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Today, we’re going to discuss the importance of generating ideas for our Web sites or online businesses.
What kind of ideas? Ideas for new content, ideas for titles of pages, ideas for new offerings, ideas for the wording of content, ideas for generating more traffic, ideas for increasing conversions . . . you name it.
We each generate ideas in different ways. Some of us have the best ideas when taking showers. Others have earth shattering ideas while driving in four lanes of traffic.
Me? Put me in front of a western on TV and my ideas begin to flood. 
Some people can come up with ideas on their own. They can take a walk, relax in their office chair and look at the “things that make them smile,” or they can play with play dough and come up with a whole list of ideas.
Other people do better with an idea partner, someone to bounce ideas off of. In fact, even if you can come up with ideas on your own, you may want an idea partner to help you take your creation to new levels.
Let’s look at qualifications for an idea partner:
1. Your idea partner must be someone you can easily talk to who won’t give you negative feedback on your ideas. We’re going to talk about brainstorming in Day #8, but during brainstorming, you can’t have negative feedback. All ideas should be allowed to flow. No ideas are “bad.”
2. If your idea partner keeps saying, “That won’t work” or “We can’t afford to do that,” get a different idea partner. You MUST have a positive idea partner. “No,” “can’t,” “won’t,” and similar words aren’t allowed.
3. Idea partners must be positive people. They don’t have to be in your own industry, but they need to be positive.
4. Idea partners must be good listeners, and they must be willing to add additional twists to your original idea to give it strength, when needed.
5. Who can they be? They can be significant others, grown children, parents, best friends, business associates, etc. I’ll be your idea partner here on this blog. We’ll have brainstorming sessions here. Be sure to participate.
Idea partners can help you make your Web site a living, breathing entity. With the influx of new ideas, your Web site will become sticky. Visitors will take notice. So will the search engines. Isn’t that what you’re after? You should be.
Today’s Assignment:
Think about someone who could be your idea partner. Don’t take this assignment lightly. Give it some very serious thought.
Write down 3-5 names. If you feel comfortable with one, contact that person.
Robin
I’d like to add to your list of idea partner qualifications. I think that a partner must be able to set aside his baser competitive instincts while brain storming. If the competitiveness is a playful kind which both partners enjoy doing together, this is fine. However, if it comes from a deep insecurity, a deep need, the collaboration will be poisoned.
A good partner must also be able to resist falling in love with one’s own idea. This is the cause of the “not invented here” sickness. When you are able to spontaneously generate ideas, you will find that they’re a dime a dozen and that you don’t have to tenaciously hang on to any one idea to your last dying gasp as if it were your only child. It’s not “your baby”, its just an idea, so get over it. If you can’t, then you won’t have the fluidity required to incorporate or build off of your partners input. The whole idea behind collaboration is that each partner leverages off the others input to bring the over all product to the next level.
I’ve found that with the right partner, quality concepts can be generated with amazing rapidity.
Comment by Marc Sandefur 01.14.07 @ 11:43 amMarc,
I couldn’t agree with you more. Not all ideas are workable. That’s part of the reason for “room #2″ that I’ve explained in this process.
I recently had this (what I considered) GREAT idea that I wanted to implement here as part of the blog. One of my idea partners (John Alexander, who is as right brained as I am) thought it was a wonderful idea too, so we were ready to run with it.
Then, I talked to Martin about it. Martin is the left brain to my right brain. We work together on this blog. Martin keeps me grounded (or tries to).
Though Martin liked the idea, he explained to me how it would never work from a technology standpoint. I had (to quote your terms) “fallen in love” with a “crazy 8 ball” idea of trying to help you all brainstorm using technology, but there was no way to connect the technology to the brain/creativity. So, I had to let the idea go.
Now, I have a new idea. This one is doable.
Thank you so much for pointing this out. I appreciate it.
Robin
Comment by robin 01.30.07 @ 11:00 am[…] 3. Grab an idea partner and begin to bounce ideas off each other. Start with one target audience, like collectors. What do collectors want to see at a used bookstore? That’s what it’s all about: what the audience wants to see–not what YOU want to give them. At this stage, all ideas are good, so write them all down. For help in learning to brainstorm, go through my 12-Step Creativity Program. […]
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