You are reasonably happy in your 9 to 5 job. So what if it is sometimes more like 6 to 10, it is no big deal. There is enough money to cover the bills, give the wife and kids some nice treats, life is OK.

A little extra would be nice, though, wouldn’t it.?

Then it starts. The siren song leading you to a place of promises, dreams, sidewalks paved with gold, unlimited wealth. You are ready to listen. How about $50,000 a week for 4 hours work a day? Good for starters. Or even better, earn $40.000 overnight, while you sleep.

You will find literally hundreds of Gurus ready to brainwash you into signing up for their particular set of dreams. That is what they are really selling, dreams…….and hope.

Your eyes glow, your heart beats faster, you can’t sleep at night. At last… the answer!!

Welcome, my friend, to the world of internet marketing.

The siren song has led you into a big blue ocean of hopes and dreams, where there are lots of much bigger and cleverer fish, and a good many sharks. Can a little tiddler survive?

One of the first things you notice is that you are no longer an ordinary member of the human race. You are now a member of a sub-species…a newbie. There, you thought you were just a beginner! No, No, the internet has its own language…..

Bombarded on all sides ….. to eBay or not to eBay, affiliates, eBooks…it just goes on.

There are two possible endings to this story. I think we all know what the first could be, so let’s ignore that and concentrate on the positive…… The Happy Ending.

You write that eBook that becomes a cult bestseller around the world, is translated into 60 languages and solves the world economic crisis at a stroke. Or you find that one amazing product that solves every crisis the world has ever known. Climate change is reversed, Icelandic volcanoes stop erupting, and Jeremy Clarkson becomes a polite pussycat. They create a new Nobel Prize especially for you.

Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Ron Woodham come to you for advice. Barrack Obama sends Airforce One to fly you to the White House for an urgent consultation. You are a sensation on MySpace, Youtube, Facebook. In fact, there are so many hits on your Youtube videos that their servers crash and they have to upgrade them before reloading the videos.

Congratulations, you are no longer a newbie. You are now officially a Guru.

But that, dear reader, is another story for another day!

When you begin your Internet marketing career, the very first thing you hear over and over again, is “FIND A PROFITABLE NICHE”. I have put this is capital letters, because, to an Internet marketer, this is the Holy Grail, Paradise Found, and winning the lottery all rolled into one!

Finding a profitable niche is one of the most discussed subjects in Internet marketing and can be a scary prospect for the newbie. Everybody talks about it, everybody has opinions on it, and the poor newbie will have many “rabbit caught in headlights” moments just thinking about it.

But the hard fact is, if you have a product in mind, and you don’t find a niche market for it, then how much success are you going to have? Not a lot. The days of just putting a product up on the internet and making sales without effort are long gone. Now extra effort is essential.

One of the first pieces of advice you will be given is to find a niche you are passionate about, or at least have an interest in. A word of caution. If you have a hobby or a skill that you are totally passionate about, please don’t just assume that there are enough other people (with lots of money to spend!) equally passionate about the same subject! Therein lies disappointment! You MUST do the necessary research to determine how many people are searching for your niche. Put your passion to one side and apply the necessary cold-hearted common sense.

So, bearing all this in mind, some questions to ask yourself:

• Is there a market out there with active buyers, a market with a need or problem?
• Can you provide a product or service that will satisfy that need or help solve that problem?
• Can you easily identify the market and check it’s profitability?
• If your product is aimed at a competitive niche market, will it sell despite the competition?

Now, let’s get started with our research. Remember, you have at your disposal the greatest research tool ever invented, the Internet!

Using a free keyword tool like Wordtracker, type in your main topic. Click the button and you will see a list of the top keywords associated with that topic, and how many times they have been searched for.

You will now have a good idea if your chosen niche is a popular one, and whether enough people are searching for products related to it.

Your search results should show an absolute minimum of 500 searches per month and preferably 1000 or over. This is a rough guide, but should be enough to help you decide whether or not to proceed with that particular niche.

You will be spending a lot of time and effort creating/finding products for your niche, so you must make sure it will be worth it!

Another place to do some detailed research is Clickbank. This is a huge source of  information on every niche and product you can possibly imagine. Go to their marketplace, select the relevant category, and you will see a list of top selling products in that category.

Do your research thoroughly, and you will be in a much stronger position when it comes to deciding which products to sell.

Good luck with your niche hunting!

Did you know that EzineArticles are now encouraging their authors….that’s you and me….to “repurpose” content for submission to them as an article?

That includes blog posts that you may have already written, and have been afraid to reuse for fear of being penalised for duplicate content.

So what exactly do they mean by “repurpose”?

Take a look at 2 Minute Submission Tips from EZA where it is all explained in great detail, with a brief video.

Make sure you read the comments underneath the video as they are very informative also.

The duplicate content dilemma has always been a major factor in article writing, and many people will still feel happier submitting only original articles to EZA, and then publishing them elsewhere later.

Still, it is good to know that there is another acceptable way of doing things, and many people are unaware of this.

This quote from Christopher Knight of EZA…..

“You can submit to EzineArticles ANY article that you own the exclusive rights to… but the articles you submit to us do not have to be exclusive to EzineArticles.com.”

The most difficult  part for many people starting out online trying to make some extra  cash is having a product of your very own to sell. Having your own product is the best thing you can do eventually to make a name for yourself and build a business.

The next best thing for many is to become a licenced reseller for a product. In most cases this will allow you to resell, reprint and distribute a product and keep all the sales.

However, this can be a confusing issue for beginners, as they struggle to understand the different licencing terms that go with a reseller package.

Here’s a quick overview of the different rights:

Giveaway Rights

You are free to pass on the ebook or software at no cost to anyone. You sometimes are not even allowed to sell it. You can find these rights usually stated at the beginning of ebooks or somewhere in the software file.
Giveaway rights are good for the end user as long as the content is quality and helps those who use it.

Resell Rights

Generally, you are free to sell these products at suggested resale price, plus these are usually royalty free with digital resell rights, so you keep all the money yourself.

Good ones come with pre-written sales pages, product images and even thank you pages, and there is usually a suggested retsi price listed.
You should note that some countries such as the US & the UK have price fixing laws. You can read more about those here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resale_price_maintenance This is why licenses will say “Suggested Retail Price” in many cases. Make sure to read the terms and conditions set out by the author.

Master Resell Rights

When you have these rights to a product, depending on the terms – you could give it away, resell it, bundle it, create new information packages or include them in your own membership site.

You can even pass on or sell the resell rights to others, meaning that when you sell that product to someone, they can in turn sell it to someone else.

Master resell rights usually cost more (and you can charge more when you sell the product) but they give the licensed owner more control.

The biggest difference between resell rights and master resell rights is that with just resell rights you cannot sell the rights to others – you can only sell the product

Private Label Resell Rights

Here’s where you can get really original! You usually get the source files to a product, so you can create a new product from it and call it your own.

You could edit the content, add to it, remove certain parts, create new images, redo the sales page and repackage the entire product.

You could even use the text content to create a niche website theme, online e-course, or break a large file into mini reports.

You could then take the product you redid and give it away, resell it, bundle it, or create new information packages from it.

This information courtsey of SUREFIRE WEALTH.com

If you are serious about building an online identity, make sure you don’t neglect the marvellous resource that is online Forum Marketing.

This should be one of the first options you consider when setting up your online business, and you can begin participating in forums even before you have your website set up.

Participating in forums in your niche, will not only help build your online presence, but you will be able to develop your own knowledge base by reading posts by other more experienced marketers.

Forums can be a great source of learning, to ask questions and receive answers from those who know, but you must tread cautiously to begin with, and carefully abide by the terms and conditions of each forum.

Your aim must be to become a regular participant in your chosen forums, and then when other forum members read and like your contributions, they will be encouraged to click on your signature link and visit your website or blog. This is a great way to build relationships with others in you niche.

With this in mind, there are steps to take before you actually get to the “marketing” aspect of Forum Marketing.

No1.  Research your Forums.

Use the search engines to find 5 to10 forums in your niche. If you are a complete newbie, I suggest 5 to start with as any more than that might prove daunting! You don’t want you efforts at forum participation and marketing to become a chore.

Make sure you choose forums that are active, with regular useful posts, and friendly participants. Do you like what you read? Are these the people you really want to communicate with? These are questions you do need to consider.

No2. Carefully read the User Agreements, and then read them again!

Whatever else you do, don’t skip this. All forums have posting guidelines that are taken seriously, and confusingly, these can vary from forum to forum.

Are there restrictions for new members? On some forums, you are expected to make a certain number of posts before you are allowed to put a link in your posts or your signature. Make sure you will be allowed to promote your business, and contact other forum members for business purposes.

Not abiding by the rules can earn you a warning, or at the very worst, get you banned.

No3.  Take care with your Profile.

When you have made your decision on which forums to join, the next step is to create your profile and username.

Take the time to create a comprehensive profile, as this will give you credibility, and establish you as a ‘real’ person with interests and pastimes that others can relate to.

Remember at all times that forum marketing is all about building a relationship with other like-minded people, so the more information you have on your profile, the easier it will be for others to get to know you. Don’t underestimate the power of this step. There are lots of people who just put the minimum information on their profile page and they are missing a huge networking opportunity.

Do choose your username carefully, as in most cases this cannot be changed at a later date. Simple and easily remembered is best here, as it is the first thing that other users will see. You might want to choose one that relates to your business, or you might just prefer to use your real name.

Spending time over these first steps will lay good foundations to get you started. Done correctly, forum marketing can become a good long term source of targeted traffic, and can be a fun and sociable way to build those all important online relationships.