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THE ONLINE INVENTOR – January, 2011 issue

Editor: Paul Niemann

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Dear Inventor:

This month’s first article tells you the story of how MarketLaunchers was founded more than 12 years ago.

If you missed our “End of the Year” promotion and the $50 discount that went with it, it is still worthwhile to get your own website. Especially since you get FREE COACHING ADVICE on how to license your inventions -- for as long as you have a web site with us. Details are at www.marketlaunchers.com/forms.html

Getting started is easy -- just e-mail me a description of your patented or patent-pending invention, along with any pictures / drawings, and I will build you a web page on MarketLaunchers.com, which you can use to show to companies when you contact them about licensing your invention.

Read on, and enjoy this issue.

CLEVER QUOTE OF THE WEEK ...

“There are a lot of snakes out there, but you’ve always been honest, so I thought I’d give you a shot” – comment from a new customer last week when ordering his own web site on MarketLaunchers.com

Best Regards,
Paul Niemann
Paul Niemann
www.MarketLaunchers.com
(800) 337-5758

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The Story of how MarketLaunchers was Founded back in the 1990’s
By Paul Niemann of MarketLaunchers.com

I’ve always been fascinated with inventions. As a teenager growing up on a farm here in Quincy, Illinois, in the 1980’s, I remember seeing 2 different inventions hit the market. I had the same reaction both times: “Wow, wouldn’t it be great to invent something that everyone wants to buy!” For the record, the 2 inventions were … drumroll please … Trivial Pursuit, and Spandex shorts (yes, Spandex shorts, but they were cool at the time).

I wanted to invent something that everyone wanted, not for the money but for the gratification that would come with it.

Years later, when I was 26 and working for an ad agency in St. Louis, I got the opportunity to bring a new product to market. I didn’t reap any financial rewards from it because I was an employee rather than the inventor, but it gave me a new idea: Team up with inventors in the marketing of their new products.

My first plan was to work with inventors by helping them license their inventions; I would do the marketing work, and we would split the proceeds 50 / 50. If I fail, then you owe me nothing. It didn’t take long to realize that it would take at least 6 months or a year before I could bring in any revenue with that business model, so I shelved that idea.

After I bought a computer and jumped on the internet in 1997, I came up with the idea of creating a web site to list inventions for other inventors. I had already chosen the name of Market Launchers for my company, so I registered MarketLaunchers.com and began listing inventions that were listed in Inventors’ Digest magazine. The editor / publisher was Joanne Hayes-Rines, and she let me list those inventions on my site’s invention database. She was willing to do that because anything that will give her customers more exposure would be good for them. We then entered into a deal where she would send me referrals, and we continued doing that until she sold the magazine a few years ago.

You can’t attract manufacturers until you have products to show them, and listing those inventions solved that little dilemma. Plus, it showed other inventors that the site – and its invention database – was up and running. Rather than merely list the inventions, I built each new customer a complete web page, and I continue to do that to this day. Some would call MarketLaunchers.com a mom-and-pop operation, but I would disagree with that, because it is a one-person operation (just me).

People often ask me if this is my full-time job? No, I also teach Marketing at a local college, plus I have been writing a syndicated newspaper column for the past 8 years. It was about the “Little-known true stories about famous inventors,” so I named it INVENTION MYSTERIES. Now it’s called RED, WHITE & TRUE MYSTERIES, and it is about famous men and women who have shaped America, for good or bad. It has appeared in more than 110 newspapers, and counting. The column is successful, as were the 2 INVENTION MYSTERIES books I wrote that were based on my columns. If you want to see some samples, as well as the video version, click on www.PaulNiemann.com

More than 450 customers have trusted me to build a web page for them. Some have had success with their inventions, although most have not. Out of this, only 2 have ever asked me for a refund (I obliged both times).

As a result of working on my own products, and especially by hearing from so many inventors about their experiences, I have learned a great deal about what works and what does not work when it comes to marketing a new invention. That’s why I’m able to give out so much advice to you and other inventors who have called me over the past dozen years or so.

I hope to continue working with inventors, and ask that if you have an invention and are trying to sell it or license it to a company, that you see the main benefit of having your own web page: So you can show it to companies when you call them. I promise to continue to be easy to work with. Thanks, and here’s to another 12 years.

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Paul Niemann runs MarketLaunchers.com, where he builds web pages for inventors and small businesses. The main benefit of having your own web page is that you can show companies your invention when you’re not able to visit them in person. Visit www.marketlaunchers.com for more info and to see some samples. Paul Niemann can be reached at niemann7@aol.com or at (217) 224-8194.

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