Steph Smith – Internet Pipes: Sift Through the Treasure Trove of Online Data

Some creators are asked about their skincare routine, morning ritual, or favorite tech gadgets.

Me? I’m constantly asked how I do online research. Whether it’s due to the internet rabbit holes I’ve found, the business ideas I’ve shared on My First Million (ExhibitA,B,C,D…), building out Trends.co into a multi-million dollar business, major trends I’ve spotted and taken advantage of early, or unique projects I’ve dreamt up…

The most common request in my inbox is some flavor of, “Where on Earth do you find this stuff?!”

For a long time, I’ve resisted pulling together the tricks of the Internet rabbit hole trade. Not because I enjoy keeping secrets, but because I questioned how useful they might be to the average person. But recently, I changed my mind.

So what changed my mind? Why am I finally building this?

Because I have to! Not so long ago, people’s wants and desires were housed in the nooks and crannies of individual brains. With some time and technology, nuggets of insight came from the limited confines of knocking on doors and expensive focus groups. But even then, these data points were so small and so selective — representing what a few people say they want instead of how the masses interact when nobody is watching.

Thankfully, the era of the internet ushered in a whole new world. Insights are no longer constrained to those with a wallet to pay for them. They’re scattered in plain sight all over the Internet, and with the right knowledge, anyone can access them.

There are now websites that reach literally billions of people, and more importantly, there are tools that aggregate behaviors and see through the noise of those websites and tell you everything from…

• what products people are buying and at what scale,
• what trends are catching on and how localized they are,
• what ideas companies are betting millions on,
• what communities are most interconnected,
• what opportunities are entering the public domain,
• what regulatory changes have gone into effect,
• what questions people are asking in the most unique corners of the web
• and SO MUCH more…

In other words, certain tools hold information about what people really want and care about. You no longer have to guess! I like to call these tools that surface these valuable learnings the pipes of the Internet. I call them pipes because they help connect and make sense of the many disparate actions that people make on the web, yet most people don’t know or care that these pipes exist.

That’s wild!!! For me, these pipes are like a magnifying glass into the world that can fundamentally change the way you see it. They’re new “Internet glasses”, if you will, that let you see the world a lot more clearly – they’re your competitive edge.

So what is this project?

Well, over the last few years of spending most of my waking time online, I’ve learned how to navigate these Internet pipes and I’d like to share what I’ve learned with other people.

But I also don’t want to create some lengthy course that<1% finish, even if it’s immensely useful. So instead of lengthy videos or PDFs, I’m going to compile a list of the best “Internet Pipes” and a quick demo of how to use them.

Each demo will include actionable examples of the opportunities I’ve found with a particular tool. If I do my job well, you’ll come away with some cool ideas and resources, but far more importantly, you’ll have the same pair of “Internet glasses” that I’ve spent the last decade honing.

What You’ll Learn In Internet Pipes: Sift Through the Treasure Trove of Online Data

• Targeted tutorials around gleaning insights from some of the biggest websites in the world, from Google to Reddit to Twitter to Amazon to TikTok to Apple’s App Store
• A database of 60+ tools and counting that house data about what people want, including demos on how to use the top ones effectively.
• Another database of hundreds of ideas that have surfaced through these tools. Plus, for the My First Million stans out there, I’ll include all of my prior research documents that I’m asked for so often.
• Several bonuses, including tools that allow you to easily visualize and animate data, browser extensions that allow you to passively research, open-source datasets, recommended Twitter follows and newsletter subscriptions, ad libraries, research templates, and more.

More courses from the same author: Steph Smith