It’s all doom and gloom at the moment so I thought I’d share a few of my favourite sites which either inspire me to look at new things, to try harder, or even take it easier, the main theme is to find an idea, develop it and get it built, then work smarter instead of harder to get it up and running.

My first favourite site is called Springwise.com, This site looks great and you don’t so much read the newsletters as drink them with your eyes!, not only do they get all the latest ideas to you from around the globe, they do it in style. Springwise has a global network of over 8000 spotters who feed in entrepreneurial ideas from around the world. The springwise spotters feedback on a plethora of categories from Automotive to Ecological, Media to Publishing, Food to Gambling and many more, I can loose an hour easily clicking through ideas from around the world.

 
My next site is Affiliates4U forum, It’s a daily must for the latest on the affiliate marketing scene, good objective views on pertinent issues are in abundance, you can find plenty of arguments for or against any particular issue as well as all the encouragement you could ever need to find your way into doing something profitable online.

 

For Web 2.0 designs and ideas Go2Web20 has been a long time favourite of mine, it’s full of loads of quality looking sites, Sites are presented in a wall of logos, it’s a great way to burn an hour or two clicking around the sites on there, I find I end up looking at some and wondering how they ever expect to earn anything at all, and then at others thinking it’s such a simple idea yet digital gold and the creator is going to make a fortune from it.

 

Another site I like and use is Sitepoint.com, I use a few areas of the site but more often I end up in the market place area of it as it’s a good way to see what’s hot at the moment with regard to who’s selling what, not saying I’m inclined to copy but I take inspiration if I spot an interesting project as I like to think I can take an idea and carry it further than the original conception so it’s a good place to trawl for seeds to grow into big trees.

 
My next site is 99designs.com, This is another great site to trawl for ideas and you can get them turned into designs or even full sites for a reasonable rate, designers compete for your work, you can add feedback along the way to steer things to where you want them, once there or as close to it as you are happy with, you select a winner and they finish the job, I’ve had some quality design work done on there for just a few hundred dollars so it’s a site to bookmark for both inspiration and for using once you’ve an idea you would like to turn into a project.

 

One of my real favourites sites is a blog that belongs to Tim Ferriss here, It’s one of those blogs you wish the owner would update more often as you are itching to find out what he’s up to now. Tim is a life hacker, he tries to make hard things easier to learn or achieve by deconstructing them to easier steps, from learning new languages to the working backwards from an earnings goal down to how many clicks you need per day to make that happen.

Tim is also the author of the New York Times Bestseller the Four Hour Work Week,  his book has done rather well to say the least, ranking #1 on the wall street journal and BusinessWeek too!, The tag-line is “Escape the 9-5, Live anywhere and join the new rich”, The 4HWW is a great book and very suited to affiliate marketing, basically it’s core idea is that anyone can earn good money whilst cutting down how much they work and get a better quality of life by working smarter, automating and outsourcing everything possible and giving up control to others as much as is feasable instead of micro managing tasks that don’t need it.

I bought the four hour work week a while back and whilst I’m not down to four hours myself I have cut back a lot by delegating more effectively and am planning things out and outsourcing them more than ever, I constantly find myself drawn back to both the Four Hour Work Week book and Tim’s blog and whilst it’s fair to say Tim isn’t working just four hours he’s living a hell of a lot more of a life than most people are, he’s all over the place but doing it on his terms. it’s not about being lazy it’s about working smarter and not just filling down time with work as most of us probably do even now late into the evenings.

 

Spotify.com is not so much a site as a tool, I blogged about this a while back here and still find it great for finding the right music to suit my mood, whether it be some ambient and chilled tracks or something a bit more lively when I need a boost to get something boring finished, There’s a free ad supported version but for just £9.99 per month you can have full advert free access.

I have a few spotify intives going spare so if anyone would like one just leave a comment and I’ll get an invite sent to your email address.That’s my mini round up of a few sites I use for inspiration, feel free to comment and add your own please.

In the current economic climate it’s all too easy to get suckered into a “batten down the hatches” frame of mind when there is turmoil all around and do nothing but sit it out, but it’s often in times of great change when the best opportunities for making money are there, people have changed priorites and new needs now and cutting costs is the main one, hence the explosion in discount vouchers of late as everyone loves a bargain but now people actually need a bargain to make their money go that bit further.

As the credit crunch contiues to bite you can bet people will begin to examine their consumables even closer, food shopping, insurance, utilities and even their jobs and the distance they travel, basically people still want everything they have had before but now realise they need to be able to live more within their means so value for money is key now and will become more so, if you can facilitate people saving money or finding a more suitable deal then you are in a position to earn a profit.