Gemstones are used in many applications from industrial diamonds to decorative jewelry. Search engine results for the word gemstone return a wide variety of dealers. But if you use Google's keyword tool you find there are several possible subcategories of interest that may turn out to be a great home based business niche.

Over 50 species of minerals can be cut into gemstones for common use. From birthstones, to raw stones there are wide varieties of stone selections.

Amethyst gemstone is a frequently searched keyword phrase that has very little websites competing for it. Something like this would be a great start for niche research.

If you look at some of the websites that sell precious stones, you notice that most try to educate the consumer. Stone saturation, hue, and color are the basics of determining the quality of the stone.

You can find a profitable Internet Marketing niche through advertising or through you're own Gemstone home based business.

If you do decide to pursue gemstone, sales as your home based business find out who your competition is. You are no competition for those in the commercial rough cut stone industry. The circle of "seasoned" dealers and jewelers is tight and people have to pay their dues to get in. If you try to compete with seasoned professionals, you will be stressed over how difficult it is to sell stones and even more at how small the profits are.

A great niche for Gemstones would be "custom designed jewelry" with custom cut stones. With the way jewelry has been in the public eye people are always looking for something unique.

Another good niche is one of a kind stones. If you find one of a kinds or limited quantity stones, you can set your price. People that know their stones are less likely to bargain if they know what you have hasn't flooded the market.

Build a reputation for one of a kind jewelry designs and continue to let the industry see your work. If you want to trade commercial rough-cut stones you may want to sell parcels (these too should be stones in limited supply). There are numerous Internet forums strictly for Gemstone dealers and traders. Become a member of as many general and stone specific forums as you can and post daily with your website link in your signature.

Online gemstone dealing is not much different from any other online business in the area of website optimization. You will still need people to visit your website so it would be wise to use as many optimization strategies as possible; one being marketing via articles. Writing 500+ word articles about gemstones and posting them to numerous article directories will over time create backlinks to your website. If your article content is interesting enough (which it will be) it will create traffic to your website. In some cases others will use your article on their website also. With added website traffic you are able to incorporate affiliate sales, pay per click advertisements, etc as well as selling your own product.

Dealing in gemstones is another terrific online business opportunity that over time will generate an income that could allow anyone earn a substantial full or part-time living.