Niche Research Idea Generators

I came across another post where someone is having trouble with niche research or 'brainstorming', so I thought I'd post this.

This is from an ebook I created a little while back ("The Ultimate IM Toolbox") and lists websites & resources I've picked up here, elsewhere, and from my bookmarks file.

If you have any interesting or worthwhile 'brainstorming' links, please feel free to post them.

Mark

---------------------

Trends & Market Analysis

Google Trends => http://www.google.com/trends
TrendWatching => http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/
Google Insights => http://www.google.com/insights/search/#
Quantcast => http://www.quantcast.com
StatBrain => http://www.statbrain.com/

Directories
Directories can be immensely useful to discover and explore categories and niches both by seeing who is there and visiting them.

Open Directory Project => http://www.dmoz.org/
Yahoo Directory => http://dir.yahoo.com/
Niche Website Directory => http://www.nichewebsitedirectory.com/
Press Release Search Engine => http://www.pressreleasespider.com/

Idea Generators

Google Suggest => http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en
Google Patent Search => http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en
Google Product Search => http://www.google.com/products
Lycos Movers and Shakers => http://50.lycos.com/
Alexa Top 500 Movers and Shakers => http://www.alexa.com/topsites
Media Finder => http://www.mediafinder.com/
Pew Research => http://pewresearch.org/
Pew People/PRess => http://people-press.org/
Amazon Bestsellers => http://amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books
WikiSuccess => http://www.wikisuccess.org/wiki/Main_Page
Barnes and Nobles BestSellers => http://www.barnesandnoble.com/gatewa...ellers.asp?z=y
43 Things => http://www.43things.com/
Squidoo Top Lenses => http://www.squidoo.com/browse/top_lenses
Magazine.com => http://www.magazines.com/ncom/mag?redirect=1
Ebay Pulse => http://pulse.ebay.com/
Shopping.com Top Searches => http://www10.shopping.com/top_searches
Yahoo Recreational Hobbies => http://dir.yahoo.com/recreation/hobbies
Google Groups => http://groups.google.com/
Yahoo Groups => http://groups.yahoo.com/
Google Blogsearch => http://blogsearch.google.com/
BlogCatalog => http://www.blogcatalog.com/
Google Catalogs => http://catalogs.google.com/
Yahoo Buzz Index => http://buzz.yahoo.com/
Technorati Top Searches => http://www.technorati.com/
Mailing List Database Search => http://lists.the-dma.org/
Thesauraus, Dictionary, and Encyclopedia => http://thesauraus.reference.com/
Free University Lectures => http://www.lecturefox.com/
Copywriters Library => http://www.copywriterslibrary.com/
Hard To Find Seminars => http://www.hardtofindseminars.com/audioclips.htm
Hard To Find Ads => http://www.hardtofindads.com/home

Answers, "How To" and Self Help
Great for for niche research, plus you can join the conversations and get a backlink.

Yahoo Answers => http://answers.yahoo.com/
WikiHow => http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page
AnswerBag => http://www.answerbag.com/
How Stuff Works => http://www.howstuffworks.com/
So You Wanna? => http://www.soyouwanna.com/
eHow => http://www.ehow.com/
About.com => http://www.about.com/
Yedda => http://yedda.com/
Tips and Answers => http://www.tipsanswers.com/
Find All About Report Generator => http://www.findallabout.com/index.php
VideoJug "Life explained" => http://www.videojug.com/
"Early To Rise Health, Wealth, & Success Ezine" => http://www.earlytorise.com/
"MyGoals" pre-made and customized goal-attainment => http://www.mygoals.com/