Leafbox Tea

A couple weeks ago, I was looking at the site and realized that it is a little bit boring. Okay, not really boring, I think the design is pretty good given that I hacked it together as a hobbyist out of free stuff - but it lacks depth. By that, I mean, there are only two sections to it. The blog and the forum. While each offers a lot for interactivity, only having three things in the main menu (Blog, Forum, About Us) is pretty lame. Not to mention that the About Us section needs an overhaul.

I started looking at options and ideas about how to add more to the site and give more to the community. Jordan Williams and I bounced a few ebook ideas off of each other some time back. At the time, the ideas were good, but we didn't know how to proceed. I did some more research and was inspired to look again at some of the things that Jordan and I talked about. Frankly, what I came up with was brilliant - and I thank Jordan's input for pushing me in that direction. His original found grounding and I developed a concept. I've been working on the book diligently everyday now for about 2 weeks. I figure it has another week before I get it finished. I've got some days off this week from the day job so I should be able to make some big strides with it.

Not to be cryptic about it, but it really is awesome. It'll cost people money, but I really think it'll be worth it for you. The price will be less than you spend on tea. I admit, it won't be for everybody in our circle on online friends (many of them are too advanced), but I'm designing it from the ground up to have a far greater reach.

The design concept goes far beyond the book itself. Just publishing an ebook is lame - there is a ton more that goes into it. I'm looking at and developing an entire marketing and support effort for it - this concept even includes ways for our fellow bloggers to make a few bucks off of this.

The last two days have been spent digging around the net for new domain registrations - right now, I'm looking at five new domains related to this topic. Some of them are very good. Too bad I don't have the hard cash to buy the very best one though. The product really does rise to that level - I'm working hard to ensure that it is the very best of its type. A lot of the design work is done and now I'm working on content and writing.

I like to think that Leafbox is partly known for quality design, content and writing. Jackie and I spend a lot of time putting words and thoughts together - we think this product will be no different, if not better.

While the book may be ready within a week or so, I don't plan to launch it right away. Part of the product is the design that goes into supporting it on the web. I'm putting together the business model to support it, which includes the development of the website. While I am going to sell it directly from Leafbox, I think, that as a product for the community, it deserves something of its own to give the community a chance to rally behind it. It'll have its own website and infrastructure. While it will carry the Leafbox brand, it will be setup in such a way to give other bloggers and tea supporter a chance to promote it, support it, earn money from it, and enjoy the fact that it is available as a product concept.