Business Ideas that Work!

Where do I find business ideas that really work?

I've always been a somewhat creative person but sometimes even the most successful and creative business people run into dry spells when nothing seems to come to them. Ideas just evaporate into nothing. People who write for a living call this "writer's block."

My account of how I managed to break out of one of those periods may help you if you're having trouble finding a business idea which you can get your teeth into.

How I overcame "idea block"

What did I do? I started looking around. I wanted to see what others were doing with success. I wanted to avoid "re-inventing the wheel", but also felt that somehow something or someone would spark a creative possibility in my mind if I could see what business success other ordinary folks were having.

Breaking a creative block is many times just that simple: Look around and see what others are doing, or have done.

You don't have to copy their ideas. Many times seeing what they are doing will lead you to think "That's great, but I know a way to do it even better. Or faster. Or cheaper. Or for left-handed people ... you get the idea?

Of course, in business there's nothing wrong with making a copy. I would guess that a great many of the businesses you deal with every day got started by copying what someone else was doing.

Still spinning my wheels ...

After several attempts at using search engines and directories I started feeling frustrated because I was getting nowhere.

Everywhere I looked I seemed to run into sales pitches to "buy my fantastic system and become a zillionaire overnight with no work or effort at all..." I'm sure you've seen a few yourself, right?

Then I discovered Google Answers, which I thought could provide the solution to what I wanted. The idea of simply telling somebody what I want to know and letting them dig up the answers appealed to me. After all, isn't that what all the big boys do?

They have complete market research departments costing thousands of dollars a month to run to dig up ideas and sift through them. Certainly I could scrape up a few dollars to pay someone to do a bit of leg work for me.

I posted a question (actually several in one) and in a short time had an answer which was broad and carried some valuable information, some of which was entirely new to me. I was satisfied with the results and even paid the researcher a $25.00 tip for his help.

If I were to do do it again, I think I'd have gotten a lot more mileage by putting my questions forward in a different manner, but that's another issue.

There's more to the story ...

Was it really possible that someone had actually written a book containing what I was looking for?

I went to the web-site where author John Evans promotes his book and probably would have clicked on to go elsewhere because what I saw looked like the typical kind of hype which too many self-appointed web experts use to sell their over-valued, get-rich-quick schemes.

Fortunately Ken (who I respect immensely as a person with a lot of web-savy), had warned me about the hype and stated that in spite of the flowery pitch, the author really did deliver the goods.

Well, based on that recommendation, and the fact that Evans offered a 30-day, money-back guarantee I ordered a copy.

I'd like you to know that I am not shy about asking for a refund when I'm not satisfied even if there is no risk-free trial offered, but I never even came close to considering a refund.

... more ideas, more insight and more useable information than I paid $125 for!

In the FIRST interview which I read, John provided more ideas, more insight, and more useable information than I had just paid a researcher at Google Answers $125 to dig up. There were still nine more interviews to go.

What has Success Alert Given Me?

• Links to 20 web sites that are actual, honest-to-goodness functioning businesses that I can visit, pretend I am a client and see how it looks, what is offered, and most vitally what WORKS!
• Candid, answers about how much money was needed to get started, how long it took to become profitable and to start making interesting money.
• Real-life experiences of the problems faced, the competition that had to be overcome, pitfalls in advertising, false starts, dumb mistakes that I can avoid, etc.
• What software, web site design, and other tools were used and where to get them.
• The names of the books, the authors, and advice these successful people found relevant and useful in building their businesses. Who are the "real" gurus?
• What traffic they get on their sites, what is their experience with search engines, pay-per-click promotion, newsletters, forums, banner advertising.
• How these people spend their time and where they would spend an extra hour a day if they had it.
• Experiences and results of affiliate programs in their businesses and what providers they use to manage their affiliates.
• How many web sites they operate, how many people they have hired to run their businesses
• Where their customers are located, what they sell most.
• Experiences with credit cards, and credit card fraud. Payment systems used.

Quite a package, for sure, but what really bugs me is if I had found John's book prior to my Google Answers experience, I believe I would have saved myself $125.00.

I'm not criticizing Google. Google Answers is good and serves a useful purpose. I think I got good value, but the point is that Evans' book "Success Alert - Conversations With Successful Internet Entrepreneurs" provided me with everything I had hoped to get from Google Answers, and a lot more.

When I sat down to write this article, I was not content to just tell you that I could recommend John Evans' book. I wanted to probe a bit and find out more about the person behind it. As a result I contacted him and interviewed the interviewer.

I discovered, John Evans is a multi-talented person. I asked him to provide a bit of his background before he wrote Success Alert - Conversations with Successful Internet Entrepreneurs.

John replied, "My first business was in timber, harvesting trees all across Scandinavia and Canada and shipping the timber all over the world. It was great fun albeit very hard work. I then went to college before becoming a commodity futures trader. This is a business I still run."

Regarding his interest in eCommerce he told me, "this stems from the late 1990s when I had a guy working for me who was also a very successful affiliate marketer. His part-time income truly amazed me."

This began a quest "to both emulate him and to expand into further internet models of success such as membership web sites, physical product sales, and eBay trading", each of which he's involved with today.

I asked John how he came to choose this specific topic. "Simple," he replied. "I was building several web businesses and wanted to find the best mentors. Many are contained in the book. I felt the book would be a useful byproduct of my research and could help others as it has done me."

How did he discover the candidates for his interviews? There were several sources. In no particular order they included: Google, newsletters, newspapers and magazines, personal contacts, TV programs, and business associations and groups.

Initial contact with prospective interviewees was made by email with a follow up telephone call. Virtually all agreed to be interviewed because, according to John, he did his research on each prospect well in advance.

Asked if he placed any significance in the fact that 6 out of 11 of those interviewed are based in North America, he maintains that since the European Union has double the population of North America it's only right to include this huge and fast growing eCommerce market segment to the extent he did.

John avoided interviews with famous or well known web entrepreneurs because he wanted to find people who were solely concerned with running online businesses and not concerned with internet marketing.

The book is promoted and sold mainly via affiliate marketing, joint venture deals and pay per click search engines, and may be the only book John ever writes, at least concerning internet marketing, even though he has another 50 or so interviews which were excluded from this book.

John states that "the 11 interviews I have published should be more than enough for anybody. In any case, people need to be taking action rather than reading book after book. I wouldn't want to add to their potential states of hypnosis in reading book after book after book. This is a very real danger. This book should be more than enough for anyone."

Although we may be losing a talented investigator and writer if he stops writing with this book, from a practical point of view I must agree with his reasoning. The book covers a lot of ground and is complete in what it offers.

If you're looking for examples of businesses which have been created and made to work by people who seem just like the guy or gal next door, and where you are given lots of their experiences which you could apply in your own business, I recommend this ebook.

Of course your needs may be different from mine, but if you think your time is worth money, you're almost certain to save a lot by having this material at your fingertips

The bottom line is this: If you are stuck for examples of real life successful web businesses, this book will help but, if it doesn't, ask for your money back . . . that's what money-back guarantees are all about.

Success Alert - Conversations With Successful Internet Entrepreneurs

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Success Alert 2 Sales Page

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That's it! Now... I hope you enjoy reading this book, and learning from these successful entrepreneurs as much as I have. But don’t stop there... take action, and apply what you learn!

Want more inspiration or ideas? I've discovered another source of specific individual experiences of people like you or I who have developed Successful Internet Businesses. See the CASE STUDIES published here.