Complete directions and screen shots are available to learn about using Lycos.com in your market research.

You are ready to write and you have chosen a subject that interests you. There is no question that writing about something just because you think it will be a big seller can make writing a real chore.

You should hope that you will be writing quite a lot on this subject – several ebooks, articles, blog posts. Having an interest will help you sustain interest in your writing. If you feel confident about your knowledge of a subject, your job will be much easier. Research will still be required but a head start on understanding the subject will put you ahead of the race.

However before you begin writing, you need to determine what people are going to buy. There is no object in writing something just because you have an interest in it. The main purpose is to sell your products. This takes us to the first major research project – Market Research.

Basically, people buy books for one of two major reasons. The first is having a specific need or problem to which they are seeking a solution. The other is having a special interest or hobby on the subject. Both of these instances are reasons for people to spend money.

Over the next few days we will be looking at some of the resources you can use to explore what kind of information people are buying.

Before you go to the trouble of doing keyword research and starting writing, you need to know, “What is the market willing to buy?”  There has to be a reason for them to pull out their wallet and go for that credit card. In general it is fairly well accepted around the internet marketing community that subscribers are willing to pay for information for pain or pleasure. Either they have a problem and want a solution (weight loss) or they spend a lot of money for pleasure (golf).

I think it is only fair to assume that your motivation in being involved in internet marketing is the money. It may be a hobby for some but I have not met any of them. Ask any marketer if they would continue to do all of the work if there was no prospect of making money.

Most beginning marketers fail in completing this step adequately. You have to dig really deep into your market with the critical last questions being, “What does your market want bad enough to pay for it?”

Take a quick look at your list created in the last lesson. These are the general topics you are going to be considering as you do this market research.

Since we are looking for problems that people need to solve, it is important to go to places where people are asking questions – How to fix, how to avoid, how to do it better, how to do it cheaper – problems that need a solution. An excellent place to look for questions is a forum on the topic. Search Google for “keyword + forum” or go to Board Tracker (www.boardtracker.com) where you can search for discussion groups in almost every imaginable field.

In the next lessons we will look at some of the other methods and do some experimenting.