How to research the subject of your next book or article
| Category: Market Research | Date: 2001-09-07 |
Websites, research companies, specialist search engines, newsgroups, mailing lists, ezines, magazines, newspapers are just some of the resources you can use to help you come up with the next subject for your book, article or ezine.
To newbies, the Internet is both a goldmine and a bottomless pit of data that somehow needs to be turned into information. It is very easy for someone new to the Internet to become overwhelmed very rapidly and find themselves getting lost.
For an author the Internet makes research easier, faster, and more efficient...as long as you know how to get to the information you need.
This article gives you some pointers as to how you can find and research your next topic without having to spend days online.
Where do I start?
Before you can answer this question you need to know what type of resources are available to help you in your quest.
We shall take a look at search engines and briefly mention other resources you can use.
Search Engines
This is where most people begin their journey. There are hundreds of search engines one can use but my advice to you would be to stick with the majors which are:
Yahoo!
http://www.yahoo.com
AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com
InfoSeek
http://www.infoseek.com
Excite
http://www.excite.com
Lycos
http://www.lycos.com
HotBot
http://www.hotbot.com
WebCrawler
http://www.webcrawler.com
Northern Light
http://www.northernlight.com
There are several disadvantages when using these engines that you need to be aware of.
1. You need to visit each engine to make sure you find all of the resources that cover your chosen subject area. Not all websites are registered with all search engines. This can take up a lot of time and depending on how narrow or broad your search may be, you could find yourself wading through millions of listings!
2. Not all of the websites returned will be relevant. When website owners submit their sites to the search engines they may use keywords that only partially reflect their site content. You must manually filter out those that are not relevant and you may only be able to do this by visiting each site!
3. You will waste a great deal of time.
How to make your searching more effective
To make your surfing experience more productive I suggest you start with this site http://www.askjeeves.com .
This is a search engine which allows you to ask a question in English and it will immediately tell you all the possible resources that can answer that question for you...including other search engines! In fact AltaVista use the AskJeeves engine to perform some of their own searches.
The other thing you can do, when using the engines listed above, is to choose your keywords very carefully. Never use single word searches because you will end up with millions of websites. Instead use at least two or more keywords together to narrow down your search.
For example, if you are writing a book about online golfing sites and you want to find information about golf sites that allow banner advertising, then you should enter
+"banner advertising" +golf
into the search box. The quote marks tell the search engine to find sites that specified "banner advertising" keywords in that order, the +golf tells the engine you are only interested in sites about golf. The "+" signs indicate that you want these keywords to appear on the site in the order you have entered them.
You may need to modify this search slightly for the different engines, each search engine has help available to you. Most of the top search engines will recognize this type of query.
Use specialist search engines
Another way of making your online time more effective is to find a specialist search engine dedicated to your subject area.
Again you can begin your search on the AskJeeves site http://www.askjeeves.com . Let's assume you were writing about business opportunities on the Net and you wanted to find a search engine that will search only those types of sites. On the AskJeeves page you could get this information by asking the question
"Where can I find a business opportunity search engine?"
You will not need to enter the quote marks. Of course you should replace "business opportunity" with the subject you are interested in.
AskJeeves will return all of the search engines dedicated to your topic. You can then visit these specialist engines and perform your searches there. A great place to start!
To help you with your research, we have compiled a list of useful sites which you can get from our autoresponder at research@getpub.com?Subject=report17 . This list is updated approximately monthly and everyone requesting the list will be emailed when the list changes.
Other resources you can use
To finish, here are other resources you can use to find information on your chosen topic. We will be discussing these in future articles which are posted at
http://www.getpub.com/archives.htm?report17 .
Specialist Subject Sites
There are many sites on the web dedicated to a single subject. You may find many of them from an AskJeeves search and on the major search engines. Two places to look at immediately are:
The BBC Webguide - Find websites appropriate to your topic
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/webguide/
Research a wide range of subjects at Beaucoup
http://www.beaucoup.com
Keep an eye on the News
A good place to learn about your subject can be from newspapers, magazines and trade periodicals many of which have an online presence.
Try these two sites:
The Internet Public Library
http://ipl.sils.umich.edu/
Online magazines at The Electronic Newsstand
http://www.enews.com
Network with other online authors and publishers
Email lists, forums and Newsgroups can also be good places to ask questions specific to your topic. To narrow down the places specific to your subject try these two sites:
A comprehensive list of Forums and Mailing lists
http://www.forumone.com
Another site for Mailing lists, Forums and Newsgroups
http://www.liszt.com
and if they are not enough how about Ezines
A good place to start is http://ezinesearch.com .
And don't forget our Ezine !Get Published! http://www.getpub.com/archives.htm?report17 or to subscribe send a blank email to getpub-subscribe@onelist.com?Subject=report17 .
Summary
Hopefully you are now a little wiser where to start looking to research that next book or article. In upcoming articles we will look at each of these resources in more detail and show you how you can use them to save time.
Trying to find information online?
Want to know how to search without wasting time?
Find out today
Go to <http://www.search-help.net/?report17>
About the Author
Greg Spence is the Author of, "How to Search the Internet and Find the Information You Need....Ten Times Faster" http://www.search-help.net Want to publish your books and articles online? We can help you for FREE!
:To contact see details below.
gspence@getpub.com
http://www.getpub.com
To newbies, the Internet is both a goldmine and a bottomless pit of data that somehow needs to be turned into information. It is very easy for someone new to the Internet to become overwhelmed very rapidly and find themselves getting lost.
For an author the Internet makes research easier, faster, and more efficient...as long as you know how to get to the information you need.
This article gives you some pointers as to how you can find and research your next topic without having to spend days online.
Where do I start?
Before you can answer this question you need to know what type of resources are available to help you in your quest.
We shall take a look at search engines and briefly mention other resources you can use.
Search Engines
This is where most people begin their journey. There are hundreds of search engines one can use but my advice to you would be to stick with the majors which are:
Yahoo!
http://www.yahoo.com
AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com
InfoSeek
http://www.infoseek.com
Excite
http://www.excite.com
Lycos
http://www.lycos.com
HotBot
http://www.hotbot.com
WebCrawler
http://www.webcrawler.com
Northern Light
http://www.northernlight.com
There are several disadvantages when using these engines that you need to be aware of.
1. You need to visit each engine to make sure you find all of the resources that cover your chosen subject area. Not all websites are registered with all search engines. This can take up a lot of time and depending on how narrow or broad your search may be, you could find yourself wading through millions of listings!
2. Not all of the websites returned will be relevant. When website owners submit their sites to the search engines they may use keywords that only partially reflect their site content. You must manually filter out those that are not relevant and you may only be able to do this by visiting each site!
3. You will waste a great deal of time.
How to make your searching more effective
To make your surfing experience more productive I suggest you start with this site http://www.askjeeves.com .
This is a search engine which allows you to ask a question in English and it will immediately tell you all the possible resources that can answer that question for you...including other search engines! In fact AltaVista use the AskJeeves engine to perform some of their own searches.
The other thing you can do, when using the engines listed above, is to choose your keywords very carefully. Never use single word searches because you will end up with millions of websites. Instead use at least two or more keywords together to narrow down your search.
For example, if you are writing a book about online golfing sites and you want to find information about golf sites that allow banner advertising, then you should enter
+"banner advertising" +golf
into the search box. The quote marks tell the search engine to find sites that specified "banner advertising" keywords in that order, the +golf tells the engine you are only interested in sites about golf. The "+" signs indicate that you want these keywords to appear on the site in the order you have entered them.
You may need to modify this search slightly for the different engines, each search engine has help available to you. Most of the top search engines will recognize this type of query.
Use specialist search engines
Another way of making your online time more effective is to find a specialist search engine dedicated to your subject area.
Again you can begin your search on the AskJeeves site http://www.askjeeves.com . Let's assume you were writing about business opportunities on the Net and you wanted to find a search engine that will search only those types of sites. On the AskJeeves page you could get this information by asking the question
"Where can I find a business opportunity search engine?"
You will not need to enter the quote marks. Of course you should replace "business opportunity" with the subject you are interested in.
AskJeeves will return all of the search engines dedicated to your topic. You can then visit these specialist engines and perform your searches there. A great place to start!
To help you with your research, we have compiled a list of useful sites which you can get from our autoresponder at research@getpub.com?Subject=report17 . This list is updated approximately monthly and everyone requesting the list will be emailed when the list changes.
Other resources you can use
To finish, here are other resources you can use to find information on your chosen topic. We will be discussing these in future articles which are posted at
http://www.getpub.com/archives.htm?report17 .
Specialist Subject Sites
There are many sites on the web dedicated to a single subject. You may find many of them from an AskJeeves search and on the major search engines. Two places to look at immediately are:
The BBC Webguide - Find websites appropriate to your topic
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/webguide/
Research a wide range of subjects at Beaucoup
http://www.beaucoup.com
Keep an eye on the News
A good place to learn about your subject can be from newspapers, magazines and trade periodicals many of which have an online presence.
Try these two sites:
The Internet Public Library
http://ipl.sils.umich.edu/
Online magazines at The Electronic Newsstand
http://www.enews.com
Network with other online authors and publishers
Email lists, forums and Newsgroups can also be good places to ask questions specific to your topic. To narrow down the places specific to your subject try these two sites:
A comprehensive list of Forums and Mailing lists
http://www.forumone.com
Another site for Mailing lists, Forums and Newsgroups
http://www.liszt.com
and if they are not enough how about Ezines
A good place to start is http://ezinesearch.com .
And don't forget our Ezine !Get Published! http://www.getpub.com/archives.htm?report17 or to subscribe send a blank email to getpub-subscribe@onelist.com?Subject=report17 .
Summary
Hopefully you are now a little wiser where to start looking to research that next book or article. In upcoming articles we will look at each of these resources in more detail and show you how you can use them to save time.
Trying to find information online?
Want to know how to search without wasting time?
Find out today
Go to <http://www.search-help.net/?report17>
About the Author
Greg Spence is the Author of, "How to Search the Internet and Find the Information You Need....Ten Times Faster" http://www.search-help.net Want to publish your books and articles online? We can help you for FREE!
:To contact see details below.
gspence@getpub.com
http://www.getpub.com
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