If you’re going
to have a successful online information marketing (e-Book)
business, you have to have something to market, and
usually that something begins in the form of an idea.
Ideas can be like fireflies on a hot summer night.
You never know where they’re going to be when they light
up, and you can only hope that you’ll be in the right
place to catch it when it comes your way. But unlike
fireflies, you can greatly improve your odds of catching
the random great idea by preparing for it and being
ready to catch it at any time.
Once an idea flits through your cranium, you’ve got
to do something with it or it will die before it gets
out of your head. You may feel like you don’t have enough
ideas, or at least that you never have any ideas worth
marketing. But realistically, most people have more
and better ideas than they give themselves credit for.
Usually the problem is that you don’t realize when a
usable idea is going through your head. You can’t let
any ideas slip by without recording them, because you
never know which one will be the big one.
That’s why you have to catch them on the fly as they
happen. If you don’t, then they will probably be gone
forever. You might think that you can keep them in your
head and remember them later, but if you’re like most
other humans on this planet, something will come up
before the end of the day that will bump that million-dollar
idea off the top of the heap. Then before you know it
the most important thing rumbling around in your head
is your grocery list.
You need a way of harvesting or collecting your ideas
as they happen. I usually carry a small notebook around
with me wherever I go. Of course you need a pencil or
pen too! Or, you could join the 21st century and keep
your ideas on a palm or pocket pc or one of the many
small electronic devices that’s all the rage these days.
Each method has it’s advantages and disadvantages. The
benefit of the electronic method is that once you’ve
jotted your ideas down you can easily transfer them
to your workstation or laptop without having to type
them all in again. One word of caution, though…keep
your batteries fresh (or charged), and keep your device
synced so you won’t lose all those great ideas. The
benefit of the paper method is obvious…no batteries,
no back-ups, and no operating system to learn. Personally,
even though I’m a big fan of technology on my desk and
in my home, I’ve found that I’m quite the luddite when
it comes to electronics that I have to carry around.
So for me at least, it will always be the pen and paper.
Once you get in the habit of jotting down all the ideas
that come through your head, you’ll be surprised at
how many ideas you actually have. Granted, most of them
won’t really end up going anywhere, but like everything,
it’s a numbers game…the more you have, the better your
chances of coming up with a winner. Even the princess
had to kiss a lot of frogs before she found the prince!
Sometimes your ideas will come faster than you can jot
them down, which is frustrating, but you have to look
at the big picture: at least you’re recording some of
your ideas now, which is way better than how it used
to be.
You’ll find that ideas began to come more easily, because
now you’re on the lookout for them. Common everyday
occurances that used to just slip by unnoticed can become
the catalyst for the next idea that might just be the
big one. Plus, once you’re in the habit of paying attention
to your creative side, you might find that sometimes
multiple ideas will begin to ping-pong around in your
head and synthesize into a single winner of an idea.
And after all, isn’t that what it’s all about…catching
the million-dollar idea?
Till next time…Success to you!
-Ted
Ted is part of an Internet information marketing group
that makes its home at:
http://www.internetprofitmentor.com/
Check it out for some up-to-the-minute info on marketing
YOUR information online!
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