In my journey so far, I will tell you some of the most valuable resources I’ve come across to date:

1. ‘Turn your idea or inventions into millions’, a book by Don Kracke…you can get on Amazon used for $6. Recommended to me by another EN community member, this out of everything I’ve read so far will give you a complete picture of the entire business of inventing/licensing and manufacture. Teaching you about the important factors of distribution and the economics of it all. Don’t worry it’s not too heavy….Don ’s writing style is very funny and entertaining.

2. NOLO! Nolo.com if you want the nitty gritty…learn how to write your own PPA, all about patents, the ins and outs of trademarks, drafting a license agreement… If you read 3 or 4 Nolo books I can tell you that you’ll be able to speak the lingo and save yourself money in the long run (what to ask to your patent attorney, business lawyer, etc.).

3. Got Invention Radio (gotinventionradio.com) every Thursday night at 8pm you can listen to this radio show by Brian Fried —Brian started out very much like the rest of us and is really on the side of the independent inventor. All different resources are on the show…everyone including AJ, to K. Harrington to Mark Reyland has been on the show (Mark by the way is the Exec. Director of the UIA which brings me to #4…)
If I miss a show, I download it to my iPod, and multitask by walking the dog and learning about the inventing industry. I also bought some licensing CD’s and listen to them on the way to and from work…

4. Associate with others with your like interests. Joining the united inventors association (uiausa.org) , a local inventor club, groups like the ERA or using linkedin to join inventor groups will help you to understand all of the resources and support channels available to you. There is no local inventor group in my area…so I plan to join the UIA shortly and then will report more.

5. Do it! Take your best EN idea / idea and even if you don’t have the money to apply for a PPA or PATENT now, pretend, walk through all the steps you would need to take to get your idea to market or licensed. What are those steps? Go back to point #1, #2, #3, or #4 …. any of those resources will quickly have you understand all that is involved.

6. Keep your cool. Stay professional. Support each other. After all it’s the idea business, not the idea lottery (to paraphrase a friend). And remember to be careful what you post and how you present yourself if you are serious about entering this industry…as Roger Brown once said, “you never know who will one day read an EN message board post”.. (and did you know that google indexes these conversations?)…

So thanks all for your continued support it goes a long way and I want to pay-it-forward by trying to share what I learn along the way.

PS Regarding promotional activities—think about crafting and sending a news release, there are free 30 day services you can use or permanent releases for about $199. Out of all my online efforts to date I found that the press release sent out really helped gain some traction in search engines.

Good luck all.