Snowboard Rack

[therealrico]

So I am on my second go around reading 4 hour work week, and I am being much more careful about reading it, and doing what it says. And sure enough I got a fantastic idea.

This idea isn't original, and I actually owned this product back when I first got into snowboarding back around 1994.

Basically it was this simple ingenious design that allowed you to attach two metal racks to your window with a curved metal piece, as well as suction cups, and then you would put your window up to secure it. You then could place two snowboards on your window, really quickly and simply, and didn't have to go and buy a expensive and complicated roof rack.

Well back in like 2004 I still had these guys and unfortunatley one of the rubber holds broke, so I could no longer use it, I tried to find this product online but had no luck.

So I want to do this product, but how do I find out if there was a patent on it, or why it went off the market? As of right now I have had no luck finding any sort of information on it what so ever.

[Sven]

Uhhhm, the first google attempt, at the top of the list:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5390837/description.html

[therealrico]

thanks already found it and already spoke with the guy who patented it about licensing it.

Also the patent calls for a rubber strap to hold the boards down, what if I changed the way the boards were held down with a metal clamp of some sort, would that still infringe on the patent?

[Sven]

You're moving quickly!

But if the thing was on the market why isn't it now?
Patents are complex, to answer your question i'd need to read the patent.
Sometimes a very small change renders the patent useless. Also, US patents are granted without research by the patent authority. That means there may be earlier models from different makers voiding the patent. Before spending money on a licence, check the business part and also check the uniqueness of the patent.

And I guess that fitting snowboards to a window using suctioncups can be done in thousands of ways. Probably no need for a licence.... and no point in getting a patent unless you could sell a milion.

[therealrico]

It was taken off the market because he told me he sold about 6000 a year, and of those he had roughly 20 where they ripped the window out. He told me the problem was when it only had one snowboard rather than two, it became very wobbily. Having used this many times at very fast speeds with only one board, I never ran into a problem.

There are two ways I am guessing I could deal with this, 1) I was thinking of trying to build some sort of clamp that could go on the front of the board, that could force air to go over, and below the board, thus hopefully eliminating the problem caused by only having one board on there. You could design it for two boards, but you wouldn't really need it because when you have two boards together they counteract each other, and don't put as much strain on the window.

2) In addition not sure how legal this is, or how much it does away with liability, but you could spell out not to go above 55 miles per hour, and I don't know what other legal mumbo jumbo. But if what you are saying about patents is true, that is really awesome, because the market is there, and the guy said he was selling 6000 a year, to me it is worth the risk to take this thing to market.

[Sven]

Shouldn't the boards be set on the side rather than parallel to the window?

But the flaw is a serious one, I would never contemplate getting a license for a flawed product.

Do you know of a picture of the thing somewhere on the web?

[therealrico]

It isn't flawed, I actually owned this product and it was great. I have diagrams, but not sure if you can post iimages on the board.

[kamakiri]

Dude - It is flawed. The thing is flawed to the point that even with respectable sales of 6,000 units a year it was not worth continuing. So it breaks a window once in a while. That is fine. Think about this though: If you buy that company, sell to a customer, and a snow board breaks off that customer's window and injures the person in the car behind them, you are 100% liable. Knowing ahead of time and selling the product is pure culpable negligence.

[therealrico]

Jesus Christ, that is why I am trying to figure out a way to prevent the wobble at speeds.

And no it isn't flawed, by that logic a lawnmower is flawed because you stuck your hand underneath it and your hand got cut off. If you drive the car under reasonable circumstances, it will be fine, as I keep repeating, I owned the product it worked fine. I believe the issue is user related probably because they were doing 90, and the window can't take the stress at that point. And I am sorry, but at that point it won't be my problem, I am going to have specific instructions on how to operate and use it safely, so this stuff is avoidable. I know for a fact there was no recomendation as to what speeds to go when I first got it, but you know what I used common sense, and realized driving really fast, would be a bad idea.

I will put a sticker on the friggen snowboard carrier if I have to about what speeds are safe.

By the way, I my original question has already been answered, I am not looking for people to tell me whether they think it is flawed or not, I don't care, I know it isn't flawed... because why? Oh thats right I owned one and used it!

[kamakiri]

OK I will stay away from the issue of your idea bing flawed (even though your single experience to the contrary brings nothing to the argument).

I will focus on the legal idea of culpability. Culpability is:

In short:
A person causes a result purposely/intentionally if the result is his/her goal in doing the action that causes it,
A person causes a result knowingly if he/she knows that the result is virtually certain to occur from the action he/she undertakes,
A person causes a result recklessly if he/she is aware of and disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk of the result occurring from the action, and
A person causes a result negligently if there is a substantial and unjustifiable risk he/she is unaware of but very much should be aware of.

Sticking your hand into a running lawn mower is negligence. The lawn mower and manufacturer has zero culpability in that instance. If the lawn mower blade flew off the mower and injured you then culpability becomes an issue. If it is a one time deal you have a weak case. If, on the other hand, it happens, even on an infrequent basis, and you knew about it happening before you sold the thing, you set your self up for the Zero Hour Work Week.

This is not Sinclair's Jungle here. The days of caveat emptor are long gone.

[therealrico]

I will admit that was a poor example, but the point I was trying to get across is if you don't use a product correctly and as instructed, there will always be dangers associated with using it. I was a little testy last night because it was about 4 in the morning and I couldn't sleep.

The thing is the board carrier is actually a very stable product when there are two boards on there, the problem is when there is only one board it becomes unstable. But I have some ideas I am going to experiment with, and the engineer that I got from e-lance also has some ideas to improve upon the original idea, so it is worth pursuing. The market is there, it would be simple to manufacture, if I can get it to work, than it is totally worth seeing through, and trying to make work.

[therealrico]

OK, so I am rereading the sections about automation and autopilot, and so do I need to have a prototype built first before I can do any testing? Or should I do them at the same time? I just want to make sure I don't get ahead of myself.

[therealrico]

I know I am getting way ahead of myself, but I noticed in Phase 2 and Phase 3 you switch fulfillment centers. Now I understand you might save some cash going to a smaller one at first, but wouldn't it just be easier to go to a larger fulfillment center that you were planning on going to eventually anyways?

[Sven]

Start with finding one. Choice is only a problem when you have a choice.

[Bradinator]

Sven, that is very insightful and a good point.

Good for you rico, if you really have gotten this far in the last 48 hours I am impressed. I have a big problem with procrastination.

[therealrico]

Thanks Brad appreciate the kind words. I too have had issues with procrastination, I guess though when you are unemployed, and you have something like this which was fairly successful in the past, and you are pretty confident you can improve upon and make better, and you don't want to have to get a new job, it motivates you!

Also I know there is no such thing as a sure thing in life, but this based on the history seems to be as good a sure thing as there is. I don't think I will become a millionaire, but I think it is very reasonable to think I could be making between 50K and 80K a year selling this.

Now as has been brought up in this thread there are liability issues, which means I definitely have to make this company an LLC, the question is, at what step should I do this, and how much does it cost to register as an LLC?

[Bradinator]

The process for becoming an LLC varies by state. Some will require that you go to a couple offices in person, and others I think you can do all online.

I think its about 250 to get all the paperwork here, although I haven't done it yet and its been a while since I checked. That is doing it yourself and not paying a lawyer to do the paperwork.

[therealrico]

well since I don't have a job, and time on my side I think it makes the most sense to just do it myself. Plus I know the books message is to basically pay other people to do mundane tasks for you, but I get a certain feeling of being constructive, and getting things done that I really like.

You know that feeling of accomplishment, like you are taking control of your life, and I think setting up a business as an LLC would definitely get me that feeling!

[Bradinator]

I think its pretty easy to do yourself. But the only real argument I have heard for paying a lawyer to do it is that he might catch something you miss. Basically you don't want to lose the protection you think you are creating because you missed a place you should have initialed or something like that.

I'm sure someone will come along with better advice. Its not something I have personally done yet, so I cant say one way or another is better.

[kamakiri]

Go to you bank. Talk to a business banker. As the matter of fact, go to 3 banks and meet with business bankers. Make the first two banks in far away places that you probably will not use and ask all the stupid questions you can think of. I know the old cliche about stupid questions, but in that area people in general do not ask the right questions out of fear of looking like they don't know about banking. You will get a very valuable education.

Business bankers have all of the information and paperwork in one spot, and are happy as hell to help you set up your company and accounts. Their job is to open accounts, and helping new business owners is one way of gaining life time customers. You will also have a valuable person to add to your inner circle of advisors. But keep in mind that just because you have free time does not make inefficient efforts worthwhile.

BTW I was not talking about bad product design in my earlier posts. No car maker will guarantee their windows in the cast of improper use, and your carrier is a case of improper use.

[therealrico]

So I just got my three page test site up and running, and would love any feedback if anyone wants to check it out. It is a work in progress, and I am not exactly thrilled with it, but gotta start somewhere. Also the pics as you can probably tell aren't real, I do intend to put real ones up as soon as I get a prototype finished, and a youtube video showing how it works and how to put it on and take it off your car.

www.winterracks.com

[Sven]

Quick one:
Too much text
Too little images
Too little snow in the header
Loveley design!

[therealrico]

Yeah the pictures one like i said was a lack of having pictures, I plan to change that when I get a prototype and then take real pictures. But I will try and reduce the text, but overall you like the design which is a promising start.

Thanks

[Sven]

Too much text is an easy thing to get trapped in, I still suffer from it... ;-) It takes time to reduce text, just keep honing it. Writers say "If I'd had more time, I would have written less."

But the design is realy nice!

[therealrico]

yeah Sven,

Looking at the brainquicken site as an example I see I can put reasons to buy in the same area as 11 Reasons to buy, as well as putting the 110 percent guarantee on a separate page.

I notice though there really aren't that many pics on his site, granted it is a drug, so how many pics can you take, but still surprised there aren't some sort of action shots of some sort.

For now I will leave it as it is, and won't really try to make any major changes until I get the actual prototype, and can take some real pictures. I also was going to embed a youtube video of me using the product basically showing how easy it was to install, and take off your car Do you think that is a good idea? And should that go on the front page?

Also if you have any other websites you know of or anyone else for that matter, that I can use as a template as far as learning how much to write, and what to say on the first page, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[alimac]

a few grammatical edits:

in the main text:

"two brackets that fit securely on your window that you place either one or two snowboards, and a nose cone that is attached to the front of your boards, which allows the air to flow around your boards safely while you drive."-run on sentence.

How about: two brackets fit on your window securing up to two snowboards. A nose cone is then attached to the front of your board(s)...

also
"...you can stow them away in your trunk when you are not using,"
ADD "them" - when you are not using them,

under COST BENEFITS:
you're (not your)
install (not installs)

under REASONS TO BUY:
it says "root" racks in one spot instead of roof. And racks can't "effect" your gas mileage, they "affect" them. Negatively.
How about "our racks can lower your gas mileage!" Concentrate on the positive.

and I would ditch the ellipses...
I tend to overuse those lovely three dots too, but I don't think it's necessary on your tag line.

And I agree with a previous poster - how about a snowy mountain top that makes me want to ride!
Hope this is helpful

[therealrico]

Very Helpful, tbanks for taking the time to do that

[therealrico]

So where I am at currently. Right now I the prototype of the two brackets should be finished by tomorrow, and I hope to have the nose cone finished by late next week.

I have done some experimenting with adwords, and basically hear are the overall numbers from my campaign, I got 64 clicks with 228,657 impressions, for a CTR of .03%. Average cost per click was 1.12, cost per thousand impressions was .31.

I started with this ad
Car Window Snowboard Rack
Hassle Free Snowboard Carrying
Mounts In Seconds
www.winterracks.com

And in total had seven different types of ads running, which were variations on the first. My most successful was this ad which had
Window Snowboard Racks
110% Money Back Guarentee
Mounts in Seconds
www.winterracks.com

I posted this I am not sure how many days after the original but it outperformed it pretty easily, a couple of days before my campaign ended I thought of showing how much cheaper my product was in comparison to other racks on the market so I did an ad that was only up for 2 days that said
Window Snowboard Racks
110% Money Back Guarentee
70% Cheaper than other brands
www.winterracks.com

Unfortunatley though none of the click through turned into a sale, as no one made it all the way to the page where you are supposed to enter your payment information, but instead get a we are out of stock etc. Now I am not sure if that is because of the initial campaign or because of my layout. So right now I am going to hold out on doing another campaign until after I get real pictures on the site, and a how to video. The way I am looking at it is personally I wouldn't want to purchase something that only had computer rendered drawings, it looks fake, and I just wouldn't buy, and I am hoping that is the reason why no one else has. What is more bothersome is the fact that no one has asked me any questions, which I had hoped to put into a faq section. Hopefully too that will change when I improve the site with better pictures and layout.

[therealrico]

Now this is a question about pursuing exclusivity for your product. Based on my initial campaign, it appears I will 1 not be able to sell enough racks on my own to make this worthwhile, and 2 it will be very expensive using adwords, so I will turn to offering this exclusively to one of the leading retailers.

So I did a search and compared sight traffic, I found 8 sites in total that sell snowboard racks that appear on the top of google search. Of those 4 were dedicated to only selling car racks. While 2 others were outdoor gear focused, they were REI, and EMS. One site had about a million uniques a month, but sold anything related to auto's which is probably isn't niche enough, and the final site was a bike rack site, which also sold snowboard racks.

So I was curious 1 how you go about figuring out which companies you should try and get the exclusive offer with, and also to find out how much they sell of certain products in my scenario, vehicle snowboard racks. Because seeing a site like REI that has 3 million hits a month is great, but if they sell less snowboard racks than a site that has 100,000 unique visitors a month, I am obviously going for the wrong company.

Also any tips on how to approach a company about them selling your product exclusively? The book doesn't really seem to touch on how you go about doing this, any sites or articles anyone could point me too would be great thanks.

[therealrico]

I just realized I first posted about this on the 21st of July, and it is now 47 days since that date, and so far the prototype bracket is completed, and I am just waiting on the nose cone to be finished by Sept 8th, and I will have a completed working prototype in under 60 days.

I am posting this, because I hope that other people can use it as an example of how to get things started.

In this time, I have gotten a prototype finished, created a test site, run a 6 day ad campaign, and spoken with a patent lawyer.

So hopefully in 90 days I will be selling these guys!

[therealrico]

Just a quick little revelation about getting things done, and not relying on other people.

So basically I am building a nose cone for my snowboard rack, and the guy who did the prototype I explained to him that I wanted some sort of gel, and later we thought of neoprene to put in there. I originally told the person doing the prototype about this September 4th. He told me he would send samples and would line it with neoprene, he never did. So today I decided to go to a local dive shop, and see if they have any old wet suits they no longer needed, they did and I got two free wet suits, that were missing a leg, or had holes in them. It is now October 9.

So the lesson that I learned, that I hope to pass on to other people is this, be proactive, don't wait on other people to do things that you could easily do. I could have had that neoprene and used it on my prototype back in September, but instead I waited, and was unsatisfied with the result. I know the book stresses basically to have other people handle stuff, sometimes you just got to step up and do it yourself, and you will save a lot of time and hassle.

[therealrico]

So a little update, where my parents live there was a women there who worked for an organization there called Vermont Economic Development Authority, there I met with this women who told me all the resources available to help get a business started for free. She introduced me to a man who worked for the Vermont Small Business Development Center, who's job it was to help build business plans, and he also pointed me to the Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center, whom I have a meeting with tomorrow to help connect me with the right people to determine what it will cost, and who to connect me with to get this product manufactured.

So what is my point? What I am trying to say is all of these resources are free, all these meetings are free, and these are an awesome resource to take advantage of if you live in the states. I imagine a lot of countries also have similar programs, but I have no idea. So 4 hour work week gives you some great stuff, but don't just the book, there are some other fantastic resources out there that cost nothing.

[therealrico]

So one of the ways I am trying to drive traffic to my site is to post on forums. The forums I mainly post on are vehicle car forums where people ask about the best ways to put a roof rack on their car.

So anyways I found one site dedicated to the Honda Fit. The Fit is a perfect car for my product because of its size. So I posted and I am not sure if because I am selling my product for too little compared to what it costs for other snowboard racks people seem to think this is a crappy system or what, or if I am just really not doing a good enough job explaining the product on this forum.

But this is probably a good lesson for people anywho, forums are a great way to market your product to a very direct market for free, but maybe just not the way I am doing it wording wise.

http://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-generation-ge-08-present/49325-roof-top-racks.html

Let me know I am curious if I am doing just a bad job of promoting this.

[therealrico]

Well the day has come, and I begin selling my snowboard rack today. Check it Out (www.winterracks.com)

I redid the site a little bit moving around the landing page. Before there was too much text, and the pictures and the video you had to scroll down the page to see. This way everything I want you to see is right there, with no scrolling. Would love feedback on the site and what people think is good or bad about the site.

[Thee711]

I had fun reading your story you moved so fast and got your product available for sale congratulations! I went to the site and the first part of the screen you see looks good but its a little bland when you scroll down to find the buy button.
Also when you increase the size of your pictures on the side they are blocked by your video. I did find the video boring. You are selling to quite and adventurous crowd if you could get some music in the back ground that would be a plus. I saw that guy on the Honda Fit website say it looks like it could break your window if you could have another car film yours while driving down a 50-60mph road and then get some footage of you turning corners while going up a snowy mountain I am sure that would instill confidence in weary buyers. Good Luck!

[therealrico]

Ilittle bland when you scroll down to find the buy button.

Also when you increase the size of your pictures on the side they are blocked by your video. I did find the video boring. You are selling to quite and adventurous crowd if you could get some music in the back ground that would be a plus.

I saw that guy on the Honda Fit website say it looks like it could break your window if you could have another car film yours while driving down a 50-60mph road and then get some footage of you turning corners while going up a snowy mountain I am sure that would instill confidence in weary buyers. Good Luck!

Thanks Thee for the feedback as far as it being bland, at this point I am not sure what else I could or should add. The original page I had the pics and video down the screen where you had to scroll, and too much words. That was bad because you only have so much time to make an impression. I think the revised look does a much better job of showing the pics right away and obviously the video.

I also aware of the video overlapping the picture and that should be fixed tonight.

As far as the video, and even the general lack of pictures. I currently don't have any more pics, and the video was a really simple first draft, I would indeed like to get some action shots both still and as a video for the future. But at the moment all the pieces are not available.

I do realize the quality of the video could be better but basically I didn't think pictures did it justice, and you needed a video showcasing how easily and quickly it worked.

My hope is sometime this month I will be able to update the video it something more polished, that does a better job of showing the rack in action.

[DaveinHackensack]

I like the site, and the value proposition you offer. Good luck with this.

[vmgbpo]

You mentioned being proactive and not waiting for other people to do what you could easily do - There are a lot of things I can easily do for my business, but so can someone else. There are tasks that only I can do. You need to be careful about what it is that you choose to do and what you choose to hand off. If you try to do it all, however, you could just be holding yourself back. Be a student of the 80/20 rule - it will serve you well! Congratulations on getting up and running - much success!

[therealrico]

Thanks for the comments guys, so I have had this up for sale since Monday with only one sale which was on of the people who ordered during my test phase.

I haven't put up a ppc ad campaign yet because I want to learn how to do it without paying 6 bucks per ppc ad.

But I have been posting on forums mainly car forums, and this is a good example of the feedback I have gotten.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?&id=4667820&postid=62348770#62348770

So one thing I think is happening is that people on car forums are more anal. But more importantly I do think I am explaining this product well enough on my site, so that they ask these questions.

Thoughts?

[DaveinHackensack]

Have you considered trying to sign up car- or snow board-related sites as affiliates? Easier said than done, but one good affiliate relationship can lead to a lot of business.

I am focusing more on trying to line up affiliates for my site (http://shortscreen.com/), because it just makes the most sense from an entrepreneur's perspective: they get paid when we get paid. PPC is Google (or Microsoft, or Yahoo) getting paid regardless.

[therealrico]

I am all about using affiliates, I haven't found one because I really wasn't sure were to look. I do a search and there are just so many out there. If you have an sites for suggestions I am all ears.

Thanks

[bma90]

I haven't put up a ppc ad campaign yet because I want to learn how to do it without paying 6 bucks per ppc ad.



If Google is charging 6 bucks per click, then that means customers for that keyword pay. Have you tried putting a smaller number in for the cpc (you will get a lower ad position but it doesnt really matter for you b/c google charges per click), so it will at least be able to drive some traffic to your site even if sales are slow at first.

[therealrico]

bro I can't afford it.

All I know is that in three days through me posting on forums that are relevant to what I am selling, I have had 275 clicks, of which 89 percent were unique visitors. From what I found a 2 percent conversion rate is a decent expectation. So by this point I should have sold at least 5 of these.

But I haven't so between that and all the negativity I am seeing on the forums that I post is I am not doing a good job of selling my item, and it is because people are worried about this item being safe.

[DaveinHackensack]

My site's a financial site. So what I've been doing is e-mailing folks who run financial sites and asking them if they'd like to become affiliates. I have a couple of small affiliates on board so far and have gotten positive responses from a few potential biggies (still working on going from initial positive responses to getting them on board). I've also gotten a lot of non-responses, and one nasty one. Comes with the territory though.

I would suggest trying the same thing with car and snowboard sites, if I were you. You could also try linking up with the guy who posted here a while ago, who sells neon lights for snow boards. Sounds like he'd be a perfect affiliate; in fact, you would be a great affiliate for him too. Here's a link to my site's affiliate page, if you want to check it out for ideas: http://shortscreen.com/become-an-affiliate. Also, I'm attaching an image of my affiliate badge, if you want to do something similar.

Re the question about your rack being safe, here's what I'd do: find a skilled camera guy -- someone who knows how to mount a video camera on a car -- and make a video where you describe that, in order to demonstrate the safety of the rack, you're going to drive fast downs some windy mountain road. If your product takes off, you could run contests and solicit videos like this from your customers, sort like how that high-end blender company has videos of people shredding cell phones and stuff in its blenders.

http://shortscreen.com/images/shortscreen-affiliate.gif

[kamakiri]

... it is because people are worried about this item being safe.


Dude, you better have some serious P/L insurance. The product is not safe. Door windows are not rated as carrying racks. Car manufacturers have a VERY specific warning telling people not to do this. One manufacturer with deep pockets stopped selling this for a reason.

Don't you realize that these things started in the 70s? They have been around since lawn darts, and are in the same category. You aren't the first guy to go though this product cycle, and you know that they are dangerous. The liability that you expose yourself to is huge, and no company structure is going to protect you from that.

I have been telling you all along that it is not the carrier that is the problem. It is the car window itself that is not designed for the carrier.

[therealrico]

The insurance is 500 for 1,000,000, I should be fine. Maybe your right, but I hate giving up.

[kamakiri]

Read your insurance documents. The point I have been making all along is that the windows were not designed to hold your rack and you know that. Any insurance company would deny your claim with that information, and you can't plausibly deny it.

Now where are you? You have some awesome experience. You have gone further than 95% of the people on this board. You now have something in common with Tim Ferris. Your first muse attempt failed. Not a bad thing at all. Go re-read the part about Tim's tapes. You will feel better.

Use what you learned to get your next product to market that much faster. That is the real secret to the 4HWW. The ability to do it again and again. Go out and rent Rocky Balboa (#7). My favorite quote is in there.

"The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place... and I don´t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently, if you let it. You, me or nobody, is gonna hit as hard as life. But ain't about how hard you hit... It's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward... how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That´s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you worth, go out and get what you worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers saying: You ain´t what you wanna be because of him or her or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain´t you! You´re better than that!" (Rocky Balboa)

[therealrico]

Also I didn't buy the insurance I was planning on buying the insurance

[DaveinHackensack]

If Kamakiri is right, why can't you make a roof rack for the snowboards instead?

[therealrico]

Dave,

Making a roof rack for a car is a complicated thing. There are a lot of factors to take into account. The first issue is cars come in a bunch of different sizes, and shapes. You got SUVS, coupes, wagons.

Thule and Yakima have to put a lot of work into R&D measuring vehicles and so forth.

The great thing about my product is it's simplicity and ability to carry two snowboards regardless of the car. Also Thule and Yakima do not have snowboard racks that can fit every car, so I hoped to get some sales there as well.

I am not going to give up on this quite yet, but we will see.

[Recoveringfool]

Given the possible legal ramifications - Kam makes several good points - I'd suggest cutting your losses and taking your experiences and utilizing that to help with your next project.

A good start could be offering an ebook about your experiences.

For example: "How you spent 'x' hours and 'x' dollars developing a product with all this purported promise and market/monetization potential and wound up with nothing -- and how you (the buyer) can learn from my expertise to save yourself months (or years), and AVOID that failure."

Now you've got a real-world proven, tested product (the ebook) where you can offer a blueprint to all the productive things you've done along with the landmines to avoid that could be of real value to markets/inventors everywhere which has none of the risk and downside of a 'hard' product.

When life hands you lemons...kind of thing.

[kamakiri]

Making a roof rack for a car is a complicated thing. There are a lot of factors to take into account. The first issue is cars come in a bunch of different sizes, and shapes. You got SUVS, coupes, wagons.

Very easy to target this. What are the top 10 cars that ski/snowboard enthusiasts buy? Open shop in the town with 10 pizza shops.