1. The most important skill in Internet marketing is knowing how to find 'hot' markets - 'research.'

2. Research is like detective work. You look for evidence, follow clues and draw conclusions.

3. As an Internet marketer, your first job is to find a 'hot' online market to sell to. Product selection and advertising come later.

4. A 'hot' online market is a market that is already actively buying products in a particular category.

For example:

* Health 'nuts' actively buy vitamins. * Martial arts fanatics actively buy training videos. * Fishermen actively buy fishing gear and lures. * Golfers actively buy new equipment and instructional courses. * Brides-to-be actively buy all kinds of supplies and services for weddings.

There are literally hundreds of 'hot' markets online.

The trick to success is to pick market that you're naturally excited about serving.

5. If you're not able to define a market and describe exactly how you will deliver your sales message to people in it, then it's not a market.

6. The best places to find 'hot' markets are in *obvious* places.

Do you want to sell downloadable eBooks? Then ClickBank catalog is best research tool for you.

Do you want to sell 'real stuff?' Then visit Yahoo Stores and see what product categories are producing most action.

Another good market research technique is to think of some search terms you might use if you were looking for a particular product on your favorite search engine. Then see what comes up.

If you see a lot of action in a marketplace that's a good indication that demand is high.

And, you're going to wonder why this simple idea, which is so incredibly powerful and immediately useful, is not taught as part of every Internet seminar, home study course and e-Book.

--- What works and what doesn't

If you've been in market for Internet advice and guidance for any length of time, you've probably noticed that things can get complicated and confusing quickly. Every 'guru' seems to have his own technique and says you have to buy *his* method and sign up for his software if you're going to succeed.

The truth is, if you bought every e-Book, attended every tele-seminar and bought every home study course, you'd never make any money because you'd be so tied up in knots trying to figure out which way to go, you'd have trouble picking a direction and getting started.

--- Building an income stream is like building a house... it starts with a blueprint.

Focus on what *matters*. Once you have blueprint, 'tools' part falls into place, but tools without a plan are useless.

Let's say you decided you want to go into house building business. So, like any intelligent person, you decide to do some research. You buy some books and go to some courses. So far, so good.