How to brainstorm your way out of the rut

Many internet marketers take off on a race to hit the ground running and move too quickly from an initial idea to trying successfully to implement it. They never even stop to notice the trees, let alone take a step back and see the forest. As a result, many of them fail.

What if you would like to see the forest, the trees, and everything in between?

Then you need to brainstorm!

Your web project is simply an idea. Common sense dictates that the more clear your vision and understanding of that idea and its objectives, the greater your probability of achieving it. After all, if you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you get there?

A good brainstorming session can help you define your ideas. For fifteen or twenty minutes, let your thoughts revolve, and jot down whatever questions come to mind - even useless ones. Then, looking over your list, you may find one that appears promising. Remember not to edit your ideas during the brainstorming session. Save your evaluation for later.

After you've brainstormed to get a topic, you now must refine your idea. If your topic involves a lot of research, make sure you're interested in the subject before investing too much energy.

Okay, you're doing well if you've made it this far. You're ready to narrow your topic. First, pull out a piece of paper and write down your idea. For example, let's say you want to do a site about "alternative health" which is very broad, but it is a HUGE industry that attracts billions of dollars a year and is full of "hungry" rabid fans looking for information. So yes, a good market to get into.

Now you could drill down to say, using the mind to overcome physical and mental problems people face in trying to loose weight. OK, this is more focused. We narrowed it down even further to using the mind to overcome weight problems. Do you think the weightloss industry attracts some money and has a large consumer base of people who spend money on it?

You bet!

However, This subtopic is still a bit broad. You'd never be able to thoroughly cover all issues related to the mind and weight problems to make a concise, informative site. You would need to narrow down that subtopic even further. So, continue to use the pen and paper.

Once you've narrowed down the topic as far as you can to an area that interests you, you should then start doing some keyword research on that niche. This should then focus you into the areas that people are specifically searching for.

Brainstorming is all about thinking outside the box. It makes the generation of new ideas easy. Exactly what you apply the brainstorming technique to depends on what you want to achieve.

You can do it with a group of colleagues or on your own. Either way it will prove invaluable in developing your own unique approach to any project you want to undertake online or offline.