Creating ParentClue

Since I’m no longer a scoutmaster, I have a bunch of extra time on my hands. I typically just wander aimlessly around the house looking for something to look busy with so Manina doesn’t assign me any chores.

I got busted doing nothing one evening so Manina volunteered me to go with her over to help some friends with a technical problem they were having.

Our friends, the Bergerons,  wanted help setting up their old iPhone so their kids could use it. We had told them about some of the controls we set for our kids and shared some of our best practices. As we were stepping through some of the setup screens, Penny said, “Hey, you’re pretty good at this.”

Mike had just completed an online webinar, and explained how helpful it had been. Mike started talking doing this kind of training as a business. I mentioned I have been learning about the online courses for a while, and that I loved the business model — if only I could find a topic to teach.

We talked about the fusion of these concepts and came up with a really rough idea we called ParentClue. I didn’t really love the name, but I came home that night and did a quick search to see if the name was available. It was. I bought it. ParentClue it is, then.

And I have been working on it ever since.

I typically do one or two things every day to try to see this crazy experiment has potential.

One of my first failures was the logo. I went to a site and paid a small amount to get a logo designed outsourced for cheap. I explained what I wanted, and I got back this:

I wasn’t very happy with it, and asked the designer to put a little more thought and effort into it. He’s still ignoring me. Oh well, you get what you pay for.

So, I had to go and do some of my own logo design work. I ended up whipping up this which isn’t great, but will do for now. Much better than the “professional logo design” I paid for.

I’ve experimented with my ParentClue Facebook page, even buying ads to drive more traffic (hint: it doesn’t work very well). I have social media accounts at all the usual places.

But, none of my efforts have been an overwhelming success yet. I can really help parents with this stuff though. I’m a good teacher, I know the technology stuff inside and out, and I have six kids to parent (and experiment on). So, I’m going to keep pressing forward.

My current plan is to create an outline for a course. I will then create all of the videos, documents, cheat sheets, and slide shows for the first module or lesson. I am going to give away that first module for free and see how it does. If I can’t get any traction, then I will pivot and see how else I can help people in this area. But, if I can get an audience, and then get several people to pre-purchase the course (early buyers will get lots of insider info and also become my beta-testers), I will dive head first into creating the full course and sell it like crazy.

I don’t think this will replace my full-time job or anything. But I do think it will be very helpful to parents of kids with mobile devices (all parents these days, right?). In any case, it’s a good side project that I will learn a lot from. And, if I can really help some people along the way, I’m going to keep at it.