There are dozens of places to go online to get ideas and information about online businesses, but few of them are the best places because they are the “big guys” and can give you the best information. Examples of what I call “big guys” sites are:

1. Amazon.com
2. eBay
3. Yahoo (Yahoo Answers and Yahoo Groups)
4. YouTube
5. Google (Google Groups, Google Trends)

For the most part, these brand names are now household names. And they have grown a lot over the past few years. Because of this they are a rich source of data concerning online consumer behavior. In other words, they can tell you what people BUY and what people are Interested In. You don’t want to ignore this data.

• For example, the two biggest online sellers are Amazon and eBay.
• With both of them, you can browse categories of products, and see which ones are most popular.
• Within those general categories, keep slicing and dicing your way down to smaller and smaller markets we call “niches.” Often these smaller markets can be most profitable, if the competition is not as great.
• Going through the category listings on the left side of their website home pages will give you a lot of ideas.
• Then click on some categories you are interested in, and keep clicking till the category is very narrow and very specific. This is the best way to get ideas for businesses that are tailored to specific markets of buyers.

The reason for this is that both Amazon and Ebay will give you data on the number of purchases of their items.

• eBay Pulse tells you what the hottest items are.
• Amazon has tabs for “best sellers” within each category and sub-category.
• You can see how many books are sold on “dog training” compared to “raising chickens”. Or how many books are sold on “finding love” compared to “how to pick up women”.
• It’s a great place to get preliminary data on volume of sales in addition to giving you ideas for market niches within your general areas of interest.