Search
Recommended Products
Related Links


 

 

Informative Articles

5 Free Ways to Increase Traffic to your Online Store
So you’ve finally created a website for your small online store! Now you think, “How do I get people to visit my site?” If you’re like most new website owners, you wonder how to bring potential customers to your site without spending lots of money...

8 Ways To Promote Your Affiliate Products
Many affiliates fail in affiliate marketing because they limit their marketing strategies to placing referral links in their web sites, distributing links to business sites through multiple emails or posting their links to other web pages. Doing any...

Earn a 6 Figure Income the EAS
Business Reviewed: Six Figure Income Price: Free To Join. Author: Terah J Logan, Chief Critic, www.simplesteps2success.biz My favorite business opportunity hands down is Six Figure Income (SFI). This program has been around for many years and there...

Search Engine Publicity - The Free Ride is Over
For years, almost anyone involved with the promotion of their website, be it for commercial or other purposes, has come to either love, or hate, search engines. Whether it is Yahoo, Google, MSN, Ask Jeeves, or one of the literally thousands of...

The Rich Nerd - The Hottest New Money Making eBook
There's a new opportunity on the web which has web marketers scrambling for bids in the PPC engines. "The Rich Nerd" is considered to be the internet's definitive guide to making money online with Adsense - so easy that anyone can do it, even...

 
Profit from Your Idea

Idea planning to come up with a moneymaking concept is much like creating a painting or writing a book. It starts with a blank canvas and visualization.

Brick by Brick

Write down the seed of your idea in one sentence. Describe three ways in which this idea could generate a profit. Ask yourself if this product, plan, or service will meet a need? Who will use it?

Use an exploration tool such as the following to brainstorm your idea:

Stick in there. Gather in a room with a blank wall or a whiteboard and give each participant a set of sticky notes. Then state your goal or idea. Let's say the goal is to generate ideas for XYZ Division to increase productivity levels. Have everyone write down three to five solutions and stick them on the board.

The facilitators should then designate three appropriate categories, such as Immediate Action, Pre-Planning and Not Appropriate - or something similar - and have the participants come up and arrange the sticky notes into the appropriate categories. This is an excellent technique for finding out what everyone is thinking.

Hammer It Out

In this phase you'll produce a plan for implementing your idea. The following processes will help you define the practical details to address.

Strategy definition. From the analysis you did in the structuring phase above, you'll be able to identify the resources you will need to implement these ideas, such as manpower. Does the idea create a viable solution? Is it unique? Can you move quickly with it?

Resource


planning. List all the resources you'll need to develop the idea into reality. Visualize its completion. How will you get there? Using the answers to the questions you asked in the definition phase above, set a timeline and a strategy for implementation and put this plan into an outline format or a project planning software tool. Or do another brainstorming session.

Will It Fly?

How will you know your idea planning has been successful? From the work you did in the building phase above, you should have enough information to come up with the following:

A value proposition. What benefit will your idea bring to your potential customers? To your company?

A format description. Just by pulling together the basic structure of your idea, you'll be able to consolidate it into a format that describes the idea in detail.

A promotion strategy. Your previous work will help you identify the steps you need to take to promote your idea, and you can brainstorm strategies that will do the best job. This part takes thought, research and focus.

Remember, right around the time you have an idea, someone else will have the same one. Who will be the first to develop it -- and sell it?


About the Author

Diane's online specialty is digital marketing. She is CEO of LocoNotion Idea Studios, Inc. (http://www.loconotion.com, a web development firm. She has years of prior experience in broadcast media, but has spent last nine year working online. She is located in corporate headquarters, Seattle, Washington.