If you decide to start an online business and if you are looking for a product to sell, then you must ensure that you use the correct criteria's for your next step. Choosing a product sometimes it might be difficult, but you also need to ensure that if you are going to use direct sales or other opportunities, you need to be allowed to:

- Use your own way to sell the product. Big companies that are selling products usually don't allow you to sell their products using other ways than their standards. - Customize your own website and your own promotions. Most of the companies do not allow you to create your own website for the company, but they may allow you to crate your own advertising campaigns. When you create your marketing plan, pay attention to be in complete control because best is to have your unique website and target different markets to sell your product. - Most important is: THE MARKET and not THE PRODUCT - you need to understand that to sell a product you need first to have a market because there you can find clients. Better is to forget about the best product to start with and focus for the market. Never start by trying to decide what products you're going to choose for selling online because products don't buy from you, people do! So, first focus on a target market of people. - Find out if the market is passionate about the topic - and more importantly if they pay good money to pursue their interest. Do not try to sell to people who may be passionate for their interest but their spending is almost zero. Focus always for people who spend more regularly on their interest. - Find where the market is situated - look over message boards, email groups, online newsletters. See what they are talking about. Today a easy way is to look for public groups and forums (search in Google for: ¡°forums¡± or ¡°message boards¡±). Yahoo and Google provide free groups where people can discuss about their needs (check out: http://groups.yahoo.com and http://groups.google.com) - Discover the problems your market have - try to see what problems you are able to solve. Build an online survey and invite them to take part and to ask you questions about their interests. - Know what you want to achieve before spending a penny!

According to the Wall Street Journal, only 14% of small businesses have an annual business plan in writing, and 60% have no plan on paper at all. Considering that a business plan is the precursor to a marketing plan, it stands to reason that even fewer businesses have a marketing plan. That's good news for you: if you take the time to create a marketing plan, you will stand head and shoulders above your competition. You should have a marketing plan BEFORE spending any money on advertising or promotion. You may get great deals on advertising, but if it doesn't fit your objectives, you are wasting your money. The fact is that you need to understand the needs of your people who are buying from you in order to sell them the right products.