BRAINSTORMING IDEAS

Brainstorming Ideas for Your Niche Can Help You Nail Down Your Main Site Topic. These Techniques Will Help You.

Brainstorming ideas is a valuable tool to get your creative juices flowing. The goal of brainstorming is to identify three to five possible niches. Once you have identified and refined three to five niche possibilities, you'll research each to find out which is most viable.

Brainstorming Ideas: Write It Down!

When you go through these exercises, don't trust your brain to remember everything you think through. Do the exercises with a pen and paper or type in on your computer as you work through them. Our minds are feeble enough as it is, don't trust something this important to your memory. Additionally, seeing what you write or type can help generate and refine ideas as you get more of your senses involved in the project.

Brainstorming Ideas: The Exercises

Okay, let's begin. Remember that everyone has a special interest or passion. The goal is to identify yours. If you can match your work with your passion, it can be both enjoyable and easy to work. Purpose comes from passion. Motivation comes from purpose. Creation and action comes from motivation. It all starts with what your heart is passionate about.

1. Write down answers to the following questions. Print this page off, if you'd like, and write your answers in the spaces below each question.

- What do you like to talk about?

- What do you like to read?

- What is/are your hobby/hobbies?

- How do you spend your recreational time?

- What do you feel your natural talents/gifts are?

- When you go into a book store, what section or sections to you immediately seek out?

- What are your favorite TV shows and movie genres and musical interests?

2. Write down any areas where you have experience or expertise that may be of value to others.

- What expertise have you acquired/learned on the job as an employee?

- What do you do every day without thinking about it? Do you have parenting skills; do you take care of sick parents/in-laws; are you a natural-born bargain hunter; are you a housing inspector, etc.?

- What have you learned from living your life? What have your "typical" days taught you?

3. Think about your current job or the last job you had. What aspects of that job did you prefer the most?

- Did you do research?

- Were you involved in solving customers' problems or helping them acheive their goals?

- Did you enjoy managing people or projects?

- Did you enjoy teaching or helping others understand things?

- Did you talk on the phone?

- Were you excited by opportunities to market existing products?

- Did you thrive on opportunities to develop and create new products and services?

- Were you able to reduce or eliminate wasted time or energy by making improvements to processes or procedures?

4. Think about what you perceive as problems around you in the world. Thinking about problems can help generate ideas as you try to find (or explain) the solutions.

- What irritates you?

- What do you think is tedious and in need of simplification?

- What do you think is dysfunctional or just doesn't work?

- What are the problems in/with your family, workplace, town, garden/yard, vehicle, etc.

- Do you have any ideas about how to fix the problems around you? Would any of these solutions help others?

5. Ask others questions about yourself for guidance. Sometimes the obvious is easily overlooked by you when others can see it instantly. Ask your friends. Ask your parents. Ask your brothers/sisters. Write down their answers.

- Ask them what they think you like.

- Ask them what they think you excel at doing.

- Ask them to tell you about yourself.

- Ask them what they think you would do or write about if you had all the free time in the world.

6. Think about the past and the future. Think of yourself as you were 5, 10, 15 years ago. Does thinking about your past self spark any thoughts? Write them down. Think of yourself as you imagine you will be in 5, 10, 15 years. Does thinking about your future self spark any thoughts? Write them down.

Brainstorming Ideas: Category Review

Take a minute or two to read through the categories below. Do you see any categories that spark your interest? These are general categories. Can you think of any subtopics or subcategories that are up your alley? Write them down.

Advertising, Aerospace, Agriculture, Antiques, Apparel, Architecture, Art, Auctions, Automobiles, Aviation, Baking, Banking, Beverages, Bicycles, Blogging, Books, Building, Buying, Chemicals, Children, Cleaninng, Communications, Computers, Conspiracies, Construction, Consulting, Conventions, Countries, Design, Disabilities, Dogs, Drinks, Education, Electronics, Employment, Energy, Engineering, Entertainment, Finance, Food, France, Gambling, Games, Government, Health, Herbs, Hobbies, Hospitality, Information, Intelligence, Jewelry, Juicing, Law, Landscaping, Lawn Care, Manufacturing, Minerals, Music, Office Supplies, Politics, Publishing, Quilting, Real Estate, Religion, Research, Retail, Science, Security, Software, Sports, Telecommunications, Toys, Trade, Transportation, Travel, Utensils, Utilities, Video, Weather, Yogurt, Yurts, Yellow Fever, Zoos

Brainstorming Ideas: Examples

By now, you should at least have several ideas on topics for your niche. But, in case you are still totally stumped, here are a couple of ideas. See if these prompt any epiphanies for you. Feel free to use them too!

Example 1: create a city-specific website or blog on eating establishments featuring your favorite type of food. If you like Chinese food, start a comprehensive website/blog about Chinese restaurants in your city or area. Go and eat at them on a scheduled regular basis (painful, I know!). Take photos, take notes, talk to management. Post the photos and notes on your site in review form with commentary. Talk about the atmosphere, noise, etc. Eventually, people looking for Chinese restaurants in your city will find your website/blog, and it will help them get answers to their questions.

Example 2: create a website or blog centered around old books or literature on a specific topic. Pre-1923 (1922 or before) are all in the public domain. Their copyrights have expired. If something like this is what you are looking for, you can even use the advanced search option on www.alibris.com to sort books by publication date.

Brainstorming Ideas: Conclusion

You should have several niche possibilities lined up by this point. But, the work is not done. You need to now research each niche possibility to find out which ones are viable and which are not. Eventually you'll need to nail down your best option and run with it. Click the link to learn how to do Niche Research.