Coming up with a great idea for a product to sell online will occasionally strike when you least expect it. Many times though, it’s something you need to be proactively on the lookout for.

The internet contains a wealth of ideas and inspiration, but as a new entrepreneur, where do you begin? Aimlessly searching online will only get you so far, so we’ve compiled a list of the best resources to give you direction and get you started.

Places to Find Profitable Product Ideas:

1. Start with what you have
2. Your local community
3. Online consumer trend publications
4. Industry leaders
5. Product and trend discovery sites
6. Social curation sites
7. B2B wholesale marketplaces
8. Online consumer marketplaces
9. Social forum communities
10. Social media networks
11. On-site and third-party customer reviews
12. SEO analytics and insights
13. Consumer lifestyle publications
14. Your competitors
15. Audience surveys
16. Crowdsourcing
17. Look to the past

As you go through all the resources listed in this post, it’s vital to keep two things in mind:

While searching for new product ideas, make sure to look beyond the products themselves. . Try not to just look at products, rather look for potential in the product category. Consider new markets, new features and new ways to use the products.

Don’t be afraid to look at smaller product categories and niches. Even though a niche is a smaller subset of a larger category with less potential customers, it makes up for that by way of less competitors and a more targeted audience. Less competition makes it easier to get to the top of Google, and is usually more cost effective and efficient to advertise to your customers.

As you go through this post and the list of resources, it’s best to capture all of your ideas on paper. Once you have all of your brainstormed ideas recorded, you will be able to return to them later and evaluate them for viability and potential.

Cheers

Bobby Wan