Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 42

James Patterson: how the bestseller factory works

The book sales have been counted and verified and the results are in: James Patterson, author of tomes such as Mistress and Private Berlin, is the world’s best-selling author since 2001.

To call Patterson prolific would be an understatement. The ad man-turned-author has put his name to 130 novels, 15 of which have publish dates in 2014 alone. But even when you divide his estimated 300 million booksales by that number, it still results with a healthy 2.3 million copies sold per title. His website claims that in 2011, a quarter of all hardback thriller novels sold were written by Patterson, and since 2006 one in every 17 novels bought in America boasted his name.

The 130 Patterson-branded novels have approximately 45,651 pages between them. It has been 38 years since his first publication, which is 14,185 days. Bearing in mind that Patterson takes the weekends off to relax in his palatial $17.4 million Palm Beach home, and presumably celebrates Thanksgiving and other bank holidays by not putting pen to paper (he writes only in longhand), then that’s still 4.7 published pages he has consistently written every working day since 1976.

The truth of the matter is that he has help. Although Patterson only became a full-time writer in 1996, since 2002 just 20 per cent of his novels have been entirely written by him.

Instead, 23 other authors have been paid out of Patterson’s own pocket to write them for him. It is not a fact he hides: every novel that is written by somebody else declares so on the cover, under Patterson’s name. Patterson is responsible for the vision and plotline of each novel and series and will give a detailed outline to the hired writer in question. The co-author, some of whom are struggling, others bestsellers in their own right – such as Swedish author Liza Markland – will then draft the early chapters. Patterson will read, revise and demand new drafts until he is satisfied.

If it sounds like cheating, Patterson’s model of working suggests otherwise. The novice authors become instant bestsellers and often attract book deals of their own, if not royalties. Patterson even said in 2009, with an entirely straight face: “They actually pay me. Because they’re learning so much”.

James Patterson in numbers

First novel: The Thomas Berryman Number

Number of novels, including forthcoming ones, to date: 130

Number of James Patterson pages published: 45,651

Years working entirely as an author: 18

Number of James Patterson series: 10

Number of co-authors: 23

Total book sales: Approximately 300 million

Number of New York Times hardback bestsellers: 76

Number of consecutive New York Times bestsellers: 19

Cost of second home: $17.4 million

Number of full-time publisher employees dealing solely with Patterson’s work: 3 (plus assistants)

Maximum length of outlines for co-authors: 50 pages

Years spent publishing novels: 38

The Driverless Car Revolution Has Begun

Self-driving cars are on American roads. Hundreds of them are driving around Arizona as you read this article.

And before year’s end, the company that operates these cars will launch a self-driving rideshare service to the public in Arizona.

It’ll operate just like Uber. You press a button on your phone and a robot taxi comes to pick you up.

There will be no driver in the car. It will be driving itself.

I’ll Repeat: Self-Driving Cars Are Here Right Now

The company achieving all this is called Waymo. As I explained in June , it’s a subsidiary of Alphabet, which you may know as Google’s parent company.

If Waymo were a standalone company, it would be the hottest stock on Wall Street. But because it’s tucked away inside the world’s third-largest publicly traded company, the financial media ignores it.

Waymo’s driverless fleet has already covered eight million miles and is clocking up one million miles per month.

As you can see in the chart below, Waymo has been testing driverless cars since 2009. This year, its progress has gone parabolic:

This is key because Waymo cars run on a centralized computer “brain” that learns from every mile driven.

Waymo is absolutely dominating all rivals in self-driving technology. Tesla, Uber, and many others are years behind it.

Driverless Cars Are an Existential Threat to the Car Industry

I’ve focused a lot of my time and research lately on understanding how self-driving cars will change the world. I’m convinced they’re going to hollow out the car-ownership culture in America and elsewhere.

Think back to when ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft were new. Many experts predicted these services would kill car ownership. That didn’t happen, mostly because of the cost.

By far, the biggest cost of operating any car today is paying the driver. Last year, Uber took in $37 billion in fares, and $30 billion—or 81%—went to the drivers. Self-driving cars slash this to zero.

A recent estimate from investment bank UBS arrived at a similar number. It suggests driverless ride-sharing services will be 70% cheaper than Uber.

Even after factoring in regulatory costs, which will likely be substantial, driverless ridesharing services will cost much less than Uber.

That will be a game changer.

Tens of Millions of Americans Will Ditch Their Cars in the Next Few Years

Why pay for car loans, insurance, registration, inspections, repairs, parking, oil, and gas when you can summon a safe, inexpensive driverless car to pick you up anytime you want?

Approximately 63% of Americans live in urban areas. I think it’s safe to assume at least half the folks who own cars in cities today will ditch them in the coming years.

Did you know that 2017 marked the first year that auto sales fell since the financial crisis?  It’s an early sign of the unfolding disruption that will eventually shatter the auto industry.

But plunging car sales are not the only worry for automakers. The disruptive effect of self-driving cars will ripple out to other, less obvious corners of the market.

For example, self-driving cars will cut down on car accidents big time. Today, over six million car accidents happen in the US each year. Self-driving cars should ultimately reduce this by around 90%.

This will eat into car sales, as we won’t need to replace totalled cars often. Fewer accidents also mean plunging revenue for car insurance companies. Less wear and tear will eat into the revenue of companies that sell auto parts.

Not to mention, fewer speeding tickets mean less revenue for local governments.

Politics Will Be an Important Battleground for Waymo

The auto industry is responsible for 4% of US GDP and millions of jobs. In fact, “truck driver” is the most common job in America.

Self-driving vehicles put all four million American truck-driving jobs in jeopardy.

It’s easy to see how this could go bad politically.

Waymo has smartly gotten out ahead of this by building partnerships that enhance its image. For example, it has partnered with the City Council in Phoenix to provide cheap bus and rail connections to underserved communities and the elderly. It has entered a similar partnership to drive folks to and from Walmart to buy groceries.

This is a genius move by Waymo. Instead of a job killer, it will be seen as the friendly service that takes Grandma to Walmart.

How Do We Make Money from This?

At 51 times earnings, Alphabet (Google) is too expensive to buy today.

I expect Waymo to achieve rocket-ship growth. But Google is a colossal company worth $865 billion.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley value Waymo at $175 billion today. That sounds way too generous to me. My calculations show Waymo is worth around $100 billion. But even if we play along with Morgan Stanley’s big number, Waymo makes up only 20% of Google’s value.

I’d consider buying Google if it dips about 15% to around $1,050/share. This would push its valuation down into a more reasonable range. And it would shrink Google’s market cap enough so big growth in Waymo can move the needle.

To be clear, I don’t believe you should buy Google at today’s price. But instead wait for a pullback of around 15%. And don’t worry about missing out. Google’s stock had two corrections of 15% and 14% earlier this year.

Nuro expands Kroger driverless deliveries to Houston

Nuro, a self-driving car company founded by two former Google employees, today announced that it’s expanding its driverless delivery partnership with grocery giant Kroger to a new market: Houston. This follows pilots in Scottsdale, Arizona that kicked off in August, first with a fleet of modified Toyota Priuses and then with Nuro’s custom vehicle, R1.

In Houston, Nuro will service four zip codes — 77401, 77096, 77005, and 77025 — near two Kroger locations, one on 10306 South Post Oak Road and other off of 5150 Buffalo Speedway. Customers within range will be able to place autonomous same-day or next-day delivery orders via Kroger’s website or app seven days a week (based on slot availability) later this spring, for a flat price of $5.95.

Once an order is placed, store employees will load the groceries into one of several compartments in Nuro’s thin, stout R1, which packs a proprietary mix of laser sensors, cameras, and computers. The vehicles top out at a speed of 25 miles per hour and are fully driverless, although for now escorted by human-driven cars.

After a Nuro car arrives, customers will verify their identity with a password or form of biometric authentication and retrieve their goods. Nuro says it has successfully completed “thousands” of these deliveries to customers in Scottsdale.

“We’ve seen first-hand in Arizona how enthusiastic customers are about getting their Kroger groceries delivered by a Nuro self-driving vehicle,” said Nuro cofounder Dave Ferguson. “Texas has been a leader in encouraging self-driving innovation, and we’re excited to help deliver that future for Houston — a dynamic, diverse, and welcoming metropolitan city that we’re excited to soon explore and serve with this autonomous delivery service.”

The endgame is to roll autonomous delivery out to Kroger customers across the U.S., but that won’t happen right away — in states where unsupervised self-driving cars haven’t been legalized, Nuro will have to seek the approval of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Still, that leaves quite a few locations on the table.

Kroger is the largest supermarket chain in the country, with more than 2,800 stores in 35 states that serve around 9 million customers a day. It already offers same-day delivery to 75 percent of its customers, and the idea is to deploy Nuro’s cars in regions that don’t yet have that service.

“Our Arizona pilot program confirmed the flexibility and benefits provided by autonomous vehicles and how much customers are open to more innovative solutions,” said Kroger chief digital officer Yael Cosset. “It’s always been our shared vision to scale this initiative to new markets, using world-changing technology to enable a new type of delivery service for our customers. We operate 102 stores in Houston — an energetic market that embraces digital and technology advancement. The launch is one more way we are committed to sustainably provide our customers with anything, anytime, and anywhere, the way they want it.”

Nuro was cofounded in 2016 by Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, both veterans of the secretive Google self-driving car project that eventually spun out as Waymo. The Mountain View, California-based company has about 200 employees and 100 contract workers and has so far deployed six delivery vehicles. It plans to test 50 vehicles on roads in California, Arizona, and Texas, with safety drivers behind the wheel.

It is also in talks with automakers about partnerships that might include sharing or licensing its platform, Ferguson recently told the Wall Street Journal.

Nuro occupies an industry filled with well-funded startups like Marble, Starship Technologies, BoxBot, Dispatch, and Robby Technologies, to name just a few. That’s not to mention companies like Robomart, which recently announced plans to test its driverless grocery store on wheels; Udelv, which partnered with Farmstead in the Bay Area to transport perishables to customers’ doorsteps; Ford, which is collaborating with Postmates to deliver items from Walmart stores in Miami-Dade County; Amazon, which last month debuted Scout, an autonomous delivery robot; and FedEx.

However, Nuro has the distinct advantage of significant venture capital backing from Softbank. The Japanese holding conglomerate earlier this year announced that it has invested almost $1 billion — $940 million — in Nuro through its Vision Fund, valuing the company at around $2.7 billion.

DoorDash claims drivers made an average of at least $17.50/hour on deliveries in 2018

On-demand food delivery startup DoorDash  has been under fire as of late for its practices around paying drivers. In an email to drivers today, obtained by TechCrunch, DoorDash said drivers received an average of $17.50 or more per hour on deliveries in 2018. That figure, of course, does not take into account cost of mileage, payroll taxes for 1099 independent contractors and other expenses.

Sage Wilson, an organizer at nonprofit labor group Working Washington, explained to TechCrunch how that $17.50 per hour figure works out to less than $6 per hour — not including tips, cost of expenses and taxes. That figure, he said, is “based on our review of actual weekly pay data from DoorDash drivers” and an estimate that about 30 percent of the total income comes from tips.

DoorDash currently offsets the amount it pays drivers with customer tips. DoorDash describes its payment structure as follows: $1 plus customer tip plus pay boost, which varies based on the complexity of order, distance to restaurants and other factors. It’s only when a customer doesn’t tip at all, which DoorDash told Fast Company happens about 15 percent of the time, that DoorDash is on the hook to pay the entire guaranteed amount.

In the email sent to drivers today, with “Listening to the Dasher community” in the subject line, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu notes the level of recent discussion pertaining to DoorDash’s pay model. He goes on to defend the company’s practices, saying “we continue to hear from many of you that the model works: you know how much you’ll receive in advance, you receive the guaranteed minimum even if the customer doesn’t tip…”

He does add, however, “But we’ve also heard from some who expressed confusion about how pay is calculated and what happens with tips.”

In the coming weeks, DoorDash said it will launch surveys and organize roundtables for drivers to share their thoughts and concerns. In the email, DoorDash provides a link for drivers to sign up to be included. From there, Xu said DoorDash will look over the feedback, report what it has learned and “what changes we plan to make in response.”

This current model was the result of “months of testing” and surveys of thousands of Dashers. I’ve reached out to DoorDash and will update this story if I hear back.

How To Buy A Website And Flip It For Profit

Buying and selling businesses is appealing but given the high costs of making the purchase it is quite difficult to start, especially as a young entrepreneur. If you go wrong you may end up loosing a lot of money (just as you can with the stock market and real estate), so you really want to be sure of your skills and ability before investing.

The Internet is very new and the whole online commerce industry is just establishing marketing practices that work. Quite frankly, and this may sound harsh, but most of the people running businesses online have very poor websites. A lot of people running popular sites are not taking advantage of their traffic by monetizing it (this could be by choice or ignorance). Making a profit may be as simple as implementing a smart AdSense campaign on a popular site after buying it from an owner wishing to move on to other things. Perhaps an e-commerce site could use some search engine marketing or some tweaking to an AdWords campaign might do the trick, or better still, monetize, optimize, affiliate and upsell for maximum gain – make use of all the marketing tricks at your disposal.

I’m sure if we did some statistical sampling of the web industry search engine optimization techniques would be understood by a minority of webmasters and implemented well by even fewer. Search engine optimization is becoming mainstream and no doubt as the web continues to mature more and more people will study, test and build better websites, but it’s definitely still early days.

What this says to me is “business opportunity“. For those with the know-how, the energy to implement and a little bit of funds to buy the sites there are big gains to be made. What makes it even more appealing, especially for young or new entrepreneurs, is the price – we are talking about a lot less funds then it would take to invest in shares, buy property or purchase a bricks and mortar “real world” business. Websites with potential go for as low as a few hundred dollars.

The Advantages of Buying A Website

The big advantage of buying a site is you don’t have to establish an audience and wait for the site to be indexed within search engines. Most webmasters, even those that don’t know their SEO from their XML, will understand the benefit of link exchanges. Even the most poorly managed sites should have some form of backlink network developed and return a result in the major search engines. It may not be a top ten search result but it will be a result ready for you to optimize and improve.

Taking over a mature site (at least 12 months old) will mean you avoid the Google sandbox, a significant perk of buying established web property. Of course it really depends at what stage you take over a website as to how much of a step-up you gain and will no doubt reflect how much the owner will expect to receive for it (traffic for cash in simpler terms, but there are other variables to consider when selling a website).

Top 7 Website Acquisition Strategies

Before undertaking a search for a website acquisition a smart web entrepreneur will stop and have a good think about what she wants the site to do and how it will fit within her overall web business strategy. Here is a list of the top 7 strategies to consider when buying a new website:

Buy a site that has targeted traffic for a product or service you already produce or sell. You can direct traffic from the new site to your products/services through advertising, email lists or sales pages. This is a great way to establish a customer base very quickly but you have to be confident that the traffic is quality, targeted traffic. Don’t fall into the trap of buying a high traffic site that consumes lots of bandwidth but doesn’t have the type of user you can leverage for revenue, otherwise you might be buying a liability, not an asset.Buy a site to generate advertising revenue. In this instance you might not change the site other than by working to increase the amount of traffic and improve the performance of advertisements on the site. Sites with lots of good content but are poorly optimized are perfect for this strategy. Once you own the rights to the content you can then further leverage it by repacking and republishing the content in other ways – perhaps information products, article marketing or as free give away enticements to join an email list.Buy a site specifically to flip it quickly. This is perhaps the most risky venture (day-trading!) because you need to find sites that are clearly underperforming with the potential for a big upside result after you complete your renovation. Ideally you should locate e-commerce sites selling a product that has an established market that is only just starting to take off online AND the current owners are not good at search engine optimization or online marketing and are willing to sell.The theory is that you can quickly implement your changes, tweaking a few percentage point increases in multiple areas, resulting in a good double figure increase in sales in a short period of time. If you can complete your work just before the general marketplace catches up you can make a mint by selling the site at a premium before the Internet becomes saturated and your early mover advantage is eroded or the market slows.The web is one of the fastest industries in terms of competitive action due to the very low barriers to entry. To execute day-trading style website buying and selling requires an entrepreneur with their finger on the pulse of the web. They must be in tune with what’s new and willing to gamble on what’s going to be new tomorrow in order to have success.Purchase a community driven site. A site with a massive forum filled with a nice target niche audience can be a gold mine to a entrepreneur. Often these sites were built by hobbyist fans, not aimed to profit in any way. Their website might have ballooned in growth to the point where the bandwidth is costing them a lot each month and since they are not skilled in website monetization they will be willing to sell the site at a bargain price. This can be a great strategy to make advertising revenue but be very careful with audience selection. Some forum communities are very difficult to make money from and may end up costing you more in ongoing hosting fees. Ideally choose a community demographic that has established high keyword prices in AdSense/high value to advertisers (electronic gadgets for example), has a good selection of affiliate products you could market or suits some products or services you already sell yourself.Look for a site operating in a highly popular keyword niche or one you expect will become popular in the near future. Keywords drive search engine traffic and if you can pick the trends before they become trends you may own some valuable property. Consider if you could guess what tomorrow’s “blog” or “podcast” will be and buy the sites with established keyword rich content before they become mainstream topics and overpriced.Remove the competition or merge with the competition. In this case you buy competing websites or negotiate a merger to combine with them to create one large enterprise. Depending on the industry you operate in this can be a very smart strategy to create market dominance. One of the best examples is website hosting. Often smaller hosts are bought up by larger hosting businesses with the result increased stability and professionalism.Purchase a site strictly for the domain name. Obviously in this case you don’t care too much about what is already developed in terms of website content, you just want the street address (URL). Imagine a few years ago if you purchased mp3.com or blog.com. In this case the address itself is of significant value regardless of the website, or if you are good at picking trends, you might see the future value in a domain name before the market realizes it.

There are many other options available for how to use a new website acquisition and of course what you do with a new website and what type of website you search for will depend on your skills, the industry you operate in and your cash to spend. Remember to take some time listing a few goals you want your new website to achieve and strategize exactly what you will do with the new website before you buy it.

Investing Time And Energy Into Your New Website

Make sure you have the time to manage your new investment in web property. Remember just the transfer process and daily maintenance of your site will take time and energy and if you don’t have it available now then maybe you should hold off making the purchase. It would be a shame if your good intentions to improve a website result in you instead killing it because you don’t have the time to maintain the status quo. Remember a new website comes with new responsibilities, for example support emails and phone, server maintenance, SPAM control and the usual day-to-day activities of a webmaster. Don’t get caught up in the excitement of the purchase making you blind to the reality of how much additional work will be added to your daily activities.

Where To Locate Websites For Sale

I could point you in the direction of a few good website trading sites (this article has some links – How To Sell A Website) but you will be very lucky if you find a bargain there. To find good sites you have to search deep into the web. Use the main search engines to find websites operating in an industry you feel confident buying into. Don’t look for the big sites, the sites on the first few pages of search results unless they show clear potential – perhaps in industries with low competition so “bad” sites show up in the first page of search results. Professional or popular keyword sites are usually too expensive, well managed (they wouldn’t appear in the first few pages of the search results if they weren’t) and the owner likely won’t be interested in making the sale or will be looking for six figures if they are.

You must look deep in the search results. Find the solo-webmasters that perhaps don’t take their site too seriously but have been diligent over the years adding content consistently, if not in large quantities. You need to find the good sites with potential, not great sites already optimized or poor sites going nowhere. The more research you do during the search phase the smarter buy you will make. No matter how much time you put into the search it’s going to be gamble when you do decide to buy. There are just too many variables to consider and control, but by being smart and patient you reduce the risk.

Buying The Website

Once you find a good site that meets your criteria start monitoring and researching it. Check backlinks, investigate it’s history (try the Wayback Machine) and if the site has a community (forums, chatrooms, comment system, helpdesk, etc) see what goes on there. Check the site design, the structure of the links, headings, titles and keyword density. Check the site statistics if they are available (look for those little webstat icons or try Alexa rankings).

Once you get a good feel for the site and you are interested in buying it’s time to contact the owner. You should be able to find an email address for the website owner somewhere on the site, if you can’t do a domain name lookup in the WhoIs database where you will find the email address for the person that registered the domain. Remember some websites will simply be hobbies for the owner which will make the purchasing process that much easier, while others will be fully fledged businesses making the transfer process just that little bit longer (think about business registration and incorporation detail transfers – now consider you may not even be located in the same country!).

Start casually by introducing yourself to the owner, state you like the site and then slowly gauge how much interest the owner has in their web property. Eventually you are going to have to express your interest in making a purchase and you can spend as much time as you like communicating with the owner to negotiate a deal. Like with buying anything, the negotiation process can be laborious as you gather the information you need to calculate a price. This process can be swift and easy or slow and painful depending on your attitudes and the willingness of the owner to make the sale and release private information about their website. You will need to know details like website statistics, revenues, and costs, all information that the current owner may be hesitant to give out (see How Much Is Your Website Worth? for a discussion of important website metrics when determining the value of a site). Demonstrating your sincerity at this point will go a long way in helping you to divulge as much information as you can order to properly evaluate the website.

If you are lucky the owner of the site may simply be so excited that their website will make them some money that a few hundred dollars will seal the deal, others, the more savvy owners will realise the value of their asset and you might have more difficulty negotiating and will pay a higher price. Remember you are never under any obligation to buy so don’t force yourself to offer too much because there are plenty, literally millions, of other sites out there.

Amazon Offers 3,000 Work-From-Home Jobs

It’s no secret that Amazon has been posting strong growth numbers for some time. Annual revenue for 2018 was $232.9 billion — an increase of 30.9 percent over the 2017 total of $177.9 billion. As a result, the company has had to hire lots of employees to keep up — more than 600,000 as of the end of 2018. However, most of these employees work in company facilities.

That is, until Amazon posted a new job listing last week for 3,000 work from home seasonal customer service associates. If you’ve always wanted to work for Amazon, but in the comfort of your own home, this is your chance.

Here’s an excerpt from the job description:

“As an Amazon Customer Service Associate (CSA) it is a critical part of our mission to listen to the customer’s needs, deliver timely results, accurate information, personalized resolutions, and maintain our professional environment of supporting all Amazon customers. As a CSA, majority of your time will be spent helping a variety of Amazon customers and drivers by phone, and sometimes via email and chat. You will use tools and programs to navigate the site, research accounts, review options and solutions for customers, and communicate them effectively. CSA’s will learn other areas of the business and support specialty departments as needed.”

In addition, the job pays $15.00 an hour. And although you can expect to work an average of 20-29 hours per week, this might sometimes increase up to 60 hours a week (overtime is paid at 1.5x base rate). You’ll also be eligible for a health care coverage plan after 90 days of employment and an employee discount.

Sound good so far?

There’s just one catch, and it’s a pretty big one. You must live in one of the following states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi , Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

While Amazon says in its job listing that candidates with previous customer service experience are preferred, according to FlexJobs senior career specialist Brie Reynolds, candidates from a variety of backgrounds should qualify:

“There’s a lot of different backgrounds that could fit with this type of role, as long as you have a history of communicating and helping to solve problems and you feel like you’re able to work in fast-paced environment. There isn’t really one background that fits, which is kind of nice because a lot of different people could qualify for this type of role.”

While there’s no deadline in the job listing, I strongly suggest not waiting too long to apply. As the old saying goes, the early bird usually catches the worm.

Cannabis Business ideas for 2019

Do you want to start a Marijuana related business but lack ideas? If YES, here are 30 best Marijuana or Cannabis related business ideas & opportunities for 2019.

The cannabis industry can be said to be an emerging industry, though there has been a recent explosion with the legalization of medicinal and recreational cannabis in some states in the United States. Medicinal marijuana is now legal in 28 states plus D.C., while recreational marijuana is legal in eight states plus D.C., which opens the doors for a lot of new business opportunities.

In 2016 alone, the industry brought in $6.9 billion, which represented a 30 percent increase over the previous year, according to Arcview Market Research. That number is projected to increase to $21.6 billion by 2021.

The cannabis market has come to be known as a very lucrative market to get into and many people are looking for ways that they can cater to the consumers in this market so that they can make a profit for themselves.

It should be noted that there is not real difference between cannabis and marijuana; it is just a matter of semantics. But research has shown that cannabis is the real name of the plant, the scientific name. Cannabis comes in many different forms and the main strains of the plant are Cannabis Indica, Cannabis Sativa, and Cannabis Ruderalis. The plant can be used for many different things such as a recreational or medical drug, as hemp, oil, and so much more.

Cannabis legalization is fueling immense growth in the global marijuana industry, with more entrepreneurs delving into the market than ever before. As the world’s most diverse medicinal plant, it’s not really surprising that entrepreneurs are capitalizing on it.  You too can join this trade. If you reside in the United States, here are a few business ideas that can allow you to profit from the cannabis industry.

30 Best Marijuana and Cannabis Related Business ideas for 2019



Start a cannabis farm

With cannabis increasingly getting approval in some states in the United States, now may be the time to start a cannabis farm so as to be able to supply users. Called the green rush, if you can start now, you would probably stay ahead of the herd.

Growing marijuana or cannabis may be more tasking than just growing an ordinary plant, so it’s important to get yourself updated in the knowledge. You will need to understand the conditions necessary for plants to thrive and how to care for your plants as they grow. Producing marijuana does require a license, so you will need to know the application process in your state.

2. Process cannabis

Much marijuana production is done by large companies, but there are plenty of consumers who prefer a product that has been personally processes in a distinct and controlled environment.

Marijuana processing is a good choice for anyone who may not be interested in growing or cultivating the plants, but knows how to dry, preserve and package the product for various uses. In most states, you will need to be licensed to handle marijuana, so find out what the requirements are where you live.

3. Start a marijuana delivery business

Marijuana or cannabis is a medicinal plant that always needs to be in a controlled environment if you want to keep all its components intact. If you live in a state that has legalized the use of both recreational and medical marijuana, you can start a marijuana transportation and delivery business.

First, you will need to contact local farms or dispensaries and become an expert on the best places to buy particular strains of the plant. You should also know people or businesses that need the supplies as they would be the ones to make the payments.

Since marijuana or cannabis is not a bulky product to transport, you may not need to bother yourself with acquiring a van for the business; a motorbike or even a bicycle would help you start off, depending on how you want to start. Note that you have to get the business registered before you can do anything further.

Once you are fully registered, you can now start promoting your services and start seeking businesses and individuals to make deliveries for.

4. Sell edible marijuana snacks

Not everyone has a flair for smoking, and with the stop smoking promotions in the United States, a lot of people are cutting out smoking out of their lifestyle. But this does not mean that people who do not smoke do not use marijuana. They only eat it instead of burning it.

If you have great culinary skills, you can start baking and selling snacks that are laced with cannabis. Start with just a few items and then grow your business as your popularity grows. You can start with cannabis teas, harsh browns, pies, cakes, etc. and sell to your specialty clients.

5. Produce marijuana infused body products

Marijuana as a plant has a whole lot of properties that are beneficial to almost every aspect of human existence. As marijuana has some skin healing and repair properties, you can start up a company where you produce creams, lotions, soaps, massage oils, etc that were made with marijuana.

This business would be easier for you to start if you are already into similar business, as you only need to add the plant to your list of ingredients, or set up an entirely new sector for it. This does not mean that you cannot start this from the scratch if you want to, it would only take you more processes.

The industry has caught on with its line of hemp-infused creams and balms, and even renowned actress Whoopi Goldberg has started her own line of medical marijuana topicals, including bath soaks, body balms, and more.

6. Open a Cannabis Accessories Store

Are you still skeptical about handling or dealing directly with the marijuana leaf, you can save yourself the stress by selling accessories for marijuana use. This means things that can be used for the consumption of marijuana like pipes, bongs etc, or things that carry marijuana messages like t-shirts, dog collars and anything else you can make or buy.

You would do well in this business if you are handy with the crafts. You can equally start the resale of marijuana accessories that you pick up from store or flea markets. Buy these cheap, clean them up and then advertise them. You can equally look through online stores like eBay for these items, and you may also have to open your own store online to maximize sales.

7. Plan marijuana parties

Yes, there is such a thing as marijuana parties. This is indeed not a party where the attendants would be drowned with marijuana, but a party that has a marijuana theme, where everything in it reminds you of the weed.

Marijuana parties are a growing trend throughout the country, and many people are including cannabis in celebrations like weddings, reunions and birthday parties. You can get involved in this part of the industry by selling your expertise as a party planner or event coordinator. On the alternative, you can plan these parties and invite people of like mind to attend for a fee.

8. Become a canni-florist

Traditional florists and people with an eye for arranging beautiful bouquets have begun adding cannabis to their creations. A cannabis floral display is a perfect gift for someone special and can be a wonderful addition to weddings and other celebrations. If you know how to handle flowers, you should look into this growing trend.

You can use the weed to grow your florist business as a lot of floral entrepreneurs have done because people are still curious about the plant, and also the stereotype around it has started to diminish, thus making the industry more accessible to a lot of people.

9. Become a marketer of marijuana based products

As have been said before, the cannabis plant has a lot of medical properties, and products made with them are quite effective. Because of the dim popularity the industry currently has, companies are looking for people to help create awareness about their products, and help them burst the myth about the weed.

If you are a proficient marketer that knows your way around the social media as well as other media, you can start marketing marijuana related products. You have to contact the companies to let them know that you are available to promote their products, and you can discuss remuneration with them. If you are quite proficient in the business, you would make it big in a short time.

10. Become a cannabis consultant

Are you an expert in the cannabis plant, have you done a lot of research regarding this plant, have you worked with this plants for a lot of years? If you answered yes to these questions, then know that you can become a consultant for the cannabis plant.

You can set up your business and use your knowledge advantage to help small business owners understand their products, clients and processes. Many people want to get into the industry, but they often don’t know much about the business or the plant itself. They will pay you for your knowledge of various strains, processing techniques or gardening procedures.

There are obviously a ton of legal regulations governing the way cannabis is produced, handled, and sold. There are also regulations on how cannabis is marketed, where it’s consumed, and much more. And, if you happen to live in the US, these regulations can change dramatically from one state to another. This is what you would have to help your clients out with. People would be willing to pay top dollar for these kinds of services.

11. Become a cannabis retailer

Retail is one line of business that every product goes through before it gets to consumers. Depending on which state you reside, you can become a cannabis retailer by retailing cannabis products. You can do this in a storefront setting with basic products.

If you want to become a successful cannabis retailer, you would have to make your store to look like something almost everyone can come into and feel comfortable. This is because the stereotype following cannabis is that it is only used by addicts. Your lively, neat, warm, well-lighted store should be able to dispel such thoughts, and help you welcome a lot of new customers.

12. Produce cannabis cosmetics

Cannabis has equally found a spot in the cosmetics industry, and it is indeed doing really well. Tons of research have been going on and a lot of cosmetics are being produced courtesy of this plant. In fact, there is a research finding that shows that compounds like THC and CBD (pain relief, anti-inflammation, etc) can be delivered topically via balms, sprays, lotions, and more. You can equally further this research and start producing your own range of cannabis infused cosmetics while highlighting its protective and curative properties.

13. Open a marijuana/cannabis seed bank

Since the use of marijuana has gotten legalized in some states in the United States, a lot of people look forward to owning their own plants. To be able to own a plant, they have to have a seed to germinate it with; you can start a cannabis seed bank to help provide this need.

To open a marijuana/cannabis seed bank, you have to first ensure that the business is Okayed in your locality. Once you have ascertained this, you need to be on the lookout for where to acquire viable seeds, and also how to market your business. You should ensure that you know so much about the plant so that you can educate your buyers.

14. Open a cannabis restaurant

Like drugs and cosmetics, there are myriads of ways one can integrate cannabis into food and get the best out of it. If you know all the ways to use cannabis to enhance the taste of a meal, you can open your cannabis themed restaurant.

To run this business, you may regularly have to come in contact with the marijuana plant, but if you have any personal or legal issues with this, you can use concentrates as they can as well give you what you need.

15. Start a cannabis concentrate extraction business

Another huge part of the legal cannabis business revolves around the extraction and selling of cannabis concentrates. These concentrates are used in various industries from cosmetics to medical, even to the restaurant industry. If you are able to start this business, you would not want for where you can distribute your concentrates as the industry is still quite young.

You can decide to carve a niche for your business and extract concentrates that can only be used in a particular industry. Know that to maximize profit in the is industry, your business would have to be located in an area with lots of cannabis farms so you can have easy access to raw materials.

16. Develop machinery for concentrate extraction

Instead of producing the concentrates yourself, you can decide to manufacture the machinery that can be used for the extraction. This is one on those businesses in the cannabis line that does not require touching the leaf. You can equally source for these equipment, stock up on them, and sell them at a slightly higher price than you paid for them as a way of reaping profits. Although the initial investment will be fairly large, the returns will more than make up for it.

17. Delve into cannabis art

The cannabis industry has supported the rise of a bunch of amazing artists that have created everything from glass wares to paintings of all kinds. If you are artsy, you can start making cannabis inspired art. Cannabis has even made its way into high fashion and mainstream fast fashion, with individual pieces costing into the thousands. Currently, the art world is experiencing a major resurgence of weed-inspired projects across all disciplines. Know where your skills fit in, and take it from there.

18. Start a cannabis inspired bed and breakfast

With regulations having being relaxed on the use of cannabis, a lot of cannabis users are looking for places where they can find like minds especially when they travel. If you happen to live in one of these cannabis relaxed territories, you could think about hosting the perfect smokers friendly bed and breakfast.

If you have a spare space, you can decorate the place according to what you think fellow cannabis-lovers might find suitable, and offer something special. You might even be able to sell some homemade cannabis infused edibles on the side to excite your guests and to make more money.

19. Become a cannabis event planner

From weddings and birthday bashes to educational seminars and product launches, a cannabis event planner can help a broad scope of clients with tailored services. You should be ambitious, charismatic and possess an eye for detail to execute a pot party effectively, and to attract the right kind of clients.

20. Run a cannabis catering company

If you have been in the system and you have the tips on how to infuse cannabis into any and everything edible, you can start a cannabis catering company. Take catering to a whole new level by preparing cannabis-inspired menus featuring cannabis-infused beverages, appetizers and gourmet entrees, such as cannabutter-marinated steak. If you have the skills, why not make money out of it.

21. Host cannabis painting classes

A painting class is a social gathering where people of like minds gather to paint and discuss or enjoy things that are common to them. Same principle can be applied here. If you live in a society that have people of like interests, you can bring them together by hosting a painting class where they can paint and enjoy some snacks, drinks and fun time.

22. Become a licensed cannabis distributor

There are also some states where retail businesses and other businesses that want to sell any cannabis based products need to go through distributors. So that’s another potential business opportunity for those who want to manage the sale of product to businesses in certain states. You can become a licensed distributor.

23. Produce safe packaging for marijuana products

The marijuana plant needs careful and controlled storage for it to remain fresh and effective all year round. This means that the products need specialized packing. If you are in the packaging industry, you can start producing packing for marijuana products produced by companies. Retailers and other businesses also need packaging solutions that are protective, childproof and will keep products fresh.

24. Become a cannabis related app developer

There are many mobile app possibilities related to the cannabis industry as well, from those that locate dispensaries to those that provide information or even social features to users. You can locate one niche and develop apps that can be of great help in the industry.

25. Social Network Founder

You can also potentially start your own social network aimed specifically at cannabis consumers. This could also present some unique advertising opportunities for other cannabis businesses as it can be a way to bring manufacturer and consumer together. if you delve into this industry early, your social network can grow in popularity in a short time.

26. Become a related software developer

Because the cannabis industry is relatively new, the businesses involved still have a long way to go when it comes to finding the exact tools that really suit their needs. Restaurants, retail stores and other types of businesses all have software programs made specifically to help them perform essential business functions. So if you’re a software developer, you can potentially do the same for the cannabis industry.

25. Become a cannabis product reviewer

Currently, a lot of cannabis related products are hitting the market and consumers are now getting swamped for choice. So you could potentially build a business around providing reviews and other pertinent information to help consumers make informed decisions on the products they want to use. Because not much people are in this service, you can get easily noticed for brand endorsements.

26. Become a tour guide

And if you live in a place that’s become a destination for cannabis consumers, you can potentially also offer a tour guide service where you take people to relevant destinations around your city or state.

27. Start a Cannabis Subscription Box Service

This is a great business idea that can help provide consumers with a continually new variety of cannabis products once they hit the market. Offering these boxes is also a great service that can be provided to not only individual subscribers but possibly large scale cannabis events, for festivals, even given as a welcome gift at a hotel or cannabis-themed bed and breakfast.

You can put together your box service to deliver things like cannabis-related snacks, rolling papers, cannabis stickers and magazines, pipes, and more. You can even use this as a cannabis gift service where you deliver cannabis related gifts to people at the request of your clients.

28. Become a cannabis business funder

Because of the somewhat unpopular nature of the cannabis industry, a lot of cannabis related businesses are finding it difficult to access funds for their businesses. If you have some cash to spare and you are seeking a lucrative investment opportunity, you can start a giving out loans to cannabis related businesses, in return for an interest. If you do not want to want to work within the industry but would just like to see a nice return, this could be a possibility for you.

29. Start a cannabis employment service

Since the cannabis industry relatively new and it requires some kind specialization and experience to work in the industry, it may be difficult for related companies to find staff. You can launch a cannabis employment service where you would have to pair job seekers that are experienced in the industry with companies that need their services. This industry may be slow for the moment but it is billed to pick up momentum in coming years.

30. Run a cannabis blog

With the cannabis industry emerging with great momentum, people are seeking as much information they can about this plant and its products. If you are knowledgeable in this area, you can start a blog that is dedicated to the cannabis industry. Here, you would have to tell your readers about new legal developments, new products and services etc. You can even run product reviews, job adverts and even company reviews.

Selling Premium WordPress Themes As A Side Business

Selling premium WordPress themes has been a highly lucrative business for years. If you manage to develop beautiful, stable and reliable products, while making sure that providing great customer support won’t be a burden, these businesses can scale very well.

However, when we started our business back in 2012, the market for WordPress themes was much different than it is today. Even at that time, there were already many WordPress themes available, but it was much easier to launch a new theme and make it quite popular by investing efforts in marketing and promotion.

Today the market for WordPress themes is highly competitive and saturated. For all kind of niches, there are plenty of different WordPress themes available, and many of these themes look similar while also doing the same thing. In addition, there are highly popular multi-purpose themes which can be used for almost anything. These multi-purpose WordPress themes usually are marketed very well and generate a lot of revenue for their developers, especially when looking at the popular multi-purpose themes on marketplaces, like ThemeForest.

Overall, starting a completely new WordPress theme business nowadays can be a tough challenge. You’re not only facing extreme competition and market saturation, but you’re also dealing with a constant race to the bottom, which I’ll explain further down the article. In addition, WordPress has started to evolve while adopting new technologies which is a challenge for developers as well. More on that later.

How to Get Started with Your WordPress Theme Business?

If you want to start a profitable WordPress theme business, the most important thing is having a well-thought-out plan. Simply releasing one WordPress theme after another in order to see what sticks may have worked years ago, but those times are definitely over. Nowadays it’s very important to focus on a particular niche and then create the best possible product for that target audience.

But how to find a profitable niche? Try to figure out what people are looking for and what niches or even micro niches are lacking professional WordPress themes. You could for example use tools like Google Trends in order to determine what popular keywords people are searching for.

Once you’ve figured out an interesting niche, you can look at the competition in that niche to see if there is potential to launch a better product than what is already available.

Try to figure out what people are looking for and what niches or even micro niches are lacking professional WordPress themes.

If you see potential, then you can start developing your product. Try to figure out what your target audience really needs. For example, you could have a look at support forums to learn about the needs and struggles of users or check real-life websites in that niche and use that information to create a product that meets your customer’s needs. Make sure your product follows best practices and has an up-to-date and modern design in order to make it competitive.

After you’ve created your awesome WordPress theme, have tested it extensively and possibly even gathered insights and feedback from a small group of users, you can start thinking about a plan to market your WordPress theme. You’ll be surprised how much work is involved in marketing your product. Having a great product alone usually won’t sell, you need to tell the world about it and do it right. Marketing mistakes can be very expensive in the long run.

Having a great product alone usually won’t sell, you need to tell the world about it and do it right.

You may be tempted to just upload your WordPress theme to a marketplace and start selling there, possibly even exclusively. From experience, I can tell you that you should think carefully about this step. Selling through a 3rd party marketplace means the customers won’t be yours, you’re dependent on the terms of the marketplace, you usually pay a hefty fee to the marketplace and in addition, you’ll have a lot of competition there. You surely could upload your product to a marketplace, but then only for promotion purposes. It shouldn’t be your business strategy to solely rely on sales from that particular marketplace.

Instead, it would be a much better long-term business strategy to start your own website. In my opinion, this truly is the key to a profitable WordPress theme business and any other online business as well. With your own website you own the customers, you can run your own marketing campaigns, you can optimize your site for relevant keywords to outrank your competition and increase revenue through organic traffic. You basically are in control of your business and you can make decisions that move your business forward.

You can promote your products with your own marketing campaigns, offer a free version with an upgrade path to attract new users, use social media to expand your reach and do whatever you have in mind to increase your revenue. You’re the boss!

The key to a profitable WordPress theme business is building your own brand and not relying on a particular marketplace.

When running your own independent online business, you don’t even necessarily need to take care of invoices, taxes or eCommerce functionality on your site. This sort of stuff can take lots of time, which means unnecessary distraction from your core business. Instead, you could partner with a 3rd party reseller like Freemius. Freemius, as your reliable distribution partner, takes care of the administrative stuff while handling taxes and invoices for you. That means you can fully focus on your business and marketing instead. This truly can make a difference.

What Are The Main Challenges for A WordPress Theme Business?

Ok, you’ve figured out your preferred niche and target audience, you’ve created an awesome product and you’ve got a solid marketing plan. You’ve also created your own website to run and promote your business and you may even have partnered up with a reliable company to handle the administrative stuff for you. However, before you can start a profitable WordPress theme business, there are a few challenges you need to be aware of. Keeping these things in mind will protect your business from false decisions and ensure that you won’t waste your valuable time and money.

In addition to a saturated market environment, there unfortunately also is a race to the bottom. This not only affects WordPress themes but WordPress related businesses in general. While running a WordPress theme business in the United States or in western Europe, you obviously need to price your products at a reasonable level in order to run a profitable business. For WordPress themes, this usually means around $49 – $89 for a single theme license.

Though, there are plenty of developers from developing countries who can price their products much lower due to lower costs in low wage countries. That means you’re also dealing with competitors who are pricing similar products at a fraction of the cost. One way to deal with that is by doing better at marketing and explain to your potential customers why it’s worth buying from you (e.g. by proving reliable support, regular updates, high-quality products, etc…).

However, there also seems to be a trend where large corporations offer subscription services at low cost while offering thousands of digital products as unlimited downloads, turning WordPress themes into a commodity. A recent example is Envato which has started including WordPress products in Envato Elements. This obviously is a much bigger problem. Things like this don’t really help to educate customers that WordPress products are worth paying for and that developers need to be able to make a living from their work.

But there is another challenge. In addition to a saturated and competitive market environment and an ongoing race to the bottom, there currently also is much uncertainty amongst developers. This is related to recent decisions that involve the future of WordPress.

The Future of WordPress

WordPress currently is the most popular content management system, powering around 29% of the internet. Some people would argue otherwise, but in my opinion, the main reason for this growth has been the low entry barrier for developers, the huge ecosystem of WordPress themes, plugins, hosting services and the thousands of agencies and consultants worldwide who recommend WordPress to their clients. However, we’re currently at a point where the future of WordPress is uncertain.

You may have heard already about the Gutenberg project. Gutenberg was announced by WordPress core developers, led by Automattic, to replace the current WordPress editor. While I think that this truly is a very good idea, since the editor could use an overhaul after several years, Gutenberg now turns out to become a complete rewrite of WordPress, step by step. This obviously involves many challenges related to backwards compatibility and controversial discussions about the future of WordPress.

Running a profitable WordPress theme business nowadays certainly isn’t a smooth ride anymore. There are many challenges, but if done right, you still can be profitable. But it definitely means investing much more efforts than was needed a few years ago. Make sure you’re building high-quality products that meet the needs of your target audience, follow a solid marketing plan and make the right decisions.

I think it’s also important that you keep an eye on the politics around WordPress and get involved whenever you feel it’s necessary to protect your business and the interests of your customers. If you feel that something isn’t right, make sure your voice gets heard. WordPress still is a community project and if that’s the case, then nothing is set in stone and your voice truly matters.

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