(Btw. what is “releasing a new version” really? It’s a product-re-launch. So of course, yes, the more you do that the more money you make).

But sometimes we “forget” about these things. How many products in different niche markets you have that make you a couple of hundred dollars here and there… well, why not give your income a little boost and just polish it up a little and release “version 2.0″?)

Another way to find out where successful companies in your industry are finding their customers is to contact trade associations and they can provide you with directories of media brokers and other industry specialists. And when you contact them and tell them about your plans for marketing your product, they will help you. And of course everything they tell you will be biased to everything they specialize in, but you still can get very valuable information that way.

Afterwards, send follow up “thank you” notices and maybe small presents. This way, they’ll probably talk to you again if you ask them in the future again.

5 Steps To Picking The Perfect Startup Product.

1. Find out what products are currently hot in the market.
2. Determine if your product idea fits that trend.
3. If it does, you’re ready to go. If it doesn’t follow steps 4 and five.
4. Come up with “me too versions” of several hot products.
5. Improve them in some way by adding features and benefits the originals lack.

How To Find Out What Products Are Hot
Identify the primary media for your market. And look at what’s being advertised the most. What are the bestsellers? How long have they been selling? That can give you a clue about the state of the trend. Because the trend is like a curve, and you want to be in on the trend as early as possible, you don’t want to get in when it’s already fading.
(Of course there’s no sure way to guess how long a trend will last, but you can find out by talking to people in the industry – speak with brokers, consultants, and even competitors.

Get your hands on the top 3-5 products in the market and study them. You don’t even need to buy them – you can just walk into a store and examine them in the store, or you can order, test them and return them for a refund.

And for every product make a list of all features and benefits. Compare the products to one another and figure out which characteristics are the most appealing and make a list of any shortcomings you notice.

And you can also share the product with others – friends and products, and get their ideas about how it can be improved. This is a great thing because you just tap into so much more brainpower, you’re multiplying the brainpower.

What you are looking for is an idea that will really excite you, an idea that you feel will really capture the market – that will create the tipping point buying frenzy. (Of course, just because you feel that way doesn’t mean it WILL be, but it’s a lot easier to get things going when you are excited).

Even when you have top-employees – you need to be on top of your game.

That’s why every entrepreneur should know how he functions most efficiently.

Sure – to some extent it’s different for everyone. But something is just human nature.

For example: distractions clutter our mind and take out lots of productive force from our minds.

That’s why you need uninterrupted chunks of time. Eben Pagan, who’s running the $20 million internet business that he started from scratch from his bedroom, made a great free video on productivity.

One thing you should do for sure is:

• don’t check your emails more than 3 times a day
• don’t check your emails first thing in the morning.
• first thing in the morning: get a good start that puts YOU in a good state. (good food, good exercise)
• reserve a two hour time slot for the most important tasks in your business. Be sure to not be interrupted under any circumstances during this time. (Turn off the phone and blackberry)
• after 50 minutes of work, do a 10 minute break.

But instead I’m going to look data speak.

How is a recession defined anyway? I guess it’s really up to what the majority of people percieve it to be.

Now, Google has a nifty little tool that allows you to look for how often a word has been searched for – thus allowing you to “peek inside the minds” of billions of searchers who type in queries.

It then draws out a line that shows how often these term have been searched for over the last couple of years.

Usually the lines are pretty constant. Look for example at the term “bicycle”.

Granted – within each year there is some cycling variations (it peaks during the summertime and reaches it’s low point in the wintertime) that is no surprise. Most people buy their bikes when it’s sunny.

But overall, the curve is pretty smooth over the years – overall, the line seems to go done a little bit.

Now let’s look at another curve – the curve for the word “recession”:

You see that? It’s been pretty smooth until 2007 – then, it started to bump around a bit. In early 2008 it really peaked – this was when the stocks dived because of fears of recession.

Then it falls sharply again, but it remains on a higher level than before with still lots of activity.

So, are we in a recession now?