avni000

Those are a lot of factors to face but depending on the sports niche and assuming that your product is superior/ well designed, then I might suggest focusing on getting a strong following with that niche and growing from that small position of strength.

For example, say it's biking apparel, I might reach out to bloggers/biking sites and perhaps doing guest features or creating something of value with them (giveaways?).

You should be able to help your SEO by creating content of value around your niche and getting links to it (organic SE rank is likely tanking just because people are getting what they need at those sites first and not bothering with smaller players). Same with your AdWords - you won't be able to compete with the massive marketing budgets of the bigger players so you'll have to be creative about using words further down the tail. Look for other acquisition opportunities by figuring out who your core target is and how you can get them to spend more (perhaps an email newsletter highlighting news/new products/trends in your niche?).

Just a couple of suggestions but hard to say for sure without knowing more specifics of what you're dealing with.

Appreciate this perspective - I agree that hackers/non-hackers is a very inaccurate label and I like the idea that it's for "satisfying intellectual curiosity".

This is really helpful - thanks. A follow up question about volatility - is it true that volatility only really exists when trying to convert to currencies like the dollar or pound but doesn't exist if you remain within Bitcoin? Wouldn't that imply that it's like gold where it's good to buy as much as you can when the price in dollars drops but that once you own Bitcoin the price of goods in Bitcoin would remain constant?

Thanks for sharing - should have known there was an app for that.

What can I say - I need coffee and their mobile payments app is handy.

I find using a simple excel sheet, with the following columns helps me: Objective (what action trying to drive like "increase traffic to site") Lever (overall bucket like email or SEO or PR) Tactic (specific initiative like "write 5 blog posts re: X" or "get 2-3 quality press coverage articles") Metric (how you'll be measuring success like "2x traffic in 4 weeks" or "increase conversion by 4%) Lead (team member responsible) Learnings (summary of findings)

Though it doesn't cover everything, I find it helpful to review with team on Mondays to make sure everyone is on same page about week's priorities and any recent findings.

The trick I find is in sticking to it, whatever the system is.

To build something that could have lasting impact while solving a real problem in the world.

Services like Buffer or Hootsuite help so that someone can devote a couple of hours straight to find/write and schedule posts for the whole week. Makes it more of an ownable, discrete task (albeit for an assigned person) instead of a fragmented haphazard one.

Thank you for the thoughtful response - that's in fact the type of direction I was looking for - even just learning of StackOverflow has been helpful... and I may take you up on the offer to connect further.

I think it just starts with being curious about the world around you - write about what you see and what interests you. And in the beginning write for yourself. Don't think about audiences and reach and all of that stuff. That will come as you find your voice and what you're passionate about writing. Also, the most valuable posts come from the people that have had the experiences to write about. So just living and having a diverse set of experiences will get you great material to write about. Most of all, don't try to sound like anyone but yourself. People will connect with that.

Ultimately, I would love if I could build a very basic prototype (of a web app) so that I can scrappily build a product to test. I recognize that that is not an easy task and would take a significant investment to get to proficiency, let alone mastery. But as someone that is analytical but not "technical", it can be exceedingly frustrating to have an idea that you want to implement and create but you don't have the know-how to do so. So I'm trying to find a way to teach myself to fish without becoming a master fisherman. And in the process I also hope that I can become a more effective entrepreneur because I will be able to communicate not only intent and design to the engineers, but appreciate the feasibility and development path.

Oh I hadn't thought about going to YouTube for videos - I'll certainly check that out. Thanks for your tips - definitely helpful!

Thanks for sharing your perspective - helpful.

This does help - thank you. Part of the challenge is understanding exactly what it is you're seeking to learn. This helps me narrow down what I should be trying to understand as I build my expertise.

Thanks for this practical advice - I guess what you're saying is it doesn't matter if it's JS or Ruby or whatever, just play around until you figure it out. Will give that a shot.

I agree with that - I've blown through a number of codeacademy and code school courses just because I've found it so interesting. But now I feel like I have this floating knowledge of some coding without a foundation of context to set it on. So would love to get recommendations of where to start with the real basics (like data structure etc).

Thanks for sharing these courses - I'll check them out. My hopes are to be a more effective marketer/product designer by understanding what it takes to bring it to life, as you mention.

My experience was mixed - I liked that I could control bids and if I didn't like any of the designs that were returned to me in the initial round, it was risk-free because I could get my money back.

The challenge I had was if you need or expect a logo or design that is more than the basics, it can be difficult to communicate the specifics to get those higher quality results.

But in the end, you get what you pay for, and for a more reasonable price point, you're able to get decent, basic design work.

I found better success looking at portfolios on Behance and reaching out to designers whose portfolios I liked. Likely more pricey, but again, all depends on what you're looking for and if it's integral to your product.

Agree that it should be weighted by current country birth rate so that you're disproportionately likely to be born in Niger or Mali vs. Singapore or Monaco. But really cool concept.

Point - simple Chrome extension that makes clipping and sharing stories quick and seamless: http://www.getpoint.co

Evernote - tried and true, particularly great for tagging and saving: www.evernote.com

edit: for lesser known, I would say: - Whitney Johnson's blog on disrupting yourself: http://whitneyjohnson.com - Occam's Razor on data driven marketing: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/ - Copyblogger (probably in the well known bucket but still really good): http://www.copyblogger.com/blog/

From the VC space: Fred Wilson's AVC: http://avc.com Ben Horowitz Ben's Blog: http://www.bhorowitz.com Paul Graham's Essays: http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html

I think the best ones manage to have a simple, clean aesthetic but are representative of their brand and offering.

A couple of my favourites: Birchbox (birchbox.com), Treehouse(teamtreehouse.com), Intercom (intercom.io)

I'm really enjoying Canva's Design School tutorials that simply and elegantly take complete beginners through the basics of good design with a series of hands-on exercises.

http://designschool.canva.com/tutorials/

What are you deliberate about not doing?

Many consumer and retail oriented ones: Birchbox, Rent the Runway, Warby Parker, Learnvest, Chloe + Isabel, Paperless Post, Makers Row....

One of the most helpful pieces of reading for me on this topic is Paul Graham's How to Get Startup Ideas: http://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html ... specifically "Live in the future, then build what's missing." This perspective has helped me filter ideas that were likely derivative and fleeting to ones that might really matter and be challenging/fulfilling to solve over the long run.

Change by Design by Tim Brown

If you know better, do better.