I’ve been spending some time this weekend going through the Buy, Sell or Trade forum over at Digital Point. I like to do this not only to spot some good potential deals but to also get my finger on the pulse of what’s doing well online. This is a great way to pick the topic for your next project.

So how do you use this as inspiration for your next web project?

The Secret

The sites that are doing well online are not being sold at Digital Point. Most people are selling their site on Digital Point because it’s an absolute failure and they want to get rid of it.

Look at what people are selling and if you’re considering doing something similar trash that idea immediately.

The seller will use excuses like he doesn’t have the time or doesn’t know how to promote it. Those are key phrases for “this web site is a failure.”

Examples of Bad Sites

The following types of sites are pretty commonly on sale right now. Avoid starting sites in these niches like the plague. They just don’t work.

• Image Hosting
• URL Shortening
• Sites with “Four Unique Sources of Income! Amazon, eBay, ClickBank and AdSense!”
• YouTube Video Aggregators
• WordPress Blogs Powered by Auto-Updating RSS Scripts

Those kinds of sites have been the main offenders for months now.

Examples of Good Sites

So those are the sites that aren’t apparently doing too well online these days. I’ll wrap this post up with a list of the types of sites you rarely see for sale. I take that as an indication sites of the following nature are reasonably successful for their owners:

• Established Blogs with Hundreds of Indexed Pages, Thousands of Backlinks and some PageRank
• Unique Content Sites in Niche Topics (again, with Indexed Pages)
• Membership Sites with Recurring Monthly Subscriptions

There are more, of course, but you’re going to need to do your own research. Again, use forums like the ones at Digital Point to find out what is and what isn’t working online. Most of the sites selling online just aren’t working which is why they’re being sold in the first place.