This is the last post in my series on building a successful internet based business for extra income, so you can reduce your debt. In case you missed the previous articles in this series, you can find them here:

Starting Your First Extra Income Stream – The basics of building an internet based business.

Your Successful Internet Based Business, Part I – Learn about the first essential element of running an online business – passion.

Your Successful Internet Based Business, Intermission – Here, I explain why building an internet based business is important if you want to get out of debt without living like a pauper.

Your Successful Internet Based Business, Part II – How to use the second element of building a successful online business – practicality.

Now… the third “P” of building a successful online business is profitability. In other words, can you make money from your business?

It seems like a silly thing to point out… but most internet business owners neglect their research when it comes to profitability. So they invest heaps of time, effort and money into building a business, only to find out that their customers aren’t buying. Or that they’re buying low-dollar items that yield piddly commissions.

Sadly, passion and practicality don’t mean much if there’s no profit. I see people start websites and blogs about topics like Lady Gaga’s newest sunglasses or other popular topics. They may love writing about it. If they’re good, they may even build good website traffic. But chances are, they won’t make any money with it – or at least not enough to justify the investment.

Google and Facebook are two good tools for assessing profitability. Both of these sites support paid advertisements – if you look on the right side of the Google search results page, you’ll see ads relevant to whatever you’re searching for. You’ll also see them on the right side of your Facebook profile page. If there are ads relevant to your topic, somebody is probably making money selling to people in your target audience.

If not, there are two possiblities. The first (and highly unlikely) is that no one has ever thought to market in your niche, and you’ve just hit a freaking goldmine. The second (and very likely) is that the horde of other internet marketers out there have already figured out that the niche is unprofitable.

The other strategy you can use in determining profitability is simply using common marketing sense and asking questions.

• Are there products available to sell in my niche?
• Does my audience need or want these products?
• Does my target audience have the disposable income to buy my products?
• Will they buy these products online?

Now, “products” doesn’t have to mean tangible items. On one of my other websites, I sell WordPress themes, which are programs designed to help people build blogs quickly. There’s no physical product, packaging or shipping. The customer just pays and then downloads the program. (Incidentally, because there are no manufacturing, storage, packaging or shipping costs, this type of product is far more profitable than a physical product. )

Tying it All Together

By now, you should have applied the three “P”s of building a successful internet business to your idea bank. These three elements are a kind of filtering system to weed out business ideas that will waste your time and money. At the end of the process, you may only have one or two ideas that made it through the three “P”s intact. That’s okay. In fact, it’s a good thing – because now you can focus your energy on one business, instead of worrying about all of your other ideas.

Soon, I’ll start showing you how to take your surviving idea and put it into action, so you can start generating extra income.