Let me start off with a wild guess! You either think discussion boards are a bleeping waste of time – because so many of them are full of junk, or ….you think of discussion boards simply as a method of getting your questions answered.
What you probably HAVE NOT done is mine them for golden nuggets that you can quickly and easily turn into high profit products.
Software, eBooks, special reports, services, it doesn’t matter. You can find intriguing product ideas everyday on the better discussion forums…
Here’s how.
First, let’s start with how you find super profitable product ideas, then I’ll give you some forums I bet you’ve never heard of before. So how do you find product ideas in the maze of discussions and opinons on the board?
1. Learn to scan your favorites daily
Pick at least 6 of the best quality, highest traffic discussion boards in your area of interest. We’ll give you some options below. Make it part of your daily MO (Mode of Operation) to capture potentially hot ideas using the techniques below.
2. Look for “Idea Triggers”
These include questions “How Do I”, “Where can I find…”, “Does anyone know where…”, “Wanted…”
Idea Triggers may also be statements of frustration or disapproval like “I wish there was a way to…”, “It would be so much easier if…”, “I can’t believe I had to…”
It’s quite rare for any single question or statement to have only been made once on popular forums – chances are you will often stumble on similar questions or desires.
3. Pattern Watch
Think of yourself as a detective Joe Friday. You want to learn the sometimes hidden desires and motivations of your buyers.
A common detective technique is to look for patterns of behavior. Find a few questions and search forum archives over a 3-6 month period to see how many others have asked similar questions. It’s incredible when you see how similar we all are with our wants.
4. Look for Hot Spots on Discussion Forums
Another technique is to search for the posts with the most responses – many forums have this as an archived search, if not, you can easily scan to see the threads with the most responses and views. Again, this will help you quickly focus in on pockets of high emotional demand – exactly what you want as a product developer/marketer.
5. Go fishing – post inquiry questions
You may have posted specific questions on boards before to answer a very urgent or focused question you may have. But – how about posting questions about a certain topic to see if you can generate idea triggers. You’ll see the big names in any industry doing this once in a while. They typically keep a low profile, then come out of the woodwork to ask the group a question about a certain topic. They are fishing, looking for a school of fish within their market – then when they find something, they’ll set the hook with the perfect bait to capture that group’s attention, not to mention their wallets.
6. Start your own discussion forum
While won’t happen overnight, there have been many examples of forums ramping up on high demand subjects in as little as 30-days. Running your own forum lets you test markets, build your online brand, provide an endless source of product ideas and a test bed for your new concepts and products.
5 Free Forums You Need To Be Watching!
Here are a sampling of the forums I keep a regular watch on – and have used to build new market understanding as well as several profitable product and marketing ideas:
http://www.ablake.net/forum/
http://www.gethighforums.com/
http://www.sitepointforums.com/
http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/
http://www.wilsonweb.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi/
2 Membership Forums I Couldn’t Live Without
It’s inevitable, as forum owners strive to keep their forums valuable and attractive to the big, succcessful names in their industry – they move to a paid membership model. Here’s 2 that I’ve found incredibly valuable:
http://www.infoproductcreator.com/part/net.html
http://www.infoproductcreator.com/part/myers
The internet is LOADED with high quality discussion forums on a variety of topics. You should be using this to discover and test your product ideas. Make it part of your daily routine, before you know it, it will become a habit and you will be all the richer for it.
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