Online business idea spotter

Wepbreneurship or online entrepreneurship differs itself from the general entrepreneurship. The online business world changes rapidly, and losing your grip on the changes will suffer you and your business badly.

I have made several mistakes in making web property acquisition decisions that result me in both financial and opportunity losses. Some of my wrong decisions result in total business failure, while some others can be recovered – painfully.

My mistakes are due to my inability to spot opportunities and/or ideas that are in trend, with high demand and with relatively low (or manageable) competition due to resource constraints.

Like I have always said, failure is your best teacher; I learned from my mistakes that in web property investing and online business ownership, you must keep your eyes on the trend. Some trend last for years, some last for a few months. The key is to enter and exit at the right time to maximise your online business value.

How to quickly spot online business ideas and take action on them

While some do have plenty of time to follow and benefit from the online business trends, the rest of us don’t have such luxury. For us who don’t have much time left in a day to spot Internet business trends and/or business opportunities, we must find a way to cut the chase of stumbling around the web, looking for ideas.

Take heed – I do have some tested-and-true tips to look for lucrative and doable Internet business ideas, fast:

• Visit Google Trends
  Google Trends can help you spot a trend for a certain keyword you are looking for. Entering a term will give you a history of search volumes and press coverage of the term throughout the year.
• Use Yahoo! Answers
  Yahoo! Answers occasionally offer you valuable information about an online business idea in a certain niche you are after. Choose the ones with ‘best answer’ and follow the lead from there.
• Visit authoritative sites
  You always need to educate yourself about what is hot and what is not. Visiting authoritative sites, such as SpringWise, can give you instant business ideas to imitate. Just admit it – You and I are not experts and pioneers, but we do love to join the bandwagon! You need to read articles in those sites, that are usually (directly and indirectly) offering you ideas for free.

  Also consider buying ebooks, listening to podcasts, or attending membership programs – all for the purpose of giving you the mindset and knowledge necessary to spot business opportunities and make your business ideas into reality.

• Visit webmaster forums
  Large webmaster forums, such as DigitalPoint, can quickly give you an idea or two about what’s hot and what’s not in website ownership. Just visit their Buy, Sell or Trade forum to learn what are people are buying, selling, or looking for – make sure you take note of important things you have found.

  Spoiler: Such forums are where you can find great deals – Just be careful of the scammers.

• Visit buy and sell website marketplaces
  Online marketplaces for buying and selling websites, such as Flippa, are tremendous source of idea. I suggest you to look for ‘Established Sites’ section, if any, because I personally don’t like startup websites or ‘sites with potential’ and stuff like that. I want established site with real financial track record.

  Spoiler: Buying those sites is cool IF you have the fund. If you don’t just spot profitable niche and type of site, and try to start a website your own using the idea. The best part is, the site owners are often spills important tips that can get us easily create a competing site.

One last advice: Especially in the Internet, once you spot THE ideas, you need to act on it more sooner than latter. Never procrastinate, or else, the opportunities are suddenly gone and cannot be found elsewhere. I know – I’ve been there :)

Ivan Widjaya
Online business ideas spotter
Image by Szorstki.