Given unlimited time, money and patience, they might succeed. For those that do not have unlimited supplies of these precious resources, aiming for a smaller niche market can be a much smarter way to start your online business.

So just what is a niche?

If you want the long answer, you can buy any one of the thousands of e-books being sold online about niche markets. You can go to a dictionary and see what definition of niche it gives. But the short answer is niche simply means distinct or individual.

Everyone and their mother wants to start a business focusing on Internet Marketing. This is how the big guns are making all their money, so it must be the way to go. That is the problem. The market is totally saturated with people who have years of experience in this area. A new person trying to compete in such a broad market does not have much chance of success.

On About.com, Susan Ward defines Internet Marketing as “the strategies that are used to market a product or service online, marketing strategies that include search engine optimization and search engine submission, copywriting that encourages site visitors to take action, web site design strategies, online promotions, reciprocal linking, and email marketing”. A new person coming online to start a business has little chance of knowing enough about all the above areas to be able to compete in this market.

So how is a new person to have any chance at success?

Thing Smaller – Think Niche!

Just from the above definition you can come up with the following pieces or niches:

Marketing
Search Engine Optimization
Copywriting
Web Site Design
Promotion
Linking
Email Marketing

Even if you are lucky and are extremely experienced already in one of the above niches, you will still have a lot of competition in such broad niches. This may be what you decide to do in the end, but at least be willing to explore niches within the broader areas. You may find a niche you are much better suited to.

When it comes to finding a niche market, the best resource available online is Wordtracker. You can find pieces of this program on different sites and software programs but Wordtracker brings everything together in one place for those trying to find a good niche to go into.

Using Wordtracker is a breeze. If you want to break Internet Marketing down to many more niche markets, just type in Internet Marketing and look at all the ideas that pop up. Each of these can become keywords that you decide you want to focus your niche on. Or you can pop in those keywords and keep defining your niche.

Using Wordtracker, what you will end with is a list of niche keywords that you can focus your Internet business on. Having a smaller niche will give you a much better shot at being successful then trying to build a site around a broad topic like Internet Marketing.

Remember, success in any business always comes back to supplying a product that the public has a demand for and that the market has room for. Find the right niche and you are on the right path.

Are you offering a genuine product that is in demand on the internet? How can you know if people are searching for this product? Go to Google – search for Google Keyword Research Tool and enter your keywords there. This chart shows you how many searches are performed monthly, thus giving you an idea of online demand.

Is the company sound and honest? This is perhaps a hard question to answer, but you can look up your prospective company on the Better Business Bureau’s website. Do a little research online; what does the average consumer think? Of course, every company should have a company page on their website you can check out.

Getting Started: How to Run an Online Business

Once you have selected your online business, now you want to know how to run an online business. How do you promote your business online?

1. Know your company’s policies regarding the internet and follow their guidelines as you run an online business. This is especially important if you’re in affiliate marketing or work independently for another company–they will want you to follow their rules for conducting your business.

2. Buy a domain name from Name Cheap or 3Essentials and your web hosting for the site from Host Gator. When choosing your domain name, include either your business name or the company’s product. If your domain name contains keywords that apply to your company and products, this will make marketing your site easier and more likely to be clicked on.

3. Build a professional looking, yet easy to navigate website. If this is your first website, I would suggest using WordPress or hiring a web designer. Depending on the type of company you have, you may want your website to include a form to join a newsletter, videos embedded into your site and perhaps a pop-up offer. When writing the content (product/company descriptions) for your website, make sure you have a keyword density of 2-5%. So, if you are writing the info for product ABC, make sure you use the product name in the description 2-5 times per 100 words. Do NOT overuse the keyword or it’ll look amateur.

4. Although your business will be online, you will need an office of some sort, even if it’s just a corner at home. Besides a computer, you’ll need a toll free number (800) for clients to call. This is extremely important; without an 800 number, people won’t call you – you’ll loose lots of business. I would use TTI or Kall8. Kall8′s plans start at about $10/month. This is basically the full extent of your office, unless you want a system for filing phone/mail orders. Some clients will want you to mail them a hard copy of information on your products or services, so keep supplies handy and mail them promptly.

5. Customer service is very uncommon these days. So, I would suggest you work very hard giving outstanding service. Ultimately, this could get your business and give you a cut above your competitors. Just listen to your customers concerns and questions and answer them knowledgeably (or offer to find out, if you don’t know), be patient and don’t sound rushed at all, be prompt with shipping, returning phone calls, mailing information, answering email, etc. As you run your business online, you’ll find customer service is a bigger part than you’d imagine.

6. Marketing is a whole article of its own, so just suffice to say that you’ll want to include Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising. Which could include article marketing, blog posts, blog commenting, forum commenting, link building, social bookmarking, etc.

Now with the troubling economy much of us want to have a second income without working ourselves to death. A lot of people are trying home businesses and internet businesses. There are a lot of them out there. There are a lot of way’s to get started but you have to research and look at many of them that are scams. You have to take time and research and check into the how the where the way’s of getting started. Like how much you are wiling to spend set a budget aside of what you can afford to put into this project.

Don’t put yourself in a more financial bind than what you are already in. your struggling now don’t make it worse for yourself.

Make sure you have the time to put into your business to market it and stay with it. You won’t be rich over night, it takes time to see results. Talk it over with your family and make sure everyone is on board with the decision making process.

An online business can give you the financial security that you need. It can function as a steady income stream once you have firmly established and marketed it. An online business or home business can be a secondary income for you if you are already employed and are looking for some extra income.