Just about every single day you hear Internet Marketers commenting on the importance of choosing the best niche and how you’ll fail if you don’t pick the right one. Some of them advocate picking a niche based on one’s passion, whereas others advocate picking a niche based on the ability to make a profit. My belief is that you should do a little of both. Here’s why.

To me, it makes absolutely no sense to spend all your time writing content for a niche that you hate and it also makes no sense to write content for a site that won’t make you any money. Either way, you simply won’t get it done and will simply procrastinate because you’ll end up losing interest.

As for me, I’ve learned to only choose to make or purchase sites in niches that I have an interest in. When I make a niche site, I choose niches that interest me and are “hot.” I do this by visiting my local newspaper stand, eBay pulse, Amazon, Yahoo answers, or google.com/trends and then using Niche Inspector and Wordtracker. If you want to use a free tool, use http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com.

Next, I input my prospective niches and find about 100 keywords and put them into an Excel spreadsheet. Then, I perform a detailed comparison where I look for keywords with 300,000+ or fewer competing sites and ones that get searched at least 500 times a month. Next, I go to Google and make sure there are at least 7–10 advertisers (as displayed in Google). Then, I head over to namecheap.com and make sure that the primary keyword is available as a domain name. For instance, if I was building a site on dog training for smarties, I would choose www.dogtrainingforsmarties.com.

Last but not least, I make sure that my prospective niche can be monetized in several ways. For instance, I look for complimentary affiliate products, eBooks, or books by visiting Commission Junction, Amazon, Clickbank, PayDotcom, etc. Then, once the niche meets my specifications, I go for it. I then build five pages of solid content, submit five articles to the article directories, and, if it looks like a winner, I go all out by creating more articles, social bookmarking it, etc.

In all, picking a profitable niche isn’t brain science, folks. Just choose a niche that interests you and is profitable and get her done. You can’t make money if you don’t get started. Just like anything, you’ll have some winners and you’ll have some losers. The key to success is to get and stay in the game and keep chugging along with a process that works.

Now get on out there and build those profitable niche sites.

If there is anything I learned from being a ghostwriter to the gurus it’s that you don’t have to get mad – get even. Learn what they know and use it to your benefit. By doing this, you will not waste precious time and energy thinking about all the money that you lost as a result of NOT learning Internet Marketing before now. Instead, you will use your marketing skills to make huge profits for yourself.

Internet Marketing is extremely powerful, and once you combine it with your writing skills, there is absolutely nothing that you can’t accomplish. In fact, one successful writer-turned-Internet-Marketer that I personally know has actually befriended the gurus and become one herself.

Her name is Tiffany Dow and she is outstanding. I’ve known Tiffany for about eight years now and we both started off as struggling ghostwriters on Elance. The only difference is that Tiffany left ghostwriting years ago and while I was still struggling to pay the bills, she has been working as a full-time Internet Marketer. As such, she is now a guru herself, does joint ventures with the gurus, and makes some serious cash.

Well, I recently contacted my buddy Tiffany and asked her for some advice on skyrocketing my eBook profits. Well, she immediately suggested that I read her eBook on Building an eBook Empire, and I must say that it is outstanding. I have been writing eBooks for years but never knew how to market them. That is the key.

Tiffany basically broke it down about how one one can use their outstanding writing skills to amass TONS of residual cash just like the big boys do. She candidly discussed such topics as: choosing a profitable niche, importance of thorough research (and how to do it), writing hard-hitting sales copy, successfully compiling and selling your product, branding your product, developing an affiliate program, back-end tactics to boost profits, and more.

In Building an eBook Empire, Tiffany even talked about how she took one aspiring writer and transferred her from broke freelancer to $4,000-a month-eBook empiress. And no, it isn’t me, but if it were up to me, it would be! LOL!

The thing I love about this book is that Tiffany doesn’t leave anything out. Unlike some gurus, she lays it on the table and doesn’t leave you wondering or guessing if there is more. She wants you to learn and apply the lessons that she teaches. All you have to do is read and implement the techniques that she gives you, and I do believe you will become successful in eBook publishing.

I give Building an eBook Empire two thumbs up and if you’re interested in taking your Internet Marketing writing eBooks to a new level, then you have got to read this book. Once you do, you will have the tools you need to get even with the gurus, too.

As for me, I plan on implementing Tiffany’s techniques on my two current eBook projects and will be producing and successfully marketing one eBook or short report a month on “hot” topics for “desperate buyers.” Join me, won’t you? Let’s give those gurus a run for their niches and profits!

As a writer turned Internet Marketer, your talent is writing. Although you may want to give up ghostwriting altogether, you may find that you need to complete a few projects for clients in order to finance your internet marketing endeavors. If that is in fact the case, don’t fret. Here are five rules to ensure that you effectively deal with your ghostwriting clients and that you get paid well for your efforts. 1. Do not negotiate your price (especially for a new client). If your client attempts to negotiate at the beginning of a project for a lower price, you may or may not want to work with them. Often times those prospects who try to negotiate for lower payments at the beginning are the very same clients who don’t pay at the end. Therefore, if a prospect tries to negotiate your price, you may want to see this as a red flag and move on to the next client.2. Get a deposit. Always make sure that you get a deposit from your client or, better yet, get paid up front. This ensures that you are working with a client who not only values and respects your writing craft but is in a financial position to pay you for your services. Typically, I recommend that you receive payment up front for projects under $100, or 50% down and the balance upon completion of the project.3. Don’t give out free personalized writing samples. If a client requests a sample article or chapter, then make sure they pay for it in advance. As an Internet Marketer Writer, you are not in the business of doing free work. You must get paid for your efforts. There is nothing wrong with completing samples, just not free ones.4. Be clear about your payment terms. For instance, if you require payment up front, say so. If you require milestone payments, indicate this as well. In addition, clearly indicate if you’re selling all rights or only PLR rights.5. Secure your copyrights and only transfer those rights when you get paid in full. When you submit drafts make sure that you only send the client a PDF format and not an editable document. Also, make sure that you include your copyright information as a background. In addition, you may want to use the lock feature so that the document can only be viewed and not printed or copied. (This is available on Adobe Acrobat.) Trust me, this feature alone will encourage your clients to pay you quickly, as they will only be able to review the documents and not edit them.