Do you know why most people fail in their journey to make money online? It is because they don’t have enough knowledge about their market, they don’t know much about their market, and that is the reason they fail. Market research is a very important process that you must carry out before you dive into your market.

If you neglect this important step, your business will never go wrong. Go straight into a market without knowing much about the market is just like diving into a swimming pool without knowing how deep it is. If this is happening to you, it is a suicide. Let me give you another example, let’s say you want to sell ice-cream to a stranger, will you buy the ice-cream from supplier and sell it directly to that stranger or will you ask the stranger what flavor of ice-cream he or she prefers first before you buy from the supplier?

You know the answer very well. If you know what your customers want and you provide what they are looking for, your business will grow and you will make a lot of sales. This is a common sense. Don’t pretend and act you know everything about what your market wants and needs, you will never know until you do your market research.

So what are the factors that you need to consider when you do market research? There are basically 5 factors you have to take into account. They are:

1. The market profitability. You have to find out whether the people in your market are willing to spend money. If they don’t, it is not a profitable market.

2. Niche market. Determine whether the market you are going into is a niche market. If it is not, break it down into smaller market so that you can conquer more easily.

3. Do you have knowledge and skills in? You have to choose a market that you are familiar with. If you don’t know much about a market, you will have to spend more time learning about it.

4. Market competition. The best is to go for a market that has less competition. I bet you don’t want to go for a market that is highly competitive and you have to compete with the big boys right?

5. Market affinity. Choose a market that you have at least some passion in. Don’t go for a market that you hate for, you will never improve yourself that way.

These are the 5 factors that you must consider during your market research. Remember, market research is the foundation of your online business; you have to do it seriously.