Niche. What a word. But what does the word mean? Offline, the word means something that you are good at. Online, it's a little different. An online niche is something that you have chosen to build an idea (a website) around.

For example, a niche would be a website about "golfing during the summer", and you could have a website with information about golf courses, why golfing in the summer is good...etc. (BTW- I don't golf, so I do apologize to any golfers who are offended my by blantant lack of knowledge on the subject.)

One of the most important parts about chosing a niche is making sure you are interested in it. This does not mean you have to necessarily know about it, but you do need to have some kind of interest in the subject. This will ensure you enjoy the time you spend on your website.

Another thing to consider when chosing a niche is the amount of popularity the subject has. You want to make sure that the topic is something people are searching for information on. If other people are searching for information on the subject of your niche, this will help in the success of visitors to your site. How can you tell if a niche gets searched? Do some keyword research. There are many keyword tools out there that will tell you how many times a word (or idea) gets searched on the internet, and they also tell you how many competing websites there are. Aside from search popularity, the next thing you need to take into consideration is website competition.

You don't want to target a niche that have millions of competing websites. This is not to say you won't win over the competition, but it makes your job that much more difficult to gain ranking from the search engines. Let's take the above golf example. Instead of just having a website about golf, dig a little deeper and find out what other people are searching for in regards to golf. Such as (remember, I do not golf) the difference between the clubs. This is known as a targeted niche, or a micro niche.

The best way to find a niche would be first to start off with something you are interested, then go a little deeper, and think of "subcatagories". Once you have some subcatagories in mind, use a keyword research tool to find your keywords, and voila! You have your niche. (An excellent keyword tool I really like is wordtracker.  Check it out.)

If you are interested in the idea of niche marketing, you can get more information on a product that will teach you the ins and outs of e-commerce niches right here.

After you have your niche, the next step is to build your website.  Make sure you understand the importance of SEO, backlinking, and how to get traffic to your site. This will also make or break your success. 

You do not need to know everything about internet marketing to be successful, just as long as you understand that you will be learning something new everyday, and it is a learning curve.   Some things will work for you, and some things won't. Learn from your mistakes, and keep moving forward.