Here’s Help With Generating IdeasFor Your Site’s Niche Content
There will be times when you will get stuck in some sort of situation whether it is personal or business related. All kinds
of situationsmay have multiple ways out and can have corresponding pros and cons for each choice. It gets even tougher when there
is no turning back once a choice is made and when turn backs are necessary, a massive payload ensues. The best way to avoid any
of these bad outcomes and choose the best solution is through brainstorming.
Just like real life, brainstorming is also one of the early stages in getting your website right from initial design all the
way up to the coding leading to the finished product. It has been a creative thinking technique for over 60 years and only the
proper ways to brainstorm will guarantee a successful website execution.
Here are some of the ways to brainstorm effectively:
Research Prior to the Brainstorming Session
Knowing the topic on hand in advance comes in handy here so you can get a head start in doing as much research as you can for
gathering facts about niches and current design trends so that your thrown ideas won’t be far off the topic. You may think of this
as a pre-brainstorming session or some time to think of ideas for yourself. Don’t forget to have all of your facts on file or on
paper so you can use it as live resources during the live session.
Assemble Your Team
It is highly recommended to get everybody involved regardless of the subject. Don’t restrict things to the design team, but get
the programming team, and other people in other positions involved. Having around 6-12 people is just about right in having a
productive brainstorming session. Remember that the topic revolves on building a website and the designers, programmers, and
internet marketing specialists need to work together with the leader.
Be Creative in the Setting
Brainstorming sessions do not always have to be in a boring conference room to keep things “professional”. Explore other options
like a home or outside in the park or any peaceful environment where good ideas can develop.
Set the Rules, Scope and Objectives
Even if you assume that everyone knows what the topic is, try to clarify things before the brainstorming session begins. It
doesn’t matter if you are the team leader or not, doing this will avoid any unnecessary time to be wasted. For instance, you
can have one brainstorming session about the website design and then another brainstorming session about the target market and
so on. Regarding the rules, setting a time limit is crucial to encourage people to cough up all the ideas they can think of so
that there is much to work with afterwards.
Make Sure All the Tools are Gathered
One of the worst things that can happen after a successful brainstorming session is the ideas being forgotten. This can be
avoided by properly equipping your team with brainstorming tools. It can come in the form of simple pencils and papers for everyone
or one big piece of paper with one person jotting down all the ideas and creating site maps and flowcharts. It can also be a
whiteboard or even a tablet PC for greater interactivity.
Some days one method will work better than another, largely depending on the mood and frame of mind everyone is in when they
come to the session. This is why more than one brainstorming session, spaced several days or weeks apart, is beneficial. Everyone
comes back to it with a different perspective and thinking pattern. You’re setting the stage for more fresh ideas to come out.
Avoid Shooting Down IdeasDuring the Brainstorming Session
When the brainstorming session is commenced, encourage any forms of ideas to be voiced and noticed. The whole purpose of
brainstorming is getting as many ideas as possible and doing all the judgments later or on a more in-depth brainstorming session.
Shooting down the ideas of others may discourage people from participating any further and can ruin the momentum that is needed
to reach the good ideas. Since this rule should apply to all people in the brainstorming session, you should not hesitate throwing
in ideas of your own.
Personally, I think this is a great approach to dealing with friends, family, or even your own children (yes, they’re family,
but if they’re young children they’re in a whole different level of moral/ethical and cognitive development that really has to be
handled with kid gloves). Immediately pointing out what’s wrong with a friend’s idea, say to move to California from Wisconsin
for the great weather, is a sure way to squash their own ideas for solving the “problem”. As in a group brainstorming session,
withholding judgements will encourage the free flow of creative and productive ideas and solutions.
Go Over Everything andPlan for an In-Depth Session
Once the time is up, you can have a post session where everything is evaluated and ideas are shortlisted. Shortlist all the
concepts of the various categories including the design, execution, niche, sitemap, and other things so that the project can
begin smoothly or another brainstorming session can be made.
Once everything is brought together, your team can collectively work together in creating the perfect website that fits all
of the best ideas that everyone agreed on. As long as your ways to brainstorm remain fun and productive, the resulting outcome
should be a well setup website.
Going Solo in Brainstorming
A lot of these techniques can be done solo, without a team of people inputing their ideas. Knowing your thought processes
will help in putting you into the best environment to generate idea. Do you find that ideas come best to you when your in the
shower, or just falling asleep, or while commuting? Carry a notebook and pen with you everywhere. Maybe formaly scheduling time
for yourself to sit down is most productive. Change your environment to get a new perspective; go to a coffee shop you don’t
normally visit, drive a different way to work, do some painting or drawing or doodling for awhile to open up your right brain.
Whatever you do don’t say to yourself “I’ll write it down later…” or “I’ll remember it in the morning”. Believe me, you won’t. Get it onto paper as soon as it pops in your brain!
When you’ve accumulated some good ideas on paper and mulled it over in your head you can then go to a forum or 2 on website
building to bounce your ideas off of others. The forums at SiteBuildIt! are absolutely great for tapping into other people who’ve
“been there, done that… and have the t-shirt”. So even if you start off your brainstorming in a solo fashion there’s always a
place on the web to touch base with other folks. The SBI! forum is great for finding positive, success-focused fellow SBI’ers.
Final Tip
Snack. Eat something delicious. Seriously, the act of eating some delicious little snack or goody while brainstorming can
increase your idea generation a LOT. Eating good food stimulate a whole ‘nother part of your brain. And the key in brainstorming
is to open up the various parts of your brain so they can talk to each other and really think outside the box. You can always go
for a long walk later to burn off the calories. That espresso and scone are looking better already .
