How do you find a starving crowd ?

I've read that if you want to market a product, the first thing you need to find is a "starving crowd". That is, find a crowd which is hungry for what you have to sell.

My question is how do you find a starving crowd on the internet? Is their a good technique to do this?

What the whole starving crowd thingy is about is
to find the starving crowd before you pick or
develop the product/service for them. Don't know
what your product or service is, but who wants it?
who needs it? where on the internet would that
kind of person hang out?

> I've read that if you want to market a
> product, the first thing you need to find is
> a "starving crowd". That is, find
> a crowd which is hungry for what you have to
> sell.

> My question is how do you find a starving
> crowd on the internet? Is their a good
> technique to do this?

I have found "starving crowds" in "chat" rms, discussion boards or specifically Targeted NewsGroups...as far as the Internet goes.

But...I've found most of my "starving crowds" in real life as I go about my "regular" activities.
For example....here's how I discovered one of many of my "starving crowds" and what I did to create a product to satisfy their "hunger".

A few yrs ago my wife had a retail Antique Shop. One day we received a flyer from the community college informing us of an upcoming seminar about, "How To Find Out What Your Business Is Worth".

I told my wife about it and we both agreed that it would be "interesting" to find out HOW to put a "price" on our business....for curiosity and information in case we ever wanted to sell it.

When I called and registered, the girl told me the seminar would be held in a small classrm off the main lunchrm but, just to make sure...call a day before.

So...it came a day before the seminar and I called and asked if there was any change in the location. The girl said, "Heavens yes! We've had to move it to the Main Lunchrm because there's 187 people signed up.

WELL...THIS perked my "entrepreneurial ears" up.

Before the session was to start I went around and asked a few business owners WHY they had come. Almost all of them said, "For curiosity!" or "Interested in knowing how to value a business for possible use later"...a couple told me, "SO I can tell my brother (dad) what my biz is worth (EGO)"

So...we went thru the session. I learned a lot, got a Manual to take home. Checked the Internet to see who was selling "Valuation" products. Found some products selling for $500 up to $2000 that looked like you had to be an accountant to understand them.

Then I called up a retired "Business Appraisor" and asked him if he would help me create a software program that would be easy to use, fast and didn't take a CPA to understand.

With this info at hand....I found a programmer who wrote a program for me...I created a website...created a "marketing" program and was "off to the races" with a new product for my "niche" market (starving crowd)...."Small Business Owners who wanted to know what their business is worth and didn't want to hire an appraisor or use software that took a cpa to understand".

I called the program, "BIZWORTH"...set up a website called VALUDISK.com and proceeded to sell the heck out of the thing.

And all because my "entrepreneurial ears" were awake and alert.

DOn Alm

> What the whole starving crowd thingy is
> about is
> to find the starving crowd before you pick
> or
> develop the product/service for them. Don't
> know
> what your product or service is, but who
> wants it?
> who needs it? where on the internet would
> that
> kind of person hang out?




How To Value Any Small Business

Hi Trevor, Joe, Don,

Thanks Don, that's a great story! I'm learning too how to spot the "hot opportunities" by seeing what people are being fascinated by....

Another way which others sometimes mention is to look at mailing lists, like you'd find in the "Standard Rate and Data Service", or SRDS (in the USA), or the "List of Lists" in the UK or in Australia. If there's a big list of people interested in a particular area, then you have a possible "hot" area. Another thing you can look at is figures of magazine subscriptions. If there are a lot of subscribers, there's clearly a lot of interest in the area the magazine covers....

An online equivalent could be looking at ezine subscriber numbers.... A couple of places you can find this kind of information online are....

http://www.freezineweb.com/

http://www.list-city.com/ezines.htm

Unfortunately, the info is sometimes a year or two out of date, though some of the listings are recent....

Hope that's useful, Trevor!

- Dien Rice

Yes....lists are a great indicator as to what is HOT. Which reminds me....some yrs ago a guy was running full page ads in the National Enq and other tabloids with a picture of a plastic BUDDHA and the headline was..."RUB THE BUDDHA'S BELLY FOR LUCK!"

He went on to explain how eastern folklore has it that if you rubbed a Buddha's belly all kinds of good things came your way. He then had an order form where you could order the thing for $7.

Well...after I saw this ad for a number of months...I decided to check SRDS and Holy Cow, Kemosabe...was I flabbergasted when I found his list was over 1 MILLION orders at $7 ea.

So...just goes to show what people have bought. Whether they'll buy something like this in this day and age...who knows?

Don Alm

> Hi Trevor, Joe, Don,

> Thanks Don, that's a great story! I'm
> learning too how to spot the "hot
> opportunities" by seeing what people
> are being fascinated by....

> Another way which others sometimes mention
> is to look at mailing lists, like you'd find
> in the " Standard Rate and Data Service
> ", or SRDS (in the USA), or the
> "List of Lists" in the UK or in
> Australia . If there's a big list of people
> interested in a particular area, then you
> have a possible "hot" area.
> Another thing you can look at is figures of
> magazine subscriptions. If there are a lot
> of subscribers, there's clearly a lot of
> interest in the area the magazine covers....

> An online equivalent could be looking at
> ezine subscriber numbers.... A couple of
> places you can find this kind of information
> online are....

> http://www.freezineweb.com/
> http://www.list-city.com/ezines.htm
> Unfortunately, the info is sometimes a year
> or two out of date, though some of the
> listings are recent....

> Hope that's useful, Trevor!

> - Dien Rice


22 Ways To Make $50,000 Starting with $50

> was..."RUB THE BUDDHA'S BELLY FOR
> LUCK!"
Thank you sir. I was myself thinking that lucky charms and talismans might be a timely item to sell. I was in a small shop yesterday in a tourist area that features mostly celtic crosses. Business was good. Seems people gravitate toward things/items that yield a bit of comfort or contribute to a feeling of protection in these uncertain times.

Back in the 50's and 60's many cars had a small "plastic Jesus" sitting on their dashboard as a sort of "guardian". I remember one of the companies making these statuettes were making MILLIONS of them. They were for sale in every drug and dept store.

The same with "rabbit's feet". Millions of these were sold in the 60's as "good luck charms" and "keychains".

My entrepreneurial "hero" is Joe Cossman. Joe said something in one of the seminars I attended that I think still holds true;
He said, Fads seem to repeat every 17 yrs. Hula Hoop, Frisbee, the Yo-Yo. He said take a look at 17 yr old magazines and see what was selling then and see if you can "resurrect" one of them by "testing" the market first...then roll it out.

Don Alm

> Thank you sir. I was myself thinking that
> lucky charms and talismans might be a timely
> item to sell. I was in a small shop
> yesterday in a tourist area that features
> mostly celtic crosses. Business was good.
> Seems people gravitate toward things/items
> that yield a bit of comfort or contribute to
> a feeling of protection in these uncertain
> times.




22 Ways To Make $50,000 Starting with $50

i was in the magazine store the other day and by
the booth where they sell the lottery numbers was
a rack with damn near 25 books devoted to picking
the number. most were just lists of random numbers. Honestly. People charging $5 average
to sell you pages of random numbers....hmmm....
wow....

> Back in the 50's and 60's many cars had a
> small "plastic Jesus" sitting on
> their dashboard as a sort of
> "guardian". I remember one of the
> companies making these statuettes were
> making MILLIONS of them. They were for sale
> in every drug and dept store.

> The same with "rabbit's feet".
> Millions of these were sold in the 60's as
> "good luck charms" and
> "keychains".

> My entrepreneurial "hero" is Joe
> Cossman. Joe said something in one of the
> seminars I attended that I think still holds
> true;
> He said, Fads seem to repeat every 17 yrs.
> Hula Hoop, Frisbee, the Yo-Yo. He said take
> a look at 17 yr old magazines and see what
> was selling then and see if you can
> "resurrect" one of them by
> "testing" the market first...then
> roll it out.

> Don Alm

Ever see the movie/video called "Dogma"??? Not for the weak-hearted. Most of the Kevin Smith movies are very genre oriented.

Kevin "Silent Bob" Smith is a young and budding movie director from New Jersey near my old stomping grounds. "Clerks" was his first movie. Excellent for a sub $20,000.00 production with one camera in black and white.

In the movie "Dogma", catholics attempt to reinvent the religion to bring back more catholics. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, George Carlin, Alanis Morrisette, Chris Rock among others, star in it.

Smith has an uncanny knack for getting superstars to appear in his films...

The "Buddy Christ" statue, is the Vaticans attempt to make the standard somber Jesus more appealing to the younger crowd.

Thought this fit in nicely with the thread. Enjoy...

Success and Regards... Mike


"Buddy Christ"

Was there a Millenium Hula Hoop and I missed it?

This past weekend, my 5 year old nephew asked me if I would get him a Hula Hoop for Christmas. Knowing him, that was about the last thing I expected him to ask for. I didn't even know they were manufactured anymore? Seriously wondered if I'd have to go to the ends of the earth to find one. Or, Ebay?

Great suggestion about looking at 17 year old magazines. Do most libraries keep periodicals that long?

> He said, Fads seem to repeat every 17 yrs.
> Hula Hoop, Frisbee, the Yo-Yo. He said take
> a look at 17 yr old magazines and see what
> was selling then and see if you can
> "resurrect" one of them by
> "testing" the market first...then
> roll it out.

> Don Alm