Market Research

Will it be in demand? Who else is already doing it? Do I have a competitive advantage over them? These are the questions you need to ask early in the process.

Develop a List of Keywords, Buzzwords, Search terms and Phrases that are used in your niche

Before you do anything, you first need to be able to describe your website in simple phrases and keywords.  Put another way, if you were to go to Google and look for a website like the one you want to build, what would you enter?

Instead of believing that most people think the way you do (definitely unlikely), just go to the following tools, enter some keywords, and see what are popular words and phrases associated with the terms you are using:

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool: This free tool is intended to help Google advertisers know what terms to target but you can use it to see which terms our popular.
• Overture Keyword Selector Tool: This is also a free service that is primarily designed to help advertisers choose terms to target their ads on Overture.

Search for and Examine Competitor's Websites

Now that you have a list of good, relevant, popular keywords, it is time to search and view the competition.  Search in Google for some of the phases from above and look at websites that look as close to what you want to build.

Look at competitor's and potential competitor's websites, if there are any, and see what they're doing and how they are doing it. Can you compete with them?  What will differentiate your website, make it better, unique, or otherwise add value?  Maybe you will have better pricing (not very common).  Perhaps, you have a unique product or service. Or maybe you plan to build a website that is easier to use and understand.

What's Popular?

 Now, you need to look at the other side of the coin.  As a check that your choosing the right foundation for your business, why not see what is popular on the internet.  Maybe what you had originally choose is good, but there is something better that you had overlooked?

These sites will tell you what are the current most popular searches in varsious search engines.

• Yahoo Buzz

• Google's Zeitgeist

• Lycos Top 50 searches

• MetaSpy http://www.metaspy.com/info.metac.spy/metaspy/

• AOL's Hot List

• Ask Jeeves Popular Searches

• MSN Searches - This last one is pretty useless. 

Supply Questions and Research

Finally, in doing your research, you need to ask yourself:

1. Can I get the information, products or services I need?
2. At what cost?
3. How quickly and easily?
4. Are there any legal issues, like copyrights?

Like any business, you need to understand your supply chain; from the sources and costs of products and services that  you will resell, to alternative products and suppliers should something change or a supplier goes out of business.