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Niche market research August 6, 2007

Posted by Niels in : Magazine, Personal , 1 comment so far

Craig and I followed up on our list of niche markets from this weekend. We picked seven that we really liked and ran them through Wordtracker’s Free Keyword Suggestion Tool. Following that up with Google’s Search Sponsored Links gives us an idea of how many people are searching in our markets and whether anyone is already making a product for them. Ed Dale pointed out something that surprised us in his podcast - that competition is not a bad thing. Seeing other products in a niche we were considering is a good sign - it means that the niche is profitable. All we have to do is outmarket our competition and we’ll learn to do that this month…

Your thoughts?

My interview in Kiplinger’s Personal finance June 20, 2007

Posted by Niels in : Beauty and the Geek, Magazine, Other, Personal , 3 comments

Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine profiled me in this month’s issue. Unfortunately, all you can get online is the blurb: “From Engineering Geek to Dating Coach: A PhD student in electrical engineering changes direction after a stint on the reality TV show Beauty and the Geek.” But if you swing by your local bookstore, you can check me out on the last page of the July 2007 issue. I do have to say, it was a great experience working with a photographer who was working to make me look cool rather than geeky.

Your thoughts?

Go or no go? November 29, 2006

Posted by Niels in : Magazine , 7 comments

It’s time to make a decision on the magazine.  Craig and I sent everything we have to Samir “Mr. Magazine” Husni, the world’s foremost expert on magazine startups.  He thinks our idea has potential, which is what we wanted to hear.  But we have a long, long ways to go.

According to Prof. Husni, most of the magazines he sees fail because of a lack of funding.  Even starting small, only 4-6 issues a year, we’re going to need between $750k and $1 million to last.  Of course, we don’t have that kind of money, so we’ll be approaching investors.  But we have to have something to show them first, i.e. a pilot issue and a business plan.  And Samir suggests that a $50k prelaunch budget is reasonable. 

That $50k would be raised from friends, family, and other people who believe in our idea.  I’m pretty sure we could raise it.  But we have to be fully committed to the magazine, and I’m not sure I am.

I love the idea of being the one who takes all this incredible information mainstream.  The standard advice for men on how to start and maintain relationships is terrible.  A lot of it is worse than terrible.  Buying flowers when you screw up?  Do women really want to be with a man who has to buy them into a good mood?

However, I also want to make a lot of money at a job I enjoy.  If I went into industry, I would be making six figures now.  It would take years for me to make that kind of money at the magazine, if ever.  And I’m not sure I would even enjoy the work.  The emotional reward is incredible to be sure, but I don’t know if it would be enough to overcome the tedium of what I expect to be basically an administrative job behind a computer.

Frankly, I don’t know what to do.  Any advice?

Your thoughts?

I need a lawyer! September 20, 2006

Posted by Niels in : Magazine , 3 comments

I need a lawyer!  Or an attorney, or at least someone who can tell me what the difference between the two is.

The magazine plan is still chugging along, and we know we need some legal advice.  But we don’t know enough to know why.  So we need an attorney familiar enough with the magazine business to tell us why we need him.  I know there will be copyright issues and contracts when we purchase content, but what else, I can only guess.  I think I’ve got the incorporating process mostly figured out, but I’ve got a few questions on that, too.

Now that half the world can track me through the facebook mini-feed, I’m hoping for some prompt assistance.  If you’re stalking me and you’ve spent some time in law school, or just know someone who has, please help me network a bit.

Your thoughts?

Who you know September 15, 2006

Posted by Niels in : Magazine , 4 comments

It’s not who you know… it’s whom you know.

None of our current progress would have been possible without other people’s help.  Craig and I have gotten really frustrated at times because there’s so much to learn about publishing and we’re coming in at ground zero.  Yesterday we talked to a professor at Northwestern who told us that advertisers won’t even talk to us until we have 200,000 subscribers.  How are we supposed to get 200,000 subscribers?  With a 5% response rate, we’d have to send out 4,000,000 pieces of direct mail.  We don’t have $4 million dollars! 

Will Pearson and Mangesh Hattikudur founded the magazine Mental Floss while they were still students at Duke.  We talked to Will this afternoon about the business side.  Will pointed out that the traditional magazine model is becoming outdated.  Traditionally, magazines give away their magazines for next to nothing, building a huge subscriber base to sell more advertising.  Will had some great insights into the new magazine paradigm he sees - basically creating content good enough that people are willing to pay for it.  They have hardly any advertising and grew organically through guerilla advertising rather than huge, expensive direct mail marketing campaigns.

Then this evening Mangesh happened to be in New York City so I met him for dinner.  Both founders in one day - not bad!  Mangesh gave me some great info about the editorial side - developing the voice of the magazine, finding freelancers, and creating content.  I learned we need to get an attorney and an accountant soon.  It’s also time to order Samir Husni’s book.

Your thoughts?