How To Build a Fortune Online Through Sleep Deprivation

Two ideas that have the potential to make huge amounts of money came to me in the wee hours this morning while unsuccessfully trying to get our 10 week old to sleep.

1. Ambien for Babies. While I have no doubt this would be a huge seller, I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea of drugging my any child (a few more sleepless nights, however, and I may come around).

2. A membership website that teaches parents how to get their babies to sleep through the night.

I thought a lot about the latter between 4:13am and 6:47am this morning and seriously think it could be a goldmine.

You’d be serving a huge market. There are over 130 million babies born worldwide every year which means somewhere between 130 million and 260 million desperate, cranky, sleep-deprived parents searching for solutions. Even if the vast majority don’t have internet access, you’re still left with a pool of millions of parents each year on the verge of being literally willing to give up their first born for some sleep. What’s not to love about those demographics (at least from a business standpoint)?

Marketing will be a snap. It’s often said the key to effective marketing is to identify what’s keeping your prospect up at night. Not terribly difficult to do in this case, is it?

I put together a blueprint for developing and marketing such a site that I’m happy to share here:

• The site should be primarily video based. Bleary-eyed parents can’t see straight and will be in no mood to read.
• The videos should demonstrate various techniques and tips on how to get a baby to sleep, how to get them to sleep through the night, and how to get them on a regular sleeping schedule.
• When babies appear in these videos, make sure you only show them sleeping. Two main reasons. One, you’re selling hope. Nothing is going to be more hopeful to parents then to see a sleeping baby (even if it’s not theirs at the moment). Second, hearing the sound of another kid screaming could very well push sleep deprived parents over the edge.
• Include a message board so parents can create support groups and trade additional tips and techniques on how to get their little bundles of joy to sleep at night.

Once you’ve got the content developed, it’s on to marketing. I’m a big fan of Google AdWords (though as an Google AdWords Professional, I’m a bit biased). Running a campaign to sell a product like this should be a snap, but here are a few tips to optimize your AdWords campaign’s performance:

• Use the “Advanced Ad Scheduling” feature in AdWords. This lets you adjust your bid prices depending on the time of day. Be sure to increase your bid prices between midnight and 6AM. While I usually don’t recommend bidding for the top spot in the AdWords rankings, it’s probably not a bad idea in this case. You’re going to want your ads to appear as high up in the rankings as possible so they are the first thing a parent sees when doing a search.
• Keyword research is always, well, key to a successful AdWords campaign. Here are a few keywords to get you started: “How to get a baby to sleep”, “my baby won’t sleep”, “baby sleeping tips”, “baby sleeping problems” and “AAAAHHHHHHH!”.
• Be sure to also use some “turn the corner” keywords. This is a strategy where you find keywords that are likely to have people searching on them who need your product or service, but they just don’t know it yet. In this case, think keywords related to birth control and adoption.

So there you have it – a blueprint to get you started on building and marketing an incredible membership site that will have the SWISS money piling in. If you run with this idea be sure to let me know when you have your site up. I’ll be your first member. In the meantime, PLEASE post whatever tips you have on getting a fussy baby to sleep in the comment section.

P.S. Check back here soon for more on membership sites. While I had some fun with this post, creating a membership site is, I believe, one of the most viable online business models out there. I’ll have more on them in future posts, but first I need a nap.

Related posts:

1. How To Send Email While You Sleep
2. 3 Things Entrepreneurs Can Learn From a Screaming Baby
3. Business Lessons From a Toddler: You Can’t Walk Before You Crawl
4. Are Costs Per Click Getting Too High?
5. Two Ways To Look at Google’s $5.7 Billion Q4

Tagged as: Google AdWords, internet business, internet marketing, Membership sites, online business, Online Marketing, sleep deprivation, sleeping babies