No Rush. This is the most important decision you'll make

Before you jump into putting together a website around something you feel is "cool" or an area where you know for a fact the-other-guy is making a killing on, stop and do some homework.

One of the most important decisions you are going to make, is deciding what product/service to promote online on your website.

It is very easy to fall in love with an idea, or to get carried away with the hype, betting on a direction that is simply not right for you.

Understand that once you pick the product/service to promote, whether it is going to be your own product, an affiliate offer, a service, or a made-for-adsense (MFA) site, you're going to have work hard to:
* Build
* Promote
and
* Maintain your site

Here's how to increase your chances of picking a product/service that would work and become a money-generator:

1. Go with your gut - Choose a product/service you love
Putting in long hours, being passionate about your site, enthusiastically explaining your concept to others for striking JV agreements... all of this is not going to work in the long run, unless you believe in what you sell.

2. Do your Research
Study your target niche. How big is the market? What is your unique selling point? How will you make money? Approximately how many website visitors do you need to generate that money? Where will these visitors come from?

While you don't necessarily need to have complete answers to all these questions, the more you know the better. Spy on what the competition is doing and ask objective prospects what they think about the idea (but don't tell them this is "your" idea, so they remain objective)

3. Don't re-invent the wheel
A lot of entrepreneurs fall into the trap of inventing a new way of doing things, a new revolutionary idea that is going to take the market by storm.

As the golden dot-com days of 1999 taught us, these things usually don't work. It takes a huge marketing budget to convince people to do things a different way. Instead, focus on an existing need. An existing problem with an existing solution. Find out how you can do a better job and just do it.

4. Product, Service, Content or Affiliate
Whatever product/service you decide to promote, chances are another company is already offering a similar thing. Think very carefully if you really want to get into the business of developing this product/service on your own, or if you'd rather become an affiliate of the bigger company promoting their offer and making 20% on every sale (without the costs of fulfillment, customer service etc).

Another approach is to develop a content site where you will provide free useful articles and information about the target product/service, drawing traffic to your website and making money from Google AdSense and Yahoo YPN context ads.


5. Plan for success, be prepared to fail.
Chances are you're not going to get it right the first time. You might make some money or no money at all, but over the first 6 months, most websites don't generate a huge profit.

Understand that and be prepared to face that reality. But don't settle. Keep testing and retesting different offers, page placements, traffic sources, marketing pitches and keep changing every element of your website, while carefully measuring traffic, cost and conversion, improving your numbers every step of the way.