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How To Research A Business Idea
Remember the colossal mistakes, like "New Coke", "Waterworld", and all the spring Football leagues? If you're an entrepreneur or small business, you probably can't afford big mistakes. So don't make them.
Research will help you chart your course. You're goal is to steer clear of the lemons-even if you're crazy about the idea-and mine the winners for gold. It's the basics of supply and demand: find out what people want, and give it to them.
Let's say that you've been a Kitchen and Bath designer for the last 15 years. You like your job, but you know there are other ways to turn your knowledge into cash. Based on customer interaction, years of experience, and chit-chat around the water cooler, you've come up with a couple of ideas for information products that you'd like to sell online. These include:
1. When You Should and Shouldn't Remodel
2. What to Expect When Remodeling Your Kitchen
3. How To Remodel Your Kitchen for \\$5,000 or Less
4. Popular Kitchen and Bath Remodeling Plans
5. Remodeling Resources For Do-It-Yourselfers
They're all sound ideas, in your opinion. So, should you break out the quill and reams of paper and get busy with all that writing? No.
Why not?
Never assume ANYTHING.
Just because you're hot on the idea doesn't mean it's going to sell. Before you write the first word, buy the first office supply, or spend the first minute on this project, you need to know how it's likely to pan out. In other words, you want to know if it's going to make you money BEFORE you spend any time at all bringing it to fruition.
Here are a couple of ways to go about determining this:
Step #1 The Goto.com Search Term Suggestion Tool
This is an amazing little reporting tool that tells you how many times a keyword was searched on in the previous month. It also gives you similar keywords, with the number of times THEY were searched on during the month.
If it's a popular phrase or keyword in Goto, chances are, it's a popular search term on all the search engines. Which means people are looking for it. Which could spell profit for you.
Using our ideas from above, I typed in "Remodeling". Here's what it returned, with the keyword and number of searches in the previous month:
Remodeling, 15,012
Home remodeling, 8186
Kitchen remodeling, 8015
Bathroom remodeling, 6790
Basement remodeling, 1885
Remodeling contractor, 932
This list continues with other remodeling phrases, but I think you're beginning to see the picture: there's an interest in this topic.
Let's refine the search a little by typing in "Kitchen Remodeling". Here's are the different variations of 'kitchen remodeling" searches:
Kitchen remodeling, 8015
Remodeling kitchen, 591
Kitchen and bath remodeling, 144
Kitchen and remodeling, 121
Kitchen planning remodeling, 112
Now let's type in "Remodeling Resources":
Remodeling resource, 37
That's the only search term it returned, with a paltry 37 searches. Not much interest in that topic.
I also typed in "Budget Remodeling", "Do-It-Yourself Remodeling", and "Remodeling on a Budget", and none of those searches returned anything. So, based on our list of information products:
1. When You Should and Shouldn't Remodel
2. What to Expect When Remodeling Your Kitchen
3. How To Remodel Your Kitchen for \\$5,000 or Less
4. Popular Kitchen and Bath Remodeling Plans
5. Remodeling Resources For Do-It-Yourselfers
It looks like #3 and #5 might not be as strong as the other three.
Now granted, this is very preliminary. The key to this exercise is in finding what search terms other people are using. If you need some help in coming up with appropriate key words, try the keyword suggestion tool at Jim's Tool, www.jimtools.com . It will help you flush out other phrases people might be searching on.
Nifty little tool, eh? Unfortunately, there is a catch to using this service-you have to have an account with Goto.com. It used to be free up until a few months ago.
You can open an account for \\$25; which might be a worthwhile investment, all things considered. It will cost you more than \\$25 to research, write, and launch a product that no one wants...which you could have learned by using this tool. You make the call.
If you have an account, here's where you can find it:
On Goto.com
Go to Manage Accounts
Then DirecTraffic Center
Log in
Go to Manage Listings
Then Add Listings
The Search Term Suggestion Tool is in the lower right corner of the screen.
Step #2 Check the Search Engines
Once you've determined whether there's a demand for your topic, start looking around the search engines to see what's already out there and easily accessible. The search engines I tend to frequent include:
Google
Altavista
Yahoo
Open Directory
Northern Light
MSN
Ask Jeeves
Type in your keywords and see what you get. If there are few if any similar products, but lots of demand as revealed in the keyword search on Goto, you could have a winner. If there are already lots of existing products from recognized experts, you'll need to decide if you want to fight for a piece of the pie.
Make note of what's available. If you can, buy different products and see what they're like. Make notes on what's being offered, the price, methods of delivery, and quality of product. Return a few to see what that process is like. Yes, you're basically spying on your competition, but it's a good investment to see what your potential customers will see when they go looking for products, just as you have.
Step #3 Check The Online Bookstores
Click over to Amazon, and Barnes and Noble, to see what kinds of books and videos are already available on the subject. Many times, you'll find products rated by customer reviews. Again, this gives you an idea of the nature, quantity and quality of what's already available on the topic.
If you tend to frequent niche-specific online book stores yourself, then go see what those have to offer. Again, you're gathering data in much the same way your prospective customers will be looking for products.
Step #4 Visit Niche-Specific Hubs
In almost every industry, there's a site online that is THE resource to turn to for information about that topic. To find yours, visit these sites:
The Big Hub
Gogettem
Finder Seeker
These portals will lead you to sites you probably never knew existed. Again, you'll be able to see what's available and what's not regarding your ideas.
Step #5 Participate In Discussions
Go to ForumOne, and Egroups, and look for niche-specific discussion boards. You'll find all sorts of questions and answers here. Ask and answer a few questions yourself. You'll be astounded at what you can learn.
Once you've taken a little time to look, listen, and learn, you should have a pretty good idea of what might be profitable and what's probably a waste of time. You've also increased your chances of success significantly. Even if you're madly in love with an idea, don't waste the time and energy on it if it doesn't look profitable-unless, of course, you've already made your fortune and are looking for something to fill your time..
. If you just really don't want to take the time to do this or want a more scientific way of approaching the matter, considering investing in Site Build It! by the folks at Sitesell,
It will take you by the hand and help you find the MOST PROFITABLE idea for you with its amazing technology. All you have to do is type in a keyword, and it will tell you how many times the word has been searched on AND how many existing resources there are (amazing!). Based on supply and demand, it will rate the profitability.
All that IN ADDITION to hosting your site, submitting it to the search engines, and providing all sorts of graphics and images. All in all, a fantastic bargain.
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