NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

Neville

3-D Printing, the next big thing

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Trying to predict the future is fun, because it can be really profitable. One of the things I think has the potential to be the next technological revolution like electricity or the internet is 3-D printing (also called rapid prototyping).

In the early years computers were only used by large corporations or the government. Same with 3-D printers. They are still large, very expensive, difficult to use, and not useful to individual consumers yet.

When the large computers of yesteryear existed, people didn’t think individual consumers had any real use for that technology. Obviously as they got smaller, more powerful and cheaper there were thousands of uses created.

The cool thing about this emerging technology is it’s following the same pattern as the personal computer. In this sense you can almost predict the future by looking at history.

If you don’t know what 3-D printing is, checkout some videos on the subject. This video is a promo video for a Zcorp 3D printer. If you already know what 3D printing is, you can skip the video.

This following video shows the possible use of 3-D printing for building homes and other structures. Instead of taking months to build a home, tracts of affordable homes can be constructed in hours or days.

You can find more info and amazing videos about this at https://www.contourcrafting.org/
The cool part is they already have this technology making small-scale buildings out of concrete and other construction materials.

Want to print out some condominiums?

Or maybe put up some warehouses in 1/10th the time of traditional construction?

The prices of 3-D printers are dropping, but they’re still well out of reach for individual consumers. One of the things that are allowing these printers to be built for (relatively) cheap is the Fab@Home open source 3-D printing project. They’ve basically given a whole FREE set of plans, instructions and software to allow you to build a working 3-D printer at home.

The printer can print small objects out of silicon, chocolate or other heat-malleable materials. This sounds trivial, but remember that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (founders of Apple) both got their start by making do-it-yourself computers and selling them completely assembled.
This whole 3-D printing thing means that now you can share not just information, but THINGS over the internet. Right now you can send a news article to a friend across the planet by sending it to them and they print it out. Similarly, soon you will be able to “send” actual THINGS like jewelry, toys, medical instruments etc.. That’s an ENORMOUS advancement in technology which will end up having countless useful and entertaining applications across almost every industry.

  • Telephone: Allows for transmission of voice over long distances.
  • Internet: Allows for transmission of information over long distances.
  • 3-D Printing: Allows for transmission of THINGS over long distances.

As a small example, let’s say I need some scissors for a project, but oops, I don’t have any!

As you can see I just hopped online, printed some scissors out on my 3-D printer and was on my way. As time goes on, these printers will be able to print out increasingly complicated devices, complete with computer circuitry and complex moving parts. Instead of having to buy a new starter for your car, in time you may be able to simply “print” one out at home!

HOW TO PROFIT:
This technology is still far from individual consumer hands and will take a few years to get there, so there’s no hurry to do anything now, however here’s some ways I’ve thought of that could make money from this new technology.

  • Make a website that people can upload and share their 3-D print creations in the form of files.
  • Buy stocks of companies that create 3-D printers or 3-D printing related products or software.
  • Build Fab@Home 3-D printers and sell them fully assembled.
  • Buy an industrial 3-D printer and allow other people to send you their CAD files to be printed into models.
  • Make your own 3D print art.
  • Make your own 3D print jewelry.
  • Get the CAD drawings from buildings under construction and print models of the building.
  • Use your imagination!

I for one am very excited about this technology. Perhaps I might buy one of these printers just to start tinkering around with it….who knows what could come of it!

Never Having a Job, good or bad?

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Person: You’re your own boss? That’s awesome…it must be nice not to work for anyone.
Me: I guess so.

Since I’ve never had a real job it’s hard to say it’s nice since I don’t know the other side.

I suppose it’s nice I’ve never had a real job, but there’s a big problem: I’ve never learned the procedures and discipline you get by working for a company.

I’ve always contemplated taking on a job just for the experience, but this obviously takes away a lot of time from doing my own businesses. Perhaps I can find a fair medium where I can get the experience, but further advance my knowledge.

When I was in college and heavily active in a lot of financial clubs, a lot of big companies would try to hire the active people such as me…..they didn’t even care I was a government major instead of a business major. However these companies require you to be at the office at 8am or earlier and leave at 5pm or later. They also teach you relatively little about running your own company, or anything particularly interesting besides stock. Even then, general entry level positions at these companies keep you busy with all the boring work no one wants to do….this isn’t bad, but if you’re not learning from your surroundings whilst doing the grunt work, it doesn’t seem worth it. They ALSO don’t allow you to run businesses on the side. Seriously, the people at Morgan Stanley said they’d hire me, but I was absolutely not allowed to run businesses on the side. Obviously a deal breaker for me.

One of the places I ABSOLUTELY ADMIRE and want to be more involved in is the IC2 Institute and the Austin Technology Incubator. I won’t go into much detail, but these two organizations are divisions of the University of Texas and spin out some amazingly interesting companies and programs worldwide. I think these two organizations do some of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen, but sadly hardly anyone knows about them except people in the entrepreneurial fields.

Being at one of these organizations, especially the Austin Technology Incubator would put me directly into a place filled with startup companies, investors, buyers seasoned industry experts and tons of accomplished and intelligent people.

I want to be around a place like that.

I’m thinking if I got some sort of small job or internship at one of these places, it would be immensely useful in helping me get the discipline and procedural training I want from a job, but allow me to run my own businesses at the same time. I would also be in a place swarming with ideas and innovation.

Ideally I would like to work or intern at one of these places for around 4 hours a day. A paid position would be fantastic, but I’d be willing to work for free, just don’t tell them that!

House Of Rave Version 3.0

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Since the last overhaul of my business HouseOfRave.com, I haven’t really done much to the business except for change suppliers (no small task). The initial changes I made nearly tripled profits in just a few months, and I’m hoping I can replicate that success and more.

So recently I’ve been making a couple of changes which will hopefully take HouseOfRave to the next level. To start, the changes I made over the last week were:

Upgraded Policies Page:
Clearer return policies, shipping policies and other information reduces the amount of inquiries I get about these things.


New Product Listings:
I’ve recently added a whole Disco Balls Section and Lamps Section to the site, and will continue to add several products per day to existing sections.

HoR Embedded Player:
A while ago I updated the highly popular videos section on HouseOfRave by putting all the videos on YouTube. The problem is YouTube ends videos by showing other related videos which takes viewers back to YouTube. Even when you click on the video, it takes you away from my site.

To solve this problem, I’ve now got a HouseOfRave-branded video player installed with my own logo and all.

I’m in the process of upgrading the videos to this format, and I’ve also got the comments and rating system like YouTube’s coming within the next week. The new Version 3.0 video section will also allow users to upload their own videos and have them rated by other members.

Email Newsletter Signup:
One of the fundamental ways of getting people to return to your site is by having a newsletter sent out. I started up the HouseOfRave Newsletter again using the GetResponse online application (as recommended by Yaro’s site).

I put the simple signup form on the header in order to start building a larger subscriber list. I’m thinking maybe I should move the signup for to the right-hand navigation instead?

It’s been over 2 years since I’ve really made any big changes, so it’s kind of fun mixing things up!

Attending An Elton John Private Performance

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A little over 2 years ago I attended a private charity fundraiser event which included a private performance by Elton John. This past weekend I got word that this event was being held again so I decided to go. Based off the PHENOMENAL performance and “fun-ness” of the event last year, I didn’t want to pass this chance up!

Last time I went, I actually had to duck out during the first part of dinner because there were absolutely NO seats left. However this time I was lucky enough to get a seat at one of the tables they kept for last minute invites. They brought in a 5-star (or diamond) chef to cook the nights meal, so naturally every course was delicious.

Another cool thing about this time around was I got to sit RIGHT next to the stage for the whole performance. As I was holding my camera up to record some clips of the performance, it dawned on me that I was watching a private show by Sir Elton John, sitting right against the stage whilst sitting right next to Lance Armstrong and a bunch of rich & famous in Austin. Just a fun feeling :-)

The Fundraising Power of Elton:
These events always have auctions, and this one was no exception. Each of the 8 items auctioned off raised several tens of thousands of dollars apiece, but that wasn’t enough. Elton John took the mic and auctioned off a private dinner with him for you and your friends in any of his homes in France, London, Atlanta, Paris….and the list goes on (He listed like EIGHT different places he lives).

They started this item at $10,000, and it quickly escalated $5,000 higher with each bid…quickly shooting up past $50,000, then $70,000, then over $100,000! It soon became apparent that three different parties were set on winning this private dinner with Elton John, so they all went to the stage to collaborate. A few seconds later, each of the three parties agreed to get their own Elton John private dinner for $150,000 a piece! That’s $450,000 for the Andy Roddick Foundation in less than 3 minutes!

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VIDEO UPDATE: 11-12-2007
Here’s a 1min 45sec video of Elton playing Tiny Dancer I took from the stage where I was sitting. I forgot to upload it when originally writing this post. I don’t know if the sound and picture quality captures it very well, but Elton John delivered a mind-blowing performance!

I’m fortunate enough right now to have people that know about these events and even help me get in. This event was pretty easy to crash since I was helped out and given the needed wristband for entrance. However, the end goal here is to one day be in a position where I can afford to donate $12,000 for a table at these kind of events. Obviously right now I can’t drop that kind of cash on a single event, but meeting people at these places might definitely help get me there one day.

And by one day I mean within the next two years.

The TED Site is Awesome

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There’s not many sites (particularly blogs) that I’ve found which consistently put out great material that I enjoy, but I’ve gotta say, https://www.ted.com/ has been doing a great job for the month I’ve been reading it.

I’ve never previously heard about it, but there’s a big conference held every year in Monterey, CA. called TED (Thinking, Entertainment, Design) with different speakers, guests yadda yadda…..but this conference has some of the most genuinely interesting stuff I’ve seen, and on a wide scale of subjects.

I keep a track of the TED Blog everyday, and would highly suggest checking out the ridiculously interesting TED Video Archive which contains some pretty amazing speeches by some pretty amazing people. They are each almost 20 minutes long, so I watch about one a day. I’m very impressed at the professional level these speeches have been filmed, so it’s like you’re at the speech itself.

Just thought I’d share!

Donate Buttons On Sites

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I’ll admittedly say I’ve downloaded way more than my fair share of illegal copies of software many, many times. Even HouseOfRave.com was originally built with a piece of software which I downloaded the demo then cracked the serial number during high school.

Not that this would solve the solution, but it would be nice if companies had small “Donate” buttons on their sites somewhere, much like shareware sites have. I would love to send $100 bucks or so to Adobe to thank them for their software I’ve used for so many years, but there’s currently no good way of doing this.

Not that $100 makes up for the price of the software, but at least it’s something I can afford and would be willing to send. Perhaps companies should setup these “Donate” accounts to where the company takes 15% of the pot, and the rest is somehow divided up to the developers. This would be like a virtual “Tip Jar” for the software developers.


Pictured: Me giving Photoshop a hug.

When I was in high school and college there was NO WAY on earth I would pay for software. This was especially true for things like Adobe Photoshop which cost well over $1,000 to legitimately buy, but are also extremely easy to download for free from various sources.

From what I know about companies like Microsoft and Adobe is they make a majority of their money from businesses that must legitimately buy their software. They make much more here than in the individual consumer market.

So suppose one day when (if) I grow up, I have some sort of firm that deals with graphic design in some way and I eventually have to buy software to support this. My most logical choice will be an Adobe product since I’ve happily used their products for years with great satisfaction.

However right now it almost seems illogical for me to pay $1,000+ for the latest version of Photoshop when I can so easily go to mininova.org or some other BitTorrent site and download a full version completely gratis.

A while ago I put a little inconspicuous tip jar on NevBlog on the bottom-right navigation bar…

…and its actually got a couple of donations! Perhaps I should put one on HouseOfRave too in case someone enjoys the free videos or pictures, would like to send some money, but doesn’t necessarily want to buy anything.

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Speaking of these little virtual tip jars, I always thought they can be used as an interesting way to get a bloggers attention (like Steve Pavlina or some other big dog blog). You could send them a series of small denomination donations: $1 the first day, $2 the next day, $3 the next day….just to mess with them :-)

Tim Sykes’ Book – It’s Actually Good

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As I got his first rough-draft book for reviewing in the mail, I almost threw it in the trash like I do most of the promotional books I get. They’re usually something along the lines of “Make Millions Without Lifting A Finger” or some equally outrageous (yet unrealistic) title.

Tim’s book “An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million As A Stock Operator & Created A Hedge Fund” caught my eye because of the title and the fact that he is only two years older than I am (he is 26 now).

I started to simply skim through the book, but to my surprise it was actually quite an interesting read! His book described how he would work out of his dorm room in college (which sounded very familiar to me) and trade stocks. I did this too once, although not near to the level he got. Sometimes he would gain as much as $130,000 in ONE DAY!! Needless to say I was very enthralled by the story:

From $12,000 in Bar Mitzvah money, Tim turned that into about $1.65 MILLION in less than 3 years! I was a little skeptical about him claiming to be a big shot money guru, because he traded during volatile times in the stock market. Impressive none-the-less, but I feel a truly seasoned money professional can make money throughout every type of stock market (like TheKirkReport.com), but Tim wasn’t even old enough to have experienced more than 1 or 2 types of markets.

Surprisingly he didn’t tout himself as a big-shot money guy, but it shows the reader about his absolutely risky trading habits which luckily paid off for him. Of course turning such little money into so much money still takes lots of skill.

While I was in New York I got a chance to meet up with Tim, and he’s quite the cool character! We met up at the really slick W Hotel bar called WetBar (sorry, I forgot to get a picture) and started talking about all his ventures. Really cool guy. He now has his own web series with his own camera crew and everything on MSN Video and TheStreet.com, plus has been on CNBC many times, interviewed cool people like Richard Branson and has done some very interesting skits to teach people about stocks.

I told him he was going to be the Bill Nye the Science Guy of stocks one day because he makes his lessons informative yet interesting at the same time.

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One of the other things that fascinated me about this kid was instead of him publishing his book through a big publishing house, he decided to start his own publishing company to release his book. This caught my attention, because I love it when people embark upon an industry they know little to nothing about and succeed in it. So instead of going with a big publishing house and getting very small returns per-book, he can go through himself (and Amazon.com) and make a large sum per book. I love it!

If you haven’t heard about Tim Sykes by now, I have a feeling you’ll be hearing a lot more about him soon. I do know one thing though, his personality is a love-him or hate-him type. We were supposed to attend the Trader Monthly 30 Under 30 party while I was in New York, and Tim actually got DIS-INVITED!!! HA!!

Apparently the previous year he showed up in a bath robe to the party (which I think is completely hilarious and a nice break from the stuffy suits that always show up).

Check him out.

Improving By Being a Beginner

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While browsing through the bookstore I stumbled upon a section of books about online business, eCommerce and the like, and just for fun I decided to pickup this book called “Start an Online Business in 10 Days.”

With my smug attitude I was secretly thinking how I could (and have) put up fully functioning businesses within HOURS rather than days, and that I was “beyond” this book. However to humor myself I picked it up and thumbed through.

It had all the pretty basic information about what kind of software to use for an online store yadda yadda, but what caught my attention were all the details it had about a lot of small stuff I’ve never really paid much attention to. For example it had a section on how to format a professional looking email footer, and a section on what information should be on your contact page, and it gave examples of each used in other successful web businesses.

This got me thinking that I could use this beginner’s book as an outline to start improving upon my own online ventures. HouseOfRave.com started from scratch from my high school days, and has slowly been pieced together since then. Never have I once taken the time to properly format all these small elements into a professional looking end product, and to this day I still think some of the order flow or HouseOfRave could use drastic minor but very effective changes.

So instead of making a giant to-do list of general improvements I can make, I can read this book front to back while implementing the suggestions as I read! This will take much longer than reading the book first then making a list of improvements, but this way I won’t be overwhelmed by a massive and vague to-do list.

So this begineers book went from me scoffing at it, to me paying $19.99 for it and using it to re-vamp my sites.

I remember reading a quote (probably from TheKirkReport where I steal all my good quotes from):

“You can learn new things at any time in your life if you’re willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you.”
–Barbara Sher


P.S. Wow, I can make these posts so much faster when I don’t make accompanying pictures.

Take This and Run With It

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Here’s a GREAT business idea which anyone with a moderate level of computer knowledge can do in a reasonable amount of time, and I’d say make pretty damn good money with.

Truth is I tried this with Max from HowToBePoor.com over a year ago, but we were both too busy and the project fell off the charts. Just yesterday I got a notice from the hosting company we used that our hosting plan was cancelled due to non-payment, and it reminded me of this little gem of an idea: Selling Blogger Templates.

You can go to TemplateMonster.com and other websites to buy professional looking WordPress templates, but try buying Blogger templates…………go ahead, Google it. Find any? Neither did I.

All the offerings out there are free templates, and most of them look pretty bad. Compare these to the level of professional WordPress templates at TemplateMonster.com. Someone needs to fill in the gap and make a website selling Blogger templates.

When we tried doing this, we got the website up and running within a day, I believe this was the template we originally used:

Of course we changed all the images/text to a Blogger Template selling site. We posted the site at BloggerTemplateWorld.com (now a dead link). Somehow neither of us have the original files, so I can’t even put up a sample of exactly what it looked like.

Well since I’m no longer running with this idea, I hope someone else can, it seems like a very lucrative idea.

HOW TO SET IT UP:
This was my exact plan to make money off Blogger templates:

1.) Buy a decent looking, fully functioning OScommerce store from TemplateMonster. Price: $140. (You could even download a free one if you choose).

2.) Install the system. Hosting cost: approx. $5/month.

3.) Start making some templates! The cost here varies. If you can do this by yourself, it’s free, but will take at least a week or two to get 5-10 templates made. Blogger templates are extremely easy since there’s only one template to work with, not multiple like in WordPress. You can also mockup several Photoshopped versions of what you want the template to look like, then outsource the work to a designer for around $100/template.

4.) Add screenshots and preferably working demos of the templates to your site.

5.) Buy some Google AdWords with the term “Blogger Templates” to start promoting the site at first. Proper SEO will play an important role in the future success of the site, and OScommerce pretty much takes care of most of it for you. Perhaps even have a “free templates” section to lure people in and see the quality of your work.

6.) Start selling! Open up a Google Checkout account or PayPal account to accept credit cards, these integrate right in with OScommerce and most other shopping cart softwares.

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The beauty of getting this business setup is once you have a good selection of templates, there’s little to no overhead to run the business. You don’t even do anything, because when someone orders and pays, the OScommerce system automatically delivers the digital product package to their email!

There are literally millions of blogs on Blogger.com, and most of them use the same 30 or so plain-old templates…even NevBlog.com still uses the same old, ugly (but functional) Blogger template it started out with. Mainly because there’s no really attractive looking alternatives.


TARGET MARKET:
1,000,000’s+ blogs on Blogger.com.

PRICE RANGE:
$10 – $40 per template

PAID COMPETITION:
None.

STARTUP COSTS:
Between Free and $500

I figured there would be two ways to make money from this:

1.) Direct sales of the templates. This involves sending the buyer the template text file (which they just copy and paste) and uploading the template images to their own hosting service.

2.) If they are too technologically challenged to upload their own photos to a free service, you can always charge them a recurring $5/month for hosting them on your server. This way all they have to do is copy and paste ONE text file into their Blogger template. This is a good way to start building some recurring income.

The optimal person to run this idea would be a web designer, since they can create their own highly professional and unique templates for free in the beginning. Once the site starts making money, you can then hire someone to help keep adding templates.

I’d really love to see someone bring this idea to fruition, if you do, make sure to send me a link so I can see it! Best of luck.