Website Ideas Come From Where?

As someone who has made a decent living from building websites and either reselling them or profiting from them directly I often get asked by readers of my Blog where I come up with new website ideas. I really think it has a lot to do with being a creative person by nature--I'm a self-taught musician able to play 7 instruments and have always enjoyed creative writing too, in fact I've had several of my writings published in magazines and books over the years--but, I also believe that ideas for websites sometimes just happen because I've trained myself to look for them everywhere.

That is a skill I think anybody can develop, and hopefully this article will help you along in doing so.

The majority of websites I've created over the years have been what I call mini-sites. These are informational sites of only 1 to 5 pages in size that focus on a very narrow niche topic, then try to cover that narrow topic in as much depth as is possible.

For instance, I wouldn't build a mini-site about "losing weight" because the topic is far too large to cover in just a few pages. However, "losing weight with [THE LATEST POPULAR DIET OR EXERCISE]" would likely be a good topic for a mini-site, especially just as it was gaining buzz as the latest thing.

So, now that I've described what I look for in a website idea, how and where do I actually find them?

To be honest, most of the time they come from the news. I'm a CNN junkie, I leave it on the television playing in my office through most of my workday. I don't pay a lot of attention to the television while working, but I do still overhear what's being reported on or talked about and without fail several times per day I'll catch something and think to myself "that might make for a good site idea".

The beauty of developing websites for profit--either ongoing direct profiting or profits by selling the sites once you build them--is that you can build a site about anything and make money with it. Anything that you can talk about, you can build a website for.

The key to actually being able to make money from a site is to put in the efforts while you're building it to create an informational resource that will provide visitors with something of value.

If you plan to keep the site for yourself then this will ensure that visitors bookmark the site to become repeat visitors and also tell their friends about the site.

If you plan to sell the site after you build it, then creating an informational resource will give you something of perceived value to offer buyers..which will mean more money from your sale.

Still, it all begins with finding your website ideas, and they are everywhere. You just need to focus yourself on trying to recognize them while going about your daily routine. Anything you hear about, anything your learn for yourself, anything at all that you could hold a conversation on is a potential site.

It's all about just paying attention to what people are talking about or trying to learn more about or overcome in some way, that's how and where I get my website ideas from.

You can build instant niche mini-sites in minutes with NIMS, the Niche Instant Mashup Sites script.