Will Donaldson is putting together a really interesting project with the Tulane Entrepreneur’s Association. He’s interviewing different business people and soliciting their knowledge for a book that TEA is compiling. I (finally) got mine back to him today. Here it is:

1. I’ve got a good idea for a new startup. How can I go about determining the market for it?

Start with the market. The best ideas for startups come from people who are intimately familiar with a market through personal work experience. They see a problem, and they know what it would take to solve it. Some of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made came when I thought of a great idea that I could build, but I didn’t think about whether anyone wanted it. Ask yourself: Is your product a vitamin or a painkiller? Vitamins aren’t nearly as successful as painkillers.

2. What are some cost effective ways to start spreading awareness of a new product?

Robert Stephens, founder of Geek Squad, says “Marketing is a tax you pay for being unremarkable.” While I don’t fully agree, it sure helps to make a great product and solve a real problem. The most cost effective way of spreading the word about your product is to develop an audience through social media and blogging. I’ve had success being transparent about product development online and talking about what I’m doing. Don’t think of it as marketing, think of it as a conversation about what you are building. People want to root for you, so share your story. But they don’t want to be pitched to, so be yourself, be genuine, share the ups and downs. Specific outlets I use to get the word out cost effectively are: my blog, video posts on YouTube, Twitter, & Facebook.

3. For a beginner, how can I use the internet to make this job easier?

The internet can make you 10x more productive than you are now. Read Getting Real by 37 Signals, the bible for the productive web worker. Collaborate virtually with your team through tools like Basecamp and Skype (see all the tools that we use), don’t meet in person unless you need to. I am amazed when I see people who open their email once a week and don’t use the internet to do anything but shop. Get efficient and comfortable working online and you will eat their lunch in business. You’ll be amazed how much work you can get done.

4. What about allocation? Say I can only dedicate between $5,000 and $10,000 to the marketing for a new project, what are the must-haves? Is there a way to methodically choose what’s best?

For allocating a marketing budget, you need to figure out who you are trying to reach, where they are, and your goal. Christopher Skinner taught me about the five phases of the customer journey: awareness, consideration, inquiry, purchase, re-purchase. A marketing strategy should consider each step and move the customer through it. If you are marketing a product that people are searching for (consideration), then run a Google Adwords PPC campaign. If you have a product that they have never heard of and you need to build awareness, maybe a Facebook campaign targeted at your demographic makes sense. The most important thing about any online campaign is to track everything. You can truly calculate ROI online in a way that isn’t possible offline. If you aren’t doing it, you’re not using all the tools available to you.

5. What about setting up a website? What should I look for?

Setting up a website is a great first step for your business. To get started for free, build a blog using WordPress or a site using Synthasite or SnapPages. I know a small business in New Orleans that has had a web developer working on a website for them for 2.5 years, who knows what they’ll pay for it when its completed. They could build one for themselves in one hour using these services for FREE. The biggest thing to keep in mind when building a website is content creation and setting a goal. What do you want a user visiting your website to do? What action? Sign up for a newsletter? Buy something? Call you? Design an experience that makes it clear for the user what to do. I see so many websites that are content heavy with boring blah blah blah content about the company. Who cares. Talk to your customer, not about yourself.

6. Does CPC marketing make sense?

Cost per click (CPC) marketing is extremely effective and powerful. It can take a while to learn, but it is immediate. Unlike SEO, you can get traffic to your website right now, if you are willing to pay for it. I helped Tom Fischmann of Dash Dudes launch a CPC today. He sells a product for $19.95. Let’s say his cost per click for keywords is 10 cents. Then let’s say one of every 30 visitors to his site buys his product. His cost-per-conversion is $3 and he’s selling a $20 product. He’s laughing all the way to the bank. CPC is something that you can really dial in and generate quality traffic if you take the time to optimize a campaign.

7. How do I start a PR strategy?

I believe you should be your own PR agent. Every dime I’ve personally spent on PR has been a waste. Now, some would beg to differ, but I think you are your own best advocate. People want to hear from you, the CEO, not a PR firm. The best PR strategy I can give you doesn’t cost a dime. Blog. Twitter. Get yourself out there, have a voice. Be interesting. Be opinionated.

8. Are there any rules of thumb that you think people don’t readily know about email marketing?

Email marketing is one of the most overlooked methods of marketing. As hard as you work on your website and as much great content as you write on your blog, there is nothing more powerful than showing up in 1000 inboxes. Think about it, how much time do you spend on email. And if email newsletters are from people you care about or are interested in, you’ll read them. My beliefs are: text only – don’t use images, short and concise, clear call to action, always have an easy unsubscribe method. Don’t spam people, if someone opts-off your list, don’t put them back on.

9. Where should I look for more guidance?

The web is a treasure trove of information for anything you want to learn. Spend 30 min reading the top three articles you find for “SEO 101” and you’ll be as armed to optimize your own site as 50% of the SEO firms out there. There is so much in business that people are happy to charge you thousands of dollars for, but you seriously can do it yourself.

10. What am I missing?

Go for it! Launch a business. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing your name on a business card with CEO under it. There has never been a better time to launch a business efficiently and effectively. You will have ups and downs, you will fail more than you succeed. Keep at it. Starting a business while I was in school getting my MBA was the best decision I ever made. I financed my first company on Stafford Student Loans. You can too.

Is this helpful to you? Something I missed or something you disagree with? Hit me up in the comments.

The 504Ward was announced this week by Idea Village. It’s a business plan competition with a $100,000 grant to the winning business along with services by many other New Orleans area firms.

The competition is designed to attract new start-ups to New Orleans or to seed local start-ups with the expressed intent of providing good jobs for 23-35 year old’s in the city.

At the competition launch on Thursday night at Tipitina’s, representatives from Google were on hand to throw their support behind the competition. They included a promise to promote the compeition on YouTube which potentially will draw quite a bit of attention. An interesting component of the competition is its emphasis on a video component to the submission process. This is a trend that I see continuing to grow, we submitted a video application as part of our TechCrunch50 conference application.

The evening’s highlight was the unveiling of a short film produced by Trumpet and directed by Benjamin Reece promoting the rising to the challenge of entrepreneurship in the new New Orleans. Ben has emerged in the last several months as one of New Orleans’s brightest young talents along with his partner Tung Ly. His short film 50 People 1 Question has drawn attention all over the world, and he directed a inspiring short for the 504ward that you can watch below. You should come see him speak at the next Net2NO meetup. (Who is that guy in the opening shot I wonder.)

504ward Promotional Film from Benjamin Reece on Vimeo.

I am very excited about the interest and support in the New Orleans start-up community right now, and this is just another example of great things happening. Though the award will likely have a national applicant pool, I really hope that many bright young New Orleanian’s apply for the grant. I feel a sense of pride and a competitive desire to show that this award can be won by a home grown business that will benefit New Orleans, that great businesses don’t just have to locate a satellite office here, but that they can be born here. My personal challenge to local start-ups is that we take this award home ourselves. Let’s make it happen NOLA.

Learn more about the 504ward, read the complete rules, and apply. Applications are due December 4th.

There’s been a lot of buzz about the New Orleans 100 list that AllDayBuffet.org launched on 8/25 with the ambitious goal of garnering 1 million pageviews over the next year. The list was a great compilation of all of the great businesses, social organizations, and movements happening in New Orleans right now, post-Katrina.

The folks behind the list are putting on a social innovation conference in New York in October called The Feast. It’s got a great roster of speakers including Robbie Vitrano from Trumpet.

Mike Karnjanaprakorn dropped the news in an email yesterday that he is bringing the conference to New Orleans next year.

He is planning to bring the conference to New Orleans, on or around February 5th, 2009. This is a fantastic opportunity for New Orleans to continue to position ourselves as the social entrepreneurship capital of the world. With all the activity right now, we have the opportunity to show that we “get it” with regards to the importance of business being socially responsible.

Put The Feast on your calendar for February and stay tuned for more details. You heard it here first folks!

Joel Yarmon shot video last night of my talk at the Tulane Entrepreneurship Association. It was a great opportunity to have a great conversation with an interesting audience of fellow entrepreneurs. Thanks to Joel for blogging about this on the Tulane Freeman School Blog.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back after almost two weeks of being away from Voodoo. Not just the working-vacation kind of being away where you check emails and keep updated, but the cut-off-communication kind, where you set your voicemail to “I won’t be checking” and you’ve got thousands of emails piled up when you get back.

• So, what did I learn? That I should do this more often.

As I was getting back into the swing yesterday I came across the great blog post by Steve at Startup Spark about Founderitis. I read the symptoms and self-diagnosed that I had a case coming on before my recent break. The treatment for founderitis is simple: step away from your company, watch what happens.

If you’ve done your job and have a great team (we do):

• People fill your void and things more forward
• New channels of communication emerge that used to have to run through you
• Creativity is unleashed that you may have been stifling
• People step up to the challenge and take on new responsibilities

So, first, a big shout out to Blake, Oleg, and our entire Flatsourcing team. I really appreciate everyone taking their games to the next level. I’m energized to get back and excited to see how my absence has changed things for everyone, and what permanent improvements this will yield.

Next time Founderitis sets in, put me on a plane to some far off destination with no cell phones or internet and you guys take over again. It does wonders for all of us.