People are always searching for easy money-making ideas. Most of them will be found online, as the Internet is supposed to be the final frontier for amazing business opportunities. How can you tap into this huge market of over one billion people and make some money for yourself? Here are some ideas that can help you.

The basic premise of my position is this. Do good research. As a part of my research for this article, I went to Google trends to find out what is hot right now. Well, apart from the usual searches for celebrities (in which I have zero interest), I was able to find one interesting trend. Want to know what it is? The answer is: swine flu.

What on earth is swine flu? A simple click on that topic led me to a story with the following title: "Doctors warned to watch for mystery illness in tourists returning from Mexico" This story came out of Canada and as it's name suggests, swine flu is a virus normally found in pigs, but can be transferred to human beings, with sometimes fatal results. Do you think swine flue would be of interest to anyone? Let us find out.

Sure! This is a trend, but what does it have to do with finding easy money-making ideas? Well, let us see how many people are looking for information on this "swine flu". I went over to Google Adwords Keyword Tool and found that there are over 3,600 searches for this term each month. That is enough traffic to generate some interest. People are definitely interested in the swine virus.

A further look at this virus, indicates that the most searches for this term occurs in Cities like California, Georgia, and New York, and Canada of course. Now, you may not see swine flu as an easy money-making idea, but that is not the point. The point is that if you want to make extra money online, you must find out what problems people have, so you can offer them a solution.

Once you have identified sufficient interest in your topic, look for an existing solution that you can bring to their attention. You can also look for a solution that you can either create or your own, or create in collaboration with someone else.  In the case of swine flue, your next task would be to look for books, reports, and articles that may lead to a vaccine or other solutions. So far, all the tools needed to do this research and hopefully come up with some easy money making ideas are free to use.

Let's summarize what we know so far. First, you need to do some basic research.  What problems are people having right, now, and how can I help them find a solution.  Always start with the end in mind. Google Trend, or eBay, or Amazon can help you spot a "hot" topic. Type in "google trends in Google and you will find a link immediately. Once you find a trend, you can see where the searches are coming from using the same tool.

Finally, use Google adwords keyword tool to see the average number of searches per month. Is it worth your time? If the answer is "yes", that is great! Next step, is to find a solution. Go to Amazon, Commission Junction, Clickbank, or just Google, to find products that you can package, and present to this growing market. Always look for way to make this traffic pay you back for your efforts. That my friends is a quick way to find easy money making ideas that you can use to create extra income and prosper in any recession.

You are welcome to provide feedback on this article, even disagreeing with me, as long as it is done in a respectful manner. You may also contact me at my blog

UPDATE!   A day or so after writing this article, swine flu is all over the Internet and television!  Mexico has a huge problem with this swine flu, and Googe Trend spotted it before it became headlines.  And, lest you think I am only in it for the money, I do offer up a sincere prayer for all the people affected.