Odds are you've been a hair's breath away from a $10,000 product idea sometime in the last 24 hours – you just didn't recognize it. That's because great product ideas are all around you, but if you don't keep your eyes and ears open for them they'll pass you right by and get found by somebody else.
For example, you're online reading about a famous athlete from the past, and there's a sentence in there about how this athlete swore by using a special herb or a particular training technique. Most people would just breeze right by that sentence, but you're on the lookout for new product ideas. You do some research and find out that particular herb or technique does indeed give tremendous benefits to athletes and maybe even to people wanting to lose weight. Best of all, it's not widely known. So you do further research and make a report on it. Then you write a sales letter with all the stories you found and the benefits of this practically “secret” herb or technique, and now you've got a product.
Better still, you back end your customer with related products, or even sell them the herb or the technique on video. And all because of one sentence you read in a biography.
Let's give another example of finding ideas: You're on a forum and you see a question you haven't encountered before. You do a little research and realize this is a problem a lot of people are having, so you do further research and find a solution. Bingo! Another product.
One such bloke read comments from expensive sports car owners lamenting that their car emblems get stolen and they're several hundred dollars to replace. He asked if they'd be open to a less expensive alternative and the forum members asked how to order. That was a pretty clear sign, so he did some research, found the exact same car emblems for far less money and had himself a new business. In this case he didn't even need to create the product, he only needed to find it and make it available to his customers.
Let's say you're having coffee at the local coffee house, or a beer at the local pub. You start chatting with the guy next to you, and you find out he's an expert in something or other. So you begin to quiz him on his best knowledge and you find this guy is a treasure trove. You do some quick research online and find this is a lucrative niche, so you partner with this person and create a product.
And it doesn't have to be someone you meet by chance– it could be a book author, a blogger, someone in your local paper, etc. Contact them and see if they're open to working with you to earn additional income.
Now you're really into finding great ideas for new products, so you decide to get a little crazy. You place an ad in Craigslist looking for experts and offering to make them authors. Think you'll get responses? Likely so, and even if you don't find someone who fits, it didn't cost you a dime.
You go to your mailbox and you find one of those packets of various local advertisers. You open it up and find the following advertisers, which gives you these product ideas:
Liquor store – book on how to make your own liquors
Satellite television – this is a good CPA niche, but you could also make a product on how to watch all your favorite TV without buying cable or satellite
Cafe – an info product on how to do marketing for cafes and small restaurants
Auto mechanic shop – either products on how auto shops can do marketing, or on how consumers can get cars for cheap and also save money on maintenance.
Home security system – how to keep your family safe from harm
Landscape maintenance – how to landscape for minimal upkeep by using native plants, installing automated irrigation, etc.
Carpet cleaners – Joe Polish is a marketer who caters to this niche, teaching carpet cleaners how to clean up financially. And he makes a gob of money teaching in this niche. Makes you think, doesn't it? There are a ton of professions out there that desperately need marketing help.
Address labels – okay, this one has me stumped. While first class mail is at an all time low – who needs address labels? I'll tell you a secret: The sellers of address labels don't make anything selling the labels. They make their money by enclosing offers from all kinds of different businesses when they send out those labels. Sort of like doing multiple solo mailings at one time. Which is a great idea for a local service you can offer to businesses.
Dentist – info products that teach dental practices how to market, as well as products that teach how to get expensive dental services such as implants for a fraction of the cost.
Window cleaner – maybe a product on how to get new windows for cheap, or how to install them yourself? How about teaching people who to open their own window cleaning business?
Chiropractic – once again, how chiropractors can market as well as additional products and services they can sell to increase their profits
Golf course – anything that takes strokes off.
You get the idea – there are product ideas EVERY where, you just have to be open and attentive to find them.