Boil Your Passion Down To A Single Word!

By James D. Brausch
Posted Sunday, September 19, 2004

It is easier to do market research on the Internet if you can compare topics. If you are passionate about two subjects (example: breeding poodles and carving redwood statues), it is useful to be able to compare how these two markets might compare in terms of demand and profitability. I often advocate boiling your passion down to a single word in order to do the comparison using statistics available on the Internet (such as keyword suggestion tools and bids on various PPC search engines).

Everyone hates this, but it gets pretty easy after awhile. With very few exceptions, any of your hobbies, interests and passions can be boiled down to a single word. I know it'll be too broad to describe your actual interest in many cases, so humor me for a minute and just do it.

Here are some examples:

* I like to hunt deer in Nevada. One word: hunting
* I like to knit quilts with childhood scenes. One word: quilting
* I like watching NASCAR races. One word: NASCAR
* I like to play in B level chess tournaments. One word: chess
* I like to write short stories and articles. One word: writing
* I like to raise my children. One word: children
* I'm single. I like dating. One word: dating
* I like taking pictures of black bears in Montana. One word: bears
* I'm really into astronomy and all things in the night sky. One word: astronomy

Get the idea? Can you only get down to two words? I'll betcha one of those words is an adjective and the other a noun. Just drop the adjective. The noun is your single word for this exercise. If you already have a successful site, boil it down to a single word too. It'll be useful for comparison in a later step.

It's OK to list two or more separate words too. In that first example, we said:

I like to hunt deer in Nevada.

The "one word" I identified was "hunting". Let's say that you are also interested in "deer" in other ways. You also like to take pictures of deer in the wild. Then go ahead and list both "deer" and "hunting" in that case. If you also have an interest in Nevada that is independent of hunting deer there, list "Nevada" too.

Boiling it down it a single word is important because it is the only way we can accurately put a comparative number on the demand and profitability of a particular subject on the Internet. If you are in doubt about which "one word" to use for a particular passion, go ahead and list each one.

Now you can use your single word to go check for demand for a particular macro topic (use WordTracker or Overture to find out how many people search for that word) or the profitability of that topic (use Overture or another PPC search engine to check the top bids for that topic).

I always advocate starting Internet businesses based on passions that you already hold. It is always more fun and your passion for the topic shows to your prospective customers. This is a useful way to choose between your various hobbies, interests and other passions. Have fun!

About the Author
The author, James D. Brausch, is the coach and webmaster of QuitThatJob.com, a site dedicated to providing step-by-step instructions to start your own profitable Internet business and Quit That Job! For more information, please visit: (http://www.QuitThatJob.com).