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Find an Easy-to-target Niche Market
Often, opportunities and breakthroughs lie in the final stretch. In other words, expand your mind, for your best ideas will probably be found further down the list past the first, most obvious ones. So jot your ideas down, no matter how silly or implausible. After all, you will never know unless you test. Write down a list of at least 100 ideas by answering the following questions:
- What do you enjoy doing?
- What do you do voluntarily?
- What are your hobbies?
- What do you do when you are not working?
- What did you love doing when you were a kid? A teenager?
- What do you do not so well but really enjoy?
- What skills, knowledge do you have from your present job?
- What what areas do people ask for your help?
- Look at your resume. Examine the list of jobs you’ve held in the past. List the things you liked about each job. List the things you know about each job. List the things you did very well while you worked in each job. And list the things you hated, and why.
- What schools did you attend? What courses or seminars did you take? In what subjects were you doing well? Did your friend ask for help? If so, in what subjects?
- In what sports do you or did you participate?
- Where have you traveled? Why? What did you learn? Who did you meet?
- Make a list of your friends. What do they do very well? In what areas are they experts? Would they be interested in joint venturing with you?
- Make a list of your family, relatives. What do they do very well? In what areas are they experts? Would they be interested in joint venturing with you?
At this point, you should have a list of 100 ideas. If not, keep adding to the list until you do. Admittedly, this may take more than a day to accomplish. But force your mind to go beyond the obvious. Look closer and dig deeper. But if you are stuck and need more ideas, try these:
- Go to your favorite bookstore. Look at the 10 best-selling non-fiction books.
- Go to your favorite book aisles. What books piqued your curiosity?
- Go to your favorite magazine stand. What newspaper or magazines interest you? Which ones do you read? Which ones do you buy?
- Ask around, especially your friends and relatives. “In what things do you think I am most interested? What thins do you think I do well? About what topics do I talk the most?” (The answer may in fact surprise you.)
After you’re done, narrow your list down to three to five things that appeal the most to you - things that tickle your fancy. It’s important since you have to like the idea and be interested in the topic. If you create a business using this idea, you may be working at it for years - and have fun doing it. So pick something that you enjoy and that you like - one that fascinates you.
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Gobala Krisnan is a direct-response marketer turned blogger who makes over $10,000 a month from his blog empire. If you want to make money online from blogs, he is the only person who can reveal the secret of merging time-tested direct marketing strategies with web 2.0 traffic. Read more about him >>
Very useful post. Really enjoyed it.