Donna Knight's Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews

Tag: ideas

  • Quick Easy Money-Making Online Business Ideas

    I know I love finding new places I can get business ideas from. Here’s one…

    Go to:

    http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/

    Select any of the areas there, pick out all the images that you think are interesting (most of the images are in the public domain but check the dates to make sure)

    I quickly found an area in the LOC that could be hot sellers:

    Town maps from the 1800’s: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/pmmapSubjects10.html

    Use the town’s name and the keywords in your listings! Or if you’re creative, make your own graphics and sayings.

    Then set up an account with CafePress.com (it’s free) and create your own line of t-shirts, coffee mugs, posters, stickers and more.

    List them on Ebay and I guarantee you’ll make money if your design is creative enough…

    The thing I like about CafePress is that you can order the item you’ve sold through your own account and have it ‘drop shipped’ to your customer without ever touching the product!

    That’s right. You’re own products drop shipped for you!

    TIP: Just make sure you send it as a “gift” in the ordering process or your customer will see how much you paid for the item because CafePress will include a receipt (invoice) with the item when it ships unless you state it is a ‘gift’. In the “gift message” just write something like “thank you for your purchase!” and that’s all your customer will see – no prices or invoice.

  • Cool International Business Trends Website for Business Ideas

    Here’s a site you can use and refer to when you’re looking for cutting edge business opportunities and ideas…

    The idea behind this site is cool: They enlist ’spotters’ who then submit interesting new businesses they’ve spotted around the world to the site. The site then reports on those new businesses to its members.

    The best part: It’s free.

    There are many, many interesting ideas on this site (like the one above) and one of my best kept ’secret weapons’ for generating business plans and ideas.

    Check it out:

    http://www.springspotters.com/

    P.S. SpringSpotters also run a newsletter at TrendWatching.com which, while different in focus, complements the Spotters site extremely well. Be sure to sign up to receive future issues (they’re pure Gold).

  • How to Create Profitable Ideas

    There are so many ways to create profitable ideas I could not even begin to explain them all.

    There are basically 3 criteria I use that determine if an idea will be profitable.

    1. Does your idea contain a HUGE benefit for your potential customers?

    2. Is there enough MONEY in the deal for you?

    3. Is the idea EXCITING? Will it keep you motivated and hungry for as long as you decide to pursue it?

    Ideas are a dime a dozen… and that’s true. There are literally thousands of businesses you could start and another thousand ideas on how to make that business profitable.

    But the opposite of that is also true: You CANNOT succeed WITHOUT ideas… it’s IMPOSSIBLE!

    I evaluate potentially “good” ideas using the factors above. Will it benefit someone? Is there enough money in the running of the business? Can I get excited about it?

    If the answer to ANY of these questions is “no” then I don’t pursue it… the idea stops right there.

    On a typical day I will run 3 or 4 new ideas through this process… asking each question as I investigate a new business opp. If I’m lucky I get one great idea a year – yes, ONE a year! The rest of the time I basically exploit opportunities for myself based on a ‘variation’ of the “good” idea a came up with last year!

    Let me give you an example:

    I told my Personal Coaching clients about something I had read that had a profound impact on my business. It was a section from a report by Forrester Research.

    The idea basically launched my Internet business into super-profitability. This one idea was about not “locking-up content”… anyway I have used that one idea in several of my businesses and variations of that idea with great success.

    Ideas are a dime a dozen… but evaluating them according to some external criteria will help you determine if the idea is worth pursuing or a dead-end. You can use the criteria I use or make up your own… but once you have criteria to judge an idea by, you can relax.

    Seriously, relax. Find time to take a walk or cook or do whatever you do that has nothing to do with business … suddenly ideas will begin to surface, and when they do write them down. Then, evaluate them using your criteria.

    Which leads me to a very, very important topic: The most important factor of your success.

    I have studied the biographies of hundreds of successful men and women. There is one STRIKING resemblance to each and every one of them…

    Can you guess what it might be?

    EVERY person who was successful in business has this one characteristic…

    You know just about everyone says the same thing: You have to take “action” if you’re going to succeed.

    Well that’s true… but it’s not the WHOLE truth.

    Here’s what I’ve found: People who were really successful NEVER became successful in the very first business they started…

    Hmmm… makes you think huh? So what does this really mean?

    I mean, to what practical USE can we apply this info?

    What it means is this: In order for you to FIND the success you’re after you have to START someplace… in fact ANYPLACE. Yes, that’s right – just do ANYTHING.

    Now, burn this paragraph into your brain:

    Eventually what will happen is you will TRY this and TRY that – you’ll see what succeeds and what doesn’t succeed, and then by some kind of internal guidance system you’ll find the perfect business for you to be in and really succeed…

    …. but guess what?

    Since you will never succeed in the first business you start you can R-E-L-A-X about it… don’t be so worried if you’re “doing the right thing” because you’re not going to really succeed in it anyway! It’s a STEPPING STONE to something great… but you’ll NEVER get to that “Something Great” until you GET STARTED!!

    Ok… there may be one or two people out of a MILLION who got rich in their VERY FIRST business- they are the exceptions, not the rule… for the rest of us, we have to keep succeeding and keep failing until our “internal guidance system” steers us onto the right path.