1. Finding and testing a market should always come first before starting to develop any code. Rob puts priorities in the following order:: “Market Comes First, Marketing Second, Aesthetic Third, and Functionality a Distant Fourth”.
2. Targeting smaller niche markets means that you are much more likely to succeed given that competition in such markets is often much lower.

Now, reading trough the book made me realise that, first of all, I haven’t really spent much time choosing or analysing the target market of my startup dalister/dailydesk, and, second, everything I know about my target audience so far (men using a computer and a web browser) indicates that this market is way too big for what Rob would advise to target! And that kind of made me think: “Do I really wanna continue to work on dalister/dailydesk even though I would be much better off developing something for a smaller niche market?”.

So I started researching the whole topic of finding a niche market a bit more and apparently this is quite a hot topic at the moment. Pat from SmartPassiveIncome, for example, has a challenge going on with some other bloggers on establishing and monetizing a niche site and the German web magazine t3n also published an article on this recently. One of the key things there is to find a keyword for which competition from other sites on Google, Bing and Yahoo is low while still generating enough quality traffic to allow for a decent income stream from ads and product sales. While Rob focuses more on software products in his book, Pat and the other bloggers look at options that promise more immediate returns (affiliate, adsense, ebooks, etc.). When you read these stories it often sounds so easy. Just find a keyword with high search volume but low competition, set up a mediocre website, build backlinks by setting up blogs on wordpress.com and mass-submitting articles to directories etc. and then just wait for the revenue to come. Pat (SmartPassiveIcome) makes a decent $19.09 per day on his niche site with Adsense only! That’s almost $600 per month! So I thought “hey, maybe I should do that as well?”.

I did my own research on such keywords and niches in both the German and English speaking market and came up with a list that looked quite promising. Among those were, for example, “montessori schulen/kindergärten” and “mieten oder kaufen”. But then I looked at all those keywords and niches that I found and I asked myself: “Do I really wanna work on a montessori school and kindergarten directory website or one that advises visitors on whether they should rent or buy?”. My gut feeling tells me I don’t. I think I would lose interest in those areas quite easily and given that I’d have to work on such a project for months without money flowing in I assume there should be at least a certain level of passion involved. Right now the only thing I am really passionate about is the idea of a browser start page that has all those nice little tools like todos, bookmarks, notes, reminders etc in one single, easily accessible place, with fast, neat and user-friendly interface. It is this idea that I wake up with every morning and I feel like I need to work on this before I can move on to some other project even if the target market is too large and competition around the most important keywords high.

After almost 2 weeks of thinking whether I should rather go for a niche site and try to establish a smaller but steady revenue stream instead of working on dalister/dailydesk I have decided to stick to my initial project and get a pilot version with limited functionality out there as fast as I can to test peoples’ reaction. If I fail, well, then I’ve created a nice tool for myself that no one else wants. If I don’t, I will have followed what I am passionate about. At this stage, this feels like the right thing to do.

In another episode a guy told a short story about his friend who launched a web site called diapers.com. Who ever had recently followed the news would know that this was a very successful startup sold to amazon for several hundreds of million dollars. He didn’t launch it because he had the better diapers. Neither are diapers a very cool product. But he saw the economic chance in selling ordinary diapers a little cheaper than others do. So his idea was making common processes more efficient and every day products more inexpensive. So the right idea does not necessarily have to be a product which will convince in every single nuance. Although this sort of startup is more or less reserved for people with a certain insight into the corresponding industry and processes, this is not an indispensable must. There are several examples of people who offer every day products a little cheaper than others do and made a fortune with it (or at least a good deal of money). I call this type of entrepreneurs the economists. They think in economic patterns looking for the possibility to improve established processes. The product is secondary. The other sort of entrepreneurs I call the idealists. They see a problem and want to “help” in a way. So maybe, when thinking of new ideas for a venture, think in both directions.

This is a guest post by Markus who is an aspiring web-entrepreneur. He currently runs Haushaltsreport (www.haushaltsreport.de) and Wishsite (www.wishsite.de).

A name for my business? Is it really that important?

Obviously any business or startup needs a name. A company name allows you to be recognized, found, talked about, linked to. But how important is it really? You certainly won’t fail or succeed just because of the name you chose but I think naming your business properly can greatly improve your chances of being remembered in a positive way. Words have different meanings and depending on the choice of words they can have a great impact on how your business is perceived by your customers. You may be perceived as trustworthy, deceptive, reliable or incompetent just because your name suggests that. You also want to make sure that people remember you easily and put you in the right context. It is hard to change a company name after it has been established in the market so you better make sure you get that part right from the start. I have therefore taken quite a bit of time now to come up with potential names for my own project dalister (which is currently a working title).

Two types of names for businesses

While trying to come up with potential names I found that there are two basic types of names for businesses.

1. Names that are based on words that have an actual meaning (e.g. ‘brightmate’, ‘soundbeach’ or ‘loosejump’)
2. Names that are based on words or letters with no meaning (e.g. ‘hangtox’, ‘lhetoor’ or ‘kentello’)

While names of the first type have clear messages based on the words they use, those of the second type do not immediately have a meaning. Type 1 is often more easily recognized and preferred by web startups due to benefits with regard to search engine optimisation. Type 2, however, allows for a completely new brand to be built and domains are often easier to find when they are based on type 2. I’m personally still not sure whether I should look for a type 1 name or go for type 2 as they both have advantages and disadvantages.

Key criteria for choosing the right name for a business

Depending on the type of business and the segment you are in the criteria for a name to be a good one are obviously different. Given that my project dalister will be a web startup I have compiled the following list of criteria based on this sector and the attributes and aspects I think are important there.

• There is a link between the business’ core features/service and its name
• The name is not used by any other company or organization on the net
• All major top level domains are still available
• The name has a maximum of 3 syllables
• The name has a pleasant or positive sound and meaning (I actually found most names with a lot of e, o, i, u and a in it sound quite nice)
• The name cannot be mixed up with others

This list is obviously not complete but for me these are the key criteria for a good company name. I have come up with hundreds of names for dalister in the past few months but few actually meet all of these criteria. I currently have the following shortlist of names that I would consider quite good:

• www.wuutuuls.com (all tlds available)
• www.wuutools.com (all tlds available)
• www.wutuuls.com (all tlds available)
• www.misusi.com (all tlds available)
• www.mituul.com (all tlds available)
• www.tuulstar.com (all tlds available)
• www.deskapz.com (all tlds available)
• www.tuulbar.com (all tlds available)
• www.desktapps.com (all tlds available)
• www.desktuuls.com (all tlds available)
• www.deskties.com (all tlds available)
• www.deskmite.com (all tlds available)
• www.deskvibes.com (all tlds available)
• www.daleido.com (all tlds available)
• www.yokolike.com (all tlds available)
• www.dalyso.com (all tlds available)
• www.dalido.com (all tlds available except .com)
• www.everdoo.com (all tlds available)
• www.kanulu.com (all tlds available)
• www.daydeck.com (all tlds available)
• www.swiftydesk.com (all tlds available)
• www.dailydesk.com (all tlds available except .com)
• www.cannymate.com (all tlds available)
• www.micyte.com (all tlds available except .net)
• www.candydesk.com (all tlds available)

As you can see I indicated whether the most common top level domains are still available or not. My favourite is dailydesk but unfortunately dailydesk.com is already taken. I also like wuutuuls as it would allow me to build some sort of family of applications (e.g. wuu-notes, wuu-todos, etc.). What do you think would be the best name for my project dalister? Unfortunately, the name dalister does not work either as the .com domain is already registered. Would be great to get your view on this!

What dalister must look/feeel/work like

When I think about todo lists I think about that piece of paper I have at work that I take wherever I go in the office. I just grab a pen and write things down. It only requires two actions basically (grabbing the pen and writing stuff down) and that’s how I think a todo list should work. Easy, fast access. And that’s the idea I want to center dalister around. It is not about creating yet another standalone webapp that let’s you create todo lists. It is about creating a daily work tool that is integrated into your workflow and allows you to access all the basic work and productivity tools (todo list manager, notes, reminders, calendar, quick file upload, etc.) with a minimum number of clicks and/or actions. The easiest way to do that is by using a startpage that offers you immediate access to all these tiny little tools.

I realized that I might be talking too much about the todo list feature of dalister as it is just one of the various (potential) productivity/work tools I would like to see implemented as part of dalister. However, this is the module I am currently working on and the one I would like to test at work. But in order to give those interested in what dalister could look like a more complete view on the project I compiled a list of potential features and tools that could be built into it:

• todo list manager
• notes
• reminders (via sms, email, automated call, popup, …?)
• birthday list
• quick file upload
• bookmarks
• quick search (e.g. google, leo, wikipedia etc; all customizable of course)
• email access or at least a basic inbox view
• calendar

Dalister as a webapp platform

Tools for all these little things exist already but no one has put them together in a nice and easy to use start page yet. I was actually thinking that dalister could evolve as some sort of online webapp platform where you can purchase and run small applications based on Javascript and AJAX. iGoogle does that already (without charging you for it though) with its gadget directory where you can select certain gadgets for your iGoogle start page. Most of the apps/gadgets you can find there though are poorly designed or were developed with the aim of maximizing advertising revenue. It is hard to find really really good apps/gadgets in that catalogue! Even Google’s own todo manager for iGoogle sucks! Doesn’t that mean there is a potential for a high quality start page provider? Dalister could be the Apple of browser start pages.

I’ll try to write some more blog posts about dalister in the next couple of weeks to further develop the concept and also work a bit on the actual business model. Right now it is all just in my head and I guess it would be quite helpful to write all those thoughts down. You are of course more than welcome to comment, criticize or just say hello whenever you feel like it.

• simple, yet comprehensive
• fast
• beautiful
• fun to use
• (web based)

Let’s say you get to work in the morning, you open your browser and the first thing you see is dalister – a nice and simple start page that tells you what you need to do today, including birthdays, things you need to buy for dinner and maybe a couple of files you uploaded at home yesterday which you wanted to print and send out to your insurance. I know, you can do all of these things already and some tools do them really well but can you do them with just one, two or maximum three clicks in such a nice and fun way? Well, I am still looking for a service/tool that does this for me.

I started working on dalister 2 months ago and progress has been rather slow but I kind of like what I have done so far. I’m using ajax/jquery to implement most of the user-browser interaction which gave me quite a few headaches. I have used PHP/MySQL in the past and I am also using it for dalister but jquery is rather new to me so I have to look up all the functions and methods and stuff which is quite cumbersome sometimes. I’m only doing this after work so time is limited unfortunately. Most of my time went into the todo manager module as this is something I really want to use and test in my day job. So far, I have been using pen and paper to track my todos but after a day or two it always starts to get really messy as I cross off, add, change, re-proritise things and so on. It would definitely be nicer if I could to that on my browser start page in a simple and fast manner.

I’ll try to work a bit more on dalister in the next couple of weeks and present some more screenshots or sketches soon. Let me know what you think about dalister in the comments or send me an email!

Source: Carsonified on Vimeo

For those who do not want to watch the whole video, here are Fred Wilson’s 10 Golden Principles for Web Apps:

1. Speed
   A web app needs to be fast. If the user feels that the application is slow, he will stop using it.
2. Instant Utility
   Fred says that users should be able to instantly use the application and see results without waiting too long.
3. Software is Media
   This basically says that web software should have a personality, an attitute or a certain style.
4. Less is More
   Web apps should only have a minimum set of features when they are launched. Features can be added over time although simplicity should always be favoured over new features.
5. Make it Programmable
   Allow others to build software on top of your product (e.g. via APIs). I guess facebook is doing a good job at this.
6. Make it Personal
   Users should establish a personal connection with the software and feel like they own the application. (e.g. by allowing them to customize backgrounds or avatars)
7. RESTful
   This means that every part of a web app should have a clean and comprehensive URL.
8. Discoverability
   Do SEO and use social media to make your application discoverable.
9. Clean
   Web applications should have a clean and intuitive interface with lots of space and only the most needed features visible.
10. Playful
    There should be a certain game dynamic in any web app. People like to play and this should be reflected in a web app.

That is a short summary of Fred’s points. For a full transcript, please visit the Carsonified Blog where I found this valuable video.

Actively looking for problems in need of a solution

The reason why I wanted to post this on my blog is that I wanted to encourage both, myself and my readers, to actively watch out for problems that we have and could potentially solve. I guess we often deal with problems and acknowledge that there is either no solution or just really bad ones. Therefore the first step should be to actively recognize that we have a problem and then think about a potential solution. That’s the theory but let me give you some real life examples.

• It is almost impossible to find a reliable mechanic online
  I just recently had to find a mechanic who would do the regular annual checkup of my car here in Frankfurt so I asked my colleagues whether they knew any mechanic they had been happy with. Unfortunately, the answers I got were not really satisfying because either people had no car or they had only been to a mechanic once and weren’t really happy with the service. So I went on Google and did some research. There were tons of auto repair shops in my neighbourhood but it was just impossible to judge whether they were good or bad at what they’re doing. Only one shop had a review (a positive one) and I ended up choosing this one. I was happy with the service and the price was fair. But having gone through this process I realized that there is no website dedicated to reviews of auto repair shops!
• Tracking todos, meetings, emails and notes electronically isn’t very convenient
  We use Outlook for emails and meetings (calendar) at work which is OK. It is not great but it does a decent job (I think). However, we do not have any system that could handle things like notes, todos or bookmarks in a quick & easy way. I know, Outlook can do these things as well (at least notes and todos) but it just does not offer the slim, nice & easy solution I am looking for. I use iGoogle for my todos and notes now (which is ok but certainly could be improved) but that way I am using two systems (Outlook and iGoogle) which I’d like to avoid. So I thought why isn’t there a simple, slick system a la iGoogle with 37signals style that I could use as my startpage and manage all those things on one page?

These are just two examples I came across during the last weeks by recognizing the problems I had. Probably not the most surprising ones but I guess they might still be valuable input when trying to find a business idea. I’ll do some more research on that in the upcoming weeks and post the results.

Why I think solving your own problem is no Panacea for finding business ideas

I think a weakness of the the ‘solving your own problem’ approach is that it requires you to be aware of a certain problem. When I look at some of the recent startups, however, I find that they often solve a problem I was not really aware of before. Some good examples for this are Groupon, Foursquare or the german startup MyMuesli. I personally would not have come up with their business idea because the problem they solve wasn’t really a problem for me. I now use their product/services because the benefits they offer made me realize that I did in fact have a “problem” – it was just a latent one. When using this method as an entrepreneur, however, you should realize that the set of business ideas you’ll be able to find is limited to the problems you have and you are aware of. It will not allow you to find the ones that address your latent needs.

What do you think about this approach? Have you dealt with problems that you think could be solved? Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

Remember to bookmark this page so that you can watch it everytime your inner chicken says ‘starting your own business is stupid’ – because it’s not!

My family likes security, I like security. Having a steady income, a regular, well paid job has always seemed to me like the right thing to do. I ventured out in the unknown fields of the ‘internet’ in 2001 and started my own website (www.movie-trade.com) which is no longer online but was quite a success back then. I had only run it for a few months when the german magazine ‘Stern’ called up to do an interview with me. The whole project was a bit of a grey area thing as it provided users a platform they could use to exchange movies. I thought that having an article in a magazine like ‘Stern’ would certainly not make this any easier so I decided to sell it to a random guy at a ridiculously low price. Since then I have thought about starting a new project so many times but have not managed to overcome my fears of not having enough money, not finishing my studies and of course of just failing. I am clearly a chicken! And being a chicken in business sucks!

I am now in a position where all those fatal flaws are basically gone. I got enough money, I finished my studies, I got no one to support. So why not start my own business? Well … I will … kind of … But what should I work on? I don’t really know yet. So I thought why not figure that out while blogging about my ideas, thoughts and work? I bet know there are thousands  of people out there who are chickens when it comes to starting a new business – just like me. I truly believe that there is a way to overcome our fears and on my way to being a (hopefully successful?) entrepreneur I will share videos, interviews, links, ideas, concepts, … with you. Because I have realized something: being a chicken in business sucks!