1 – GET AN IDEA

Now I’m struggling.  I’m trying to get an idea of how to stimulate you in getting an idea!  This is a very difficult thing for me to do.  The simple reason is – I don’t know you!  What I can tell you are the elements of a great idea for a website:

1. it has to have a hunger element – the subject needs to have some kind of passion. It has to be a subject where people are prepared to research it, examine it, analyse it and make it their life!  So subjects like

• Making Money
• UK and Overseas Property Investment
• Expensive hobbies like golf
• Antiques
• Raising Finance/Debt solutions
• Internet Marketing
• Stocks & Shares
• Beauty & Cosmetic Surgery
• Marraiga Dating & Sex tips
• Science Fiction such as Star Trek memorabilia
• Classic or modified cars
• Boating & Yachting
• Fishing & Angling
• Hollywood & Celebrity Gossip
• Coin & Stamp Collections and latest prices
• Aeroplane and train spotting clubs
• Weight Loss
• eBay
• Cult or fad stuff like scientology
• Exercise, health and keeping fit
• Fashion & Clothing
• Specific businesses such as farming, car retailing etc. where there are trade journals already in existence
• Interior decorating
• Casino and card game clubs and tips
• Other gambling sites such as horse racing or dogs
• Self development and Psychology
• Religious groups and communities with a fund raising element
• Pet sites specific to a type of pet or breed
• Student sites to help with coursework
• Cooking
• Curing Illness
• How to be a writer
• Infertility
• Computer Hardware & Software
• Movies or even a specific movie (I love scarface!)
• Music – Fan sites for individual artists
• Wedding planning and weddings in general
• Parenting and baby sites
• Photography

The list above is probably less than 1% of what you could do and make serious money if done well.

I always look at what’s being advertised on TV or what’s selling well in the bookshops to get ideas.  Also internet sales of eBooks hold a lot of information as these books are interactive because they have links to other sites.  These sites may be paying out well to anyone that is referring them hence the creation of the ebook and it doing well because it just could be the subject of the moment.

Using some of the examples above I ask you how hungry is someone to:

• Make enough money to quit their job
• Have the confidence to approach the opposite sex
• Obtain the car of their dreams at the right price
• Become the master at the card game poker
• Get out of crippling debt
• To get rid of acne scars or become thin
• Be a published author
• Conceive and have their first child
• To get back stage passes for their favourite band
• Have the perfect wedding
• Be healthy so they live longer
• Have the ultimate stamp or coin in their collection
• Improve their golf handicap

Because it is very difficult to quantify in monetary terms these passions then sometimes mistakes are made.  You need to provide that platform for these companies to make these mistakes in over paying for advertising on your site.

You can see how many people could be potentially interested in your idea by seeing how many people search for words related to your idea.  So if you were thinking of doing a site about “divorce” type in divorce and you will get the top 100 search terms that contain the word “divorce” and how many times it has been searched.  So if you typed in “divorce” you will get other search terms like divorce settlement, divorce law, divorce lawyer, get out of divorce etc and the number of times these search terms have been searched.

In the above example you may stumble across another idea than the original idea.  So you may of initially wanted to set up a site about “Helping People Going Through Divorce” but because you found that “become divorce lawyer” was searched more than the term “divorce” your idea for a website has changed to “How To Become A Divorce Lawyer”.  So be flexible and keep your eyes wide open.

1. It has to be in a high value high margin industry – I have a saying – “You will not get rich by selling 1p sweets”. Think about it.  Even if you sold 1 million of these you would still only pick up £10,000 and you would have a purchase cost as well of say £8,000 (0.8 pence each) so this would equate to £2,000 profit.  And it may take you all year to sell 1 million as well!  That’s an example of a low value low margin good.  Stay away from them at all costs.  The only people that make money in this industry are the established players that sell bucket loads to a global market.

High value high margin products and services are the opposite.  Take for example some software I bought over the internet a year ago.  It was a piece of betting software which I was experimenting with to make money.  The software was cutting edge and was created and designed by a one man band outfit in Russia.  I paid £218 for this software.  It cost this guy only his time to create this software and he delivers the product to your email.  So virtually all of the £218 is profit for him.  This is a high value (being greater than £100) and high margin (being greater than 75%) product.

So if he sold 10 of these packages a week he would make over £2,000 in a week.  Comparing that to selling 1 million 1p sweets to get the same bottom line I know which industry I’d rather be in!

So why do I say high value high margin industry? Well its two fold.

1. You can get a piece of that margin if the margin is high enough. Take for example the Russian betting software guy.  How much do you reckon he would pay for someone to sell his product on a success only?  Well he’s got £200 or so pounds profit to play with.  So if he offered £100 to someone to sell his product he would still do well as he would make £100 and the seller would make £100.  There would be no product cost to the Russian guy as its an electronic product and no shipping costs because its delivered electronically by email.  So if you were to sell this product for him then you would earn £100.  If you write a good sales page (which I will teach you how to write a better sales page than the supplier themselves!) then you could sell 5, 10, 50 or even 100 copies a week if the market was big enough.  Now if you do the math that’s up to £10,000 per week for simply selling someone else’s product!
2. High value high margin industries tend to be very competitive. Everyone wants a piece of the pie.  This means that the businesses within them can spend a lot on advertising.  Using the Russian example again.  How much do you think the Russian guy can spend on marketing the product and still make a profit?  Assuming he makes about £200 profit per sale before marketing then you can safely say he can spend £100 on marketing the product to get one sale.

If he knows that 1 in 100 people that view his website and he is willing to spend £100 on advertising then he knows that he can spend £1 per click to his website and be assured of a sale.  If you didn’t know pay per click is big business. It is where an advertiser approaches a well known search engine like google and they agree to pay google an amount everytime some clicks on their advert displayed on google’s site.

What I will teach you is how to display ads on your site so that everytime someone clicks on the ad you get paid.  So for example if you were displaying the Russian guy’s advert on your site and someone clicked on it you would get a share of that £1 and it would be paid by google.  And let me tell you there are many businesses paying well in excess of £1 for a click.  I have received over £10 just for 1 click for an advert displayed on my site.

• You must add your own slant to it. Some call it its USP, Unique Selling Point.  There must be a reason why people join your site and not others.  It could be your straight talking, your particular choice in subject, the quality of your product or simply your prices are cheaper than the rest.  Whatever it is you must have this edge otherwise you will be what is technically known in business as “stuck in the middle”.  This means there is nothing to distinguish you from the rest of your competitors.

The beauty of the internet is that you may hit on a subject that no one else is talking about and this simply could be your USP.  The originality of the subject could be what sets you apart from everybody else.  So as long as you stick to the subject then you will find that the members of your site stay loyal.

I know of a site that is all about house prices and when the crash is going to occur.  They started after I launched my property hotspots site but they have more forum members than me!  I would have never had guessed that anyone would want to debate something as doomy and gloomy as a house price crash but they do.

The USP for my sites are that they focus on low value properties.  While everyone else is trying to sell you nice new apartments for £250,000 I am at the other end trying to sell you an apartment for £40,000.  I have been tempted to stray over to the other side and sell expensive apartments because the commission is higher and they are easier to sell but I want to remain true to the core which for me is at the low end as I know you make more money for client this way.  I want to remain long in business so I believe in providing a product that is good so in my case a property that achieves a healthy profit for the purchaser.  The only healthy profit in the more expensive apartments are the people that sell them NOT the people that buy them!

I hope from reading my 3 pointers above you have already got a shortlist of ideas.  I suggest you use the internet to research further whether others are doing what you’re thinking about.  If they are have a look at what they do and see if you can either do it:

1. better
2. different
3. cheaper
4. or all of the above!

If no one is doing it then hooray!  You may have just stumbled on a potential profit making niche subject that has pound notes behind it waiting to be claimed by YOU!

If you still cant think of an idea

If you can’t think of one ask someone else!  Do you know of someone who is passionate about something?  Do you know of someone who has an insane knowledge about a particular subject?  You could do a deal where you take his or her knowledge and put it in to a website.

I am doing this exact same thing where I am partnering up with pioneers of certain subjects and asking them for their knowledge in return for a share of the profits.  This way you can build a website with very little input from you.  As long as the content you get from these partners are of suitable standard then all you have to do is cut and paste.

So you now have no excuse not to create a website.  Let me tell you there are tonnes of ideas out there yet to be put on the internet.  I know that sounds a bit far fetched but its very true.  Once you surf around you’ll see the lack of decent common interest sites to join up to.  How often have you searched for quite a generic subject and all the results come back with either irrelevant sites or poorly designed with lack of true content of any value?

Okay.  So you’ve got the idea now lets go and create.  You may think this is the hard part but let me tell you – this is the easy part.

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