I love people who can come up with new ebook ideas quickly. In fact when I first started publishing my own ebooks, I would often wonder how the heck do people get these great ideas.
Later it dawned on me that folks don't simply come up with ebook ideas on their own, they got their ideas because they knew where to look. That prompted me to find out where their hangouts were. I found several of them but these are three of my favorites..
1. Google …of course!
Google is the ultimate idea hangout. They have such an amazing database of information that it would take another post just to scratch the surface. However to simplify things, these are two quick ways to find ideas using Google.
- Identify Listings
Start by searching a broad topic related to your area of interest. For example, if you were interested in 'tattoos' you would type that phrase into the Google's search window and it will return several related sites. Those sites will give you ideas for information products right there in the first couple of pages.
– Identify Advertisers
From this same search you'll also notice that there are several small ads either at the top of the page or to the right of the page. These advertisers are your competition, but that's OK, they're also a good indication of interest which means whatever they are selling, you should be selling too.
For both of these examples, click through to the web pages of the sites and study their sales pages paying particular attention to their “bullet points”. Each of these represents a potential idea for your next ebook.
2. AMAZON
Amazon is the world’s largest bookstore so use their listings to get ideas. Start by entering a keyword or key phrase into the search box on the main page at Amazon.com. Comb through the listed items for ideas. For example, using our 'tattoo' example you’d find a variety of ideas in the listing of books available, including tattoo designs, getting rid of tattoos, how to choose a tattoo, Henna tattoos, etc. Any of these listings would be great ebook ideas.
Pay particular attention to the first page of the listing. Amazon ranks their listings based on popularity of actual sales volume. In other words, #1 is a better seller than #10.
3. MAGAZINES.com
Just as Amazon is the world's largest bookstore, magazines.com is the world’s largest periodical store.
There's every magazine imaginable at this site. The best part about this site is you’ll also find the COVER of a recent copy of each magazine. For example, if you search for “Parenting”, magazines.com will return a listing of magazines related to that topic. If you click on the image of the magazine cover you’ll see a larger copy of that cover where you can easily read the contents.
Each of these “cover stories” gives you another ebook idea. The best part about this is that the publishers of these magazines have done the research for you. Cool huh 
They’ve measured the level of interest for these ideas and found it high enough to warrant not only writing content about them, but referencing that content on the cover of the magazine! That’s your biggest clue to what people want to know about?
If you're excited to write your own ebook but need a few good ebook ideas, these are 3 places you can hangout and find ready-made, in-demand, red-hot ebook topics.
Have fun looking for your ideas
[tags]ebook ideas[/tags]
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Writers are readers. Reading is not only for researching and entertaining, it can jumpstart your own creative juices and spark new ideas that you can develop into your next eBook. Books, magazines, newspapers and even billboards can provide that spark which becomes your next great idea.
Wonderful post. Sometimes it is hard to overcome the writing block when writing on some ideas, I hope everyone that does can read your blog. Excellent!
Twitter: ZakShow
September 6, 2010 at 9:29 am
Finding ebooks ideas is not an easy task, it’s something that require knowledge on the topic that you want to write about and also a good writing style to keep as much simple as informative!
Thank you for the great and inspiring post.
It is really hard to write an ebook when you don’t have any references. Me too i wonder where they get the idea on their ebooks. But with this post now i know. Thank you so much. This is such a useful post.
You can’t write something unless an idea pops into your mind or you have something to start with. Each of those ebooks will surely have it’s resources from different sources but they are able to expand that idea and eventually write an ebook which is useful to readers and researchers.
When you have some ideas you will want to do some research on them. You can use Google’s keyword tool by doing a search for it on Google, its free to use. What you will want to do here is type in the box labeled “descriptive words or phrases,” something like “how to write” just replace the word write with your topic. Just make sure what ever you write in the box is related to your eBook idea.
Ebooks are very useful these days because you won’t have a hard time researching in the library instead you’ll be able to download them from the comfort of your room. Internet is a fast growing technology and since most people has internet access, then finding resources for projects won’t be that difficult.
Twitter: incomesecurity
May 18, 2011 at 4:14 pm
I find the best source of ideas for new ebooks and Insight Reports is online FORUMS.
You can see, quickly and clearly, what people are wanting to know about — and rarely getting reliable, useful, practical answers, or else getting them spread over scores of replies.
Forum marketing is one of the most productive sources of targeted, qualified leads, IF you know what to do, and how to avoid breaking rules and established guidelines and standards. Getting yourself banned from forums is very easy to do unless you know how to conduct yourself.