Having a hard time finding your niche? Reviewing what the top online companies are doing is a great way to find a new market niche. A list of the top 500 retailers is available at:

http://www.internetretailer.com/top500/list.asp

You can use this list of companies to brainstorm and evaluate different niche market ideas.

The retailers listed here are the best in the $168 billion online retail industry. They got to where they are using various strategies. For example, Amazon.com first started out selling books online and has since expanded into other retail offerings, to become “earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

Finding a successful niche can be lucrative. Many of these top retailers experience healthy sales and higher growth through their online channels than through their brick-and-motar chain stores.

Determine the niche market you intend to enter, or create. This should be based on something you enjoy and are passionate about, which could be reading certain types of books, favorite forms of entertainment, a sport, or an area in which you have expertise.

Research the existing companies in this market, if any, whether or not they are successful at what they do, and how you can provide a superior product or service. Be sure that the market  niche you choose has room for an additional competitor, and has the potential to grow.

Other factors to consider include choosing a product or service that is not very easy to find and that has potentially high margins. Be sure to use any connections that you may have in the business world.

Remember to keep in mind that you’ll want to get into the head of a potential consumer when evaluating how they may want to search for your site. This will help you with SEO-friendly Web content.