How To Crank Out Million Dollar Product Ideas From Scratch
Submitted on Feb 27, 2005
Author: Ewen Chia

Are you currently stuck trying to think up ideas for that million dollar product?

I’ve got a surefire formula to get you unstuck and on the road to generating more profitable product ideas than you can handle.

First, let’s talk about the real reason people hit a blank wall when they start brainstorming. The sad fact is that our brains are a bit lazy. The human mind hates sustained concentration and always seeks the shortest, quickest and easiest path to solving any problem.

When you sit down with pen and paper in hand and ask yourself, “What product do I want to create?”, you’ve just given your brain an overwhelmingly open-ended question…

The problem is that the term ’product” is far too abstract. It includes literally thousands of possibilities. Your mind gets overwhelmed and doesn’t know where to begin. Think of your mind as a young child on a playground. You want to give him a clear set of boundaries. He can play freely and safely as long as he knows your parameters – but set him loose with the command to “do anything”, and he’s likely to run out of your control.

Fortunately, there’s a formula you can use to take control of the brainstorming process… This formula gives your mind something it absolutely loves: order and categorization.

When you use this formula, ideas will come to you automatically. The reason is that you are giving your mind a logical map to branch out from, rather than asking it to start in the middle of nowhere.

Are you ready to learn the formula for churning out million dollar product ideas at will? Here it is:

==> Consumer Class + Product Purpose = Winning Idea!

Each of the above variable represents a set of questions you must answer. Your answers do not lock you into anything. Instead, they create a series of sub categories to guide you in your brainstorming sessions. These sub categories enable you to open up new tightly defined niches the farther you go.

(1) Let’s start with the “Consumer Class” variable...

Who is your consumer? Is he/she:

- An individual?
- A small business?
- A large business?
- An end user at home or at work?
- A single product consumer?
- A bulk product consumer?

Also ask the question of what your consumer is interested in, and which market niche he/she belongs to.

(2) Now, let’s look at the “Product Purpose” variable...

What is the purpose of this product? Is it:

- Pure information and education?
- Aimed at solving a problem quickly and efficiently?
- Designed for entertainment?
- Factual or fictional?
- Text only or will it include software, audio or video?
- Complete as is or will it require updates?
- Suitable for download or better off rolled into a membership site?

You can even add additional variables to plug into the formula if you want.

Notice how each variable opens up further room for categorization? Let’s say that you chose “a single product consumer” for your consumer class variable, and “fiction” for your product purpose variable. What you really have is a fictional entertainment product. At this point, you have a new map to branch off from.

What comes to mind when you think of a single product consumer? E-books come to mind. Maybe the product should be a work of fiction in e-book format? This sounds good, so now all you have to do is figure out what types of fiction people are actually searching for online…

The next step is to go to overture.com and type in some keywords. In this case, I tried out “e-book”, “fiction” and “stories”. It appears that Harry Potter e-books are popular, but you risk copyright infringement on that topic. The number one niche for “fiction” happens to be “fan fiction”. Fan fiction usually involves new story lines (often of an explicit sexual nature) between popular science fiction characters. We’ll pass on that one as well.

However, the keyword “stories” pulls up something interesting: ghost stories! Here’s an area where you could collect a lot of content from the public domain (For tips and secrets on using public domain for profit, you can find excellent information in “Public Domain Riches” at http://tinyurl.com/5xkwn).

You could also hire a professional fiction writer from Elance.com and have him or her put together some ghost stories or old wives’ tales for you…and voila! Instant niche product.

You can come up with other fun ideas within this one niche by continuing to play with the variables. For example, if you repackage the product purpose in the audio-visual category, you might come up with other ideas like:

- A CD or downloadable set of mp3’s containing “spooky sounds”
- A set of graphics or screensavers for Halloween
- Some novelty software like a virtual ouija board or ghost-hunting game

Now, wasn’t that easy? Four new ideas generated almost instantly and you didn’t even have to break a sweat...just fill in the blanks of this formula and the product ideas pop out like magic!

A powerful way to reap huge profits here is to act on the right ideas fast. Turn million dollar ideas into million dollar products.

If you're stuck with the actual process of product creation, look to proven blueprints like "Create Your Own Products In A Flash" (http://www.l1nk.com/urr/productsinaflash.html) or "How To Create Best Sellers Online" (http://www.l1nk.com/urr/bestselling.html).

These will help you churn out profitable products easily in no time!

About the Author:

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Check Out The Instant Marketing Blog here http://www.EwenChia.com