Well, check this out.

This video created by Matt Harding on his spontanous trip around the world has generated over a million views on YouTube and almost 6000 comments. In the meantime StrideGum have taken it on as a marketing campaign, sending him off for 6 months again, all expenses paid.

Where the hell is Matt?

This video was one Matt pointed out as his favourite reponse to his own.

Every day entrepreneurs are looking for the next big idea to send them into early retirement. Good and profitable ideas are hard to come by, which can lead to frustration and a huge loss in motivation when nothing comes to mind. The secret to finding an idea is raking your brain and following your own interests, not simply following the biggest trends at the time. Get away from preconceptions about different markets and their respective values, go for what you want to do and the market will be there waiting for you.

The other key thing you need to do is formulate a logical path to the ultimate idea. This involves lots of jotting now, linking themes and then researching current market growth and size. But firstly you must look at yourself and write down your opinions on current ideas and your interests. It is important that you enjoy the venture you undertake as this will determine your level of motivation to perservier and succeed.

These are the 5 steps that will help you to realise which business market is best for you to follow. They focus on your interests, the size of the market and the level of competition. I should add that this may not lead to the next big idea, but is intended to help you formulate your thoughts and assess their potential in a logical manner.

Step 1
Write down five of your main interests.

Step 2
Head over to nichebot.com and search for each of your five interests, taking down the ‘ratio’ figure for each one. This gives you an idea of the competition and demand for the potential market category you’re looking at, sourced by online searching figures.

Rank the interests 1 to 5, from lowest (1) to highest (5).

Step 3
Now go to eBay Stores item search feature. Replace “INTEREST HERE” with each interest you’ve noted above. From the search results, take down the number of matching stores for each interest.
You could also search all the items on eBay to get a better picture of the market.

Rank the interests 1 to 5, from highest (5) to lowest (1).

Step 4
For each interest, add the two ranks you have formulated together to give a total figure between 2 and 10. Look at the interests with the lowest total rank, this should be the most attractive market to follow. Out of the five, it has the lowest (web based) competition and highest (web based) potential market.

Step 5
Head back to nichebot and search for the “winning” interest. Note the other keyphrases that appear on the page to give you an idea of further niche markets to exploit, keeping in mind the competition ratio.

Now that you have a clear focus in terms of a high potential market, to meet your interests, you can then start mind-mapping your ideas around the main interest. Nichebot can help with that. Also use Google to search related companies and websites already out there in order to get a better idea for the market and stitch together your own vision. As one of your main interests, you should pretty clued up about the market, however don’t stop learning (check it on wikipedia) and keep up to date with how the market develops.

This is all very speculative as interests can of course vary widely, so don’t forget to use common sense and some business nouse. However hopefully what I have said will help set a clear path in your mind to target your own ideas and maximize your success. You would be lucky to get your destined big idea from my 5 steps, that’s not really the purpose of this. The formula I have developed is just one example of how to use logic to get to the business that is profitable and suitable for you. Whatever happens, make sure you enjoy whatever you chose to follow!

More resources:
7 steps to business success
9 steps to business success
Evaluating your idea
Still craving the ideas of others?

Similar to ebay’s Paypal online payment service, Google checkout allows merchants to conduct business online through embedded checkouts whilst consumers can purchase goods online just by logging into their Google account. It seems to be slightly cheaper than the dominant Paypal service, with a 2% transaction charge plus standard $.20 fee. For sellers using Adwords they can also benefit from a discount proportional to their advertising expenditure.

Google Checkout seems to only be out in the USA right now, hopefully it’ll hop over into the UK and Europe in the near future. For now, here’s a video tour:

Recently I’ve come across a few inspiring and effective advertising campaigns. Here are two of them, which are making their way around the internet right now.

This one, for “Papa Johns” pizzas is completely unique, but it did take me a while to figure out the connection between these two images! It never occured to me, well until a second look, that the image on the right is what is shown on the actual “advert”. The custom ad is stuck onto doors, in front of peep holes. When the house owner takes a look through the peep hole, they see what appears to be a delivery guy holding a pizza (as shown on the right). I wonder how this concept was born - very original.

This advert, titlted “Cemetary” was developed by Everest Brand Solutions, in Mumbai, India. It depicts the typical smoking room to be at the bottom of a grave with the non-smokers overlooking the grave in apparent sympathy for the naivity of the smokers. Despite your personal views on smoking, the advert conveys a strong message meeting its purpose as an anti-smoking campagin in India. It can be compared to the shock tactic TV commercials by the NHS in the UK, showing visualally the effects going on inside a smoker’s body, externally. For example, one showed fat dripping off the skin of a smoker as they puffed away.