I like to think that I take some pretty decent photos.  I love photography and I've spent a fair amount of time and money pursuing my passion.  That's why an article at USAToday.com about a photography book publishing company caught my eye this morning.

At first glance you might think I've gone way out of the box again.  But this post isn't about me.  And trust me.  It's relevant to Internet marketing.

The story talks about Blurb, a San Francisco book publishing company that was born out out of need.  The company's creator wanted to publish a book of her own photography.  But she wasn't happy with any of the existing choices because they were 1) expensive and 2) not flexible.

So what did she did?

She raised $16 million in venture capital and created a business that, above all other things, met her own needs.  The result?  A thriving business that takes thousands of orders and impresses thousands of customers every day with it's low-cost, high-quality printing.

Think about your everyday life for a minute.  What problems do you encounter on a day to day basis?  What issues, roadblocks, or difficult situations do you deal with?  Do you think you're the only person with those problems or issues?  Chances are… you're not.

Blurb does a great job of solving what was initially one person's problem.  But as the company soon found out… it was more than just an issue for a single person.  That's why I think they'll be quite successful in their niche.

So now that you've had a little time to think about your problems, what can you do to solve them?  Have you explored all of the options?  Maybe your solution could be the solution to a lot of other people's problem as well.

Do you have problems filing, organizing, and referencing a huge list of favorites, RSS feeds, and web clippings?  Maybe you should start a blog.  Have you hit a roadblock with a project you're working on?  Take a day off and attend a class.  You can share what you know, learn from others, and hopefully speed right past that roadblock.

If you figure out a way to solve your problem, like the creator of Blurb did, you can then help others solve theirs.  Help yourself… help someone else… and win.  Look at Blurb?  That's exactly what she did.

If you need some inspiration you can start right here.  If you've got a problem that you simply don't know how to solve… drop me a comment.  Maybe I can think of something you haven't.  By working together to solve our individual problems we can often help a lot more people.

- Matt