NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

Archives for 2006

I get paid to write this

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My streak of not monetizing this blog has ended. Interest.com (Owned by BankRate, Inc.) is now the official sponsor of NevBlog. This means I get paid to do what I already do….update this website.

Of course in return they want something: Advertisements. This works out perfectly because I hate managing advertisements, and they love it.

They pay is pretty good, but I could easily make more by handling my own advertisements (Doing the whole Adsense, text link and affiliate stuff)….however, BankRate and Interest.com bring something else to the table: Giving me exposure.

NevBlog is part personal journal, part fun, part SEO tool and mainly a NETWORKING TOOL. Believe it or not I’ve met some of the most influential people in my life through this blog. Sounds stupid, but very true.

It’s rather obvious there are now ads all over the place, including two visible above the fold:

I get paid $????.?? per month for allowing these advertisements to be placed on my site, plus I get the additional exposure. Since I’ve already met some very influential people solely through this site, I figured additional exposure couldn’t hurt. The money brought in through this arrangement will be divided up into different accounts just like any other income I make.

Thanks to Interest.com and BankRate.com for the arrangement!

———————

Current Asset Update (11-01-2006)

General Account – $ 4,631
Spending Account – $ 293
Spending Account 2 – $ 363
Investment Account – $ 2,741
Bill Account – $ 1,039
Permanent Savings – $ 4,770
Charity Account – $ 318
Stock Portfolio Value – $ 11,107
Roth IRA – $ 6,912
Emigrant Direct – $ 5,020
Total Liquid Assets – $ 37,194

Credit Card Balance – $ 0
Business Holding – $ 13,651
Total On Hand – $ 50,845

Herb Kelleher – Southwest Airlines Speech

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Yesterday I went to a speech given by the famous founder of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher. As always, watching Herb speak was a great time!

I have great admiration for this man and his unconventional ways of running things. His willingness to be different and exciting eventually earned the envy of all other airlines.

“Professor” Kelleher speaking:

The speech started off with the actual professor of the class (Who is a Southwest Airlines board member) showing “Malice in Dallas” which was a spoof video about a Southwest Airline lawsuit where an aviation company threatened to sue Southwest for using the motto “Just Plane Smart.” Herb Kelleher challenged the CEO of the company to an arm wrestling match to settle the issue (seriously). The video ended up being shown world-wide and is sometimes billed as the greatest publicity stunt ever. The video was absolutely hilarious!! It really showed Mr. Kelleher’s funny side:
https://youtu.be/51a5xuxxxZQ

The entire time Mr. Kelleher spoke mainly about company culture….constantly instilling into everyone in the room just how important people are, and how if you take care of your people, they will take care of you. I’ve heard the same thing from other CEO’s, but he literally talked about it the WHOLE time…..and he’s obviously quite serious that his #1 priority is the people within Southwest. Some quotes from his mouth were:

“If you ain’t got culture, you ain’t got shit.”

“Competitors can buy tangible assets, but they can’t buy culture.”

He also just like last time lit up a cigarette soon after he started speaking. The man is notorious for loving cigarettes, Wild Turkey Whiskey and candy bars. So the day before I bought some props from the liquor store to use in the picture I would inevitably take with him!

It was actually the first pack of cigarettes I ever bought. In the Q&A session he answered questions pertaining to his many law battles all the way up to the Supreme Court (half the room was law students) and questions about how Southwest became the envy of the entire airline industry….and has become the only one to be profitable for so many years in a row.

One thing I really admire about him is his personality. The second he entered he room, he turned it from dull and quite to loud and FUN. He obviously loves having a good time, and you can see that reflected in the Southwest staff. A great example of leadership by example.

At the end of the speech I got out my Wild Turkey whiskey and cigarettes and took a great picture of me and Herb. I still get a kick out of this picture!

Then after the speech we both went to Cancun and ripped it up!!

Ok, that last part was obviously fake….but the speech was fun anyway! The guy is absolutely hilarious, smokes like a chimney and drinks like a sailor….but is one of the most famous CEO’s of all time because of his willingness to put people first and do things different.

New Camera – Cannon S3 IS

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I’ve been taking lots of product photos lately, and my Casio Exilim does the job, but not very well. After the screen was crushed, I can only see the bottom part of the screen, meaning it still works fine, but I can’t see how to change light settings or set the automatic timer. This is a big problem, and renders the camera almost useless for product photos.

Another problem is the low-light settings aren’t great on the Exilim, at least not for product-photo purposes. So I went ahead and got some advice from a photographer friend and bought a Cannon S3 IS.

Now this camera isn’t going to fit in my pocket or come out to parties with me, rather this is more of a tool to help me take more creative product photos.

I’ve been setting up my ghetto photo studio in different places, but I’ve been finding the kitchen seems to be the easiest because I can regulate the lighting within that area pretty well. I’ve taken some pretty cool pictures so far with this basic setup:

Who says you need an expensive studio for photos?? This new camera isn’t as point-n-shoot as the previous cameras I’ve had, so I’m starting to learn more about photography. Since most e-commerce sites nowadays have such a generic feel to them, taking original product photos is something which can set a site apart….hopefully this theory pans out for me in the next few months!

I’ve been learning how to set the ISO, white balance, shutter speed, night settings etc. to help make photos look great in different light settings. This is an example of dark light setting where I should have changed the settings to make it less grainy, but it still looks nice:

Here’s a black light photo I really liked of some Lucite shot glasses that glow under black light. I think this photo looks really cool. This new camera has already proved its worth.

Here is a low-light shot of a color-changing candle. This basic photo already far surpasses the ones provided by the manufacturer:

Here is a best seller item on my biz House Of Rave called Oggz. I’ve already put some of these new photos on House of Rave to give customers a better idea of these things. The image below hasn’t even been Photoshopped except for size cropping. The camera does an amazing job at catching the vibrant colors.

I think that shot looks much better than anything the manufacturer has, and it will be unique only to my site. Hopefully this $350 investment will pay off, I have a feeling it will. I’ve been trying to do one or two products a day along with their descriptions, and it’s actually pretty fun “work”!

Giant Sticky Note Pads

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I got a sample of these “Genius Pads” and it’s actually a product with some potential….basically a giant sticky note pad. Dan Sherman took the idea and started distributing them to the U.S. with his own website which has a much better name: Mega Sticky.

I thought this was a very neat and simple product, and I’ve been using them to draw out plans and sometimes detailed to-do lists:

It’s obviously a hell of a lot bigger than a regular sticky note, so it’s good for drawing out plans etc for review.

This is a product which has the potential to be sold in places like Staples and Wal-Mart, but their packaging is absolutely hideous. I say they don’t copy Post-It packaging, but at least make it slightly more professional like theirs.

I would also recommend the proprietors to encourage usage of these giant sticky pads in the office environment rather than aiming them towards kids. It seems big corporate contracts for these would be more lucrative than individuals or schools.

I can just imagine someone like a car designer, architect or engineer drawing out ideas on these then posting them on a wall to look at “The big picture.”

Neat little product. Good luck with it Arash & Kelly!

Poor Man Meal

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I try not to charge fast food on a card, so I always use cash. If I don’t have enough cash and I feel like being a cheap, I’ll be forced to simply eat very little.

If I only have $1 and some change, I can get something from the value menu at most fast food places. This generally isn’t enough for a dinner…but if you’ve only got a dollar to spare, it’s the best way to fill your stomach on the cheap!

1.) Get the biggest thing with the most nutritional value for your money.
My last poor man meal was at Taco Bell where I got the 1/2 pound Beef Burrito because it contains lots of satisfying meat and costs $1.40 after tax.

2.) Get water.

3.) Slow down the entire eating process.
This is the trickiest part. When hungry it’s hard to slow down eating, but there are a couple of simple tricks to it. Make sure to put the burrito (or whatever) down after each bite, this stops the temptation of taking your next bite too quickly. Take sips of water, read a book etc.. Overall, it should take between 15-20 minutes to finish the whole thing. I have no scientific proof behind it, but it’s the only way to get myself full from a single value menu item.

In the U.S. we’re so used to eating such large quantities, that sometimes we forget it only takes relatively little to fill a stomach. Simply slowing down the eating process makes you feel much more full!

For example, to kill the time between bites I’ll bring stuff to occupy myself.

Of course if you’ve got the means to cook, Ramen is still cheaper, but for me it doesn’t satisfy hunger because it lacks almost any nutritional value.

Bon appetite!

Back from Bawwston

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I went to Boston for a week to check the place out, maybe see if I’d like to live there. I had a great time there, flawless weather throughout the trip and a great place to stay. Check out the full panoramic view I had!

After visiting Boston for a week, cruising around, meeting friends, seeing businesses and partying….I found out that Boston is gorgeous in the summer, well educated, well established, but not the place for me.

My main complaints with Boston was the population was too young and there was a complete lack of flavor. Especially trying to go out. You can go to a very large selection of pub-style Irish places, but not much else. I was in the middle of New England, so I kind of expected that.

For partying, everything was relatively spread apart, and the whole place kind of goes dead before 2am, which I didn’t expect from an area with such a dense college population. I did however like the whole MIT/Harvard/BU/Downtown area with the Charles River nearby. It was gorgeous while I was there, although it’ll get cold as hell pretty soon (Something else I don’t particularly like).

So my comparison between Austin and Boston is done, and in my opinion Austin is the winner. Austin has a large amount of diversity in not only race, but also age. It also has different “flavors” around the city. Austin is also FRESH. It has an enormous upside potential, and it will be fun to watch as this city grows and changes. Boston will be pretty much stay the same even after 20+ years.

So based on my three places I could possibly live, Austin is my final choice.

I think my favorite part of getting back to Austin was seeing my Scarabeo in my living room. For some reason I got a kick big from seeing it indoors!

This was actually a very cheap trip overall. I spent $260 on the plane ticket and only $250 the whole time I was there….Not bad!

Boston Visit

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I was toying around with the idea of moving, but Austin is just such a great place to be. My potential criteria matched three places, and before I knock it out of contention, I want to visit Boston for a while to see how it feels. So this Wednesday I’m going for about a week.

Oct. 4th (Wednesday) – Oct. 10th (Tuesday)

If anyone with an interesting story wants to meet up, please contact me. I’d love to visit some local companies, see how things are run etc…

Also, if anyone knows of any big events or high profile parties going down in Boston from Oct. 4th till 10th, I’d appreciate a heads up. A large purpose of this trip is to make new contacts, so if you’ve got any leads, let me know!

Removed the Pixel Sale

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One year ago I got the idea from MillionDollarHomepage.com to sell pixel squares on the site. This was a complete fad, and people were buying pixels to benefit from curious clickers and the search engine benefits of having more links.

I put them in the right hand corner of the site for a year, and so far here’s what happened from this little experiment.

  • A total of $2,300 was made from 46 squares sold.
  • 17 different people bought space on the site for $50 a square.
  • I learned that taking advantage of a fad makes people actually pay $50 for a little square.
  • The more people buy squares, the less value they have. People will only click a few squares out of curiosity.
  • There were 110 comments on the pixel square post, a lot of them along the lines of, “I once thought this guy was legit, but now he is coming off as a slimy used car salesman!”
  • The only person who made A LOT of money from selling little squares was the MillionDollarHomePage.com guy.

A year later, I’m taking these pixel ads down. The last pixel order I got was in May 2006. It was a fun little experiment, and the only real money I’ve ever made from this blog.

So goodbye Pixel Sale! Thanks for the money :-)
-Nev

Worst Purchase EVER – My Phone

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Once in a while we all just “HAVE to Have” something. I do this mainly with electronic stuff, and generally it works out well and I’m happy with the purchase.

However 5 months ago when I got the Treo 700w when it first came out from Verizon Wireless, I had made a terrible mistake. Unlike my “Have to Have” cameras or tablet pc, this phone came with a contract.

I’ve had my phone for about five months now, and here is what I’ve paid so far for the phone and phone bills:

Because I just HAD to have this phone immediately, I irrationally accepted the high monthly fees, high starting costs and the expensive low-end service plan. The high overages were part part Verizon’s fault for screwing up an order for a larger plan, and part my fault for being irresponsible. However in the end I’m paying the (very expensive) price of an emotionally driven purchase.

I went from loving this phone to hating it, as graphically portrayed here:

I don’t actually hate the phone itself, just what it represents. I rank this as my WORST PURCHASE EVER.

LESSON I LEARNED:
“Have to Have” purchases aren’t always bad, but when irrational thinking muddles the details of a contract, beware.

Money Update

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I’m keeping a careful eye on my general accounts because I’ve been (and will be) burning money at a crazy rate:

Currently my general accounts look like:

General Account: $4,002
Spending Account: $194
Spending Account 2: $304
Investment Account: $2,605
Bill Account: $79 <-- !!! At least I don’t have to pay rent.
Permanent Savings: $3,768
Charity Account: $338
Stock Portfolio Value: $11,066
Roth IRA: $6,912
Emigrant Direct: $5,015
Total Liquid Assets: $34,283

Credit Card Balance: $0
Business Holding: $6,657
Total On Hand: $40,940

As the old saying goes, “When it rains, it pours.” Right now it’s pouring expenses:

–New laptop hard drive
–New laptop bootable DVD drive
–New car on the way + Registration + Insurance
-Need new camera (Screen half whited-out after being crushed)
–Traffic tickets
-Unexpected $500 phone bill
-Paying programmers
–Buying sample products for photographing
–Defensive Driving
-Food (I haven’t had a proper meal in about 2 1/2 weeks).
-Incorporation
-Trip to Boston
-Spending money – I still gotta have fun ;-)
-etc. etc. etc.

Luckily these costs are still manageable, but still….lots of expenses!


(I had to make this picture with PaintBrush….no Photoshop on these Law School computers!)

I was checking back to September 2005 in my blog to see what was going on, and I would have completely forgot about this stuff had I not written it down!

Sept 2nd: I tried to make more $$$ from House Of Rave.
Status: HoR is now making about $2,000+ a month. Thanks again Rob for hitting me over the head with the obvious.

Sept 7th: I tried to Get a picture with the Dalai Lama.
Status: Didn’t happen this time. I did however get to see the Dalai Lama sport a visor.

Sept 18th: I was mentioned in the New York Times.
Status: That was pretty nice to have. I’ve got three copies of the Sunday Times rolled up in my archives. My parents found out about this website after the article (Hi!!). My photo shoot was supposed to be the main image on the article, but apparently Jim is more attractive.

Sept 28th: I sold pixel squares on NevBlog as an experiment.
Status: So far that sale brought in $2,300 (minus 2.40%) in one year. I’m taking them off the site in a few days. That whole pixel thing was the epitome of a fad.