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Research For Information – Free!

While being involved with Internet Marketing, there’s no doubt that at some point during your work, you’re going to have to get some research done. While you may hate to research (or may you like it), you can at least get satisfaction out of knowing that there are plenty of places where you can research information for free.

There are three main places that you can and should research extensively.

One is the Internet, the next is your local library, and the last is a bookstore. Each of these places has their own unique positive and negative characteristics.

If you’re into IM then you obviously have the Internet readily available. There is an absolute mind-numbing amount of information on the Internet. You can find information on practically any topic you can think of if you know exactly how to look. More obvious topics will pop right up on search engines but more obscure topics may take a bit of work. You might have to enter related words or start with a broader topic and then work your way down to the exact topic.   Take a look at www.infofinderpro.com for a great research tool that’ll help you find practically anything online.

The availability and the amount of information are two huge positives for researching on the Internet. The one drawback is that you don’t always know if the information you’re getting is correct. People can pretty much post whatever they want on the Internet. So make sure you’re always using reliable information.

Depending where you live, you may or may not have a large library. Larger libraries have a great amount of books you can use for research, but even smaller libraries come in handy too. As long as the topic isn’t too new or obscure, libraries are very useful for researching. And the fact that you can take-out most of the books makes libraries an even better choice.

The one negative of libraries is that they rarely have the latest books. So, if the topic is new or you’re looking for up-to-the-minute information in books, then a library probably isn’t the place to research. However, you may be able to get great information from a library’s magazines.

The final place that’s great for research is a large bookstore such as Barnes and Noble or Waterstones. For some reason bookstores are often overlooked as places for research. You can walk in, have thousands of the newest (and the oldest) books at your disposal, and simply pull out the ones you want and use them for research inside the store. Most bookstores also have a little café or something similar where you can have a cup or coffee or tea while you do your work.

Of course the drawback to bookstores is that the employees there might frown on you if you’re there all day everyday without buying anything :)  

Sidenote:  Nowadays most book publishers ‘pay for placement’ in bookstores – ie they pay to get good spots (in the window or the ‘walk in’ for instance) – Make a mental note of the kind of books in these spots the next time you visit because it might alert you to potential new trends you can hook on to.

Happy Researching!

For more great info-product creation tips and ideas check out www.InfoProductCrashCourse.com

Last 5 posts by HodgkinsonPublishing