A home-based business needs more ideas in the sales and marketing area, search engine optimization (SEO), general marketing, advertising placement, copywriting, and Website traffic. The knowledge we need is everywhere and all around us. The problem is: how in the world can an individual entrepreneur possibly find any of this information they need? They are already overworked and operating in a condition of extreme stress. To make matters worse, information sources are unknown to most people and are hard to find, even if you know what they are.
There is also an endless source of information in the universe itself. Physicists estimate our senses choose less than one-billionth of the energy waves and particles that surround us. Why? We have conditioned our minds through our view of the world to shut out unfamiliar things. We are stuck with only three means of tapping all this information: waking, sleeping, and dreaming. There is much discussion of a fourth state that could reveal much more to us, and such a source may be Transcendental Meditation (TM) of the New Age thinking (it’s really ancient Eastern meditation). This method requires a lot of study and a long learning curve, so we only mention this for your consideration. If you are interested in learning more, check Amazon or Google. We’re going to find quicker ways to get ideas.
Creative
thinking can come from anywhere. You may hear something on the radio,
see sight and sound bites on TV, or read a book, when suddenly the
solution you have been trying to find appears right before you. One of
my businesses is writing, and my production is the ideas that come to me
from many sources. The idea for this article came in a dream! Realize
that every night my TV is on continuously and tuned all night long to
the Fox News Channel. With the likes of Bill O’Reilly, Greta Van
Susteren, the Red Eye crowd, and Neil Cavuto arguing about everything
imaginable, what do you think my dreams would be like? I listen to Fox a
lot, though I totally disagree with most of their thinking, because
they discuss issues the other media will not talk about. That’s a total
different subject, but it’s impossible to get the truth about anything
from most of the media, including Fox. They do, however, touch some
interesting subjects discussed nowhere else which often produces
excellent ideas as the subjects of some of my articles. Anyway, I had
this Fox-induced dream.The whole thing began with my talking to a gentleman about investments, or a business opportunity, or something like that. I’ve no idea who he was, but we talked for a good while about something. During the course of that conversation, another person walked by the office where we sat and started talking to a group of people. It looked as though this new man were going to set up a seminar about some business opportunity; many people began to gather around. At this point, my man asked if I had ever attended any of the new man’s seminars or discussed business or investments with him? If so, did I lose any money from his ideas? My answer was, “No, I never tried anything he talked about and so lost no money, but listening to him gave me important insights into some projects I’ve been considering.” So my idea about “thought starters” began out of a dream seminar! My mind just picked up on one of those billion or so pieces of information. I was in one of the three states of mind where one can perhaps pick up a new idea, dreaming.
Waking and sleeping are the other two useful mind conditions. Most of us have little control over sleeping and dreaming, so these times are totally left to chance. While waking we have the opportunity to explore sources of creativity. We can meditate for short periods without too much training; simply being quiet and trying to clear the mind of all the noise can often supply the perfect condition for creative thinking. We will discuss some of the waking sources of information and we can begin with a seminar like the one discussed in my dream.
Seminars can be an excellent information source. You are able join a group of people with similar interests in a place separated from the general public, and everyone concentrates on what the seminar leader presents. In many cases seminars have become sales sessions, some resembling TV “infomercials” more than anything else. Still, even an infomercial could be a thought starter. Recently seminars have gone on the Internet, so you can participate right from your computer. Most serious seminars charge a fee (and still offer things for sale at the site), whereas most “infomercial” types are free.
One of the few good seminars I’ve attended was sponsored by Zig Ziglar, a well-known motivator, especially for sales people. A few years ago I felt a need to improve my sales ability and just generally needed motivation at a low point in my life. I was not disappointed. Zig had a young man born with no arms as a co-presenter. You can imagine the inspiration that exuded from his remarks. You may want to visit the Ziglar Website (http://ziglar.com/); look around and you could discover some new way of thinking.
Here are some other outstanding authorities you can search for ideas:
Ralph Wilson
is well-known for his large knowledge base about every aspect of
Internet marketing from e-mail selling to SEO and everything in between.
Study his home page and you should get numerous ideas just from seeing
everything he has to offer. There are books, e-books, online articles,
newsletters, consulting services, and seminars for starters.
Entrepreneur Magazine, The New York Times, Advertising Age, and others
have all called Dr. Wilson a leading authority on Internet marketing.
Good “thought starter.”Robert G. Allen
made a lot of money early in his career with various real estate
investing techniques as outlined in Multiple Streams of Income. He has
written several other books and a lot of reports as well as being
co-author of The One Minute Millionaire. All of these products and much
more, including a newsletter, are available on his Website. Perhaps the
most important thing you will find is a description of his free
tele-seminars. I found an example of thought starters simply by going
through one of these Websites: an article about marketing “How-To”
information products. This is one of my personal income areas as a
writer, and I intend to use some of the ideas I found here today!
Perhaps you can find something of use to you the same way.
Jim Daniels is another respected Internet entrepreneur. His BizWeb2000
site has an Alexa ranking about 39,000, which indicates a lot of
traffic. Check out his products page and go to one of the sales pages
for a book or other item. By scrolling down the page, you will be
exposed to many general concepts in the item he wants to sell. Doing
this may help you find out general ideas without having to purchase
anything, unless you just want to own it. You can buy advertising which
has a lot of continuing exposure on his newsletter which is archived and
available for a long time. And, yes, I found another thought starter
for my own use—listing one of my URLs in his “Submit URL” area. These
Websites are goldmines of ideas.Tony Robbins
is considered by many to be a world-class authority on leadership
psychology. He says, “The only true security in life comes from knowing
that every single day you are improving yourself in some way.” On this
site, you will find many tools and products to help you achieve your
life goals and happiness. They include seminars on various subjects held
around the world, a line of supplements to aid your health program, a
kit containing Tony’s Rapid Planning Kit complete with forms, meditation
music, and multimedia products, and many other ways to help you be what
you want to be. There are a lot of thought starters here.Joe Vitale
deserves attention, because he managed to rise from being completely
broke and homeless to the writer of many best selling books including
The Attractor Factor and Spiritual Marketing. He is best known for his
hypnotic way of copywriting sales material. On this site you can browse
through books and other products Joe has produced and any one of them
will show you some little bit of inspiration just from reading the sales
material. And there is a list of articles he has written divided into
“New,” “Recent,” and “Ancient” articles. I just read again one of his
ways to get what you want: remember that you don’t have to have it and
enjoy where you are at this moment. Surprisingly many things come to you
in this way. There are a whole lot more ways to stimulate your thinking
on this site. Pay attention.You can find many other information sources like these by searching Amazon or Google for relevant search terms and topics that interest you. It’s is truly amazing how much free information you can find on someone’s sales pages. Here’s a good way to help your mind pick up some extra information bits from the Universe:
- Every day spend 15 minutes doing random or specific searches if you need specific information.
- Every day spend 15 minutes in quiet meditation.
- Expect some fleeting new thought to come to you after each of these sessions (it may take a while to happen).
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