You might have the desire to start your own home based internet business but unless you have a special niche idea and do research on it you will not be able to set up a niche website and target customers.
A niche segment of a market is one where the customers are exactly defined and known.
You will be able to target the segment and address the customers with regard to their specific need that you are trying to fulfill.
You can either base your business on your skills, experience or your hobbies.
If the product or service that you choose is not widely available in the market you will find that the market will lap up whatever you have to offer and customers will come looking for you through search engines and you will have very less competition.
Once you have identified your business idea, you can do a small search exercise on the internet.
Use a theme word that is representative of your business and type it into Google search engine.
You will be able to see the list of potential people who are interested in your business or product and will be your target customer base.
By using the Google keyword tool you can first of all estimate your target customer base.
More importantly you can also map your competition by searching through the list and the websites.
You can think of becoming a tour operator, a oriental garden specialist, online music teacher or a tuition teacher depending upon your experience, interest and passion.
You job doesn't end by just thinking of an idea.
You would need to research enough to find the customers, competition, pricing and delivery mode etc which will become a part of your business plan.
Your sales efforts cannot end by establishing a niche product on a website and targeting a specific segment of the market.
To be able to grow and be in business you would have to continuously work on expanding your product lines as well as market segments.