I was winding my way up the levels of a very crowded parking garage the other day. The line of cars desperately seeking a spot ahead of me kept turning to the right.

So, of course, it occured to me that perhaps there would be less competition for a space if I went via "the road less traveled by", to the left. And indeed, there was.

Unless you are an Internet Newbie, you've probably learned by now that making money on the web isn't easy ... certainly not as easy as many sales pitches would have you believe.

Yet, this doesn't seem to deter the millions trying to compete in perhaps the most crowded web market of them all, namely, Internet Marketing.

This is not to suggest that great success is not possible in Internet Marketing. To the contrary, I can rattle off a number of names that were virtually unheard of a year ago who have done tremendously well.

They did so with innovative tools or insights that contributed something new and valuable to this marketplace. They also possessed outstanding copywriting and marketing skills that turned their innovations into sales. And in every case, they worked their tails off.

But compared to the huge numbers of people trying, real success in this field is something truly special, rather than the norm.

The fact remains, however, that money making opportunities still abound on the Internet. There are "green pastures" all around us and I believe smart marketers will use the skills they've learned in our very crowded marketplace to their great advantage elsewhere as well.

Where do you look for them? Well, I've found that digging around the search engines provides a wealth of information.

Here's an example: My son is now in high school so we've started to think about "getting into college". By digging around abit with the Search Term Suggestion Tool over at Overture,

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/,

I found that the seach term "homework helper" was getting over 8,000 searches a month, which probably translates to at least 5 times that number on Google.

What's more, there were only 88,000 listings for the term on Google ... a far cry from the usual million+ results for the typical Internet Marketing term.

With more digging, many more opportunities in this niche were uncovered. The result? A new, profitable "non-marketing" web site was born.

This site, in just over two months, is now getting nearly as much traffic as my main site, over a year old, and looks to go roaring past it this month.

This opportunity potential is virtually everywhere. It's just a matter of doing a little research.

Here's a couple more quick examples:

Want to get into the "sun glass" business ... or set up an Affiliate site for this niche? "Polarized sun glasses" gets 3481 Overture searches, but only 23,400 Google listings. Again, opportunity.

Interested in paintball? "Paintball supply" gets 14,010 Overture searches, but has only 45,400 Google listings. Can the opportunity knock much louder?

I found both of these in about 7 minutes by jumping back and forth between Overture and Google. What are you interested in? Ready for a little digging?

I'm not suggesting that people abandon their Internet Marketing dreams by any means. There are certainly great achievements ahead. But why not, at the same time, "take the road less traveled by" and use your web marketing expertise in less crowded niches steeped in opportunity?

Joshua Rose Is an Internet Marketing Specialist. His many articles on effective marketing techniques have been widely reprinted. For his "One, Two, Three Easy Steps To Internet Profits", or to subscribe to his newsletter, visit: http://www.internetprofitwizards.com. Comments are welcome at joshuarose@internetprofitwizards.com