Idea Building: How To Come Up With Ideas For The Web

The web is evolving rapidly by the day and people are expecting it to change and provide them more in terms of entertainment, use and functionality. That’s where you come in, at least those who like to take a chance with their ideas. The most important and crucial step before you start building something online is -  The Idea!

What’s it going to be about? How will the idea be of use to other people? Will it entail any physical goods, or be completely digital in nature? Has it already been done? Do I need a big team to execute this idea? How can I make money with it? and so on…

What Does The Web Need?

photo credit: Adriano Agulló

The web needs a lot of stuff. Here are some things that you should NOT build -

• A social network
• A forum
• A shopping comparison site
• An alternative to eBay
• A job board

Here are things that you could build -

• A widget for a social network
• A plugin for forums
• Use the API from big shopping comparison sites and build niche affiliate sites
• An auction widget for bloggers - sorry, took that one already
• Build services for freelancers and job seekers - like a portfolio host maybe?

These are just a few examples I thought of while writing this post. You could come up with even more ideas by using an elimination process and narrowing down on an idea that no one has built yet. Also, you DO NOT have to keep it free, it is OK to charge for software or a service. Just make sure it is something you would sign up for yourself.

Using Elimination To Come Up With Ideas

Not everyone has the resources to build the next Facebook, MySpace {though that would be welcome}, Flickr or another Web Startup review blog. You will face an uphill battle that just gets steeper the more you try to climb it. It’s not impossible, but you could easily pull something off that’s smaller in size and requires less maintenance, not too mention time and money.

Let’s take the instance of building a widget or an application around a social network. We’ll use Facebook as an example. They opened up application development sometime last year and since then apps have exploded. Most of the applications though make little to no money, because they are made by developers and codegeeks who know next to nothing about monetizing their applications.

The easy way is to approach one of these developers and offer them ways to monetize their applications, you can actually buy some right off the bat, in exchange for a percentage in profits.

The other way is to look at the market, i.e. the users, and find out what you could sell to them. Now, it is almost impossible to cater to everyone {since we want to make money with the idea} so focus on a specific niche within the users and target them.

Taking at look at the most active applications can give you an idea of what not to build, as that market is already cornered and would take a lot of effort to get into. Other elimination methods you can use are -

• Application categories that have too many apps - Too much choice usually leads to people going with the popular one. Though this means that if you are able to capture a niche within a popular category it might be easier to monetize.
• Read reviews of applications - People leave feedback for a reason. Read it, it might just give you the idea you need.
• Profile, Desktop or Web? - See what people have built for each category, what’s worked and what hasn’t.
• Languages - English is definitely not the only language that Facebook is available in. Maybe you could get a developer who does multi-lingual apps?

Those are but a few elimination methods you could use. The more you work on targeting, the more chance your application has of succeeding. Just keep in mind, don’t make it so highly specific that only a few people will end up using it.

You can employ the above methods in any niche on the web and come up with an idea, a use, that could potentially be hugely successful. Eliminating what’s already been done is the first step into coming up with an idea for the web which will give you little to no competition.

Recommended Reading

• Idea Building: Watch Your Idea Come To Life
• Idea Building: Developing Your Idea
• AdPack - Marketing Ideas Unlimited
• Case Study: Launching A Web Product - Hiccups