Market research is the foundation of all good marketing. However, many internet marketers, in their rush to make money, skip this important step.

I made this mistake when I created a credit card site. It failed miserably because I had no clue about my market. I didn’t know why credit card customers applied for credit cards. I didn’t know the strength of my competitors. I saw the high credit card AdSense click values and that was enough incentive to jump into the niche.

Currently my credit card site just sits making me no money. I didn’t realize how competitive the credit card niche would be. If I had done proper market research, I would’ve seen it was filled with many strong competitors. And I still don’t know why customers apply for credit cards. This lack of knowledge made it very hard to sell credit cards.

How well do you know your niche? I thought of at least two areas we can research to increase our chances of creating a successful site.

Research Your Customers

If you’re doing affiliate marketing or e-commerce, it helps to know as much as you can about your customers.

If you’re planning monetizing your site primarily through advertising, it still makes sense to research your readers. Your readers are customers because they’re spending their time on your site.

The more you know about your customers, the better you can tailor your site to meet their needs.

Practical tip: Visit the forums where your customers hang out and read their posts. Ask yourself these questions while you’re researching.

• What are their emotional needs?
• How can you meet those needs?
• What are their problems?
• How can you solve their problems?
• Why do they buy the products you sell?

Thinking through questions like these goes a long way towards understanding your customers. As you grow in this understanding, you’ll be able to create something that provides value to your target audience.

Research Your Competitors

If you know what your competitors are doing, you can better differentiate your site. You can develop an unique site that provides unique value. It’s hard to be a purple cow (a site that stands out from the crowd) if you don’t know what the other cows (sites) look like.

Through research, you may find out that your niche is too competitive. There may be too many strong sites that cover all the needs in the niche. At this point, you should choose another niche or narrow your site’s topic to a subniche that’s less competitive.

Practical tip: Think about your top 5 competitors. Write down their strengths and weaknesses. Ask yourself if there is anything you can do better than them. The areas where you’re better than your competitors is where you stand to make the most money.