NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

Neville

The Stuff I Read

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These days I’m pretty selective of what I read on a daily basis. I used to read a lot of personal finance blogs, but quickly lost interest after the same stuff gets repeated hundreds of times.

However I have always enjoyed blogs that document personal adventures in money making. The point of these blogs is not necessarily to educate the world about personal finance, but to track progress of money making and experiment with new and creative ways of doing it. I also enjoy lots of technology related sites.

ONLINE READING:
I like to keep track of the technology field, and a great way to do that is by keeping track of new trends, technology and tech news. Me as with most people stumble across the most interesting things via the most random web surfings.

– www.engadget.com – Gadgets and junk
– www.gizmag.com – Probably my favorite technology site.
– www.gizmodo.com – Gadgets and junk
– www.hackaday.com – I come across a lot of underground technology through this site.
– www.luxist.com – Luxury things, new trends.
– www.techcrunch.com – Technology related news, mostly about how “Web 2.0” no-revenue websites keep getting funding. However they always manage to report the LATEST tech news.

On a more sporadic schedule, I checkout:
www.business-opportunities.biz – Business blog aggregation site. Stumble across some nice articles time to time.

www.entrepreneurs-journey.com – Yaro from Down Under talks about his business experiences….although lately he has changed his format to “Blogging about Blogging” which I’m not a fan of. He has managed to financial support himself with his own ventures, so I admire that.

www.okdork.com – Noah Kagan documents his own biz journey. I’ve actually met up with Noah when he came to Austin a while ago where we met at a coffee shop near the UT Campus. The second after we shook hands and said hello, he proceeded to find a magazine to read in the bathroom….then disappeared for a very, very long time while I waited. His website is different, kind of immature and I’ve got a feeling Noah will jump into all sorts of wacky internet ventures and at some point hit it big.

www.howtobepoor.com – Max documents some of his side projects in a personal finance style blog. One of the few blogs I still read time to time because 1.) It’s different and 2.) He can actually think of a money-making idea and implement it himself because he’s also a great programmer. I wish I could program.

www.blogmaverick.com – I think it’s INCREDIBLY REFRESHING to read a blogger who has actually “Been there, done that.” Generally advice and opinions on the internet are dispensed by people who have never had any direct experience with what they’re talking about…..like those people who become millionaires only by writing a book ABOUT becoming a millionaire. Their advice will rarely help anyone. Mark Cuban however is a a busy-billionaire and still bangs out a great blog!

WEIRD BOOKS:
Sometimes I’ll randomly stumble upon a book which is not really a business book, but a business book in disguise. For example, when I met with John Moore, he was flabbergasted that I had already read a book called DEALING CRACK. It was a very short book about a student who actually went undercover in rough neighboorhoods to find out about the underground world of hard drug dealing. When they guy who headed up the Starbucks and Whole Foods marketing groups strongly recommends this book, there is something to it.

The reason I read the book was because of the way it described these micro-economies fueled by illegal drugs. It’s hard to exlpain, but the book captured the essence of supply and demand, customer care and business deals in such a raw and unique way that it was one of the top business books I’ve ever read.

BUSINESS BOOKS:
I’ve read quite a few popular business books, and quite frankly I hate most of them. They talk about the same stuff and dish out the same advice……what I enjoy are STORIES about successful people….especially if it’s autobiographical.

I believe the key to finding a book that may actually help is finding out who the author is. Is it someone who has never made any money except from hocking books ABOUT making money? Has this person actually accomplished anything in the field they’re talking about?

If I want to learn about making big money, I’d read an autobiography by Richard Branson or Donald Trump, or perhaps a biography about Larry Ellison or Bill Gates. The key is to read A LOT of these books, because everyone has different advice that worked for THEM.

Another way to find quality reading material is finding out what someone you admire used to read. Obviously if this impressive person has accomplished so much, they can tell you what material has inspired them. Often some of the most famous figures of our time have read timeless pieces of work like John Locke and Gandhi.

I’m always on the lookout for non-conventional reading material the masses overlook, so if you’ve got a great site or book suggestion, drop me a line!

June 2006 Review

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For the remainder of this year my goal is to increase the income of my existing small businesses, create a few new ones and by years end have them making a combined total of at least $7,500/month on a consistent basis.

The foundation of that income will be House Of Rave, the business has been a constant money maker since high school, so it’s much less volatile than newer ventures.

For June, HoR brought in over $2,500 in profit (about $7,900 in gross sales). If this continues, I am halfway to my HoR goal of $5,000/month.

Interesting Fact: Last year in June, House Of Rave brought in $718 in profit. So from last year there has been over a 300% increase in profits.

Next Steps: Of course doubling income for HoR will be a difficult task, but I’ve already started to prepare for it. I’ve upgraded my shopping cart software which by Monday will support the BRAND NEW Google Checkout feature, and I’m working on allowing visitors to comment on the highly popular video section. I’ll also be visiting the supplier I’ve worked with for so long in California.

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Judging from this post, my June 2005 account balances totaled $26,374.

My current account balances are:

General Account – $ 1,700
Spending Account – $ 200
Spending Account 2 – $ 811
Investment Account – $ 3,523
Bill Account – $ 1,202
Permanent Savings – $ 2,828
Charity Account – $ 338
Stock Portfolio Value – $ 11,073
Roth IRA – $ 6,674
Emigrant Direct – $ 5,015
Total Liquid Assets – $ 33,364

Credit Card Balance – $ 0
Business Holding – $ 3,692
Total On Hand – $ 37,056

Write Whatever You Want!

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I always like experimenting with cool little widgets. I was thinking of putting this one on FacebookProfile.com as kind of a gimmick, here is a LIVE test version which can be freely written on by anyone:

I like this little widget because it allows visitors to instantly post comments, links, insults or any funny thing they can think of. It’s also funny and interesting to see the ridiculous things people write when they are completely anonymous!

View the history of the messages here:
https://www.nevblog.com/yshout/yshout.php?history

Curb Painting Part 2

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(See Curb Painting Part 1 if you haven’t already)….

…$15!  Checkout the screenshot of the self-checkout line I went through:

The stencils I bought were the bendable cardboard kind, which are good for when the curb you’re painting is curved.  However I wanted the inter-locking brass stencils for flat curbs.  I also wanted these because they inter-lock and stay in place, rather than having to tape each number together (see how they snap together?):

Next I tried a practice run on some more newspaper using the new materials I bought and the new brass stencils.  It came out pretty descent:

If the police, fire department or ambulance service was looking for this house at night, it’d be VERY hard to see this address label.  So next, I wanted to prove how much better a raggedy old curb address looks when painted over. I purposely used a smaller border to show this was the same curb, just painted over it for dramatic effect:

Look at the difference!  You can still see the original outline I left as a comparison.  THIS is why people will buy this service.  Over the years I’ve also refined some secret tricks I use to sell more.  I’ve also learned what NOT to do that will leave you struggling to find jobs.

To see the video I made about this (and where I pretty much hold someone’s hand step-by-step to show them how to do this), enter your name and email below:

Painting Address Numbers on Curbs

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I’ve seen people do this all day, charge up to $40 per painting and do whole neighborhoods:
Re-painting the address numbers on curbs of houses.

I always thought this was a cool and easy way to make some extra money. So in some spare time this week I bought some plastic stencils (About $8) and some black/white outdoor spray paint (About $10) and decided to see how hard it could be.

I took the materials outside and gave it a rough shot on some newspaper:

It was a little messy, and I had to end up cutting the stencils apart, but my first painting came out alright. Not perfect, but alright.

I then started using tape to seal any loose areas of the stencils together, and I successfully made a semi-neat spray of the numbers. This isn’t hard stuff, but it takes a little trial and error testing.

I’ve seen lots of neighborhoods around Austin where I couldn’t find a house because of the lack of address numbers, think of what would happen if a police car or ambulance couldn’t find your house number.

Perhaps in the next few weeks I’ll give this a shot. I tried it out on some old curbage at my apartment complex, and it turned out decent….very rough….but nothing a little practice won’t clean up.

This would be an awesome way to make a good $100+ a day for a couple of high school kids or Boy Scouts. Actually, anyone could setup this little curb painting business for themselves and make a quick income!  It involves an easy service you can sell door-to-door that people will gladly pay for.

It seems everyone nowadays is talking about “Making money doing nothing” …..which is great….but making money from good old manual labor is sometimes very rewarding!

My first tries of the curb painting were a little rough, and I wanted to actually DO this door-to-door, so I bought new materials and made my own custom curb border out of cardboard I had laying around the house.  I was surprised how cheap everything was!  Altogether my total at Home Depot came out to less than……

GO TO PART 2 –> of the experiment (I did a much better job on my second tries)!

Using a Flask

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I am really cheap, and hate spending money. However, I also like to go out and have lots of fun, which generally costs $$$.

After I turned 21, I realized the sheer amount of money people waste at bars. Here in Austin, TX. we have a thriving Downtown nightlife, consisting of several streets of busy clubs and bars…needless to say there are tons of places to throw away your money.

From about 9pm till 2am, the main product being sold all over Downtown is alcohol. Clubs/bars make almost all their money from alcohol, restaurants make much of their money from alcohol and even cruise boats make much of their money from drink sales. It’s actually pretty ridiculous how much money is made from alcohol sales.

To combat these high prices (and allow me to be extremely cheap), I will sometime bring a flask out with me. This thing cost me $20, fits perfectly in my back pocket and holds roughly 5 oz. of liquor.

What I can’t stand about drinks are their extremely high margins. Liquor is ridiculously marked up almost everywhere. Another thing I begrudgingly have to do every time is tip. If someone simply opens a bottle of beer for me, does that warrant even a $1 tip?? I tip, but don’t like it. After a tip, an already expensive drink becomes even more expensive.

If I know I’m going out, but don’t want to spend a lot of money, I’ll fill the flask with a liquor of choice, for example, rum. This way I can ask the bartender for JUST a Coke with ice. I’d say about 70% of the time they’ll give it to me free. I can then secretly mix in some rum, and have a Rum & Coke.

Ghetto? You bet!

The most I’ve ever spent on a single drink was at an upscale club in Miami – $17 for a Vodka & Red Bull. Imaging my surprise when I pulled out a $10 bill to pay, but was quoted $17….and then I had to tip $3!! TWENTY DOLLARS for a small drink in a plastic cup filled mostly with ice!! OUTRAGEOUS. I can buy 20 Double Cheeseburgers from McDonalds for that money.

Another thing I do when going out is use CASH ONLY. I NNEEEVVERRR charge drinks to a card. This way you can SEE how much money you are throwing away, and I can control my spending much better this way. A $20 bill can generally cover an entire night (Generally which I end up spending mostly on Pizza :-) and leave me with some money the next day.

Outsourcing Lesson & Examples

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Outsourcing has been a thing big companies have been using for years, the main reason to slash costs of manual and intellectual labor. However, there is probably even more benefit to outsourcing for smaller companies, yet a lot of people have no clue how to utilize it.

I’ve outsourced projects before, but thanks to a mentor of mine, I’ve been exposed to several projects and shown the CORRECT way to do it.

There are three major tips I’d give:

1.) Be specific as possible.

2.) Include non-lengthy descriptions.
Make sure you write where everything should go, how it should work and what it should look like.

3.) Use visual aids.
Photoshop will be your best friend in making a design project go smoothly. If you already know what you want, the best thing to do is make a Photoshop representation of it, then the programmer will do their thing and make it work. These are especially important if you’re using an offshore programming team, as subtle language differences sometimes spoil directions.

4.) Always bargain.
Outside the United States, especially in less developed countries, bargaining is a typical part of buying stuff. Programmers will often quote you way too high, so you just have to bargain down the price. If you stink at bargaining, go to RentACoder.com and set your own project price.

I’ve learned if you don’t a put a lot of effort into planning the project, it will come out terrible, take a long time and cost a lot of money.

If you spend a lot of time initially spec’ing out the project, it will go extremely quick, come out great and cost less since the programmers know exactly what to do.

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TWO OUTSOURCING EXAMPLES:

1.) This is a spec sheet I made recently for my online business House Of Rave. It outlines for a Shopsite programmer what I want done using visual aids and short descriptions in an outlined form. This way if there’s a problem, I can say “Section 1.c has not been done yet.”

You can view a snapshot of the Word document below:

2.) This spec sheet is from my recent FacebookProfile project I did a few weeks ago. I knew EXACTLY how I wanted it to look, so I created a visual representation of the site using Photoshop and then marked up specific sections and functionalities.

I didn’t already know any WordPress designers, so I posted this project on RentACoder for $220. A few hours later I selected the highest rated programmer to respond and the project was done in no time.

What was great about this project was the very little communication involved, as I had already so specifically stated what I wanted. Generally there is a lot of discussion back and forth between customer and programmer if it’s not clear what is wanted.

You can view a snapshot of the Word document used for the FacebookProfile.com specs:

Medium to large projects get much harder, and the important part is staying on top of the project and documenting progress.

FINDING A PROGRAMMER:
If you’ve got a project, first spec it out so you know exactly what you want. Then go to any of the following sources to find someone to do it:
1.) RentACoder.com – You can set your own price here, view other projects by the bidders and read their feedback. Basically an Ebay for any sort of project. Also try eLance.com.
2.) Craigslist.org – Simply post your project in your local city (or better yet, a big city like San Francisco or NYC) in the Gigs –> Computer section. You’ll be surprised at how many responses you can get locally and from abroad.
3.) Forums – If you’ve got a very specific project you’re working on, go to some popular forums about that subject/software/hobby and post the job.

FacebookProfile Stats, Entpr Year, New Apt

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The condo I was living in with two rommates was sold, and we have now moved to a college-based community of apartments like I used to live in. These apartments are great because everyone living there is a student of some sort, they have lots of great amenities, and best of all individual leases. This means if you have four people living in an apartment, and three of them move out, the last person is not stuck paying the full rent….just their share. This way I can be very flexible about my living arrangements.

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I recently followed an idea for starting a Facebook based site which offers Facebook Tricks etc, and it’s coming along nicely. I’ve been getting some decent traffic, up to 350 unique visitors a day and growing.

Right now the site is making less than $1 a day from the one Google Ads, but it’s not even been online for two weeks….so I’m not worried yet. A problem with Google Ads is they base the ads on page content….mostly Facebook talk. Needless to say the pay per click rates are low, even though I’m getting a lot of clicks.

It’s sometimes getting above 1,000 impressions a day, so I’ll start looking for other ad systems that pay higher rates for page impressions. Here are the stats from the last few days:

This is actually turning out to be a fun little project!

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Thanks to “Bob”, I was tipped off about the Austin Entrepreneur of the Year awards last week, and I attended the event with Kunal of Grade-A-Books. It was one of the better events I’ve been to, with a great pre-event, event, and after-party. Then later out to Downtown!

This picture is a good sum-up of the night!

Getting Things Done

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I’ve being doing enough work to get by.
I have NOT been doing enough work to set myself above the rest.

Quite frankly,

This has to stop right here, right now.

Facebook Profile Website

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I’ve tried the advertising-only website before with FancyBlog.com, but the income wasn’t worth the effort and interest waned and invariably so did the site. I see more potential on this new advertising-only site, and hopefully it can become pretty big if I play my cards right.

The new site is called FacebookProfile.com, which is a Facebook tips/tricks/fan site.
Facebook is a social networking site with massive popularity amongst the college population. It’s clean, fast and constantly adding new features. Noah from OkDork works at Facebook and is always ranting about “How awsome my job is” and “How cool it is to work at Facebook” all the time.

I didn’t want the site to look like a blog, but I love the functionality of blogs. So to make posting easier, I used WordPress, but created a custom design theme that imitates the Facebook design:

FACEBOOK SCREENSHOT:
FACEBOOKPROFILE.COM SCREENSHOT:

This way when people stumble upon the page via search engine or link, they know for sure it’s a Facebook-related website…without even reading a word. Since search engine traffic is already rising quickly (even after only a few days of being online), this is important.

To create the site I:

  1. Installed a regular WordPress system on the FacebookProfile.com domain.
  2. I literally took a screenshot of my actual Facebook profile from the internet, then Photoshopped it to include the WordPress blogging elements (Pages, Categories, RSS Feed etc.)
  3. Started writing a few posts just to keep some content on the site for the programmer.
  4. I then found a WordPress designer through RentACoder who could retool the website to look like my Photoshopped rendition of the webpage. This cost me $220. I probably could have got this done cheaper, but I paid more to get someone who could do the project quickly, had a high ranking on past projects and prior experience with WordPress.

The idea for this project came randomly while I was searching for domain names for a different project. I also remember reading about a whole cottage industry that revolves around MySpace custom templates, images, text and media add-ons….and thought Facebook might eventually move somewhat in this direction.

I’m still working on bugs, such as how to prevent WordPress from auto-formatting my Facebook ASCII Art text….but those are just small hurdles. The site has already been getting 50-100 unique hits a day, which is not bad for a non-advertised site which has been up for 7 days.

So FacebookProfile.com has officially been launched….not much content as of yet, but more to come!