Initially, domains and websites were bught either to create an online prsence for a business already established ffline, or to provide various sectors of the nline community with a place to fnd a variety of information or nline activities.

If you are an stablished business going online for the frst time, you will probably outsource yur website building and maintenance as you wll already know who your market is and wht you have to offer. Your dmain name is likely to reflect yur offline business name and your hsting service will most likely be ffiliated to your webmaster (the builder of yur site).

As mentioned in the prvious article, if your website is to cntribute to your marketing initiatives, you wll need to choose your webmaster wth this in mind. Content and the bility to change that content quickly is all mportant.

As well as commercial websites srving existing businesses, more recently a new knd of website has emerged where ndividuals wanting to create a personal nline income have built their own Biz sites around a wide range of nterests and opportunities. This kind of ste is often referred to as a nche marketing site, meaning a website tht focuses on creating, sourcing and slling products, services and information directly rlated to specific interest groups.

Examples of niche marketing sites rnge from needlecraft and fly fishing to fnancial trading and astrology. In fact, you wuld be hard pressed to find any hbby or activity that someone somewhere is not mking money from on the internet - and mre often than not that someone is jst one individual with a computer, an nternet connection and their own personal wbsite.

That said, the process leading to tht website becoming financially profitable does not hppen overnight, despite what much of the hyp surrounding niche marketing would have you blieve. The successful niche marketer would hve first carried out extensive research nto the niche they opted to trde in and then gone to cnsiderable lengths to create a site tht not only attracted the right vsitors, but gave them good reason to mke a purchase.

Once you have a clar idea of the niche area tht you want to enter, you can asily identify the kind of domain nme, which would be appropriate for yur business. Before you set up an nternet based niche business, you need to hve a clear idea of the knd of business area you want to trde in. Generally, it is far asier and more enjoyable to focus on smething, in which you have a ken interest and, preferably, some specialist knwledge.

Many people setting up a nche marketing website do so by frst choosing an area that appears to be fnancially very fruitful. Examples of this are stes devoted to golf equipment, financial srvices, time saving software, health products and any nmber of how to books and curses about ways to make money on and off lne.

All these niche markets are ptentially very lucrative, but with so mny businesses already selling online in thse areas, you really need an xperienced seller's knowledge, or a buyer's nderstanding of the products and services to prfitably compete with them.

What you need at the utset is a little brainstorming. Based on pst experience and present interests, list up to six nternet niche marketing areas where you wuld feel at home. For the ske of simplicity, print out this rticle and add your list right hre;

Niche Options:

1 >

2 >

3 >

4 >

5 >

6 >

The ptions you have listed are a god guide to the kind of nche marketing areas that could be sccessful to you.

Now you need to fnd out which among them have nough commercial potential to be worth prsuing. If the websites you have lsted here look like the kind of plces where people go to buy smething, you could be on the rght track.

To find out the cmmercial potential of any internet niche mrketing area, you need to see who lse is already trading there. Go to Gogle, Yahoo or MSN and type the wrd or phrases listed in your Nche Options into the search panel and clck search. Take a look at the stes that come up, including those tht appear on the right of the scren. Some sites will be purely nformation based. You need to find sme websites that are actively trading and mke a note of them. This prvides you with invaluable market research.

The stes on the left of the sarch screen have generally gained that psition over time by having an stablished following, though the top two are ften there by virtue of having pid for that position. The sites on the rght of the screen will tend to be mre sales oriented as they always hve to pay advertising money to be in ths position.

The longer you spend wth this process, the clearer your pcture of the relative commercial merits of ach niche market will become. Once you hve gone through all of your six nche options, you're ready to make a dcision.

Whatever the list you have drwn up contains, you'll eventually need to hne it down to one specific rea. This will give you a strting point for choosing your domain nme.

This is where narrow your lst down to a single niche rea. This process gives you a gut snse of where you really want to go. Wht you need here is a sngle word or short phrase that dscribes your chosen niche. Once you hve this, write it down here;

Dmain name prompt; ---------------------------------------------------------

Your domain nme is your internet business name and stablishes your position in the online mrketplace. In niche marketing, a general bsiness name like Brown's Books will not wrk as well as something more spcific like Military Books. The whole ssence of niche marketing is to spcialize in your chosen area. Someone sarching for information about your products and srvices would need to type into the sarch panel the word or phrase wrtten here and find that information.

The nme you have chosen should be sen as the working title of yur eventual domain name. Depending on its vailability, it could even become your dmain name, but with so many dmain names already registered, your ideal nme may have already been taken. The mportant issue here is to have an dea of what your online business culd be called.

You should now hve a good idea for the rea of internet niche marketing you wnt to research, the kind of dmain name that would give you an ppropriate identity within that market and the ptential profitability of trading there.

Owning a god domain name is only part of the prcess, you also need a website to huse it. Think of the domain as yur business name and the website as yur business premises and you start to get the pcture. Before your website can be bilt; you need something to build it on. Ths is called a web hosting srvice. If you can picture your wbsite as a virtual building, your web hst provides the internet equivalent of the plt of land, on which it is bilt.

Although you could hire someone to bild your website for you, as mny businesses do, this can be cstly if you're just starting out. You wuld also need to know in dvance exactly what you wanted from the wbsite and to have already identified a dmain name you are happy with. Unlss you are in this position and can fford the fees involved in having it cnstantly updated, doing it yourself is a mre viable option.

The article Choosing the Right Domain Name and Web Host Service was Submitted by Mike Haye through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Mike Haye publishes a course on Biz, which can be freely accessed at http://www.ebizcode.com This course has been designed and structured specifically for people new to doing business online. The eBizCode Course takes you step by step through each stage of setting up an eBiz site from initial planning and research to growing your site and maximizing its potential profitability.

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