This will show you all of their past auctions which have been completed, including prices, number of Dutch Auction winners, etc.
From this page you can generally estimate the income being derived for this particular Seller, what is a 'Hot Seller' and what may be a dud.
As I have stated in earlier postings, do not steal from these people. But use the "successes" you have uncovered from them to model from. If a certain area is really hot, you very well could piggyback on that with some type of short Special Report catering to their needs.
Info-products are successful in many niches. The thrill to me is uncovering and discovering small the small areas which can return a nice profit. How-to's are the most profitable. Everything on "How To Turn (Fill in the hobby) Into Cold Hard Cash Immediately" all the way to "37 Tips To Increase (Fill in the blank)" types of information.
By utilizing PDF's and digital delivery, you have a fairly fail proof way of testing markets rather inexpensively. And when you uncover a nice area, you can always supplement with audio tapes, special interest guerilla videos, and even hard copies of your reports.
The three or four areas I posted upon further down are prime examples. http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/message?forumid=166590&messageid=1031934622
Selling and closing sales are fun and profitable. But I have always had a letdown afterwards, so looking for the next opportunity is what generally keeps me going. The same holds true with selling online and eBay - Prospecting, discovering and then mining those small niches which are uncovered by a bit of sleuthing.
Success and Regards... Mike
http://www.CrashCourseMarketing.com
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