I don't want to give you preaching on what to do. You are in BHW and you very well know where the search button and download section is, and there are lot of methods out here to guide you.
Let me tell you about myself. I started all this when I was 25, I am now 28, in my previous years, I was said that adsense is dead and everyone should jump on to the cpa wagon. I did not, it is not the money they lured me, it is the motivation to do what I love and to prove others wrong. I focused on adsense based websites which gave users true value. Today I own 43 adsense websites in different domains and making me well around 150 to 200 dollars a day, 100% white hat.
Then I was told that if we are getting in to affiliate marketing, then we should focus on clickbank products and not sell physical products as the commission percentage in click bank is 50 to 75 percentage where as amazon or other affiliate programs gave 4-8 percentage commission. My idea was different, i focused on volumes and not on the percentage and I am quite successful with amazon/linkshare marketing.
Finally everyone spoke about niche, micro niche and nana niche. I did not like the idea of catering to a market of 1000 odd people, but wanted to focus on a market much bigger, so I chose highly competitive keywords, like earn money online, earn online money, fitness and weight loss and so on. I am not ranking number 1, but I am ranking between 4 to 10. here I have an opportunity to rank number one and get millions of visitors rather than being at the top and catering to just 1000 odd searches a day.
To me running away from competition and to focus on areas where you don't have anyone to compete is a sign of weakness, but some call it as smartness. I don't see it that way, you win a race only when you compete with others, if you run the race alone obviously you will win it.. but won't get the satisfaction of doing it.
Don't worry about what others say, if you have an idea, and if you like doing that, then pursue it.. Come what may.. if you pursue something with a single minded focus, you will succeed.
All the best..