Day 12 30DC - Painless Research

Market research is a huge, time-consuming effort for anyone who is doing it right. You need to be thorough, and you need to be focused. The Internet provides a huge repository of information, as well as a fast and easy way to gather data for your specific purposes.

A couple of caveats, however:

• Some information on the Internet is notoriously flawed.
  
• There are spoof sites masquerading as legitimate sites, usually in the political arena.
  
• When people post answers to questions in forums or elsewhere on the web, they sometimes post incorrect answers.
  
• Your results are only as good as your search paradigm.
  
• Information without context is suspect and needs to be cross-checked.
• Always validate your sources!

As long as you are aware of these limitations (and there are more, there isn't space for an exhaustive list), and adopt good research habits, you can get a lot of good information from the Internet faster than browsing the reference section of a physical library.

The Internet makes doing market research painless and quick. There are no more excuses for short-changing your research effort.