I was just reading Tammy’s Letter, this idea came to me, and I had to stop to get my thoughts out.

In the letter Tammy talks about writing a book (which I’m excited to read!), how it’s being released through a traditional publisher, and mentioned a virtual book tour. Publishers don’t usually send authors on real book tours anymore. The return on investment is negative and that’s no way to run a business.

The way a book tour often works is an author visits a book store (or other venue), sells the book, reads a few passages, and then opens a dialogue with the audience. (Assuming there is an audience, of course.)

Here’s my idea:

Using one of the many available video streaming services do a live book reading / Q&A session. But beyond that, serialize the entire book in this format. Sure, that means that some people will get all of the content for free (eventually), but I think the publicity and sales this generates will make up for that. And it allows you an easy opportunity to keep your book out in front of your audience. “Hey, reading Chapter 3 tonight at 8pm. Q&A after. See you there!”

Scott Sigler popularized the free serialized audio book and it has allowed him to make nice bank (though it resulted in him signing a traditional book deal he also releases books independently through Dark Overlord Media). This serialized live video book reading is a progression from that.

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Since I co-founded an indie-only eBook store sometimes I feel conflicted offering ideas that will help traditional publishers. Then I remember they still think it’s 1990 and I feel OK. ;)

Or Drinkin’ English.

I’ve been in Poland for almost 2 weeks now and I’ve seen a lot of English language exchange meetups (Facebook and Couchsurfing postings). I haven’t gone to any of these meetups, but the general idea is everybody meets in a boring place and speaks English. Locals get to learn the language better and expats get to integrate better into their communities.

Which got me to thinking. Good or bad, alcohol is a social lubricant. Why not combine a language exchange meeting with a night out at a pub?

There is no real business opportunity here. The meetups are free. The difference is they’re combined with something a lot of people like to do, party. I think the atmosphere is more conducive to people breaking out of their shells and not worrying about messing up the language. Also, it’s an opportunity to meet new people in a fun way.

Eventually what I’d like to see is a centralized website where these meetups are posted in cities around the world. They could be in various languages, not just English, but Drink and English (or Drinkin’ English) rolls off the tongue better than Drink and Languages.

While I’d like to see this stay free, it could easily turn into a business. Charge $5-$20 for attendance. In that regard it would become more like a language school (which people readily pay for as it is). Alternately, you could charge something small for attendance, but include a drink ticket to be sure the venue that’s helping you host gets something out of it.

The opportunities are many, but I think what’s key is the branding and standing out from regular language meetups or schools. Drink and English sounds like a good start to me.

Read this first (the comments in particular).

Gist:

• New company makes cupcakes based on Nintendo characters.
• People on Reddit go apeshit that the company’s gonna get sued and completely missed the point of what these girls are doing.

Here’s the deal: maybe they’ll get sued, maybe they won’t. But the real point here is these girls have skills. Look at those cupcakes!

How to parlay that obvious talent into fat pocket$ without breaking copyright laws?

Instead of outright selling character cupcakes create a section of your site that has tutorials showing people how to make them at home. Preferably with video.

Also make it very easy for people to order character cupcakes of their own choosing as opposed to a specific set of characters. If they order what’s in your video that’s cool, but those characters aren’t explicitly mentioned on your website.

This solves/accomplishes 2 things:

1. The obvious copyright issue. I’m not a lawyer, but you’re probably not going to get sued for showing people how to make something in their own homes. Think about all the YouTube “learn to play X” song tutorials.
2. Spreads your message farther than just being a cupcake shop that does custom work. Lots of people will watch the tutorials who will never actually make the cupcakes. They will, however, want to buy them from you.
3. Bonus: Some people will actually learn how to make cool cupcakes and that will help your long-term reputation.

People on reddit missed this point, but I hope this small baker doesn’t miss the opportunity.

I’ve heard of a few people doing this, but I’m surprised more don’t.

Next time you’re looking for an apartment get a 2 bedroom instead of a 1 bedroom, or a 3 bedroom instead of a 2, and buy a cheap bed for the extra bedroom. I’ve purchased a new queen sized mattress/box spring for $200 delivered before.

Also, be sure you’re renting in a desirable area of town. Meaning an area where it would be convenient for people who are traveling to your city to stay. Near public transportation is always a good bet.

Next step is simple: Rent out your extra bedroom on AirBNB. Price your room for just under the going rate (if average is $100 make yours $90) so it gets rented quickly and often. I would even start by renting it for half the going rate at first to build up reviews, which are important to get future rentals.

This is better than having a full-time roommate for 2 reasons:

1. You probably only have to rent out the room for 10 days per month to make enough to cover more than half the rent. (Even though a 2bed isn’t ever twice as expensive as a 1bed apartment anyway.) Renting for 15-20 days will likely cover the whole month’s rent. That means you get the place to yourself for a significant portion of every month. If you’re an introvert like me this is killer.
2. You get to meet new people from around the world. When you can’t travel at least you can live vicariously.

One of the biggest problems with the major eBook stores is they don’t provide you with a way to connect with your readers.

1. It’s because they don’t care about you. They care about their bottom line first/foremost/always.
2. It’s because if you can’t sell directly to your readers then the major eBook stores get to keep selling to your readers.

Are #1 and #2 the same? Yes. Moving on.

There’s something you can do to bypass their evil ways.

I haven’t seen any indie authors do this. It’s so easy to implement, the costs are low, and the benefits are great.

Take a look at the introduction to my Luxury of Less eBook:

Register your copy of The Luxury of Less to get updates and irregular messages from me: [URL]

The URL leads to a page with a simple e-mail signup form. (I use Aweber for my e-mail list.)

Obviously, I could do a much better job with this, but that single sentence has resulted in 55 readers registering their copy of the book. Not a whole lot considering I’ve sold thousands of copies, but those 55 readers are likely True Fans. They’ll probably want to read more stuff I release. At the very least I can bounce future ideas off of them.

Note: We’ve solved this problem with OnlyIndie.com. When you sell your eBook through OnlyIndie every customer has the option of sharing their name and e-mail address with you so you can connect on a personal level. This level of transparency is unheard of and I don’t foresee Amazon and their ilk to change their ways any time soon.

Action Steps

1. Add a “Register your copy” sentence to your eBook.
2. Get an e-mail newsletter service (such as Aweber) to handle your new customer e-mail list.
3. When you release a book in the future send an e-mail to your e-mail list. Whether you sell via your own website or through an eBook store this will jumpstart your sales in a way most authors haven’t taken advantage of.

Just had this idea and it’s not fleshed out at all, but I think it could be interesting. You know how when you’re looking for an apartment or job you’re often asked to provide references?

Why not create a reference depository for people that includes verified references and current contact information?

There are obviously some privacy concerns so access to any individual’s verified references would have to be via password or private link.

How to make money with it: charge either on the user end or hook up with apartment complexes and charge them a yearly fee. It could be possibly marketed as a background check type service to apartment complexes. They already charge application fees to users, so maybe a small part of that fee could go to look up the references on the database.

Say you’re a chiropractor and you want new leads for your practice. A new lead is worth a considerable sum.

Now, what is one reason people look for chiropractors? Back problems, right?

There are surely things people can do to help, at least temporarily, with certain back problems.

Why not create a series of YouTube videos sponsored by your clinic that shows people things they can do at home to temporarily relieve symptoms? It would build goodwill as well as generate leads. The reality is most of the viewers of your videos won’t be local to your area, but there is a lot to be said for becoming an authority in your industry.

Chiropractic is just the example that popped into my head.

Here’s another. Carpal tunnel syndrome.

There are a lot of clinics that help deal with carpal tunnel syndrome. Why doesn’t some smart doctor create some free information about how to temporarily relieve the pain?

This idea can be extrapolated to nearly any business, but I don’t see it much for brick & mortar businesses. This is a strategy a lot of internet marketers use in their businesses. Free “half solution” –> paid “full solution”

Sometimes you want to meet up with other travelers or make last minute plans to go somewhere new with random people.

Travel Together is a site that allows you to do just that.

Want to rent a condo from AirBNB that accommodates 4, but you’re currently solo? Split the cost with 1-3 other travelers by posting your itinerary on Travel Together.

Want to go on a road trip, but don’t want to spend $50/day for your own rental car? Subsidize the cost by adding a few people to the ride.

Want to go hiking at a national park with new company? Post on Travel Together and go together.

Have extra room in your apartment and want to host a traveler(s)? Let them know what’s up via Travel Together. (This part makes it similar to CouchSurfing.)

After I had this idea I did a quick domain search. Somebody already had this idea with TravelTogether.com, but the site hasn’t been in use for 5 years. The opportunity for something like this is better than ever (5 years ago it was way ahead of its time) and you can probably buy that domain for a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. Of course, you can also change the name and register an already available domain.

To test this as a minimum viable product: set it up for just one popular tourist destination. Bonus if you live near a popular tourist destination, because you can get out on the streets and meet the target market.

Note: This may work well as a Facebook App, already tapping into the connections made on there.

Note #2: TravelWith.me would be a great domain for this. It’s taken, but unused. Should be easy to buy if the owner isn’t currently developing it.

There’s a Japanese business philosophy known as kaizen that boils down to making small improvements every day because they add up to large improvements over time.

This isn’t about kaizen.

I stayed at a hostel my first 2 nights in Costa Rica. I don’t like hotels if I can help it. (I spent a good 60 nights in hotel rooms in 2011!) I prefer getting single hostel rooms (not dorms) because hostels have character, kitchens, and the opportunity to meet people if I feel like doing that. Hotels have none of the three (save for character, sometimes).

But here’s what hotels usually do right: they take care of little things. The light switch works. The fan works. There are enough outlets for electronics.

It doesn’t take much to improve a customer experience. In the case of the hostel, for example. An outlet that is so loose my computer doesn’t stay plugged in is annoying. It takes $1 to fix. A light switch that actually turns on the light maybe costs $5 to fix. A new fan (assuming the old one is broken) costs $50 (tops).

We can all make small improvements to enhance the experiences of our customers. I think the issue might be that if people don’t complain we either don’t notice or assume there is no problem. That doesn’t mean there is no problem.

So this is my call out to you. If there is something you think I can improve, no matter how small, let me know. I can instantly see problems in other people’s businesses, but sometimes the blinders come on when it’s my own.

Note #1: This might be out there somewhere already. If so a) competition is good and b) competition is good. I think maybe LiveMocha, but their website says nothing about what they do.

The idea is a website where a language learner can go to video conference with native speakers of the language during the day, say within a 12 hour time-frame. I would test out the idea with Spanish-only and limit it to 1 hour per day.

Something like, “Every night from 8-9pm EST come chat with a native Spanish speaker to practice your language.” Use Facebook Ads to drive traffic to a simple landing page. Limit the room to 5 students. Charge each student $5 per session, give the native speaker 50%.

Note #2: This is to test the idea. Minimum viable product.

In comparison to other language classes this is a steal. Especially because the student doesn’t have to travel anywhere. Most language learners don’t care about grammar and other BS. They just want to learn the language conversationally. In other words, they want to know enough for it to be useful.

The technology to set this up is already out there and it would take you an evening to get the web site live. Then another few hours setting up Facebook ad campaigns to test conversions.

Ideally I’d like to see the site grow big enough to where you charge a monthly fee and hire native speakers for ~20 hours/week.

This idea isn’t fully fleshed out and I have a lot of other thoughts on this. If you launch this send me your results and I’ll throw some more ideas at you.

Alternate: This would probably work very well for students who want to learn English as well. You’d have to market to them in their language, but Adwords and Facebook Ads in foreign languages are usually cheaper so that’s a bonus.