One of the nice things about living near a bridge is that Craig and I can throw on our wetsuits, walk out of front door, hop in a canal and swim right to Lake Union. The down side is that apparently Seattle has a bit of a problem with Combined Sewage Overflow (CSO). In layman’s terms, that means raw sewage in the water after a heavy rain.
Our first thought was “Gross!” And our second thought was that this may explain the four days straight of “gastrointestinal issues”.
I got my car back on Monday. Apparently the emissions problem was with the catalytic converter – there wasn’t one. Or, to be more precise, someone hollowed it out. With my new converter in place, I’m well below emissions specs.
So Craig and I headed out yesterday in my new ride to visit Mighty-O Donuts (best vegan donuts I’ve ever tasted, by the way). Umm… yeah… let’s just say we need to learn how to drive stick. Jump-starting my dead battery went smoothly, but the rest of the ride, from the whiplash in the parklot, to the multiple stallouts on hills, to Craig nearly rolling backwards into a Porsche before stalling out in oncoming traffic, was a little less smooth.
The saga continued today with another dead battery. The problem with a dead battery in a stick shift is that when I inevitably stall out, I can’t restart the car. So I had to drive back and forth on my flat neighborhood streets before venturing out into actual traffic. And I made it about a block before someone plowed into me.
Damn I’m glad my car cost $300.
Craig and I hosted our first ever Groovy Tuesday potluck dinner last Tuesday. What a brilliant idea! Friends invite us to their homes and cook us dinner, then we respond by inviting them to our home and letting them cook us dinner. Delicious food, fun friends, and now we have enough leftovers for the next week. This could very quickly become a twice-monthly event.
I spent Thursday moving from the unemployed end of the spectrum to the self-employed end. Or at least slightly closer to it. Craig and I began by brainstorming our past talents, interests, hobbies, and careers. A sample:
Guitar, magic, running, triathlon, memory, electronics, computers, lockpicking, BJJ, swimming, biking, climbing, rowing, clarinet, investing, evolution, poker, home repair, drawing, college admissions, socializing, electrical engineering, Microsoft, windows security, balloons, busking, fashion, building a computer, speed reading, improv, public speaking, basketball, how to study abroad, how to quit your job, math, standardized tests, quick healthy eating, coldreading, how to learn a language, negotiating, internet banking
Next came a trip to Barnes and Noble to browse the magazine aisle. As per Timothy Ferriss’ instructions, we’re searching for a market to develop a product for, not the other way around. Our goal: discovering a niche market in an area of our expertise lucrative enough that it has one very specific magazine dedicated to it. Ad rates should be below $5000 and circulation above 15,000.
I found the 2008 Writer’s Market extremely useful. It has hundreds of pages of niche magazines, organized by subject with brief descriptions of each.
It took a couple hours to look through all the magazines. Whew! Work is tiring. And it wasn’t over yet. I spent a few more hours looking up rate and circulation information for all my prospects. But I’ve narrowed it down to eight markets that look interesting, all but one of which fall well within my area of expertise.
The next step is the fun part – coming up with a product!
I have a new bible. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss is the best book I’ve read in recent memory. It combines concepts I’ve heard from lots of different friends into one big picture.
I’d already begun piecing together a lot of what I want from my job. Time freedom, location flexibility, passive income. I knew it would have to be a product based business with dropshipped products and it would have to be internet based. I’ve started learning about writing copy, Google AdWords, and product launches. But Ferriss goes into excruciating detail about every step of the process.
From finding a market niche, to coming up with a product, to testing interest, setting up a website, driving traffic to it, and then automating the entire process so you can take yourself out of the loop entirely, Ferriss gives examples, details, references, and lists the websites you need to get the ball rolling. I’m excited – this is exactly what I’m looking for.
First piece of advice: don’t make the mistake of creating a product and then looking for a market. Find an market and then create a product. So tomorrow morning, I’m going to Barnes and Noble to browse the magazine isle to find my niche market. I’ll be looking for a magazine with a small target audience with a full-page ad rate around $5000 and at least 15,000 subscribers. By Ferriss’ timetable I’ll be testing product ideas by this time next week.
Full speed ahead!
