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There really are no shortages of interesting ways to
turn an interest in a viable income stream. As any good "Opportunity Analyst™" knows, you never know where a great idea will come from.

For example, in advance of an upcoming speaking engagement in Lexington, Kentucky, my client sent me
a link to my hotel. In addition to the usual list of hotel amenities, the Marriott Griffin Gate Resort also featured a link to Area Attractions.

I’ve never been to Lexington. But I also only have a few hours to sightsee. Generally I prefer to explore on my own. But there are times (like when I had a mere four hours to see Frankfurt, Germany) when it’s a lot more convenient to have a local tour guide pick you up at my hotel and show you the sites. This is especially true for older people or for anyone who may have difficulty getting around on their own or who don’t like driving in unfamiliar places.

So I decided to follow a link called "Hotel Recommended Tour Services" which led me to HorseFarmTours.com. The Opportunity Analyst in me was fascinated to see how some local people managed to turn their knowledge of this world-renowned "horse country" into a viable small business.

Adults plunk down $30 to be taken "inside the plank fences and down the shady lanes of Central Kentucky" and onto working farms – something the average person could not do on their own. Tourists get a "behind the scenes look at horses after their racing careers are over, in-foal broodmares, weanlings, yearlings and, depending upon the time of year, newborn foals."

The tours run twice a day, seven days a week. If the photos at the Website are any indication, it looks like they can handle at least a dozen people. You do the math. I’m sure, like a lot of businesses, there are slower and busier months and days. But, all and all, it’s not a bad way to make a living sharing your passion with others.

What strikes me is that a lot more people could be partnering with local hotels to run walking and other kinds of tours. For example, anyone who has attended the annual Work at What You Love workshop in Northampton, Massachusetts knows what a special area this is. And yet, I could not find a single small tour company operating in the entire Pioneer Valley. Sounds like opportunity knocking to me!

If you think you’d get bored running the same tour over and over, then think outside the box and create a series of tours. Tours could be based on themes, demographic niche (children, garden lovers, etc.), or season.

For example, a theme tour in my area could include a historical tour of Emily Dickenson's house and grave site, a drive by former Northampton mayor and United States President Calvin Coolidge’s home, and a visit to Old Deerfield Village just to name a very few.

The next day could be the craft- or art-lovers tour. Tourists could be guided through one of many local art galleries, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, the Smith College Museum of Art, or the Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) in the nearby Berkshires. Certain tours could coincide with date-specific events like the upcoming Asparagus Valley Pottery Trail where ten potters in the Amherst, Northampton and Greenfield, Massachusetts areas open their homes and studios to visitors.

But that's just the beginning. I could see tours emphasizing kid- or even teen-focused activities, guiding small groups of flora and fauna lovers on local nature trails, leading canoe trips up the Connecticut River, even taking fans of the paranormal on tours of local haunted houses or cemeteries.

Once you’ve been running your touring business for a while you can do what Crete-Walks.com did. In addition to running walking tours themselves, they also train out-of-town tour operators how to lead their own walking tours in the area. Now that’s thinking like an entrepreneur!

You don’t need to live in a well-known tourist destination to find people eager to pay a knowledgeable local to show them around. As travel writer and former contributing editor to International Living magazine Jen Stevens points out, "Where ever you live is a destination for someone else." (Click here to listen to my complete interview with Jen ChangingCourse.com/asktheexpert.htm)

Case in point was a full-page feature in The Boston Globe’s Sunday Travel Section about a small, used bookstore and café located a mile from my home called The Montague Book Mill (MontagueBookMill.com). Proving once again that just about any deficit can be turned into an opportunity, the owners of this off-the-beaten-path location sell T-shirts, coffee mugs, and bumpers stickers featuring the logo: "Books you don’t need at a place you can’t find."

Don’t want to start a tour company? The fact that lots of people would love to make money running tours tells me that opportunity is still knocking… just at a different door. For example you could start the Association of Walking Tour Operators of Canada. Or you could interview small – and ideally, unique – tour operators and then produce some kind of a "how to start a tour business" handbook or audio series.

If you don’t want to start your own Website you may be able to work with an established information products distributor like Dream Jobs to Go or Fab Jobs. Both sites feature "how to" guides on a range of businesses like How to Become a Food Critic, Movie Reviewer, Jewelry Designer, Professional Golfer, Spa Owner and many, many more. If your guide is accepted, you earn a commission on all books sold. Plus you can still sell them at your own site and elsewhere as well.

The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Opportunity is knocking. So what are you waiting for?

p.s. If you would like to be notified when details about the August 24-25^th Work at What You Love workshop with special guest Barbara Winter become available, add your name to our announcement list now: ChangingCourse.com/wwlannounce.htm 

About the Author

"Turning Interests Into Income" expert, Valerie Young, abandoned her corporate cubicle to become the Dreamer in Residence at ChangingCourse.com offering resources to help you discover your life mission and live it. Her career change tips have been cited in Kiplinger's, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today Weekend, Woman's Day, and elsewhere and on-line at MSN, CareerBuilder, and iVillage.com. An expert on the Impostor Syndrome, Valerie has spoken on the topic of How to Feel as Bright and Capable as Everyone Seems to Think You Are to such diverse organizations as Daimler Chrysler, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Harvard, and American Women in Radio and Television.

To read more articles about how to work at what you love without a job go to ChangingCourse.com/articles  

Does Media Coverage Translate Into Sales?

By Fern Reiss

It’s wonderful to get media coverage for your book or business.  But even if you’re successful in getting publicity in magazines and newspapers—how can you guarantee that your publicity will translate into sales?  Here are five ways to up the odds that your media coverage will translate into sales:

Target the right publications and media. 

Getting media attention, by itself, is no guarantee of sales, particularly if your media attention is in the ‘wrong’ media.  While it’s probably true that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, there definitely is such a thing as ineffectual publicity: If you’re a vendor trying to target homewood floors manufacturers, an article in "Homewood Floors Magazine" will go straight to your target market—and probably will result in more sales than a generic article even in The New York Times.  So think carefully about what your market is reading and listening to, and target those specific outlets.  (A side benefit is that those publications will probably be easier to break into than more high-profile publications.)

Be sure your distribution is set up and seamless. 

There’s nothing worse than getting the perfect media attention, and sending thousands of potential buyers out to stores in search of your book or product—and then finding out, belatedly, that your book wasn’t available to be purchased.   If you’re going to go to all the effort of going after the media coverage, be sure your distribution is set up and ready to roll.  Otherwise, you’re wasting your time and energy.

Make sure the publicity you’re getting ties into your product.

A lot of people end up pursuing media attention for the sake of media attention.  And it’s true that any publicity is a good thing.  But if the media attention you’re getting has nothing to do with the product you’re selling, or if you make it too hard for people to make the connection to your product, then that is sure to diminish, if not completely curtail, your sales.

Be careful about word of mouth. 

Regardless of how good your ‘official’ publicity is, companies are made and lost on their reputations.  So be sure that your product, and company, stay immaculate.  Try to address problems early and respond to customer complaints promptly.  The mark of a good company is not that they don’t have problems from time to time—it’s inevitable—but how you respond to your customers over time. 

Keep the buzz going.

Remember that regardless of how much publicity you garnet, the public’s memory is very short.  So however good your publicity is today, be sure that you’re also keeping an eye on tomorrow.  The better you are at keeping your company and book’s ‘buzz’ going, the more successful your publicity, and your sales, will ultimately be.

So get out there and rustle up some publicity.   And then be sure you reap the sales that you’ve earned.

About the Author

Fern Reiss, CEO of PublishingGame.com/Expertizing.com, is the author of The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days (book promotion), The Publishing Game: Find an Agent in 30 Days (traditional publishing), and The Publishing Game: Publish a Book in 30 Days (self-publishing).  To learn how to get better media attention for your book and business, sign up for Fern’s free Expertizing email newsletter at PublishingGame.com/signup.htm or register for her Expertizing Publicity Forum at Expertizing.com/forum.htm

"My mantra is, "Go easy on yourself.’ It’s easy to get wound up about stuff. If you stay relaxed, you can enjoy what you’re doing."

~ Forty-year-old Amy Butler, Amy Butler Design Fabrics

This week's resources are all about the power of learning by example:

"Change your career, change your life," is the title of an article in this week’s edition of Parade magazine (April 15, 2007). Happily, four out of the ten people featured in the online version of this article are Changing Course subscribers, career consulting clients, or and/or former Work at What You Love workshops panelists. There’s translator turned dog trainer Rachel Jones, hotel manager turned photographer Rodney Washington, bakery-supply company employee turned massage therapist Stephanie Manriquez, and operations manager turned magician Tom Krystoff. Others who took the leap include a lawyer who quit to become a historical crime novelist, a bank VP who opened his own kung fu studio, and a former executive who left in his forties to study acting and is now performing on Broadway. If your Sunday newspaper doesn’t carry this popular insert you can still read the article (and some tips from yours truly) at Parade.com.

Thinking About Tomorrow by Susan Crandall. More than 30 inspiring profiles of boomers who have successfully changed careers, pursued their passion, or found spiritual peace. Crandall provides vivid profiles of dozens of men and women who have remade their lives in fascinating ways and offers guidance to midlifers who yearn for a more fulfilling life. ChangingCourse.com/bookstore.htm

Note: Changing Course does not accept paid advertisements from any of the resources listed here. This list is provided to expand your thinking about just how many interesting ways there are to make a living without a job!