frustrated, confused, spinning my wheels!

[girliegirl]

Hello, I have been reading these forums for about a month now trying to learn more and I am still confused! It seems like every idea I come up with for a muse has already been thought of! I had a baby 6 mos ago, so that is really where my interest is right now, baby products, but there is so much of all of that online that I feel like I could never compete with the other online baby boutiques. I had thought about going to a trade show of all baby products and trying to find new products that aren't really out there yet, but that seems like it would end up being alot of work and I would end up getting lost in all of the other baby boutiques online. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? If I were to go to a trade show and look for products that I think would sell and create a store of various baby items? As far as a niche, I really like things to do with natural baby products, breastfeeding etc...

which brings me to my other idea, as a breastfeeding mom, there is a total lack of cute functional nursing clothes. I have thought of either designing a line of them myself, which I know nothing about except what I like, or again going to a trade show and trying to find random nursing clothes to put together for an internet store. But I don't know if other women would spend the money to wear cute nursing clothes, where I live not many women breastfeed, but what about other places???

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated!

Also, I am not sure I get the whole elance thing. Could I hire someone to check into the competition and feasability of my idea?

I have a few other ideas in the mix too....more on that later!

[markus]

It sounds like you have a few excellent directions for muses. Don't get discouraged by everything that's already out there - pick a niche and do better than the competition. The nursing clothing sounds promising - it might be worthwhile to investigate and dig to find something that exists but is not well known (if you can avoid reinventing the wheel). Otherwise, create it - but remember Tim's advice: there's probably someone out there that has the answers already - contact them and get there faster by seeking their advice.

[luv2trvl1]

Here’s a couple of close (4-Hour related) resources for you to tap into to explore ideas along the lines of your themes… I am sure that members from this forum, with close ties to the following social network and blog site would be glad to help.

http://4hwwmoms.ning.com/

http://www.familyhack.com/2007/08/07/bodacious-tatas/

[girliegirl]

Thank you for your responses!

Markus, are you saying I should find some nursing shirts that are already manufactured but not easy to find? There are companies who make 1 or 2 shirts that are what I consider fashionable, so I could pull a few shirts from a few different lines and make up a webstore. Is that kind of what you mean?

Also how do I decide if there is truly a need for that? I have to wonder if I am unique in that I am a very fashionable person with a busy social life, but I always have my baby with me so I need to nurse him on the go and in public but I don't want to look like a frumpy housewife and I also don't want to be struggling with my clothes trying to discreetly nurse a baby. Also most women I know don't nurse their babies for more than a few months, so would women spend money for clothes they will wear for a few months? I would like to think women would breastfeed longer if they had great clothes to wear!

So back to my ? how do I figure out if there is a need for this? Can I hire elance to research it for me?

[Marcie]

I would make a list of keywords that would be related to your product, then run them through Google's estimator (https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox) to see for yourself how many people are searching for this type of thing. I also like to use the estimator tool at www.seobook.com because it gives suggestions and then you can click through to Google's estimates.

I don't think you have to worry about a market for something like this, really, there's tons of nursing moms out there - you may have more of a problem getting noticed in a sea of products. I can try to help you brainstorm, feel free to PM me.

[FrozenCanuck]

Hey Girliegirl,

I have a few comments for you that I hope are helpful. First of all, I have two kids that are almost 3 yrs old and 5 months old so I definitely understand the kids market and my wife and I have seen all sorts of awesome sites, so I understand your frustration. My conclusion is that, as a "niche", the market for "new moms" is WAY to broad. Ferriss, in his book, suggests making sure that you have a niche that is actually small enough for you to not encounter too much competition.

That said, perhaps you can go after slices of the new mom niche. Your idea of cute breastfeeding tops is a good idea, and I would bet (based on our knowledge) that there isn't a widespread knowledge of such products. You could probably pick good google adwords to sell this and you HAVE THE TOOLS to test the idea without even needing a product yet. Simply analyze the click-through rate of certain adwords, or make a "fake" T-shirt design using photoshop and put up a fake test site (like www.pxmethod.com) and see what happens.

Another idea that I thought of from some others on this site who do T-shirt businesses ... could you come up with hilarious slogans to put on T-shirts for new moms? I think this would attack the "new mom with an awesome sense of humor" niche. Just an idea. But you get the point, there are slices of your niche market to go after and you need to stay creative.

Best to you !!
FC

[girliegirl]

Marcie, thank you for the suggestions. Actually I have been searching for cute nursing tops for myself and have had a very hard time. there are not alot of companies out there that make them and some of the maternity lines have like 1 or 2. For every 10 nursing tops I see, there is only one I would ever even wear. so I was thnking of trying to piece together from different clothing lines a website of just nursing tops. ANd I wonder about the market just because, not to be rude, but where I live the few women who actually do breastfeed don't seem too concerned with fashion! Would women who breastfeed pay $50-70 for a nice top they could wear out?

Frozen, there are alot of cute new mom and breastfeeding tshirts with slogans on them. I am talking about a shirt that has access to discreetly breastfeed your baby without having to undress or lift your shirt up. I think me designing them would be really hard, I am more thinkng about finding thinkgs that are already out there, but not easy to find.

The estimator said like 50 clicks a day with 4 adwords. thats not alot is it?

[Marcie]

I would recommend finding Tim's "Muse Math" in the Resources section, this is a great way to understand how you can profit from PPC advertising. Now, you can come up with more than 4 keywords, can't you? :)