My question is how do I tell if I'm not addressing a real pain point vs. the pain point is real, it is the product/execution/marketing that sucks Sounds like y

My question is how do I tell if I'm not addressing a real pain point vs. the pain point is real, it is the product/execution/marketing that sucks Sounds like you need to survey some of your users/former users to ask them about their experiences. Presumably, if your product was making them money, they'd still be using it-- which would indicate that there's a problem on the execution side. Coincidentally, I may be in your niche; I have an e-commerce site in the online retail market (selling books.) If you post a link to your site, I can put my "user" hat on, and take a look.