One of the most difficult things you have to deal as you think about starting your membership site is which niche you should start it in. Many Internet marketers automatically think they should start one in the Internet marketing niche. However, there are many untapped opportunities out there in an incredible number of niche areas!

The most important thing is that you choose a niche that is passionate. The niche needs to be something that is on their mind all the time. This might be a hobby, or some kind of problem they want solved. Ideally, the people in the niche should be used to spending money, and do so regularly. This will help ensure you'll have plenty of members signing up for your membership site who will not balk at having to pay a fee! If you've been building niche websites for a while, you might already have some ideas of what you want to go with.

Also, while you don't want to necessarily follow your own passions, you should choose something you're interested in. Otherwise, you will likely start the website and lose interest in it -- which will be frustrating to you and your members!

It can be a good idea to choose a subniche of a certain niche. For example, instead of creating a "weight-loss" website, you might create a membership site focused on "weight loss for new moms." This calls out to a certain group of people, and you can more easily break into a competitive niche this way.

There are also downsides to choosing smaller subniches. One of the biggest downsides is that the customer base may not be large enough to make it worth your while. You can make your focus more general, but just keep in mind that it will be difficult to grow and make a name for yourself in the beginning. Still, that doesn't mean you can't make it work!

Basically, it's very important to research your niche thoroughly before you get started creating content or investing a lot of time and money. Take a look and see if there are already competitors with membership sites in the niche, or at least people already making money in it. This is a good indicator that you will be able to make money in that niche is well.

Of course, it might be that you want to create a membership site in the Internet marketing niche. This can definitely work for you, and can be highly profitable. This is especially true in these times where money is tight for a lot of people. People are willing to spend a little bit of money in the hopes that they can make a lot more money in the long run.