Tag: ideas

How To Use A Free Survey To Get Infoproduct And Article Ideas

How to get ideas by conducting a simple survey using the free Google Docs Form feature …

I’m trying something different today. I usually leave the how-to technical boring stuff to other people. Writing about this kind of thing usually doesn’t interest me.

But this week I conducted my first survey here at Ridiculously Extraordinary and the results have been a little bit mind-blowing. One of the suggestions I got (more than once) was to include more step-by-step hand-holding technical type information on this blog. If today goes well I will consider doing this more often.

If you got the survey it’s because you’re in a not-so-secret club. ;)

There is a lot of online survey software out there.

The most popular seems to be SurveyMonkey.com. Which, for the version I’d want to use, is $20/month. And even that only allows 1,000 responses/month. Seriously? Come on.

Free Surveys With Google Docs!

Which is where Google Docs saves the day!

I’ll be honest with you, I have a love/hate relationship with Google Docs. What I hate is the formatting gets really jacked up if you save a document and then open it in OpenOffice or Word. What I love is almost everything else. :)

I especially love the Forms feature.

There are a myriad uses for Google Docs Forms, but today we’re going to focus on surveys.

Surveying your audience is a great way to figure out what they want from you. Say you’re stuck on what kind of product to create. Run a survey! Maybe you’re out of blog post ideas? Run a survey! Looking for feedback about your site/products? Run a suvey!

Using Surveys For Infoproduct Creation Ideas

Back in the days when Google Adwords wasn’t such a beast we used to use surveys to figure out what kind of niche products to create.

The idea was simple: run a Google Adwords campaign on some topic, say dog training. The landing page would be a 1 question survey: “What is your biggest problem with training your dog?” (and variations on that theme)

It would cost maybe a few hundred dollars in Google Adwords spending to get a ton of awesome questions.

Then we’d compile all the relevant questions, get the answers, and BOOM, instant infoproduct. :)

You can use this exact same strategy now, but a better bet would be to use Facebook Ads, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter, Plenty of Fish ads,  or any other ad system that doesn’t hate 1 page landing pages and is still comparatively low cost.

Step By Step Survey Creation

I’ve been wanting to run a survey here for a very long time, but it wasn’t until Day 26 of the EBK that I got the kick in the pants I needed to actually do it.

So on Monday I ran a survey about the future of RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com, including future premium products and future free articles.

This is how I did it.

Step 1) Go to Google Docs: http://www.google.com/docs

Step 2) Click on Create New > Form:

Step 3) Give the Form a name:

Step 4) Create the first question:

Step 5) Now, assuming you selected a multiple choice, checkboxes, or choose from a list question type offer up some choices:

As you can see this part offers you a few extra options. Click “add Other” to give people the option to suggest their own answer instead of using one of your stock answers. Then check “Make this a required question” if you want to force people to answer this question. (The survey won’t submit if the question isn’t answered.)

Click Done when you’ve finished with your options.

Step 6) If you want to do more than a 1 question survey click Add Item:

Then select what type of question. All very simple.

Step 7) Repeat Step 4 – 6 until you’re done with all your questions. The shorter the survey the more people will finish it. The longer the survey the more detail you can get out of each person. How you decide to tackle it is completely up to you.

Step 8 – Optional) Select a new Theme to give your form some kind of design other than plain white.

The default theme is plain, but Google has a few dozen theme designs for you to choose from if you’d like.

Step 9) Click on More Actions > Embed:

Step 10) Copy your Embed code and past it into a new WordPress blog post.

That’s it!

The Finished Product

Now just send your visitors to that blog post like this:

http://www.RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com/survey-time/

That is the survey I sent out earlier this week. If you want to help me shape the future of RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com please fill it out. It’s completely anonymous.

On Changing Your Mind (or Don’t Be Afraid To Kill Good Ideas)

The origins of this Web site and when to kill a good idea …

Sometimes, when we have a good idea and get to work on it, we see that idea through even though it might not be our best idea.

In late March of 2009 I had an idea for a blog. I bought a domain name, got a few different logos designed, wrote content, and had the site almost ready to go …

That site was TRVLGR.com. TravelGear without the vowels.

It was going to be a weekly travel gear review and travel tips site. Benefits would be three-fold. One: I’d get free travel gear. Two: I’d get to test said free travel gear. Three: I’d get to connect with bloggers.

I didn’t plan on writing the blog to make money. (Sound familiar?)

A New Idea

By now it was the end of May 2009 and I was getting close to launching. And then … I had a new idea for a blog that I felt really passionate about. It would be about inspiring people. Helping people. And connecting with people.

That is what you’re reading right now.

Once I had the idea for Ridiculously Extraordinary (I didn’t have the name yet, just the concept), I immediately dropped TRVLGR, and got to work again.

If you look in the early archives of this site you can see a couple articles that were originally written for TRVLGR:

Zero The Hero or How To Pay 0% Credit Card Transaction Fees When Travel Outside The US

Powder Is For Babies (or How I Keep My Only Pair Of Shoes From Smelling Like Boiled Rat Piss On Extended Trips)

When I had the idea for Ridiculously Extraordinary it was like a fire was lit under my ass. I spent all of June 2009 writing, writing, writing at least 1,000 words/day. Sometimes upwards of 3,000. It was all coming so easily and it reinforced that I made the right decision. (Now in hindsight I’m definitely sure I made the right decision.)

Don’t Be Afraid To Kill Good Ideas

My point is, don’t be afraid to kill a good idea when you have a better idea.

But here’s the rub: don’t make that a habit.

Some of us jump from “good idea” to “good idea” and never get anything done.

That’s not at all what I’m advocating. What I’m advocating is to focus all your energies on an idea until you see it through or until a fire is lit under your ass for a better idea. This won’t happen often.

If I would have launched TRVLGR.com it would probably currently be languishing amongst millions of other blogs. The passion would have died. I’m not passionate about writing travel gear reviews, although it is fun every once in a while.

Should You Continue With Your Idea Or Kill It?

This is a difficult question to answer.

If you’re truly passionate about something you won’t give much thought to trying something else.

Since launching RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com I’ve had tons of ideas for other Web sites, but none of them hold a candle. I’m having too much fun with this to do something else. More than that, I’m not going to stretch myself thin and start another project in addition to this one. Focus is as important as passion.

How about you: how do you handle all the ideas that come to you? Do you try every single idea hoping something sticks? Do you focus on just one until it’s a failure or success? I’m interested in your idea vetting process …

The Absolute Idiot’s Guide To Inspiration

How to get inspired more often and how to harness that inspiration …

It was 4:37am and I had just woken up with a flash of an idea. “Fuuuuucccckkkkkkkkk yesssssss!!!!”

Inspiration comes at the most inopportune times. That’s just a fact of life. When I was younger I’d get pissed and go back to sleep or keep doing what I was doing.

Who cares if my peaceful slumber was interrupted by a possibly great idea? It’s just an idea, right? Ideas are a dime a dozen. Great ideas are no less common. Ideas don’t count. Action counts. Fuck the idea. Go back to sleep.

Ahh, the perils of my young mind. :)

“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.” – Siddhartha Gautama

I remember reading an interview with Eddie Van Halen about 15 years ago and the interviewer asked him about where he gets ideas for songs, what inspires him. He said, highly paraphrased, “Ideas come at all times. I don’t care of I’m shitting, having sex, or taking a shower, if I get inspired I get to work immediately.”

My favorite guitarist, the late Dimebag Darrell, took great steps to harnessing inspiration as well. He kept a guitar in every room in his house, including the bathroom, and had a small recording studio on his tour bus.

Professionals understand that ideas must be allowed to breathe.

Inspiration at inopportune times was no longer a burden for me. These guys broke my pad.

Now when I get a flash of inspiration at 4:37am with my eyes fluttering in that REM way they like to flutter, I wake the neighbors up with a howl of delight.

Harnessing inspiration is important. The more often you kick inspiration to the curb the less often you’ll feel inspired. Stifling inspiration is how an amateur reacts to ideas.

These days I have so many ideas, so much inspiration, so many articles, so much pouring out of me, I almost don’t know what to do with all of it.

It’s for the simple fact that if I just put toothpaste on my toothbrush and am about to insert said toothbrush into my morning-breath mouth and have an idea I will drop the toothbrush and run to the nearest idea-capturing-mechanism and get that idea OUT OF MY HEAD. Run on sentence, yes I did! (That example is exactly how this very article was written.)

With that spectacular foray into elementary level English out of the way let’s break it down.

7 Tips For Harnessing Inspiration

Follow these rules or languish in the deepest, darkest, pits of creative blockage …

Tip #1: When you feel inspired drop whatever you’re doing and get that shit out of you. If you follow this simple tip you will overflow with inspiration every waking and sleeping second in no time.

Tip #2: Keep an idea capturing mechanism on your person at all times. Whether that’s an iPhone, handheld recorder, cell phone, or good ole fashioned note pad, be ready with it. If you’ve never used the audio or note capturing feature of your device do it now so when inspiration strikes you’ll be ready.

Tip #3: When you get a flash of inspiration don’t deny it. Don’t convince yourself it’s a bad idea.

“Sometimes in the middle of the night, I think of something that’s funny, then I go get a pen and I write it down. Or if the pen’s too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of ain’t funny.” – Mitch Hedberg

As much as I love him, don’t be Mitch Hedberg!

Tip #4: When you feel inspired, also get fired up! Blast loud music, scream out in delight, punch yourself in the face. Get excited! This is a great moment in your life. Embrace it. Cherish it. Revel in it.

Tip #5: Make inspiration a habit. The more you let your inspiration flow freely, the more inspiration will come knocking you out of your baby sleep like a monster in the closet.

Tip #6: Inspiration begets inspiration. Many times when I get an idea and immediately get to work on capturing it, the floodgates open and other ideas come flowing. I love when this happens. There have been times when I’ve written 3 articles that I didn’t even know I had in me in a very short time-frame for the simple fact that I didn’t stifle the initial inspiration.

Tip #7: Hang out with inspiring people and you’ll feed off of them. I’ve been doing lots of interviews and sending out lots of e-mails lately for the relaunch of How To Live Anywhere. Every time I’m done talking with somebody, without fail, I feel an incredible burst of inspiration. Seek out extraordinary people.

Bonus tip: If there is someone in your life who brings you down or stifles your creativity, break ties with them immediately. It doesn’t matter who they are. They’re toxic and they don’t deserve you.

Hit me up with your stories, tips, ideas about inspiration below …

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