Happy 2010 ! Could this be the year we all escape the cubicle ?
I really want to take it on this year with my quest to escape the cubicle. Over the holiday I’ve been heavily researching the black art’s of search engine optimisation, internet niche marketing and passive income systems. There is a lot, A LOT of rubbish out there, I mean do a search in Google for “SEO information”. I actually suffered massive information overload and started to bleed from my eyes Ebola style. This has the effect of forcing procrastination, it was just infinite loops of information.
What did spur me on however was the credible stories out there of people escaping their cubicles setting up passive income business and working when and where they want, yea they are not millionaires but hey 3 online business earning 40k each, I’ll take that. I’m hoping I can pick some case studies, analyse them and share them here as I try to copy them.
In my reading and research I’ve uncovered what appears to be a massive secret everyone but me knows. This literally made me stop dead in my tracks and re evaluate everything I’ve been currently thinking and doing for the last 6 months since getting serious about this project.
It’s going to be very VERY difficult to sell or market anything on the internet unless I’m solving a problem for someone or even better solving a problem for a market of people.
To those of you who know marketing or have a traditional marketing education this might seem obvious, or “like duh didn’t you know that”, however to me this is a show stopper, big time. No one told me this or even hinted at it? or maybe it’s just too obvious. I thought you came up with a cool idea and flogged it, until it sold.
No, apparently not.
So, as a basic first starting point I sat down and tried to list out every problem I could think of that personally affects me. I’ve made a list below of some problems and frustrations I encounter every day. I’m really hoping you can help me expand the list by commenting on what are some of the problems frustrating you guys?
My frustrations and problems list – Can you help me add to this list?
- Disgusting amount of travel required for work both car and plane
- Getting up early
- Escape the cubicle
- Can’t easily think of niche markets that need problems solved
- Need to stop putting weight on
- Need to eat the right foods
- Don’t know how to make cool tshirts
- Don’t know who to help small firms improve service management using my big game skills to help the little guys
- Don’t fully understand how to get my site to rank better on Google without paid adds
- Don’t know how to stat up an online passive income business
- Don’t know how to find cloths I like easily and cheaply
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4 Responses to “The marketing secret I discovered that’s driven a dramatic rethink”
- Spelling mistakes in blogs
– People that mention spelling mistakes in blogs
– Colleagues that get away with being incompetant, lazy or just plain ass-hats
– Not knowing if there is already an application that can link various social networking sites (ie. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter) into one page that you can view/see updates on at once
– Not enough cool t-shirts
– Not being able to remember problems I’ve thought of that could be solved with a good business idea… will post more if I remember………..
Dude, check out http://www.marketsamurai.com for a 40 day trial on a tool that can help you identify your niche. It can also determine if your topic has market potential or if it is too niche. Golden rule is always pick something you are passionate about, that way it is easy to write articles on it, eg, four wheel driving, snow skiing. These a broad terms so the next step is to go deeper into these topics, e.g black run snow skiing.
Guess what I have been going on the holidays..
Here’s a bit of reading for ya:
1. The Ten Faces of Innovation – Tom Kelley – (IDEO)
2. The Art of Innovation – Tom Kelley – (IDEO)
There’s a ton of other titles in the product development area – but these IDEO are an inspiration.
How’s about doing a Product Development course? – it was the most helpful and interesting part of my Masters. It might get you on your way? There’s another interesting avenue to think about – look into exporting an Aussie branded product. Even though it’s Government, this is a great website for info on export markets:
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Country/default.aspx
Andy
PS. Get up an hour earlier! It helps to know you have had some kind of control over your life before you start your day job!!
Thanks Andy,
I’ll check those out. There is just so much stuff to review i’m starting to suffer information overload to be honest, but I’ll keep pushing on!