How To: Fail
I just finished reading an entry on another blog about finding ideas and turning them into products. I have no idea how it could help anyone at all. Most of my blog readers already know at least one way to do market research: Choose a market (narrowed down to a single keyword), Get a number for the amount of traffic, Find out if people paying for ads.
However, following the wrong advice can be disastrous.
Here’s the wrong way… I found this on another blog:
1. Go to your favorite search tool. Any of them are fine. Type ‘How To’.
2. Take that list and read it. Do any of the highly searched ‘How To’ markets look appealing to you?
3. Take that topic and create a book on that topic.
(There was more, but it only got worse!)
Hmm ok. Here’s what could happen if followed:
John Doe, a full time worker at Wall Mart hates his job and wants to create an internet business. He decides to follow some advice from a blog he’s been checking out on a regular basis.
He follows the steps above from another blog to the tee.
John has been a big fan of elephants, ever since he was a kid.
He goes to Google, his favorite search engine, and types in “how to” and finds a website that lists a topic that appeals to him: “how to eat an elephant”.
He was quite disgusted with the “market” he chose. He couldn’t understand why anyone would want to eat his favorite animal. But John couldn’t find any better “how to” topics which related to elephants on the page he found.
John takes the topic and writes a book on it and follows the rest of the advice given to him on the blog.
3 months later, John realizes he had followed a path to failure. Nobody seemed to want to know how to eat an elephant. In fact, the only information he was able to write in his book was “one bite at a time”.
John decided an internet business must not be for him. He decided to keep his job at Wall Mart.
- Aaron Brandon
Hey Aaron.
I see your point of view, but regardless of what some people may think of the guy he probably makes more than 1000 Walmart employees put together 10 times over.
Don’t get me wrong, if I had the money I wouldn’t follow that specific idea but there are some others he has posted that I would do in a heartbeat.
Personally, he has done what very few people online has done for me. He took the time out to answer some of my questions and NEVER asked me for a penny so I could be bias, but James B. did point out he gets as much traffic as him.
http://www.jamesbrausch.com/woody-maxim/
Jimmy A.
Comment by Jimmy A. — January 3, 2008 at 10:06 am
Very good entry. Nothing like the obvious to shake up tunnel vision or being in a rut. Thanks for it!
Comment by Sheppard — January 3, 2008 at 10:09 am
Hi Aaron,
I respect your input and appreciate it.
My point in that post is to provide hope and a basic plan. Most people don’t do that. Most people simply complain on their blogs and try to sell their latest products.
I try to help (as I see you do too).
Rather it be a crude plan or not, it’s still a plan.
Now let’s look at my logic compared to yours for a moment.
Some people have no idea where to start market research. They look at goofy numbers of some over rated search tool and say, ‘Wow, ‘taxidermy’ get 100,000 searches per month… it MUST be good’.
But that doesn’t tell us the buying state of that market, does it?
By BEGINNING with ‘How to’, you are narrowing down your search choices to possible infoproducts people are ALREADY wanting and looking for.
Does that make sense?
You may hate my blog, and that’s fine, I only try to appeal to a certain group anyway
Woody
Comment by Woody Maxim — January 4, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Hi Aaron,
I read your blog and bought one of your very first products, BlogCast via clickbank. Your blog is one of my daily reads. I also read James Brausch’s which is how I discovered your site and I read Woody Maxim’s blog every week.
Each of you have a unique voice that is rather authentic. However, I’m quite saddened by today’s post. Hate is far too negative of an emotion to have at such a young age towards another human being or even towards someone elses blog.
Just continue to provide excellent value without the hating please. The world although large is a rather small place with respect to the internet. Yes this is your blog of which you can say anything you want but do take into consideration just how powerful and permanent your words become once you’ve written them.
Happy New Year.
Comment by Jen — January 4, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Thanks,
Aaron
Comment by Aaron Brandon — January 5, 2008 at 3:09 pm
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