It’s always better to have some passion about the work you do, whether it is online or offline. Many people have disagreed with me on this topic, but I firmly believe that you will have more joy and more success if you care deeply about your online niche. If you have a half-hearted attitude about the work you do each day, it soon will feel more like a job than like a business you can do for the rest of your life.

I teach my students to make three lists (or draw three circles) in order to choose an online niche that will be right for them. The first list represents everything you can think of that you are passionate about. These may be topics you have not even thought about since you were a child, but list them anyway. When I did this I thought about photography, something I had loved as a teenager and young adult. I recently purchased a nice camera so that I can once again explore this passion. Take a few days to complete this list, and add everything you can think of that you are interested in, or were once interested in pursuing.

The second list includes everything that has been a part of your life experience. This would include jobs and careers you have been involved in, education and training programs you have gone through, personal experiences, such as dealing with an autistic child or having cancer, and anything else that has been a part of your life at any point in time, whether it was something you did by choice or if it was thrust upon you.

The third list represents the market. This is where the money is, so you are looking for competitors and products that tell you there are things for sale.

Where the three lists (or circles) overlap is the ‘sweet spot’. This is where your passions, your experiences, and the market all come together to become the perfect online niche for your business.

Setting up your own niche sites can be an excellent way to make money while you are still learning how everything works on the Internet. Perhaps you have already seen these sites, without even realizing what they were or how they worked. Imagine going over to Google and doing a search for information on something you need in your daily life. It might be a vacuum cleaner, a part for your car, or a new television set. When you type in your search information by using the keywords that will take you there quickly, the results show many pages of sites that contain some detailed information of what you are looking for, along with some ads that will lead you to places where you can make a purchase if you are ready to buy. This is what happens when you set up niche sites.

These are niche sites, also referred to as money sites, where you can earn money when someone clicks on the link to see the ads. I am not going to go into great technical detail here, but you can make the money by being a part of programs like Google’s Adsense™ program, eBay, Clickbank, Amazon, and