In the Four Hour Work Week, there was a section where Tim talked about analyzing customer preferences by using Google's AdWords.  The idea is to try different messages, different names, different approaches, and see which ones get the most clicks.  This gives you some idea of what catches peoples' attention and ultimately what they want. 
I'm taking a Marketing Class at the University of South Carolina's Moore School of Business, and in that class we are studying something called Conjoint Analysis.  (By the way, the Moore School was recently ranked #1 in the world for International MBA programs-- click here to read more.)  
Conjoint Analysis is a technique for sudying the preferences of consumers.  What I like about it is that it takes something that seems to be high on feelings and intuition and turns it into a science.  There's an excellent video tutorial on Conjoint Analysis found here at Sawtooth Software's Web Site. 
As I watched it, I was thinking about my business, which is building Web Sites and small communities and small businesses, and thinking about how I might better understand a specific market such as attorneys.  In my opinion, every attorney ought to have a Web site, but why?  And why don't they all have them now?  What do attorneys think when they think of a Web site?  Do they not have one because they don't know who to call?  Do they think it will cost $5000?  Do they just not have the time? 
These are all questions that could be answered with some careful market analysis. 

How to win your case for telecommuting - With gas prices soaring toward $4 a gallon, a solution seems obvious: skip the commute. U.S. drivers travel an average of about 15 miles, one way, to work. Working from home a few days each week would be the quickest route to relief at the pump. It would ease pressure on clogged roadways, too. But telecommuting appears to be stalled in the driveway. Once considered the rightful inheritance of the 21st Century workforce, teleworking has barely made a dent at many companies. Even the most gener [4HWW Around the Web]

I want my business to "Take Off." I want to be able to sell as much as I can and work as little as possible in the process. I want to be able to do the things I'm passionate about. I want all my passions as well as my business and my faith and sense of purpose all to fit together. No dis-jointedness, no inconsistencies.
I am currently spending a lot of time building the internal processes for Broadstreet Consulting. Before my business takes off, I want to make sure I don't have to go through that painful process of figuring out how to handle all the business. A big part of my success will be bringing in the business, but more important will be getting the work done efficiently and delivering happy customers.
One of the things I've been working on is a presentation called Web 2.0 for Your Business. The goal is to speak to small business groups and help them understand what Web 2.0 is, and how their business can take advantage of the changes happening on the Web. So Tim Ferris's latest blog post about Al Gore's speech writer was very timely. I took away several key points-- stuff I've heard before, but always good to get reinforcement of important information. My main take-aways from Tim's Interview with Dan Pink:
Answer these two questions clearly:

• What is your point?
• Why does it matter?

The three essential ingredients of a good speech are:

• brevity
• levity
• repetition

I will definitely keep these things in mind as I deliver my first presentation on Web 2.0 next month.
 

One of my hopes for this site is that it will be a one-stop-shop for people wanting to read about the experiences of people trying to implement the Four Hour Work Week.   An important part of this is an RSS Feed Aggregator that allows us to pull information from around the Web.
If you read some of the items in the right-hand column, you will find that Tim Ferris and the Four Hour Work Week are mentioned in the news on a pretty regular basis.  

If you go to dictionary.com and look up muse,  you'll find that the term muse originates from Greek Mythology.  Zeus had nine daughters who presided over the various arts and sciences such as poetry, music, dance, astronomy, etc.  In another definition, a muse is "the goddess or power regarded as inspiring a poet, artist, thinker, or the like."

One of the things discussed at length in The Four Hour Work Week is the idea of using Google's AdWords as a tool for testing consumer behavior.  I have some experience using Adwords.   In the last year I developed two e-Commerce sites, www.busbeetruckparts.com and www.tylerbrothers.net, both of which have had some success brining in quality traffic through the use of Google AdWords.