If there is one lesson that I have learned well, it is this: The money is in the niche. Even without a subscriber list, it's still possible to make wads of cash online. But without a hyper-responsive niche, a business is a dead duck. I’ll go through the step-by-step method I use to uncover profitable niche markets, often in as short as 5 minutes. Step 1: Go To Amazon Amazon is the world’s biggest online bookstore, and a goldmine of niche research information. Check out which are the current bestsellers. Are there many weight loss books or wealth management books? See which are the current hot topics that people are buying. Step 2: Go To Magazines.com Now that you’ve found a few niches that are potentially profitable, it’s time to scope it out further a little. Visit magazines.com to see which magazines are popular. If a company is willing to produce a new issue each and every month, it means they are in profit and the niche is hot. Strike on it! Step 3: Keyword Research Now that you have a few niches in mind, go to a good keyword research website like freekeywords.wordtracker.com to get a feel of how many searches are done per month for that niche. For example, if your niche is fly fishing, type in ‘fly fishing’ and see how many results there are. You are looking for at least a few thousand searches a month. Decide which niche you want to go with, and move on. Step 4: Visit The Forums Go visit the forums in your niche. It’s time to discover the problems your target market is facing. After all, to make a profit, you need to create a product that solves problems. Discussion forums are a great place to find these problems. (Hint: Digital Point forums?) In short: Keep an eye on hotly discussed topics.