"Turok, Son of Stone", Issue #3 (1956), regrettably NOT in the Public Domain because it WAS promptly renewed for copyright protection in 1984. Shown here under the terms of "Fair Use".
Somewhere between 5-10 times per day on average, I get an idea for a product that I can create…
These ideas usually pop into my head at the strangest times when I’m really not even working. I’ll see something on TV, or hear something on the radio, something will stand out in a conversation, or maybe I read something in my frequent visits to the book store.
It sometimes amazes me how many times an idea will jump out from my subconscious when I’m watching cartoons with my kids or even taking a shower!
I’m constantly getting ideas for new niche markets to explore, new info products or services to create – I bet you do too.
Where do these ideas come from?
Well, I’m certainly no more creative than the next guy I can assure you…
It’s just that I’m “locked in”, and “in the zone” as it were. You probably know exactly what I’m talking about.
When you make that mental shift after becoming a marketer and creator of info-based products you start seeing everything in those terms – everywhere you look you see potential products!
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I met a lady the other day that has an incredibly gifted talent for etching artwork on glass. As soon as she showed what she does, I’m thinking man, this would make a killer video course.
We’re negotiating a partnership now. She’ll do her thing and I’ll video tape her and we’ll create a DVD – it’ll be a lot of fun.
Will it sell? I honestly don’t know - I need to do a little research into the demand for this particular topic before I commit my time and energy to it (and you can bet I’ll enhance the material by using some stuff from the Public Domain!).
Whenever an idea pops into your melon you need to have a way to capture it fast or it’s usually gone just about as quick as it came…
That’s why you’ll always find me carrying either a tiny pocket-sized notebook or a digital voice recorder wherever I go – people think I’m strange sometimes when I’m standing in line waiting for ice-cream and I’m talking into my hand, but that’s o.k.
When you have an idea for something (anything!), write it down somewhere fast.
I used to be notorious about coming home with my pockets stuffed with scribbled on napkins and crumpled up pieces of newspaper – whatever I had to write on at the time.
I also want to issue a formal apology to my family doctor for ripping out entire pages from the magazines in his waiting room (HINT: magazines are a rich source of ideas!).
When you have an idea, don’t just think about it - write it down!
Doesn’t matter what you think about it. Doesn’t matter whether it’s any good or not - just write it down!
You can check it out and see whether the idea has merit later – the important thing right now is to just get it out of your head and preserved.
Million dollar ideas have been lost just because they were never written down!
I’ll be the first to admit that most of my ideas for products never see the light of day…
Many of my random ideas die in the research phase when I determine that there is no market for my idea or due to some other factor.
Maybe 1 out of every 20 ideas makes it from the idea phase to the actual “I’m gonna do this” phase.
After that, I have to prioritize based on other factors like energy and time (my most precious commodity and that which I seem to have the least of!)
So, in the end I would estimate that maybe 1 out every hundred ideas I have actually becomes a real product.
Even then that product may not fly…
Sometimes, for reasons you can’t always fully understand, a product bombs.
Like Forrest Gump says, – “It Happens”.
You just got to pack that one away, try to learn something from it, shake it off and try again with your next idea.
The main point is this – don’t ever give up – try, try again as they say.
Your ideas are the life-blood of your business - keep ‘em flowing!
So many great products, inventions, and even entire movements in human history got their start as just the tiniest seeds of an idea…
The great American inventor Thomas Edison once had an idea for an “electric candle” that would change the world. I read somewhere that he created like one-thousand light-bulb prototypes before he finally hit on the one that actually worked right!
Most people I know would have just given up after the first one blew.
If it wasn’t for Edison’s dogged “I’m gonna make this thing work no matter what” persistence, we’d all still be sitting around in the dark.
Whenever I get to feeling discouraged about something, I think of this story and mentally take a big dose of “Edison’s Medicine” ~ perks me right up every time. Read about him if you get the chance – very inspiring human being.
Surely you’ve heard the story of Colonel Sanders and his famous recipe for fried chicken? He drove cross-country visiting restaurants looking for someone to buy into his idea for how to make fried chicken.
I heard that he was told “No” roughly 1500 times before he finally got his “Yes”. And the rest is history.
Can you imagine? Sleeping in your car every night, driving around all day, walking in and right back out of restaurant after restaurant after being told “No” 1500 times?
Talk about a human spirit that absolutely will not, can not, and steadfastly refuses to be crushed!
The man’s a hero in my book. He held tight to his idea with a passion that would make a boa constrictor jealous.
Cherish the ideas you have.
Never make a rash decision and toss them aside as being too silly, too simple, too complicated, overdone, too late, or any of the other 10,000 excuses your brain will try to come up with.
Write them down, come back and look at them later.
I’m telling you there’s gold in your ideas – don’t lose them.
Every one of us has golden ideas (even if we don’t recognize them as such at the time) – don’t let yours end up getting lost to your mental “recycle bin”.
Never judge the validity of an idea until you’ve had the chance to research it’s possibilities a little first. No idea is too small or too big.
There’s no such thing as a “stupid” or “silly” idea either…
Remember pet rocks? It doesn’t get much more stupid than that! Yet, they became a nationwide fad and sold like hotcakes for a short time.
After a little research, you can decide whether to throw the idea away, run with it, or just let it sit in the your notebook for a while so that you can come back and revisit it later.
As I am writing this, I’m reminded of an idea that I was researching this morning that went bust…
I’ll share it with you here so that you can see what I mean.
Most of my ideas revolve around uses of Public Domain material (’cause that’s how I roll!) so this idea involves hunting for potential Public Domain material to create a product for a specific market.
Here’s my brilliant (yet doomed) first idea of the day…
This morning, I heard a rumor that production may soon begin on a new live-action motion picture featuring “Turok”, a character that has his origins in comic books starting in the early ’50′s.
Turok is a Native American warrior that lives in sort of a “Lost World” setting and is known for having daily battles with rogue man-eating dinosaurs and alien life forms hell-bent on the destruction of plant earth – typical comic book mayhem.
Since the ’50s Turok has been kept alive in a long line of comic publications, a handful of video games, and even an animated movie released a few years ago.
Presently, there’s a small but consistent bit of traffic online for keywords involving “Turok” (most of which are in reference to the video games).
I’m speculating here, but I think that if and when the new live-action “Turok” movie is released, this traffic will surge tremendously as a whole new audience discovers my favorite Native American dinosaur slayer.
Being the comic book geek that I am, I know that “Turok” got his start in the mid-50′s when Dell Publishing released the comic “Turok, Son of Stone”.
There were roughly 27 issues published before another publisher, Gold Key picked up the series in 1962.
You probably already know where I am headed with this…
Any work published in the U.S. before 1964 had to renew copyright protection 28 years after publication in order to stay protected right?
Most of the comic book publishers producing comics between 1923 and 1963 were exceptionally bad at renewing copyrights, allowing entire title runs (and characters!) to fall into the Public Domain in the vast majority of cases.
The hamster wheel in my head started spinning furiously when I realized that there could potentially be a good number of the original “Turok, Stone of Stone” comic books in the Public Domain – any issue published before 1964 would be a prime candidate as long as it’s copyright protection was not renewed.
I thought of how great it would be to drive this new surge of traffic that would surely result (again – all speculation) from the new movie’s release to a website selling a DVD set packed with the original “Turok” comic books – any real fan’s dream come true.
At this point, I decided to take this idea into the research phase…
I had no clue if any of the original “Turok” comics were actually in the Public Domain but I knew that I could find out with just a few minutes of quick research…
I started my research at the U.S. Copyright Office Registrations & Documents Database.
Sure enough, as I scroll down through the results and dig a few pages deeper, it’s very obvious that this comic (every issue of this particular series) was diligently renewed.
Below is the entry for the renewal of “Turok, Son of Stone” Issue #3 in case you’ve never seen what an actual renewal record looks like in this database (for more information on conducting copyright research see our Public Domain Treasure Hunter’s Survival Kit)…
(NOTE: Dell was an imprint of Western Printing & Lithographing Company.)
Neither this comic book nor any of the issues in the same series are in the Public Domain (on the flip side, see how easy it is to locate a renewal?).
Another idea bites the dust.
But hey, it was a great idea right?
It would have been fantastic had it worked out but there’s no way I would have known without checking it out first – and it only took roughly 2 minutes to find out whether I could use this idea or not.
It was definitely worth taking the time to check out.
Now I know for sure and I’ll never wonder if I let an opportunity slip through my hands…
There’s nothing worse than forgetting about an idea, then remembering it again years later and regretting not having at least looked into the idea.
When lightning strikes – STRIKE BACK!
Even if you’re too busy or it’s just too impractical to do something with the idea right that minute at least capture the thought somehow ~ I don’t care how much Ginkgo biloba you’re taking, you simply can not rely on your mind to retain your ideas forever.
I don’t even care if it means scribbling your idea on your leg with lipstick!
Been there, done that.
This particular idea of mine flopped.
Am I disappointed?
Sure, but that’s ok…I’ve got a thousand more ideas in my notebook to explore!
I’m not completely done with this idea just yet – I may not be able to use the “Turok” comic books but there were tons of these “adventures in a lost world of dinosaurs and weird creatures” type comics…
I may put together a comic product to offer to this niche yet.
This was just one example of a simple idea that didn’t work out.
Honestly, a good majority of my ideas don’t work out for one reason or another but the ones that do – those are the golden ideas that make it all worth while.
Hold on to those ideas, they tend to multiply like rabbits!
Thanks for letting me share…
About The Author:
 Logan Andrew is an online entrepreneur, information publisher, and author that has been using Public Domain material to create profitable products and businesses since 2001. He is also co-author of "The Public Domain Treasure Hunter's Survival Kit" available here. For more info Logan, click here. |
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post Logan.
I read/heard recently that money likes speed, so get working on those ideas that pop in as rapidly as possible ’cause rest assured, someone else will put it into action before you if you’re not careful.
I prefer to say that ideas like speed.
Sorry your latest idea didn’t take off, but I know it hasn’t stopped you.
.-= Christine Holroyd´s last blog ..Wordless Wednesday : Excuse Me, Daahling! =-.
Intriguing article, Logan. Of course, in the spirit of Edison and Sanders, your idea about the Turok character did become the basis of an actual usable million dollar idea — this article.
I learned a lot from your description of your dead end search. Only, the knowledge I gained was worthwhile.
Thanks!
A great post Logan! I remember when I just didn’t get how to find a niche. Then after a particularly good seminar, I suddenly saw niches everywhere! It was an exciting “aha” moment.
What is so very true is that you have to follow through. That is where so many people fail. They over think, etc – paralysis through analysis.
You never know if an idea or niche is a good one until you try. Thanks!
.-= Coronado Cookie´s last blog ..Storm Front Hits Coronado Beach =-.
Very fine post, Logan. I’m a 2am ideas person. I must say, in the dead of night, ideas look really great and play havoc with sleep. Finally I’ve taken to getting out of bed and jotting the ideas down. Maybe I should just phone some of my Northern Hemispere friends who are legitimately awake!
I’m all for action, these days, because there’s nothing more soul destroying than watching someone else run and be successful with an idea you’ve had.
~ Erin
PS: Lipstick on your leg, Logan?
.-= Erin´s last blog ..Tomato Relish … or How To Stop Crying when Peeling Onions =-.
Hi Erin,
I’m a 2am ideas person as well. In fact, night time is definitely my most creative time as I would guess it is with most highly creative people such as you and I. Most of the books that I have written myself (non-Public Domain stuff) have all been written in frenzied periods of inspiration during the twilight hours. Of course, when you have responsibilities to attend to during the day, this isn’t good.
I’ve found that just like you, inspiration will strike at the worst possible time and my mind will run wild with the possibilities and of course I can’t sleep. I can’t remember who told me this but some of the best advice I ever had was to keep a notebook handy for just these times ~ if I completely brain dump whatever it is that I’m thinking about, my mind will finally let me rest secure in the knowledge that the idea will still be there when I awake (although in my house that’s never really a sure bet!).
I’m an amateur musician too, so sometimes I’ll get a new guitar riff stuck in my head, then the lyrics start flooding in and then goodbye sleep. If I lay there letting my mind wander, I’ll be up all night. So instead, I get up and write down the lyrics, capture my riffs on tape, and then I find I can sleep like a baby.
Thanks Erin, it’s good to hear from you!
Oh ~ and YES! Lipstick on my leg ~ lol!
I’d write in my own blood if I had too (let’s hope it never comes to that)!
I agree. It’s like that old story people like to use as an example for “being in the zone” ~ you buy a car that you think you’ve never seen anyone else driving and then over the next few days you start to notice that it seems like suddenly everyone else in town is driving the same car!
Follow through is definitely critical. It’s so sad when I talk to someone that’s been nursing the same idea along for years and they’ve never taken even the first step towards implementing the idea. Usually fear of failure (or maybe even success?) is typically at the root of it. I like Deb’s attitude towards this as she wrote in a recent post ~ Fail and Fail Fast! Get the idea out there and give it a chance to be successful. Even the best ideas are worthless if they are never acted upon.
Be proud of even your worst ideas ~ if put into action and they fail, at least it makes for a wonderful learning experience (and a great story!).
Thanks for this. What you have said reminds me of a theory I heard several years ago that since all of us are tied together in a collective stream of human consciousness, it’s very rare that you and you alone would get a unique idea. In fact the theory states that when you have an idea pop into your head, it’s very likely that someone else somewhere in the world receives that very same idea at the exact same instant!
Is that freaky or what?
I believe it though. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had an idea for something, developed it, and then found something very similar a few months later. And it’s not that they copied me either, it’s just that the idea came to them in roughly the same time period.
This is why if you think up an idea for a really cool domain name, you better grab it immediately if it’s still available or someone else will. So, in a case like that, it’s all about who can actually act on their idea first.
Like Perry Marshall says, “The race goes to the swift!”.
Thanks Christine!
Hi Logan,I especially liked that about writing down lyrics and licks.
I used to always keep an acoustic guitar and small tape recorder on my nite stand so when those songs,lyrics or just one line came into my head I could quickly get it on tape
I was considering doing that once again for any ideas I might come up with and now you’ve comvinced me. I’m not doin the lipstick on my leg gig tho.lol
Thank you for this Chaplain, it really means a lot to me and confirms that perhaps this article has in some small way achieved it’s purpose to motivate and inspire people to have confidence and faith in their ideas.
I appreciate you!
Oh c’mon Doni, you should try it some time. Drawing all over your body with lipstick is somehow strangely liberating (difficult to explain to the police though). ; )