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.
- Martial arts
- Reunion organizers
- Electronic hobbyists
- Public speakers
- Swimmers
- College applicants
- Writers
- Barhoppers and clubbers
The next step is the fun part – coming up with a product!
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I thinkyou got something there with barhopping and club goers! why not a reality type magazine where you… follow around the different types of barhoppers and clubgoers, and the bars and clubs that go along with it… in the seattle and surrounding area. I am sure you you could find alot of advertisers for that one plus maybe even pick up some freelance writers..
Along the same lines, is there a guide to various bars around Seattle (or other cities)? Like a Zagat’s for bars, maybe describing not only the quality/ambiance, but the types of people that go there? A friend of a friend actually created a website to rate bars and restaurants at http://www.ourtaste.com/ and share those ratings with friends, and http://www.yelp.com does a similar rating thing, allowing users to post comments and ratings. But are there more authoritative guides (written by more expert people) with more polished summaries of the bars (e.g. it isn’t just a list of random comments posted by random people)?
-Henry
Yo, Niels. Have you been following the recent increases in the USPS periodicals rate? My understanding is that mega-circulation things like Time and Entertainment Weekly might actually see a decrease in their postage expenses, but small and medium size magazines are expecting a 20 – 30 % increase. A number of small circulation periodicals might be forced into a web-only format.