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What Do You Think? Rate My Product Ideas

Posted: 06 May 2014 07:54 AM PDT

Sometimes I get really BAD business ideas.

Sometimes, I get some brilliant business ideas and I get so passionate, yet they turn out to be total duds. Like selling SARS masks to virus infected countries.

Whatever it is, I’ve always wondered, where on how do good business ideas come from? (i.e. market acceptance AND profitable)

According to Entrepreneur magazine, “good ideas” can come if you

Ask yourself, “What’s next?”
Do something about what bugs you.
Look for new niches.
Apply your skills to an entirely new field.
Find a category lacking recent innovations.
Make a cheaper version of an existing product.
Talk to shoppers.
Play the mix and match game.

I agree with all, except

Do something about what bugs you.

What bugs you doesn’t mean it bugs other people. I am irritated that people don’t re-raack the weights after they’re done using them in gyms (which they should be going to at 6 AM), but no one else seems to care (or wants to go to gym at 6 AM). I am irritated that there are people still selling shady ringtones, subprime mortgages, and sugar water packaged as “magic bullet” weightloss supplements, but people still want them and there are plenty of people willing to trick them into buying them. In other words, entrepreneurs’ view of the world is quite flawed (especially if you’re an entrepreneur into self-development).

What’s even more flawed about this is that tens if not thousands of people in Silicon Valley are solving problems that don’t even exist, because they’ve trained their self to think that their supposed problems exist (TC dead pool), or that they were ahead of their time (Webvan).

Why? All these nerds (me included) listened to these Silicon Valley gurus that believe in this “build it and they will come” bullshit… or “solve your own problems” crap mantra. Ugh.
and

Make a cheaper version of an existing product.

I think that never works. Go shop at WalMart. There’s plenty of people trying to “one-up” on each other by “innovation of price”. By doing that, you enter the commodities market where the only way to “innovate” is to slash prices. Horrible horrible business. Look at Apple – they didn’t invite MP3 players, they didn’t invent the smart phone, they didn’t invent the computer, they didn’t invent the “app store”. They just took existing product, improved on it, and built a huge brand with perceived value.
So what exactly, make a good product … a good product?

According to Simon Sinek, good product come from good “why”.

So I totally came up with three ideas that have strong WHYs and how I think I can solve them.

1) Free Tour Guides

I was eating vegetarian orange “chicken” (tofu that looks like chicken) in Columbus Park, in the heart of NYC Chinatown.

I noticed there were tour guides giving tours to 20-30 tourists each. I noticed that this one particular tour guide was really a GREAT singer (he sang “Oh Maria” acapella style right before they ended). I talked to the guy and it turns out that he’s actually a “struggling” Broadway theater actor trying make some money doing tours since he lives in the area and knows a lot of history there.

So I had this idea: Uber for tour guides (i.e. mobile app). But they would all be free. These tour guide would make money by bringing them to souvenir shops, restaurants, bars, and entertainment related places. (i.e. lead generatin)

Here’s my why

People want free tour guides
Local business owners are too busy to do marketing to tourists
Great job opportunity for locals

2) Crowdsourced “tanda”

Crowdfunding is not a new concept, and there are lots of platforms.

If you aren’t aware of what tanda is, it’s basically a lending circle where people that trust each other take turns “taking” a pot of money they regularly contribute to. Also called “rotating savings club”, it’s basically a way for people to get a lump sum of money to get cash instead of having to rely on banks or investors, usually to start a business.

A tanda may be managed in different ways. The way it usually works is a group of people that know each other get together to collect money (either weekly, monthly, yearly) to help each other financially. Participants can come up with any rules as long as they benefit the group. Usually there is an amount of money and number of people in the group that they all agree to in order to have cash right away. When they come to an agreement of who will be in the tanda and how much it will be (either weekly, monthly, yearly), they have to come up with the order of whom is going to receive the money. Participants can either raffle the numbers or make the decision in who needs the money most. It all depends on the group’s decisions.

As an example, a tanda is formed between ten friends and family. Each member gives US$100 every two weeks to the group’s organizer. At the end of the month, one participant gets the “pot”, $2000. This continues until each member has received the pot.

Here’s my why:

Minority (hispanic) population in US is on the rise
Traditional financing process sucks and are totally scammy (in my personal opinion)
People would rather invest in businesses from people they know & trust
Create businesses and jobs, or pay for medical bills (healthcare cost is now #1 reason for personal bankruptcy in US – source: NerdWallet)

3) “EmailPress” for WordPress for Email

Of course, since Im a marketer, i’m always looking for ways to make marketing tools better, especially email marketing.

Right now, sending emails is kinda expensive. With email service providers Amazon SES, SendGrid, etc., the physical cost of sending emails is practically zero. So why is everyone still on expensive email services like Constant Contact and MailChimp?

Because of the features they provide – it’s much more rich & user friendly, plus you don’t need engineers to create them.

So why not have a WordPress like platform that does all the basic “stuff” (lists, campaigns, autoresponders, interfact with SMTP services, etc.) but have their capabilities “extended” with 3rd party plugins, templates, etc.?

Here’s why

Cost of email is dropping, every day. The “real” value is in the content, analysis, and testing (which by the way, PAR does)
People shouldn’t have to be “stuck” to any one single provider of any sort, and data should be portable
Email industry is ripe for disruption: DIY and self-hosted is the disruptive model (in my opinion)

What do you think? Tell me what you think about these ideas in the comment box below.

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Easier Writing and Editing in WordPress 3.9 (Have You Upgraded Yet?) - DailyBlogTips

Easier Writing and Editing in WordPress 3.9 (Have You Upgraded Yet?)

Posted: 06 May 2014 03:40 AM PDT

WordPress 3.9, named "Smith", came out mid-April … and if you've not upgraded yet, you definitely should.

This version has introduced some significant changes to the visual editor, making it easier than ever to write, edit and publish great-looking posts in WordPress.

Here's a quick run-down of some of the new features that relate to the visual editor (for more features, see the official WordPress announcement).

You Can Paste in Text Directly From Word

I never had problems posting directly from Word previously, but I know some people struggled with messy styling. Now, you can simply paste straight into the visual editor (the "Paste from Word" button has gone).

You Can Crop and Rotate Images

Uploaded an image that's not quite right? Rather than deleting it and starting over, you can make adjustments directly in WordPress. You can also drag-and-drop images straight into the visual editor, rather than having to open the uploading window first.

There Are Slightly Different Buttons in the Visual Editor

While version 3.8 changed the look and feel of all the buttons (now I'm used to it, I love it), this new version has changed what's actually there.

This is the 3.8 version:

wordpress-buttons-3point8

And this is the new 3.9 version:

wordpress-buttons-3point9

I really like the new "horizontal line" button — to the right of the blockquotes button — which saves me having to enter these as <hr/> in the HTML view.

As mentioned before, the Paste from Word button is gone (no longer needed), and it's interesting to see that the "Distraction Free Writing" button is gone too.

So … have you upgraded yet? Do you have a favourite new feature? Let us know in the comments.

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Does Your Blog Make New Visitors Feel Welcome?

Posted: 05 May 2014 01:09 PM PDT

If you’ve been running your blog for a while, especially if you have a loyal following of long-term readers, it’s easy not to think much about new visitors.

But of course, if you want your blog to grow, you need to cater for newcomers. They need to feel welcome – not excluded by loads of in-jokes, or confused about what’s happening on your blog.

These four tips should help you strike a good balance, so that visitors are able to find their way around quickly, but long-term readers don’t feel like you’re constantly re-explaining the basics.

#1: Have an Up-to-Date About Page

Regular readers aren’t likely to visit your About page (unless, perhaps, they’re blogging about you and want some extra information). Newcomers, though, will often head there on their first visit.

If your About page is clearly out of date, it’s not going to create a good impression. And even if new visitors don’t realise that you’ve not updated it in months (or even years!), old information is unlikely to help them understand your blog and feel at home.

#2: Explain Series of Posts

If you’re part-way through an ongoing series of posts, it’s easy to assume that everyone has read the previous posts in the series and knows what’s happening. But if someone comes to your blog for the first time, they may well end up beginning half-way through the series.

This is why it’s always a good idea to include an introductory line or two at the top of your series posts (you can see how we did this for each of the Writing Clinic posts).

#3: Make it Easy to Subscribe

If someone new enjoys your blog, they may well want to subscribe to read more. Make sure it’s as easy as possible for them to do so. This means:

Including a link to your RSS feed (could be an icon or a link).
Including the option to subscribe by email – unless your readers are quite techy, you’ll find most people prefer this.

Some new visitors may be quite new to blogs in general, so give clear instructions on how to subscribe. You may want to avoid using the word “subscribe” as people might think it means they’ll have to pay.

#4: Have an Uncluttered Sidebar

Most new visitors will arrive on an individual blog post, not on the home page of your site. So even if you have a static homepage that acts as an introduction to you and your blog, it’s important that your sidebar helps them find what they’re likely to be looking for.

It’s up to you what you include, but you’ll at least want to consider:

A short “About” section.
A list of blog categories.
A list of top posts.

Take a look at your blog today. What one thing could you do to make it more welcoming to new visitors? Let us know in the comments.

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