In the last two articles about "niche", I spoke of first of all finding a niche.
It is human nature, probably based on our formal education to "conquer the world and have it all".
Perhaps that is why teachers teach and entrepreneurs do.
Please don't get me wrong, I am very pro-education and even went back to college at age forty seven in business.
As I suspected, everything had changed since my stint in academia thirty years ago.
Also as I suspected, I learned a lot more from many of the younger students than I did the professors (in fact, many of the professors admitted learning more from them as well.
I mentioned that my "claim to fame" or "my 15 minutes" was actually by accident.
In fact, it may have been a little more by design than accident.
In the late 1980's I was working in television news media in Washington, D.
C.
Some friends dragged me to a cartoon exhibit at the Smithsonian called The Far Side By Gary Larson.
I had heard of it, and perhaps seen a few panels but didn't have much of a clue about it.
I fell in love.
But I knew I was a hard-working 9-5 biz exec and no way could I ever in my lifetime fiddle around with "all things funny".
Maybe the next lifetime.
There is an old saying "Man plans, God laughs".
It couldn't be more true in my case.
In 2001, I suffered a major heart attack, taking me away from my high pressured job by doctors orders (that or die).
Since I had other complications, it appeared the only work that would not stress me to another attack would be data entry or some typing job.
I was livid and vowed never to let that happen.
I changed my diet, I learned about herbs and vitamins, I started an excersize regimen, I went back to school,I started a cartoon.
I began writing articles, blogging, learning the Internet.
I opened e-stores.
I did it all at home in my jogging suit.
"Retirement" kept me busier than my subway commute to Capital Hill over a decade ago.
Now I was learning business, the old fashioned way.
The Internet was and is right at my bedside.
I can learn whatever I want whenever I want to.
Information that was once available to only the big dogs is available to you and me too.
I don't follow gurus and I'm not one.
To call oneself an "Internet Guru" is probably one of the biggest misnomers there can ever be.
Dr.
Vinton Cerf, at Stanford, invented TCP-IP, later to become Arapnet, then the Internet (thanks to Al Gore...
yes really, Gore pushed the bill through to make it a public entity; its really not a joke).
And the whole idea of the Internet, the vision, was to "level the playing field".
That meant there would be no more gurus, snake oil salesmen, etc.
Well maybe there would be, but it would be much easier to "catch on to their game", and the reason why is simple.
They have access to no more information than you do.
They may have learned it first, but that does not make them gurus; that does not give them carte blanch to empty your pocketbooks to pay for their ebooks that contain information freely available on the Internet (they got it the same place you can, you are simply paying for them having more spare time on their hands to research, you are not paying for their brains, believe me.
"We are ALL the Internet gurus; anyone brave enough to learn a new technology and try to make it work for them, for socializing, economics or anything else.
We are the pioneers, you and me.
There is no heirachy.
So, I talked about inventing Prozac Wear as a niche product.
It is working well.
Today, I was watching the news and, as usual, a large portion of it was about immigration.
Bingo.
I have done some cartoons on immigration over the years and they remain popular.
It took me four hours to get them on about 120 products.
Another niche was born.
Where else can someone get immigration tees, totes, and other collectibles and gifts but my store.
Maybe there are other places.
I've not seen them.
You see, like I proposed in last week's niche producing article.
Follow the trends.
Follow current events.
Figure out a way to "tap into it", and you are in business.
I did it, and trust me, I am no smarter than you.
And again, far from an "Internet Guru".
It is human nature, probably based on our formal education to "conquer the world and have it all".
Perhaps that is why teachers teach and entrepreneurs do.
Please don't get me wrong, I am very pro-education and even went back to college at age forty seven in business.
As I suspected, everything had changed since my stint in academia thirty years ago.
Also as I suspected, I learned a lot more from many of the younger students than I did the professors (in fact, many of the professors admitted learning more from them as well.
I mentioned that my "claim to fame" or "my 15 minutes" was actually by accident.
In fact, it may have been a little more by design than accident.
In the late 1980's I was working in television news media in Washington, D.
C.
Some friends dragged me to a cartoon exhibit at the Smithsonian called The Far Side By Gary Larson.
I had heard of it, and perhaps seen a few panels but didn't have much of a clue about it.
I fell in love.
But I knew I was a hard-working 9-5 biz exec and no way could I ever in my lifetime fiddle around with "all things funny".
Maybe the next lifetime.
There is an old saying "Man plans, God laughs".
It couldn't be more true in my case.
In 2001, I suffered a major heart attack, taking me away from my high pressured job by doctors orders (that or die).
Since I had other complications, it appeared the only work that would not stress me to another attack would be data entry or some typing job.
I was livid and vowed never to let that happen.
I changed my diet, I learned about herbs and vitamins, I started an excersize regimen, I went back to school,I started a cartoon.
I began writing articles, blogging, learning the Internet.
I opened e-stores.
I did it all at home in my jogging suit.
"Retirement" kept me busier than my subway commute to Capital Hill over a decade ago.
Now I was learning business, the old fashioned way.
The Internet was and is right at my bedside.
I can learn whatever I want whenever I want to.
Information that was once available to only the big dogs is available to you and me too.
I don't follow gurus and I'm not one.
To call oneself an "Internet Guru" is probably one of the biggest misnomers there can ever be.
Dr.
Vinton Cerf, at Stanford, invented TCP-IP, later to become Arapnet, then the Internet (thanks to Al Gore...
yes really, Gore pushed the bill through to make it a public entity; its really not a joke).
And the whole idea of the Internet, the vision, was to "level the playing field".
That meant there would be no more gurus, snake oil salesmen, etc.
Well maybe there would be, but it would be much easier to "catch on to their game", and the reason why is simple.
They have access to no more information than you do.
They may have learned it first, but that does not make them gurus; that does not give them carte blanch to empty your pocketbooks to pay for their ebooks that contain information freely available on the Internet (they got it the same place you can, you are simply paying for them having more spare time on their hands to research, you are not paying for their brains, believe me.
"We are ALL the Internet gurus; anyone brave enough to learn a new technology and try to make it work for them, for socializing, economics or anything else.
We are the pioneers, you and me.
There is no heirachy.
So, I talked about inventing Prozac Wear as a niche product.
It is working well.
Today, I was watching the news and, as usual, a large portion of it was about immigration.
Bingo.
I have done some cartoons on immigration over the years and they remain popular.
It took me four hours to get them on about 120 products.
Another niche was born.
Where else can someone get immigration tees, totes, and other collectibles and gifts but my store.
Maybe there are other places.
I've not seen them.
You see, like I proposed in last week's niche producing article.
Follow the trends.
Follow current events.
Figure out a way to "tap into it", and you are in business.
I did it, and trust me, I am no smarter than you.
And again, far from an "Internet Guru".
Source...