Testing idea is more fun than talking about it

[JuliaLV]

Testing ideas isn't as scary as I thought! It's rather exciting. Even if idea isn't going to become a money tree. That's fine. The goal is to start testing and stop talking.

The process -
I found out that tourists in Riga (capital city of Latvia) often leave their dogs in a hotel because they don't know which places in the city are dog-friendly. I 'googled' the subject and couldn't find a good website that had a list or map with dog-friendly places in Europe.

There are plenty of websites in USA and UK though. They offer worldwide service but have little information on cities in Europe. I found enough forum and blog posts to see that I wasn't the only one looking for dog-friendly places.

For further research I targeted Riga and found bits and pieces of information scattered all over 'the internet' (majority of it - in Latvian). Then I translated basic information and put dog-friendly places on the google map (my test website - dogfriendlyriga.com).

I wanted to include other capital cities of Europe on the website but stopped. Goal was to test the idea and I was about to make a whole product. What if I'm wrong and market doesn't want it? Isn't this test supposed to give me an answer to this question?

I added the button 'offline map 0.99 euro' on my test website to see if anyone is willing to click on it. Then I checked google play app store (and for books - amazon kindle store) and found out there is no competition. 'Bad' sign. People want to get this information for free.

.. what now? I want to continue working on it. I don't know what I can sell or how I can attach income to the website yet (next 'thing' to learn). Maybe I'm stubborn. Or maybe I haven't finished testing the idea. Question is - when do you finish testing? When can you be sure market doesn't need what you are working on?

 

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[Green Destiny]

Testing ideas isn't as scary as I thought! It's rather exciting. Even if idea isn't going to become a money tree. That's fine. The goal is to start testing and stop talking.

The process -
I found out that tourists in Riga (capital city of Latvia) often leave their dogs in a hotel because they don't know which places in the city are dog-friendly. I 'googled' the subject and couldn't find a good website that had a list or map with dog-friendly places in Europe.

There are plenty of websites in USA and UK though. They offer worldwide service but have little information on cities in Europe. I found enough forum and blog posts to see that I wasn't the only one looking for dog-friendly places.

For further research I targeted Riga and found bits and pieces of information scattered all over 'the internet' (majority of it - in Latvian). Then I translated basic information and put dog-friendly places on the google map (my test website - dogfriendlyriga.com).

I wanted to include other capital cities of Europe on the website but stopped. Goal was to test the idea and I was about to make a whole product. What if I'm wrong and market doesn't want it? Isn't this test supposed to give me an answer to this question?

I added the button 'offline map 0.99 euro' on my test website to see if anyone is willing to click on it. Then I checked google play app store (and for books - amazon kindle store) and found out there is no competition. 'Bad' sign. People want to get this information for free.

.. what now? I want to continue working on it. I don't know what I can sell or how I can attach income to the website yet (next 'thing' to learn). Maybe I'm stubborn. Or maybe I haven't finished testing the idea. Question is - when do you finish testing? When can you be sure market doesn't need what you are working on?

I would say a big part of validation for a site like this would be in the number of people you are attracting in the first place. How are you getting visitors to the site and what % of targeted people actually clicked on the link to this page in the first place. The chances of monetising this by selling maps just to people visiting Riga are pretty low as you yourself suggest, so why not have a sign-up form on your site and above it tell people you are going to display information for all of Europe. That way it can be made into a viable business and you can test the interest?

You can monetise this is many different ways, by having affiliate links for the places you mention, pet travel insurance, maybe make some book on advice for travelling with your pets, sell pet friendly city tours to people and take a commission from the people you get to do them, or maybe even contact the places direct charge places for "high profile" spots on the site etc etc. I'm just thinking out loud, but I would test the idea for European wide rather than just Riga because why bother testing for something that isn't really scalable?

I'm testing my idea in one location to start with, but I have an option on the sign-up form to inform people when the app rolls out to their area.

 

[JuliaLV]

Thank you for the advice! Sign-up form is a great option. I can't believe I didn't think of it myself =]
Sure - Riga is just an example. I'm definitely aiming for Europe and it's an awesome idea to create 'European' sign- up form for feedback.
And thank you for the other ideas! You are right, there are many ways to monetise it. I will look into the ideas you mentioned.
I'm happy to hear that you are also testing an idea. I'm sure it will work out great!

 

[GMSI7D]

Question is - when do you finish testing? When can you be sure market doesn't need what you are working on?

have you tested eben pagan's niche questions in this video ?

http://getaltitude.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Video_2_Niche_Intelligence_Report.pdf

http://www.abraham.com/gifts/thankyou.html

 

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[JuliaLV]

1) Is your prospect motivated strongly by emotions?
Just to consider traveling with pets can cause a headache. There are a lot of factors and information you have to be aware of and it's scattered all over the 'internet'.
I assume there are pet owners that feel guilty and bad for leaving their 'best friends' and 'part of the family' behind. Anyway I think the answer is no. Pet owners can find other solutions (dog sitters, dog hotels etc.).
2) Is your prospect pro-actively seeking solutions right now?
Yes they are. I found forum and blog posts where people ask for this kind of information (on tripadvisor.com as well). I'm not saying that millions of people are looking though.
3) Does your prospect have few or no perceived options?
About Europe - few. None of them can be considered a good source that people would recommend. Available information is not complete or/and website is hard to navigate and/or it looks like 11 year old could make a better website design.

 

[Maxjohan]

Here you can find ad spending on "dog friendly hotels":
http://www.spyfu.com/keyword/overview?query=dog friendly hotels

Compare this to "cloud services":
http://www.spyfu.com/keyword/overview?query=cloud services

This is the #1 tool to use to find profitable markets. Big or small.

Whatever you feel comfortable with diving into.

Use Spyfu and you don't need to guess.

Hope this helps.

 

[JuliaLV]

I didn't know about Spyfu (I use Google AdWords keyword planner).
Sure it helped! After a quick peek at Spyfu I decided to spend more time on the website. Thank you!

 

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[JuliaLV]

For a few days I've been busy moving to Spain. I moved for three reasons -
1) climate.
I feel great when it's warm and miserable when it's not
2) free time.
volunteering takes 5h a day and I don't have to think about accommodation and food
+ I'm volunteering for lifelong entrepreneur. Great person to be around. I'm already learning from him.
3) language.
I will learn Spanish faster in Spain

I wanted to move for a long time and didn't have a courage to do it.
I'm sending 'a huge thank you' to those who moved and shared they experience on the forum. It encouraged me to Just Do It.
_______________________________________________

Now I'm settled in and it's a perfect time to look back at what (1) I've done and (2) where I'm heading.

(1) Where I'm now:
I finished second part of my test - to add information about Vilnius and Tallinn on the website ( http://www.dogfriendlyriga.com/ ). Why? Good question.
I guess I wanted to share my research (I mostly included information that is hard to find) and I was hoping it would help me to find a good niche.

(2) Where I'm heading. Steps (from biggest to smallest):
-> create a company that helps millions of people
-> test business idea/s until I find a right niche
--> tourism with dogs (would be awesome to make traveling with dogs easy. As easy as without them)
----> research->find options->test

Top options/problems -
1) 'all information in one place' website (like Tripadvisor) for traveling with dogs in Europe
2) dog-friendly restaurants in Europe (could grow into the first option).
It's easy to find dog-friendly hotels and airline companies. It's harder to find dog-friendly restaurants and beaches.

Lesson -
when creating a website ( http://www.dogfriendlyriga.com/ ) my main goal was to share information. 'Attaching' money to the website wasn't a priority.
Now this approach seems off. I have to build everything around a potential income stream/s.