1. Product
1.1. Constraints
1.1.1. Interesting
1.1.1.1. Marketing
1.1.1.2. Social media
1.1.2. Physically small
1.1.2.1. Easy distribution
1.1.2.2. No warehousing
1.1.3. High value
1.1.3.1. Easy distribution
1.1.4. Makes us look good
1.1.4.1. Give some % of sales to charity
1.1.5. Possibility of repeat sales
1.1.5.1. Takes pressure off of new customer acquisition
1.1.6. Single product (or at least a small number of SKUs)
1.1.6.1. Easy distribution
1.1.6.2. Easy inventory management
1.1.6.3. Easy marketing
1.1.7. Can be explained in one sentence
1.1.7.1. Makes viral marketing wayyy easier
1.1.8. The market should be small enough that we could reasonably get into the top 5 (worldwide)
1.1.9. The market should be large enough that we wouldn't be in the top 5 by default.
1.1.9.1. Can't brag about being #1
1.1.10. A physical product
1.1.10.1. More interesting
1.1.10.2. Can be seen in people's homes or on their bodies
1.1.10.3. Shows our strength in eCommerce
1.1.10.4. Less crowded than virtual goods like eBooks
1.1.10.5. More expensive. Lower volume
1.2. General Ideas
1.2.1. Something collectible
1.2.2. Something that denotes status or accomplishment
1.2.3. Something that ties in with a larger theme
1.2.3.1. Edoc Laundry
1.2.4. Something that is connected to a pre-existing, and passionate, group
1.2.4.1. ie. Skateboard gear, Video editing equipment, Knitting supplies
1.2.5. Lots of intangible value
1.2.5.1. Pokemon
1.3. Examples of a perfect product
1.3.1. Anything As-Seen-On-TV
1.3.1.1. Snuggie
1.3.2. Monster Hoodies
1.3.3. Crystal Head Vodka
2. Transparency
3. Marketing
4. Sales & Distribution
4.1. Simple payments to start
4.1.1. Paypal
4.1.2. Google Checkout
4.1.3. Amazon
4.1.4. Anything that doesn't require a SSL cert or merchant account
4.2. Ship twice a week
4.2.1. Hire some kid for $9 an hour to stuff boxes.
4.3. Outsource customer service to India
4.4. Outsource phone sales to India
4.5. Outsource accounting to India
4.6. Ship from the office
4.6.1. Easy to setup
4.6.2. Cheap at a small scale
4.6.3. Limits types of products we can sell
4.6.4. Very difficult to scale up
4.7. Amazon Distribution
4.7.1. Scalable
4.7.2. Hard to set up
4.7.3. Expensive
4.7.4. Ships from US
4.7.5. No crap in the office
5. Legend
5.1. Why something has to be that way
5.2. Constraint
5.3. It would be nice
5.4. Maybe
5.5. Pro
5.6. Con
6. Web Presence
6.1. Storefront
6.1.1. Magento
6.1.1.1. It's a skill we are trying to show off
6.1.1.2. It is excellent
6.1.1.3. Offers plenty of room for expansion
6.1.1.4. Works out-of-the-box, pretty much
6.2. Central blog
6.2.1. This is where we talk about the product and the customers
6.3. Twitter
6.3.1. Talk about product/market/customers.
6.3.2. Some customer service
6.4. Behind The Scenes Blog
6.4.1. The best of this content would end up on Senses
6.4.2. The home of the highlights of the Transparency side of the business
7. The problems with affiliates
7.1. Scammy
7.1.1. Race to the bottom
7.2. Not terribly lucrative
7.3. Crowded
7.4. Undifferentiated
7.4.1. Hard to turn into an interesting case study