Sit down with a cup of coffee and force yourself to write out 10 answers to each of these questions.  Even if you think they are silly, force yourself to write 10.  You’ll be off to a good start.

• What do I find intolerable?
• What luxury can I turn into a commodity?
• What big companies solution could I make easier to use?
• What will kids in 10 years look back on and not believe about how difficult our lives were?

Photo by annais

Make it free for up to 10,000 followers. If you have more than that, it’s $5 a month. Over 100,000 followers maybe $49 a month. Over a million followers $99 a month. Etc.

The exact numbers aren’t important. This tiered business model is proven to work by lots of companies, and anyone with that many followers is clearly deriving some sort of benefit that they should pay for.

This business model is so obvious – why haven’t they tried it? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills over here. What am I missing?

Photo by tveskov

I find new reasons every day why I’m thankful that we never took any kind of outside investment. Let me give you a small example… Jared had a friend that had an idea of some way that we could modify FogBugz to be really useful to the investment community as something – I don’t remember what, but something that the investment community could really use that’s 5 percent different than FogBugz. And I kept thinking, “This is a huge distraction, and there’s not a big enough market. I just want to stick to our core competency, and I’m not interested in doing software for the financial markets.” He kept saying, “No, no. You’ve got to talk to this guy. You could make a lot of money off this. It would be great.”

I kept thinking, “You know what, if it was a real board of directors and the VC’s were bringing you these great ideas, you wouldn’t really have any choice but to say yes. And you’d keep getting distracted to do their pet projects that they dreamed up in the shower one night and they think might be a good idea, and you just don’t think it’s a good idea.” You really don’t have the ability to say no when you take those outside investments. It’s hard to tell your investors, “Let me just go in my own direction.”

I can identify with this thought process. There is a big difference between thinking up a cool idea, and actually having to go implement it. But I found it interesting because he may have changed his mind (at least in part) since he wrote this a few years back.  He went on to take VC money for his new project, StackOverflow.com.

1,400 videos later it is now the largest open courseware project in the world with more views than MIT, Stanford, Berkeley or any other school – and 200,000 monthly users.

Here is a video of Sal Khan’s talk where he discusses what the “Khan Academy” has turned into.

It’s easy to dismiss this as just a web phenomenon that isn’t comparable to regular education.  After all, there is no interaction in a YouTube video so you can’t ask the teacher a question.  There are no discussions amongst students, no written papers, and no grades.

Yet it also comes with some non-obvious advantages.  For example, each student can go at their own pace, there are fewer distractions (each video features just a simple blackboard), and students can easily review material several times without needing to take notes.

Perhaps more importantly, a truly great teacher can now reach 200,000 students a month instead of 20.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of this last point.  Imagine how many students are sitting right now, bored out of their mind, in a classroom with a sub par teacher (or worse, in a developing country without a teacher at all)?  What if they instead had access to one of the best teachers in the world?

The implications of that are really staggering.

Sal Khan is one of those people with a natural gift for teaching.  After watching the video above, I went to check out his page on YouTube.  What’s amazing is that I actually found myself engrossed in several topics that I hated in school.  Watching YouTube videos is just too easy!

And he is great at breaking complex ideas down into simple parts.  Just as an example, check out his series on banking and the fractional reserve system.  In just 10 minutes I feel like I understand our current financial crisis more fully.

What do kids like to do when they aren’t doing their homework?  Watch YouTube videos.  Now they may be one and the same.

Sal Khan may have just done the impossible: made learning fun.  And I’ll make a tall claim: his simple YouTube videos could actually be more effective than the vast majority of public school education that is being delivered today.

Yes, it’s still a new technology and not a drop in replacement for schools…yet.  But I think we’re witnessing the birth of something big here, and I’ll be watching it closely.

Until next time, keep breaking free!
Brian Armstrong

P.S. In other education related news, check out this math teacher’s novel approach.  The education space is evolving rapidly.

Here are some cool dashboards I’ve spotted around the web lately:

1. The Panic.com Dashbaord

Gorgeous design.  Tracks daily signups across their various products, plus support queues, daily revenue, local bus schedules, upcoming events, and twitter mentions.

They also mounted it on their wall with a flat panel display which make it great as a rallying point around the office.  More info on their blog.

2. The Tumblr.com Dashboard

Tumblr shows some nice stats on their public about page.

3. The CulturedCode.com Dashboard

Has a train station motif going on.  Nice work.

4. The Google Dashboard

I visited the Google offices recently and they have this dashboard in their lobby which shows the locations of Google searches happening in real time.

I also remember reading a story about Amazon in their early days where they setup a dashboard internally that rang a bell every time they made a sale.  So they could even incorporate audio (a “cha-ching!” sound whenever you make a sale).  It was a great way to help the team celebrate small victories.

So how do you get one of these for your own business?

These dashboards are beautiful, but they are all custom built and take quite a bit of programmer time.  So for the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about building a web site that helps people create dashboards like this.

I’d like it to be an open framework that is easy to build on top of.  This way, designers all over the world can submit their own dashboards based on the API and backend, and there would be some really creative stuff come out of it (just like Facebook opened their platform to let people create Facebook apps, or WordPress let anyone create “themes”).

There are still lots of technical details to work out on a project like that, but I’ve started looking into it.  If you have any thoughts, as always feel free to let me know in the comments….

Brian Armstrong

• 306 blogs with 132,844 total subscribers are now using the service
• 9 paying customers so far which is a 3% conversion rate on a freemium product

The main untested theory behind the site, which is that you can let users import subscriber lists without another opt-in by testing the list first seem to be working quite well.  You can weed out spammers without punishing the good guys.

It has also saved people a lot of money who have switched from Aweber.com.  I was previously paying $70 per month to manage the email list for this blog and one other with Aweber, so in the past 6 months FeedmailPro.com has saved me $360 just by switching.

Maybe it can do the same for your blog?  If you’re looking for a more versatile email newsletter for your RSS feed (at a fraction of the cost) check out the site.

There is also an affiliate program.

Brian,

I would like some feedback on a business idea…

I’m thinking about a 3D scanning and 3D printing service with a website to solicit business.

A 3D scanner is around $3,000, and a 3D printer is about $15,000, so startup costs would be a little “high” I guess.  The scanner can scan an existing object, and convert it to a CAD file.  Then, with that file, someone could “print” a 3D object in ABS plastic, even if the part was complicated.  It is an efficient way to see/test a prototype idea.

Not sure how much market there is for something like that.  The client would need to ship an object to me to scan, and then I would probably be required to send the object back with an electronic CAD file.  And if I offered the “printing” service, I would send the ABS model back to them, all for a fee.  This is kind of a new thing developed in the last couple of years, and could save some companies money in their product development.  The startup cost probably keeps the small entrepreneur out of that market.  But, I could spend that much if I thought I could recoup my investment, and eventually make a profit.

Right now I am working part time for $10/hour at the local community college tutoring math.  I am a licensed Engineer in Texas, but finding a job is difficult.  If I could book 30 to 40 hours a week tutoring at $20 to $30 an hour, I might consider being ok with that.  I am a UniversityTutor.com tutor, but on my 3rd (free) referral, with just 1 client 1 hour a week at $20/hour.

- [Name Removed]

Hi [Name Removed],

Interesting idea.  One way you could test it out is to see what keywords people are searching for on Google near where you live.  I’m not sure what keywords it would be exactly, but if you lived in Houston for example you might see how many searches are being done for “3d printing service houston” and keywords like that.  This would give you an idea of the market size.  You can use a tool like the Google Keyword tool for this type of research.

Then do those searches yourself and see what websites come up.  Are the results good? (i.e. people providing this service at a reasonable price)  Or do you feel you could do something substantially better marketing/price/customer service wise than what is currently out there?  What will be your competitive edge?

If you feel you can do substantially better in some way (i.e. there a market “pain” out there that you can solve), and you find a way to get the equipment (give equity to an investor, get it on business credit, etc) then you’re right a website would be a great way to market this business.  You could create a business website with WordPress like in this article.  You could also choose the domain name as www.3dprintinghouston.com (or whatever you decide your #1 keyword is) – this alone (the keyword as the domain name) will probably be enough to give you the first position in Google for that keyword.  Google gives a high weight to the domain name.

That would give you your first customers, or at least some traffic to your website.  How many customers would you need to get to pay back the business loans?  (Basically the total cost divided by the margin per item sold.  Note this would get you to zero – still no profit or compensation for your time – anything beyond that would be profit.)

To get setup you could start with the bare minimum.  Accept payments with a Paypal “Buy Now” button, put up some testimonials up, list an easy way for people to reach you, and a money back guarantee.  Don’t invest too much time in getting things perfect – just start with the bare minimum to get something up quickly and improve from there.  With the Google traffic you should get some bites.

Finally, I’d think up front about how this will scale.  In other words, if this thing takes off are you going to have to be printing these models 8 hours per day and is that the sort of life you want?  If you don’t want to do it yourself long term, are the margins there to hire someone else to help you so you could move into more of a manager role and scale that way?  In other words, be in this for the long haul – if you are passionate about this particular field for some reason and feel you could one day be the best in the world at it (at least in your local area) then go for it.  Because it could one day be a great company – but it will take years of hard work.  If it’s not something you’re passionate about it will be too easy to give up when the going gets tough.  But if you’re passionate about it (or find a related business that you are) then I say go for it.  You’ll never know unless you try!

In the comments below, what other advice would you (Breaking Free readers) give him?

Hope it helps!
Brian Armstrong

The site is Seoaholic.com.  The name is a made up word which combines SEO (search engine optimization) and “work-a-holic”.

This is a beta launch so the tool is still a work in progress, but feel free to try it out and send me any feedback on what you like and don’t like.

The main benefit of this tool is to bring more traffic to your website by:

• Building more incoming links to your site
• Improving your search engine rankings
• Tracking your keyword rankings over time to see big picture SEO changes to your site

As you may know, building incoming links to your website is one of the best ways to improve your search engine rankings.  Seoaholic goes out to find “link opportunities” for you and ranks them by (1) how valuable the link would be if you got it (2) how likely you are to actually get a link from that site.  Seoaholic helps you (and your team) track the process of getting incoming links from those website owners.

A link opportunity is typically a page on a website that is already linking to your competitors or related websites, but they aren’t linking to you yet.  It might be a blog post, a list of resources, job posting board, etc.  You have a good chance of getting a link from these pages because they are already linking to sites like yours (by good I mean maybe 25% chance of success instead of 1% like most link building campaigns).  The last step is still up to you: contact the website owner to ask for a link, submit your site (if their site allows it), or write an interesting piece of content they would be likely to link to.  This last step is standard linking building stuff, and remains a manual process (we don’t want this to turn into a spamming tool).

The tool manages the rest for you (finding the high value opportunities, checking if they actually linked, managing your team’s progress, and seeing how it ultimately affects your rankings).  We imagine it being used by anyone from small time bloggers (who want to improve and track their search engine rankings over time) to hardcore SEO consultants who do this for a living.

Here Is A 90 Second Demo Video

If you don’t see the video embedded below (i.e. you’re reading this in email) you can click here to watch it on YouTube.  Click the “full screen” button below to get a better view or try it in HD.

And Here Are A Few Screen Shots (Click The Screenshot To See A Larger Version)

1. Discover new link opportunities and manage the link building process from one screen.

2. Track your website’s average search engine position over time plus total incoming links

3. Watch your individual keyword rankings vary and spot big picture SEO changes to your site

Try It Now For Free…

The first 5 keywords you want to track and build links for are absolutely free!  To try it out with your website just click here to sign up in 30 seconds.

Feel free to leave me any comments or feedback in the comments below!

Until next time, keep breaking free!
Brian Armstrong

1. Doing something different
2. Having fun
3. Not being afraid to be a little weird

It reminded me of Google’s “I’m feeling lucky” button or Facebook’s Pirate language setting.

It also reminded me of some of the ideas I wrote about in word of mouth marketing.

Then I started looking at the BuyersVote.com homepage and I got sort of sad.  It looked really boring.

It looked like every other review site out there.  If I saw it for the first time, I’d probably be sort of confused, do a few clicks, and then leave.

So I started wondering, what is this website actually ABOUT damnit.  It’s got to convey it instantly.  And I blurted out “it just so you can find out if something sucks or not before you buy it!”

So I decided to change the tag-line of the site from “Online product reviews made easy” to “Find out if it sucks, before you buy!”

Irreverent?  Yes.  Junevile?  Probably.  Fun and engaging?  I think so.  At least it would cause me to give it a second look, and maybe even participate in this community – it’s sounds fun.

What do you think?  Worst idea ever or good marketing?  I think I’ll test it out for a bit.

P.S. Because it worked out so well last time, I’ve started a new category on BuyersVote for “Best Christmas Gift Ideas 2009“.  Hopefully you’ll find it useful as you do your last minute Christmas shopping.  Please take a moment to go check it out now – and don’t forget to vote or add your own idea if you have a good one.  Thanks!

Until next time, keep breaking free!
Brian Armstrong

Dear Brian,

Your book inspired me to start up my own business based on your Start Breaking Free model.

I was a lawyer working 80 hour weeks at an international firm, doomed to spending the best years of my life behind a desk. I was depressed and my confidence was taking a battering from my unhappy, over critical, negative, unhealthy and institutionalized colleagues.

After reading your book I started to ponder how, if at all, I could escape the rat race.

My answer came a few short weeks after reading your book. If I was working 80 hours a week and making less than a third of my billing target, where was the rest of the money going? After weeks of research I found out that it was going to a combination of a) the under worked over paid partners b) the lazy and inefficient staff and c) the office, stationary, IT and other such expenses.

I decided to setup a service that has none of these expenses and that offers lawyers a better life and businesses a cheaper more efficient service. I set up Matrix Law Group which places lawyers with businesses on a temporary employee basis and which allows those lawyers to work either remotely or from the business’ office (so no office).

I advertise in a few small business publications over here and then hire someone, including myself out (like a temp agency) and charge businesses a low hourly rate (we have no overheads so can undercut traditional law firms). I now work about about 7 to 10 hours a week at £100 an hour and because of more favourable tax treatments, I make a decent wage but a less than I did when I was working 80 hours a week. But guess what? I am much much happier and healthier.

I won’t lie, getting business is not easy, specially since I have to do all my marketing myself.

My question to you is whether you can offer me any advice on marketing myself and my business? My website is www.matrixlawgroup.com, other than that, and a few adverts, I have no other marketing tools. Law is one of those industries that works on a word of mouth basis. I am therefore trying to approach people, such as yourself, to get advice.

Thank you for inspiring me to change my life.

Keep breaking free.
Patrick

Hey Patrick,

Wow I love it!  I think it’s a great idea and will save people lots of money (the perfect sales pitch at this time).

I’m not sure if you designed the site like this intentionally, but it came across somewhat web 2.0 ish or futuristic.  At least for me I’d prefer to see something more professional and old fashioned looking for a legal site, that instills a sense of quality.  Up to you of course, just thought I’d mention it.  Did you think about listing the available lawyers on the site as well with some sort of profile?

Anyway, I think you’re off to a great start. I actually thought about doing something similar a while back (the UniversityTutor of lawyers sort of thing) but decided to focus just on tutors right now.  As for marketing, a couple things come to mind…start blogging, put in the title long tail keywords which you may rank for easier at first (less competitive).  Make blog posts naming specific companies and how they could improve their legal costs.  By calling them out publicly you can get some attention/controversy.  Maybe even make outrageous challenges…for example, you can publicly offer to complete some legal task for free for someone, just to prove how much lower your costs (number of hours) would have been, and then show the work for people to compare quality.

Overall, I think giving away your services for free at first could be great marketing.  Basically…

1. get in touch with some business
2. ask them what their current legal fees are costing them
3. if it’s a good fit, offer to do the work they were paying these other guys for for FREE for a month
4. after that if they aren’t happy with the results then you part ways, if they are happy then they can consider hiring you at your agreed upon rate (highly likely to happen if you work is good)

Some people call this risk reversal – essentially removing 100% of the risk for someone to try you out so you can prove the benefit to them.  Charlie Hoehn’s book, Free Work, makes a great case for this.

UPDATE: this Mixergy interview with Neil Patel has some great examples of how free work brought in new business.  Neil says “don’t charge celebs or high profile people, take publicity/contacts instead of payment”.

This is just to get started…once you have some regular customers, the referrals will start coming in.  Good luck!

Brian Armstrong

P.S. What do other Breaking Free readers think about Patrick’s idea and website?  Feel free to leave him a comment below and check out his site.