Deciding on the right idea

You probably should dedicate hours to each idea. But not weeks.

I recommend reading up on the minimum viable product. It's a very effective market research strategy: quickly figure out what will interest people, without implementing it first.

By definition, Richard, you are an ideas man. Nothing to be ashamed of, for sure.

What that also means is that you need a dabbler. Someone who will go (to be Ferriss-esque about it) and micro-test it. To ask some folks if it'd be a good idea. Run it through the Business-idea.com gamut, or riff in a smaller community like Sprouter where you can find people in that space and say "Hey, would something like this have legs?"

Finding a dabbler might mean grabbing an intern from your alma mater, a research-happy pal, or a guy who's name you can't pronounce on elance.

On my last startup, I had a friend who was interested in co-founding. To vet him properly (we'd never actually done business together) I laid out about 4 steps of due-diligence for him to do before we moved forward. Just wanted to make sure he will willing to hustle a bit. It was necessary, both relationship-wise and business-wise.

But laying in bed until 2 am with your brain on fire sucks if you don't have someone who will do the homework for you. Find a dabbler. It will complete you.

Best of luck!

When in doubt, I usually go with the idea that most interests me and that has a long term potential (as opposed to a quick money making scheme).

You will need to dedicate some time to each idea just to vet the opportunity. The quick and dirty way I usually do this is to look at three things:

1. Technology/Team: Does the technology exist or do I have to build it from scratch? Do I know people or can I actually do what I want to do?
2. Market/Customer Need: How big is the market? Rough numbers are fine but you should have a threshold as to what your criteria for market is. Mine is > $1B or 1B units. Next, does a customer need it? What pain am I solving and will they pay for it?
3. Competitors: Are there any? Who does the same or similar thing? How strong are they? Is there a gap in their product that I can exploit.

Once I answer those questions with my criteria in mind, you can eliminate a lot of chafe. When an idea makes it past the filter, I then write a short Business Narrative answering the following questions (take from this answer):

• Name Your Business
• Describe What the Business Does
• What Makes the Business Special?
• What Market Does the Business Address?
• Who Are Your Customers?
• What Customer Pain/Benefits Do You Cure/Provide?
• What are Your Long Term Business Goals?
• What Resources/Actions Are Need to Achieve the Goals?
• Summarize Why You Will Succeed

Once you got business and concept, then you can start to build it.

I would ask these questions about each idea:

• Would I enjoy working on it even if it didn't make any money?
• Is it something I personally need or can use?
• Are there are other people willing to make a firm commitment to buy it (best-case) or at least use it?
• Will I learn something in the process of building it that will make me more valuable down the road?
• How quickly can I get something out in the public? (nothing keeps a project moving like people actively using it).

Which questions you emphasize depends on your situation, i.e. are you doing this on the side or do you want to quit your day job. All things being equal, go with the most fun.

Why not post your ideas here and get some feedback. I'm always amazed how quickly an objective 3rd party can discern the good from the bad. I find the problem with talking to friends is they try to be courteous and positive which is not what you need when venturing into a startup.

I have always under estimated the time and money to get web ideas live.

It's so hard to get something live for the first time...especially for idea guys like you (and me) that have to many ideas at once.

So, all other things equal, I'd go with the idea that is most simple to execute and can get live the quickest with the least amount of money. Then follow Steve Blank's customer development approach to turning that product into something big.

Google Adwords campaigns that route to a landing page that collects an email address are a good way to measure interest.

Using this, you can measure and experiment with click through rate, bounce rate, conversion rate (contact email), returning visitors, geographical stats etc, all before committing a line of code.

Dharmesh also made a point in a recent interview. I don't want to misquote, but it was something about using articles or blogs to see if any idea resonates or gains any traction. The extent that people pass your link around and start talking about the idea shows whether it could capture the interest and attention of your market. This too is a good way to test the waters before building a product.