We live in a sea of information. And information overload is
an increasingly common complaint. Part of the complaint arises
because we get hit with different headlines that point to
the same content. So we waste time on things that have no
added value. Bummer.
When you email your list or put up content on your site,
and assuming you want to generate loyalty, it's necessary
that you have content others haven't seen a dozen times elsewhere.
If this makes sense to you, here are some ideas you can
use to EASILY generate fresh content with a minimal amount
of time and effort.
First of all, think about a subject in which you are interested.
Let's say it's horticulture. Now if you're not aware of it,
let me put you in the picture. Most people do web searches
from Google's home page and stop there. Not at all creative.
Not at all digging for information from which to develop
original content.
So let's go exploring...
1 - Google has lots of tools besides just web searches.
They let you check the news. (http://news.google.com) As
of this writing, there are 1,680 news items listed by Google
on the word horticulture. Bet you could easily do a summary
of some of these articles and create your own content. But
let's not stop there.
2 - Google also has "groups". (http://groups.google.com/)
These are folks who like to discuss *your* subject. So now
you can go even farther. Look up horticulture in their groups.
Now this information is potentially gold. Why? Because you
can see what it is about horticulture that lots of folks
are interested in.
Think you might be able to do a little research and come
up with a free or even a for-profit report that gives them
what they want?
Check out Google's other tools, too. You can even get research
info from universities through Google. Start here: http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/
3 - Next method: Do this search (keeping
in the punctuation as written):
+horticulture +free +filetype:pdf
As of this writing, Google shows 196,000 hits for this query.
What you get here are free downloads in pdf format about
your subject.
Now you can't simply copy and use it as your own information.
You have to create your writing in your own words. But there's
no law that says you can't summarize what you find in other
people's works. To make the point, you could even call your
work something like: "Survey Report: Latest from the Horticulture
Front!"
4 - Go to Alexa.com. Do a search on your
subject, in this example, horticulture. It provides the exact
same results as Google because it's powered by Google. So
why bother, right? Wrong. Because Alexa *does* provide value
added information.
When you do the search, you don't want to click the link
that takes you to the listed site. Instead you want to follow
the link that says "Site info." When you do this, you'll
find a section called: "People who visit this page also visit." This
can be very valuable because it potentially shows *what the
marketplace is interested in.* This can enable you to tailor
your information product to what people want.
But say, you are interested in starting a new online business
and know you need to find a 'niche' market where people are
passionately interested in the topic, enough to spend money.
Look around you. What comes to mind? Your house, your car,
your motorcycle, your furniture, your computer and your hobbies
come to mind, don't they? Now delve deeper into each subject
and before long you will have come up with a narrow niche
market that could be gold mine. Do a search on Google for
the keywords or keyword phrases and see what kind of competition
each has and if not too terrible, go for it. You can also
go to wordtracker.com to find additional keywords that will
help you expand your search.
These are just some of the easy ways to branch out your
explorations and find gold to weave into golden braids.
Golden searching...
Copyright 2005 MHG Consulting
Dan Farrell has been marketing online fulltime for years
and he recently launched "Newbie's Guide To Online Fortunes" where
you will find 100's more business start up ideas and other
start up online business tips at:
http://www.localbusinesstools.com/newbie.htm
