One of the best ways to get an idea for an invention is to look at what is already around you and find a way to improve it. Think about how much money you could make by patenting a DVD that never freezes up or skips. If you are serious about becoming an inventor, keep a notepad or voice recorder with you and examine every product you use during the day to think of ways it could be improved. Once you have exhausted all the items you use on a daily or weekly basis, start browsing through stores and carefully look at popular products for a way that they could be improved through your own invention.
One of the most effective ways to come up with an idea for a new invention is to meet an unmet need. Very often the best inventions are the result of personal frustration at wishing someone would invent a product that you need at a particular point in time. That idea for the wireless headphones that allow one person to enjoy the TV at night while another sleeps in silence probably hit someone from personal experience. All good inventors train themselves to be constantly aware of the world around them. So if you want to be a successful inventor, keep constant vigil on things that you need that nobody has yet invented.
Not all inventions are based on meeting actual needs. That bird that keeps tipping over for a drink of water serves very little purpose, yet it has been consistently popular for decades. Some inventions exist merely for the sake of entertainment, yet the money they bring in to their inventors can be spent just as freely as the money made by the inventor of the laptop computer and the cell phone. The best way to get an invention for a kooky product is to build upon what others have done and then tweak it. In today's climate, the more outrageous your invention, the more likely it is to become popular. Websites like ThinkGeek.com and BaronBob.com can help jump start your brain on just how much totally useless inventions can become big sellers.