An idea should have every attribute listed here. If it is missing even one of these, then you need to either change your idea or choose something else entirely. Do you like to do it? If you don't, then you probably won't make a great product from this topic. If you do like it, then you're going to enjoy creating the product and that's going to make your product creation 10 times easier than if you don't like the topic. Are you good at doing it? If you are, then you're going to be able to convey great info to your buyers because you know what you're talking about.
Work around for the first 2 attributes: There is an exception to liking to do something and being good at it, and it's to find someone who fulfills both of those qualities. Partner with an expert in a topic and let them create the product while you focus on the marketing.
Is it something that's difficult for others? In other words, you don't want to create a product on how to place one foot in front of the other, since the vast majority of people have been experts on walking since age 3 or 4. However, if you're good at rebuilding classic engines, you've got skills to teach that most people don't possess. Is someone already making money doing this? The odds are exceedingly slim that you've discovered the one thing no one else is selling that WILL sell. When you've got an idea that meets the first 3 criteria, check and see if others are also making money doing or teaching something similar. If they are, you've likely got a great idea. Is your idea something you can implement QUICKLY? If you're looking to create a product to sell online, you're not writing the greatest novel of all time or creating the encyclopedia to your chosen niche. Instead, you want something that goes from idea to implementation quickly, without a ton of expense or time involved. Why? Because you don't want to invest a year of your time just to find out your idea wasn't very good, or to discover your idea is now obsolete. Money loves speed and immediate action. Even more important, the faster you can get your product to the market, the more enthusiastic you can remain throughout the entire product creation process. Conversely, the longer the process drags out, the harder it will become to finish. How Do You Know If Your Idea Will Work? You can research, you can haunt forums, you can do polls, you can call customers directly to get their opinions, and when it's all said and done, there's still only one way to know for a fact if your idea will work or not, and that's to try it. You can, however, do some preliminary research to give you an indication of whether or not you've got a winner. For example, go to Amazon and see if there are books/cd's/videos with similar topics as your info product. Are they selling? Check places like Clickbank, Ebay and Google and see if you can find similar products. In other words, research the competition and observe both what they're doing and how well they're doing. Use the Google keyword tool and find out how many people are searching for your topic and how strong or weak the competition is. Use Alexa to check up on your future competitor's traffic - if their site is a ghost town, keep looking for one that's getting traffic so you can get confirmation that a product like yours is actually selling.. Warning: Spending a great deal of time analyzing your research is going to create something we call the paralysis of analysis. Do your research and then make a decision on whether or not you will move forward on your topic. Don't get caught in the quagmire of indecision that leads to doing absolutely nothing. How To Actually Test Your Product Idea If you want to test the waters, create a rough version of your product. This is the one before you've polished everything, added in the bonuses and so forth. It's a quickie product that you put together as fast as possible simply to test and see if there is a market for your refined product. Complete the quickie, then offer it to your own mailing list or even just a portion of your mailing list and see what happens. If it sells, you've likely got a winner. Get testimonials from your list, smooth all of the rough edges from your product, add in all the whistles and bells and then do a real launch. Another way to test and see if your product will sell is to first sell your product and then create it. Seriously, you can sell your product prior to creating any of it. Simply write your sales letter, add your sales video and start taking orders. Or hold a teleseminar or webinar to sell it. Then roll your product out week by week as an online course, webinar or whatever method you choose. If you don't get many orders, you can always cancel and refund those who did purchase. Then of course once you finish your series, you can package it together and continue to sell it as an immediate download or a CD or DVD course. If you're offering a coaching program, begin with a beta group to test your teaching method. You might offer them a very good discount to be your "guinea pigs" and you can see what methods of coaching work the best before rolling out to a larger audience at a much more expensive price point. Be sure to get lots of feedback from your beta group. This will allow you to create a killer program with outstanding testimonials that warrants a large price tag.