ABSTRACT

If demand is not sufficient, a business will not be viable. This basic fact of business survival is intimately related to one of the most popular analytical approach for evaluating the profitability potential of a business, Porter's “Five Forces” model. Locating an online niche that is in sufficient demand to generate adequate revenues and profits is a challenging, but not an impossible, task. The Internet has the unparalleled ability to produce information trails that allow the user to measure the supply and demand for keywords used in online searches, and software has been designed to facilitate the location of potentially profitable niches. This paper provides an overview of this software along with associated strengths and weaknesses, shows examples of the output generated by leading keyword research software (KRS), and provides an extensive listing of KRS vendors and a summary of the capabilities of their products.