Trademark: It is something that denominates a good or service. As trademark lawyers explain, it basically identifies a source.  The idea is that you build up brand equity and goodwill associated with the products and services that you sell.  They become known as being yours instead of somebody else’s.  The law protects you as far as putting names on your goods. You are able to sue based on your trademarks.

Copyright: Fundamentally, what copyright covers are works of authorship.  It’s defined very broadly.  A typical example is actually your business plan, something you’ve written.  You don’t have to keep it confidential.  You don’t even have to file for copyright protection.  Copyright exists in the nature of authorship.

Provisional Patent: Provisional filing is not a patent but basically a placeholder.  It holds your place in line.  There is no review of the provisional application.  It holds the invention date.  Actually,  it gives the constructive date of invention.  You could have a date before that, but you would have to prove that through notebooks or what have you.  At the very least, it gives you that date as your earliest date of invention.

You have one year from the date of the provisional patent application to file your utility plan application.  Provisionals don’t get examined, but your utility plan has to come from the provisional.  What that means is that you can’t add anything outside of the scope of your provisional application.

You can file for a provisional yourself, but it is risky.  Depending on the size of the firm, a lawyer will typically charge anywhere from $1500 to $2500 to file a provisional application for you.  This is usually a good idea, because they make sure you have all of the information that you need to generate a utility plan one year down the line.

Patents: A patent is a legal monopoly.  The government gives you a right to make money from your invention in exchange for fully disclosing “how” you make this thing work.  You really have to disclose the whole idea.  If you try to hide some key aspects, then your patent can be declared invalid.  The idea has to be non-obvious and novel. A patent gives you 17 to 20 years of protection.  When the patent expires, anyone can copy that drug, and generics are born.

Full patent application can range anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000.  $15,000 would be around the higher side for more bio-tech type applications, while $5,000 would be more reasonable for a mechanical-type of patent.

For international patents, there’s a mechanism called a PCT.  It’s an application under the Patent Corp Tree.  You file your application with PCT, and you select all the countries you want it to go to.  You have 18 months to file individually in those countries.

The BMW GINA Light Visionary Model that was being installed in the BMW Museum in Munich has finally been revealed, and the futuristic design study shows how BMW designers are thinking outside of the box when it comes to the materials that make up a car and also how the car relates to the driver. GINA stands for “Geometry and Functions in ‘N’ Adaptations”, which basically means that designers from both BMW and BMW Group DesignworksUSA were allowed to throw out the rulebook. This is most evident in the GINA Light Visionary Model’s outer skin, which is made entirely out of textile fabric that’s pulled taut around a frame of metal and carbon fiber wires. The skeleton of the car is controlled by electro-hydraulic devices and can actually move and change shape beneath the fabric skin. For instance, the headlights of the concept can be exposed or hidden by the car’s skin just like blinking eyes, and the hood opens from the center as the fabric parts to expose the engine.

This idea extends to the interior, where BMW designers have made visible only those instruments that are required at a certain time, while the rest of the time the same fabric interior “blinks” them out of view. The car itself looks somewhat like a Z4 Roadster, though after viewing the extensive gallery of high-res images below, you’ll be amazed how much the outer skin looks like normal sheetmetal. Until, that is, you see how the doors open. They lift up in a semi-scissor fashion and since there are no exposed hinges, the fabric artfully binds up as the door swings open. While the design of the GINA Light Visionary Model is very Bangle-esque with concave and convex surfaces intermingling everywhere you look, it looks appropriate and natural here. The car is very much a concept, meant more to inspire BMW’s own designers and engineers rather than excite the public, but now we’re excited about shape-changin, fabric-covered cars, anyway.

But the GINA hasn’t only been designed to turn heads. Expect its looks to influence the next-generation Z4. GINA represents more than just a concept car. In the future, we may just be choosing cars with our similar personalities and appearances. What a world that will be!

Make sure you check out the video below to see how it works!

(aux) says: BMW GINA is seriously dressed to impress.

The Amazon Kindle, on the other hand, can just read E-Books. According to the Economist, over 90% of existing e-readers use a display technology called E Ink, made by a firm of the same name that was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997. E Ink is based upon tiny capsules filled with positively charged white particles and negatively charged black ones, suspended in a clear liquid. Transparent electrodes above and below the layer of microcapsules create electric fields that, depending on their polarity, push either the black or the white particles to the surface in a particular region of the display. It is easy on the eye, does not need to be back-lit, can be read easily in bright sunlight, and requires very little battery power. (The image on the display remains in place, even when no power is applied, and energy is only expended when changing it.) There is clearly room for improvement, however. E Ink displays are relatively slow to update, which can irritate readers as they turn their digital pages. They cannot display color images or video, unlike the liquid-crystal display (LCD) technology used in mobile phones and laptops.

With such limitations, I wonder why the Kindle is still selling in large numbers. I admit that the Kindle is a revolutionary device in its own right. When it premiered in 2007, it was surely revolutionary. The “book in your pocket” technology was amazing. However, three years later, it now seems to be aging technology that needs reform.

That’s where the Apple Tablet comes into play. It won’t be the 10-inch touch-screen display that drives adoption of Apple’s rumored tablet computer, but rather the availability of apps for the device, according to one industry analyst.

Gene Munster, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, said in a research note to clients on Monday that initial tablet successes will come from the confidence consumers have with Apple’s mobile platform. It is widely expected that Apple will use an iPhone-like operating system on the tablet, enabling consumers to utilize existing apps.

Recent media reports that Apple is asking developers for super-sized versions of their apps is helping to fuel speculation that existing apps will work on the tablet.

An interesting tidbit of information in Munster’s research note is that he expects Apple’s tablet to compete well in the netbook category. While the Netbook focuses on its portability, Munster sees the tablet focusing “more on apps, entertainment content (from the iTunes Store), and Web surfing.” So, combining all the rumors, the Apple Tablet will be an iPhone-like technology mixed with a Kindle and a netbook capable of not only reading E-Books but also storing Apps, Music and Movies. So, if I were you, I’d hold off on your Kindle purchase and wait for the future of E-Book readers, the Apple Tablet.

(aux) says: If the Apple Tablet lives up to its hype, it will surely be an Amazon Kindle. Wait for it.

For those of you who do not know, New Moon is the film based on the novel of the same name by Stephanie Meyer and is a sequel to 2008’s blockbuster Twilight. Summit Entertainment greenlit the sequel in late November 2008, following the early success of Twilight. Directed by Chris Weitz, the film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively. Melissa Rosenberg returns as the screenwriter for the film. She handed in a draft of the film script during the opening weekend of Twilight.


In this movie, Bella Swan is devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen, but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the irresistible Jacob Black. Suddenly she finds herself drawn into the world of the werewolves, ancestral enemies of the vampires, and finds her loyalties tested.

To many, this may seem like just another vampire-werewolve story. However, to the fans of the books and the original movie, this is much more.

What makes the Twilight Saga so great is not only the story but also the tactics that Summit Entertainment has used to draw in attention. Summit, in my opinion, covered all the steps required to create a great fan base and ultimately a successful feature film.

Step 1: Create Controversy

What first prompted great attention to this new movie was controversy between one of the main stars of the movie, Taylor Lautner. Fans all around the world loved the original cast members of Twilight. However, due to major physical changes that occur in the character of Jacob Black between Twilight and New Moon in the books, Chris Weitz considered replacing Taylor Lautner in the sequel with an actor who could more accurately portray “the new, larger Jacob Black.”

Fans across the world protested.

The film and its controversy spread all across the news. Fans explained that even if Lautner wasn’t as large as the character in the book, he still should have the opportunity to play Jacob in the new film. Thus, the New Moon phenomenon began. In an attempt to keep the role, Lautner weight-trained extensively and gained approximately 30 pounds (Yes, 30 pounds of pure muscle in less than 9 months). With the help of the fans and Lautner’s extraordinary gains, in January 2009, Weitz and Summit Entertainment announced that Lautner would continue to play the role of Jacob in New Moon.

Sure, Summit and Weitz didn’t plan the controversy, but it worked. Millions of people were enticed by not only seeing the sequel but also Lautner’s transformation.

Step 2: Staggered Marketing

Staggered marketing is probably one of the best techniques any movie studio could do. Summit slowly built up enthusiasm for the film by first showing teasers highlighting the main stars and then revealing more each month.

Summit initially released teaser posters for New Moon on May 19, 2009. The Internet began buzzing.

On May 31, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner revealed the film’s first trailer at the MTV Movie Awards. Two scenes from the film were presented at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con. A 14-second preview of the second trailer was released online on August 12, 2009, and the full-length trailer was featured before theater showings of the film Bandslam. A third trailer was shown at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 13, 2009. Spike TV aired a new trailer at the 2009 Scream Awards on October 27.

What Summit did best was build upon the aforementioned controversy with Lautner. Many of the trailers, if not all, highlighted Lautner’s physical transformation. One even had a personal interview with Lautner as they were filming his main scenes. They knew that people wanted to see Taylor Lautner. Thus, they made sure that there was at least one shot of him shirtless in each preview.

Summit released, in this order, posters, teaser trailers, trailers, and previews, thus taking full effect of staggered marketing.

Step 3: Create a Movie for the Fans

It is no secret that many people will dislike this film. Initial reviews have been mixed.

However, Summit knowingly made this movie for the fans not critics. They have advertised and described it as a thrill ride directly made for fans. Their main goal is to keep these fans hooked. After all, there are two more movies to be made in the Twilight series. No matter how bad this movie is, the fans must enjoy it. They are the ones who will go out on opening weekend. They are the ones who will pack the theaters multiple times to see their favorite characters.

New Moon does this very well. It has kept the original cast and has added more action and computer graphics.

Summit has made a movie that mimics the book and will definitely be a hit with fans.

Step 1+2+3 = Perfect Movie

Summit Entertainment has brilliantly advertised New Moon. The controversy, marketing and fans behind the movie have elevated New Moon to new heights. Their techniques can be used by other movie studios and even businesses. In business, creating controversy and marketing gets your name out. Sure, controversy might not be the best way to bring about business, but good controversy and solutions can greatly expand your consumer base.

New Moon will be one of the year’s biggest movies. Thanks to the efforts by Summit and director Chris Weitz, New Moon will bring a great following and will hold up well and bring in great profits for the movie studio. All that is left to say is…

Congratulations Summit! You have just made another huge hit.

TurboCharge Cell Phone Charger gives you up to two hours of talk time, or a full charge–anytime, anywhere. The latest model is new and improved; with a durable plastic case, built-in LED flashlight, on-off switch, battery meter, improved charging power and digital overcharge protection. The Phone Kit comes with 13 adapters to fit most recent cellphone models. Uses two AA batteries (included).

TurboCharge Phone Kit

After some careful research I found that this is one of the few, if not only battery chargers that actually charge the ipod instead of helping to just maintain the charge.

I highly recommend the TurboCharge Phone and iPod Kits.

It is a common saying that nothing in this world is free. While this may be true for many things in the world, websites are not one of them. Nowadays, there are a plethora of useful resources that allow any entrepreneur or person to make a website for free.

Google Sites

Google Sites is a free and easy way to create and share web pages. It is powerful enough for a company intranet, yet simple enough for a family website. Google Sites allows you to start a website from scratch or use one of their attractive templates. It is the best thing to hit the web since Google Apps.

For a long time I’d been wanting a way to have a more private area, where others could still contribute without having to give them full administrative privileges to my domain – and Sites fits the bill and then some. I’ve used it to support many varied activities including private notes and conversations with clients, keeping track of my assignments and homework, letting my friends and colleagues create their own web pages, collaborating with others on content for books and engineering designs, and even sharing pictures of our new dog with my friends. It’s easier and faster than a wiki, I can control who can see or contribute to a given site, and it’s just downright fun to use! It also allows you to easier integrate Google Adsense and Google Analytics, two of the most important tools for any web manager.

Sample Google Site

Wordpress.com

Wordpress is another free resource that allows you to build a website using the hundreds of free themes online. Wordpress offers two packages: wordpress.com (the free one) and wordpress.org (the platform that I use for this website that requires a domain and some additional work). In order to build a website at absolutely no cost, Wordpress.com is a great resource. You can get a website started in less time than it takes you to read this sentence. All you need is an email address. You’ll get your own WordPress.com address (like you.wordpress.com),a selection of great free and customizable designs for your website (called themes), 3 gigabytes of file storage (that’s about 2,500 pictures!) and all the other great features listed here. You can add as much as you want for free, your blog can be public to the world or private for just your friends, and its premium features are completely optional.

It’s just not for blogs! WordPress.com has a feature called “pages” which allows you to easily create web pages. For example, you could add an “about me” page with your biography, and a link to that page would be automatically added to your sidebar. You can even create an entire web site using pages on WordPress.com, with a custom home page and your blog as one of the sub-pages.

Wordpress.com Sample

Webs

Webs, like Google Sites and Wordpress.com, allows you to create a fully functional website for absolutely free.

Not only does Webs offer more than 300 professional templates for businesses and personal websites, it also allows you to sell your products and services via integrated web stores. You can upload multiple images, set your prices, and collect payment via PayPal and/or Google Checkout (you can also do this with Wordpress.com, but this requires a little more knowledge of HTML coding). Moreover, Webs allows you to create conversations with a blog or forum, allowing you and your customers to post your thoughts and share your experiences. One of the coolest features is the mailing list feature. Webs allows you to keep your customers up-to-date on the latest and greatest products, services and sales via e-newsletters. Like Google Sites and Wordpress, Webs comes with the ability to track the number of visitors that come to your site. This shows you what interests customers and will help you better manage your site and business.

Webs Sample

Which is the Best?

Google Sites, Wordpress and Webs are all great tools to create websites.

In my opinion, though, due to its expandability with widgets and large usage basis, Wordpress is one of the best alternatives to creating a website. One thing I love about Wordpress is that with a little time, you can make your website look 100% professional. Any website created on Google Sites will always stand out as being a Google Site; whereas a Wordpress.com website can be masked to look unique. I personally use Wordpress for this website. While it is the Wordpress.org version of Wordpress that allows private domains and even more features, I love the ease of use and performance of Wordpress.

So overall Google Sites, Wordpress and Webs are all ways to make a website for free in order to expand your business or just have fun on the web!

What first compelled me to look into the Droid was the absolutely brilliant advertisements. The iDon’t ad campaign pits the Android-based Droid head-to-head against the formidable iPhone. As a business oriented person, the ads captivated me and made me want to research more about the phone. Other companies should learn from this type of ads. Any entrepreneur should learn from Motorola and Verizon’s strategy: Pin your product against a major opponent and pinpoint its faults against your product’s benefits. Brilliant.


On paper, the Droid is more than impressive. It boasts a fast processor, a large display with almost double the resolution of the iPhone, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It packs a 5 megapixel camera with flash and zoom, and a GPS into a slick, attractive package that is certainly comparable to the iPhone in terms of aesthetics.

Droid is built on Google’s open source Android mobile operating system. Droid is also the first device that will be available with the newest version–Android 2.0 (also referred to as ‘Eclair’). The Android operating system is the secret weapon of the Droid, but the Android Market may be the Droid’s Achilles heel. No one can deny Apple’s success with the iPhone and its counterpart, the App Store. Boasting over 100,000 applications, the App Store is one of the biggest successes ever created. Though the Apple App Store has been a source of controversy for Apple, but it is also a huge source of revenue and it is one of the many benefits of being an iPhone (or iPod Touch) user. The Apple App Store has more than 100,000 apps, while the Android Market has about ten percent of that.

Google made substantial improvements to Android Market with the SDK 1.6 (a.k.a. ‘Donut’) release of Android a few months back. Donut added the ability for developers to include screenshots and descriptions for their applications, and changed the Android Market so users can browse by most recent addition or featured apps, the top paid apps, and the top free apps.

The Android invasion has begun and the Android operating system is quickly capturing smart phone market share. It remains to be seen if the Droid, or any other Android-based device, can actually be an iPhone killer, but one thing that will be critical to the success of Android-based smart phones is a robust and diverse collection of apps in Android Market.

The Droid is an excellent smartphone with many (if not all) of the features that a modern user would expect, and if you’re a Verizon customer, there probably isn’t a more action packed device on the network. That’s not to say the device doesn’t have its faults; the camera is said to be unpleasant to use, the application selection feels thin in both quantity and quality (despite the claim of 10,000 options), and the phone has bits of basic, non-intuitive functionality that might chafe on some users after a while. But even still, it’s hard not to recommend the Droid to potential buyers eager to do more with their devices. It’s easily the best Android phone to date, and when you couple the revamped OS, Verizon’s killer network, a real keyboard, and an industrial design straight from a gadget enthusiast’s fever-dream, it makes for a powerful concoction. Ultimately, the Droid won’t usurp the iPhone from the public’s collective mindshare or convince casual users that they must switch to Android.

Google provides great services for an entrepreneur looking to gauge a particular consumer base.

One of the most important ways to gauge your market is through a survey. There are many ways to do this. You could simply go to a coffee shop and ask people about their tastes and preferences for a particular product related to coffee. But, in our Internet-savvy world, there is a much better way to gauge your audience.

In this section, I will outline a 3-step method that will allow you to validate whether people are interested in the product or service that you are about to develop. By following this 3-step method, you will see if your business is viable.

A brief overview of the 3-step method:

1. Using Google Sites, set up a landing page, which describes your product or service, has at least three survey questions on it and has a contact email address.
2. Using Google Adwords, make at least three ads that contain catchy descriptions of your product and have a link to your landing page created in Google Sites.
3. Using Google Analytics and data provided in Google Adwords, analyze the data and results to see whether your business is viable.

Now that you have your Google Site prepared and your Adwords ad campaign set up, we can now proceed to Step 3, Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you’re more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.

In order to begin, visit http://www.google.com/analytics/.


Note: If you choose to, you can set up Google Analytics through Adwords. Go to the Reporting tab and click the “Google Analytics” tab. Follow the onscreen instructions, and continue. If you choose not to do this process through Adwords, you will have to connect Analytics to Adwords. Simply go to the “Reporting” and then “Google Analytics” tabs and follow the on-screen instructions.

You should see this page:

Click the “Access Analytics.” On the next page, put in your Google account information. Then, on the next page, click “Sign Up” (unless you have previously used Analytics). Put in the URL for your Google Site. It will look something like this: http://sites.google.com/site/dogtoysinc/. Then put in your Acount Name and the next appropriate information. Click continue when you have finished.

Proceed to the next pages. You will put in your contact information and accept a user agreement. At the last page, there will be tracking code.

For a Google Site, you will not use this tracking code. However, if you would like to track another website, put this code immediately before the </body> tag. Ask your webmaster for more information.

Since you are using Google Sites, click finish without copying the code.

Your Analytics is setup. However, you must connect Analytics to Google Sites.

As you might see, there will be a yellow triangle with an “!” in it. This is because your Sites and Analytics have not been connected yet.

Go to your Google Site.

On the top right hand corner, click More Actions. Then, in the drop down menu, click “Manage Site.” You will be taken to a page that has recent
site activity. In the left navigation bar, click the “General” tab. In the Statistics box, click the checkbox that says “Enable Google Analytics for this site.” Then, go back to Google Analytics in a new window.

Next to your website URL, there will be a number that starts with UA-XXXXXXX-X. Copy that into the Googe Site box that we talked about before. Click save. It will take 24 hours for your Analytics to start tracking your website. If you have not already done so, make sure you  have connected your Adwords to your Analytics in order to receive the best data for your website. Go to the Reporting tab in Adwords and then Analytics and follow the on-screen instructions.

Your setup is now complete. You have your Google Site connected to Adwords, and you have Analytics tracking your website visits.

After three or four days, you will begin to see your website’s results. Firstly, check your email and see the results from the survey that you posted on your website. This has valuable information that you can use for your product’s development.

I will now teach you how to interpret your data.

Go to Adwords. After signing in, you will be taken to your Snapshot page. This will have your campaign performance as well as your best performing keywords.

You should see something like this:

As you can see, 17 people click my ads in three days. On this day in particular, 6 people have clicked my ads. Obviously, my daily budget was quite low and this led to fewer clicks. Nevertheless, even with such a small budget, I still managed to have more than 17 people visit my site. Click the “Campaign” tab. Each tab will have important data. Click the keywords tab.

My best performing keywords were dogs, toys, and technology. Thus, people were interested in finding more about this combination of high-tech dog toys.

Click your ads tab.

The results show that people were greatly interested in finding a dog toy that tracks their dog’s behavior.

Now, let’s see how many people actually visited your website. Click the Reporting tab and  check your Google Analytics. Google Analytics takes longer to update than your Adwords account. There will be some discrepency.

Analytics tracks everything from how many people visited your site to what browser they were using and where they are living. This can be useful to see how many people actually had interest in your website and product.

Click the “Traffic Sources” tab and then Adwords to see the appropriate Adwords information.

Now that you have your data on hand, you must determine whether or not your business might be viable online. Just because you received low clicks and visits does not mean your business will fail. Remember that the number of visits is determined by many variables, including how much your daily budget was and how well you displayed your ads. Your business also might not work online but could very well work through non-online sources like coupon books.

Google provides great services for an entrepreneur looking to gauge a particular consumer base.

One of the most important ways to gauge your market is through a survey. There are many ways to do this. You could simply go to a coffee shop and ask people about their tastes and preferences for a particular product related to coffee. But, in our Internet-savvy world, there is a much better way to gauge your audience.

In this section, I will outline a 3-step method that will allow you to validate whether people are interested in the product or service that you are about to develop. By following this 3-step method, you will see if your business is viable.


A brief overview of the 3-step method:

1. Using Google Sites, set up a landing page, which describes your product or service, has at least three survey questions on it and has a contact email address.
2. Using Google Adwords, make at least three ads that contain catchy descriptions of your product and have a link to your landing page created in Google Sites.
3. Using Google Analytics and data provided in Google Adwords, analyze the data and results to see whether your business is viable.

Market research is the best way to see viability of your company. In this step, I will explain how to use Google Adwords to track whether there is a potential online customer base for your company.

Google Adwords is an advertising service where you make ads that are posted on Google search as well as partner sites. It is a great way to bring people to your site and judge whether people are interested in your product or service. Simply put, if people don’t click on your ad, they are not interested in your product.

Google Adwords is not a free service. There is a $5.00 activation fee and each time a person clicks on your ad, you will be charged a small amount. Nevertheless, the value of Adwords is far greater than the cost.

In order to access Adwords, visit www.adwords.com.

If you are already logged in, you will see a line in red above the Google Account login. This will tell you that you are signed into a Google account but that account is not a valid Adwords account. Your Google account is not defaulted to be a Google Adwords account since Adwords is not a free service. Click the Start Now button above that red comment. Fill in the required information. After you do that, the first step in your Adwords setup is completed. The next step is to create your ad campaigns. On the “verify email address” page, click “sign in to your Adwords account.”

Once you do that, you should see the following page:

For those of you who have never used Adwords before, I will now explain the interface as well as the overall purpose of Adwords.

As seen in the screenshot above, Google Adwords is a service that allows anyone to display ads on Google Search as well as websites of those companies that participate in Google Adsense. In Google Adwords, you will have a campaign, which is the overall folder for your ads. Each campaign will have graphs and data that will show you how well your ads performed and how many people clicked/visited your site. This data is beneficial for entrepreneurs looking for market research because if no one clicks on your ads, then the odds of your product being interesting to online consumers is slightly unlikely. If there is a consistent number of people who have clicked on your ad, then interest is high and there is a potential consumer base for your product or service.

Click on the “Create your first campaign” button.

Fill in a name for your campaign (only you will see this name).

The most important part of this page is the “Bidding and budget” section. Simply put, a higher budget means Google will show your ads for a longer time throughout the day. For example, if you set a daily budget for $1.00/day, then once 5-6 people click on your ad, Google will stop running your ad in order to stay true to that budget. If you set your daily budget higher, then your ad will show for a greater amount of time throughout the day.

I prefer to keep the “Automatic Bidding to try to maximize clicks for your target budget” clicked. Which essentially means that Google will decide how much you need to bid for each keyword to maximize your daily budget.

For demonstration purposes, I have set my budget for $1.00/day.

After you have decided what budget/day you would like to set, enter it and click save and continue.

You will now be directed to the “Create an ad” tab. This is where you will add the text for the headlines that people will see on the side of Google and on other search partners. This is the most important aspect of your campaign.

Google has outlined some basic rules about how to effectively run an ad campaign. Your keyword must match some part of the phrase in the ad, and your ad headline and description must match a headline or phrase on your landing page. If one of these does not exist, then Google might not run your ad.

Thus, create a headline and description that mirrors a phrase on your landing page.

As seen above, my description 1 and description 2 can be found on the website. However, one problem with my ad that you should be wary about is that my Display URL and the Destination URL do not match. This is a common mistake. Google will not accept this ad because they do not match. Make sure your Display URL and Destination URL match.

Obviously, you will want to make your headline catchy. You have only a second’s worth of brain time to catch a viewer’s attention and bring them to your website.

My current ad reads:

High Tech Dog Toys

Dog Toys Incorporated

Track your dog’s behavior!

http://sites.google.com/site/dogtoysinc/

The main headline will grab attention because viewers who search the phrase “dog” or  “dog toys” will wonder what these “high tech dog toys” are. My second description explains that in a brief way. It gives enough detail to bring in someone to the website.

After you have completed the aforementioned step, click “save and continue.”

As a recap, you now have your Google site set up (3-Step Method for Market Research using Google (Step 1)). This is your landing page that people will be directed to from your ad. Your landing page has a description of your potential product or service, a survey about that product and your contact information. You have completed your initial Adwords setup and have added 1 ad in your campaign.

If one of these steps seem foreign to you, I suggest you review the previous material before continuing on.

After saving your ad, you will now be taken to the keyword section of your Adwords setup.

A great characteristic of Adwords is its scanning ability. Adwords will scan your ad and website and give you suggested keywords that it believes would be beneficial for your ad campaign. Obviously, some of these keywords may not be good for your website; however, take a look at them.

Enter one keyword per line. You may enter as many as you like. The more keywords you have, the more opportunity people have to find your ad. However, the more keywords you have, the more your cost will increase. So, if you are on a tight budget, 10-20 keywords may be enough.

Every keyword represents a customer that you may or may not be able to help. So

it’s time to go looking for customers – for keywords – and see which ones, and how

many, are your kind of person.

Wordtracker has a free keyword suggestion tool that you can access at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/. Since my mock-business relates to dog toys, I will search dog toys in the Worktracker Keyword Suggestion tool.

This tells me how many online searches per day it has a record of.

Google has its own keyword tool, however it will not tell you how many searches their keywords actually got. You can access it within any ad group.

Since my mock website relates to dog toys, my keywords are as follows: dog toys, dog, toys, high-tech, technology, research, rubber dog toys, pet toys, and dogs toy.

After you have entered your keywords, click the “Estimate search traffic” button beneath the keywords. The Traffic Estimator provides traffic and cost estimates for new keywords before you add them to your campaign. You can also review estimates for current keywords already running in an ad group.

When you enter a keyword into the Traffic Estimator, you get estimates for your keyword’s status, search volume, average cost-per-click (CPC), cost/day, and average position. By using this tool, you can better forecast your ad’s placement and performance based on your CPC bid, targeting options, and other criteria.

Since my budget is low, my cost/day is estimated to be approximately $0.52-$1.00. This gives me a sense of what I am going to pay while I keep this campaign running.

You have now set up your ad and keywords in Adwords. If you wanted to add more ads or keywords, you can do so later.

Click “Save and continue to billing.” In the billing section, fill in the appropriate information. After you do this, your initial setup is complete.

Now that you have made an add, added your keywords and added your billing information, your Adwords setup is complete. You should now be at your Adwords home page.

Click the “campaigns” tab. This will have all the information about your ads, settings, keywords and networks.

In the “Ads” tab, you should see your ad that you made in the setup. Your status will say “Pending Review.” This is normal. It means that Google has not yet verified that your ad follows it’s advertising policies. Nevertheless, your ad is eligible to run on Google search pages even with this status. Your ad won’t run on Google’s search partners or on content network placements until they review and approve it.

To the right of your ad and status, there will be data listed for your ad that will help you track your market opportunity.

For you convenience, here’s what all those tabs means:

% served: Percentage of time your ad has been shown in relation to the rest of the active ads within the same ad group.

Clicks: How many people clicked your ad

Impressions: The number of times an ad has been displayed to web users in the course of one advertising day. When CPM bidding is in use, one thousand impressions equal one cost-per-thousand, or CPM, unit.

CTR: Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown (impressions) via Google search only. Your ad and keyword each have their own CTRs, unique to your own campaign performance. Keyword CTR is a strong indicator of the relevance of your keyword to the user and the overall success of the keyword. CTR is also used to determine your keyword’s Quality Score. A low CTR may point to poor keyword performance, indicating a need for ad or keyword optimization.

Cost: Total cost of your ad campaign

Click the keywords tab.

You should now see the list of the keywords that you added previously. If you want to add more, simply click “add keywords.”

You will not get a good sense of your audience with just one ad. You should have at least three ads listed in your ad campaign with different headlines and descriptions.

In order to add more ads, click the Ads tab. You will now see your first ad that you made during the intial setup.

Click “New Ad.”

A new field will appear that will ask you to put in a new headline, description and URL. Do not make this ad similar to your first ad. The point of making multiple ads is to target different demographics. My first ad targeted people interested in technology. My second ad can target people interested in dog toys. My third ad can target people who are solely interested in their dogs. Your ads should do the same.

Remember to have at least three ads.

Your Adwords setup is now complete and fully functional!

In the next step, we will introduce Google Analytics and how to track your number of visits on your website. Read Step 3 here!

Google provides great services for an entrepreneur looking to gauge a particular consumer base.

One of the most important ways to gauge your market is through a survey. There are many ways to do this. You could simply go to a coffee shop and ask people about their tastes and preferences for a particular product related to coffee. But, in our Internet-savvy world, there is a much better way to gauge your audience.

In this section, I will outline a 3-step method that will allow you to validate whether people are interested in the product or service that you are about to develop. By following this 3-step method, you will see if your business is viable.


A brief overview of the 3-step method:

1. Using Google Sites, set up a landing page, which describes your product or service, has at least three survey questions on it and has a contact email address.
2. Using Google Adwords, make at least three ads that contain catchy descriptions of your product and have a link to your landing page created in Google Sites.
3. Using Google Analytics and data provided in Google Adwords, analyze the data and results to see whether your business is viable.

Google Sites is a free service that allows you to set up a simple website in minutes.

In order to begin, you must first (if you don’t already have one), create an account with Google. Since, in this guide, we will be using Gmail for the contact email, we will create our Google account through Gmail.

In order to do this, open your Internet browser and go to www.gmail.com.

Click on the “Create an account” button on the bottom right. This is where you will put in the desired username as well as other information in order to create your account. The most important part of this step is to make an appropriate and descriptive username. This is the email that you will (if you choose to use Gmail) display on your Google site.

Fill in the desired information. After you have completed this, click the “I accept. Create my account” button on the bottom. After you do this, your Gmail and Google account will be created. You will be redirected to your Gmail account. However, for the next step, you will need to go to “My Account.” The link for this is located on the Google homepage (www.google.com). On the top right, you should see a link to “My Account.” Click that link. If you do not see that link and only see two options (iGoogle and Sign In), you have been logged out of your newly created account and will have to sign in before proceeding.

Under the “My Products” section, you will see a link to “Sites.” Click that link. If you do not see that under “My Products,” visit www.sites.google.com.

You will be redirected to the Google Sites main page. Click “Create Site.”

Fill in the desired information and choose you site theme. For this demonstration, I am making a mock-website for a “High-tech dog toy manufacturer.” After choosing your theme, you will be directed to a rather plain website as seen below.

In the top right, you will see a button that says “Edit Page” with a little pencil icon next to it. Click that button. In the box that says “Home,” add your heading. This will be the first heading that most users see. Make it catchy! Now, on the top left under the “Google sites” icon, you will see four tabs. Click the “Layout” tab. You will be redirected to the “Layout” page of Google Sites. If you like the current layout of the site, you do not need to change anything in the Layout tab. However, if you want to change this, in the layout tab, click the “Site layout” on left sidebar under “Site Appearance.” Modify the page and save. Click “return to site” on the top left side.

Now, we will add the content of the page. Remember, this is the page that will contain a 3-4 question survey for potential customers. You will need to add a description of what your product is, a 3-4 question survey and then contact information.

Here’s what my mock-website looks like:

As you can see, the top portion contains a brief description of what “Dog Toys Incorporated” is, what separates us from others and a brief description of one of our potential products.

The middle portion has a survey with three questions regarding my potential product. I ask the following questions: “Would you buy our chewable dog toy? Why or why not?, If you saw our chewable dog toy at a store, what price would you think it was?, and Do you think it is a good idea to have a dog toy track your dog’s health?”

The last portion of the website has my contact information.

You now have your Google site made. Read 3-Step Method for Market Research Using Google Adwords (Step 2)!