Uncategorized

I completely removed Google ads from my site. I never liked them in the first place, so I never put them on my main site, but I did stick them in the forums.

Even there, they still bugged me. It’s time they go.

-Nev

A very financially wise (and well off because of it) person told me last weekend, “Most vast fortunes were created by people who were idle when things were good, and active when things were bad.” This means they sat on cash during good times, and bought everything during bad times.

This conversation was about real estate and the regentrification of a bad area of town. The West side of Austin has historically been the posh side of town. All the skyscrapers, clubs, malls etc. are built on the West side, leaving the East side to deteriorate.

This is what West Austin looks like.

This is what much of East Austin looks like.

For example, West 6th Street is a bustling entertainment area. Cross the freeway (I-35), and East 6th Street starts out with a car junkyard followed by a string of run down buildings. There is a distinct difference.

The funny thing is, just recently land prices jumped in parts of East Austin, and some newer, nicer buildings have started to creep up. On a recent drive through the area, I saw a brand new condominium establishment amidst the old buildings. On the lot next to it, a bigger and better condominium establishment is under construction. These are luxury condo’s on EAST 6th street. I smell regentrification.

These condos are nothing amazing, but they by no means fit in with their less-attractive surroundings:

Spotting regentrification of an area is a common theme some business men I know have very profitably used. They buy old and unwanted properties in bad areas, fix them up, then sell at a premium as the area increases in value. Of course everyone thinks they are crazy when they first buy in these terrible areas.

The lesson to learn is not to jump in when everyone is jumping in. Since real estate is such a hot topic right now, I’m sitting out. The people who took the initial risk of building nice properties in East Austin will reap the most reward, as newer establishments will pop up right around them. The people who jump in after them can reap some reward, but not nearly the same amount.

Great riches will be found in this unconventional area. The builders can offer swanky accomodations that feature cheaper prices and cheaper taxes, yet walking distance to Downtown. Smart.

I have two classes where I take great notes: Marketing and Asian Studies.

My Asian Studies class has 60 people and my marketing class has 488 registered students in it. It’s finals time, and I decided to sell my entire semesters notes in each class for $5 bucks a pop.

I expected to make about $15 or $20.

Asian Studies Class:
I sent a mass email to the class, including this link as an example of my notes:
https://www.neville1.com/asia-notes.html

I got about 5 responses in two hours. Unfortunately, my Asian Atudies professor was one of the respondents saying:

“Dear students, I appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit shown here, but buying and selling notes is unethical!”

Unethical? Maybe. Illegal? Not at all. I knew I could win this battle, but she was a great professor and I decided to respect her wishes. I sent out another email retracting my offer to that class and apologized for any unethical behavior on my part.

Money Made on Asia class = $0.00
————————————————–

Marketing Class:
I sent out another mass email including this link as an example of my notes:
https://www.neville1.com/marketing-notes.html

I got about 35 responses in two hours. Every time I checked my email after that I got even more potential buyers.

Some interesting responses though. I got THREE “fan-mail” letters simply saying

“I don’t want the notes, but you are very enterprising.
Goodluck on the test!”

My favorite emails however were the hate-mail letters I got. I got four of them. This guy could have effectively killed my sales if he had used proper spelling and grammar in his email sent to the whole class:

From: csonnier@mail.utexas.edu – Coby Jude Sonnier.
“i’ve got notes for free. the whole outline. hit me up and i’ll email it to you cause i could care less about makin money like this guy. its in word so make sure you have it. -coby”

Surprisingly, I still got 9 orders after Coby’s email went out. This next guy offered me one dollar for the notes. When I responded saying the notes were fixed at $5, he wrote back:

From: chillaxer0008@mail.utexas.edu – Jorge Eduardo Leal Jr.

“No deal, final offer is $2.50 for the complete study note. Considering your probably lack of sales with the study notes, here’s your chance to make a sail.”

My last chance to make a SAIL?? I was selling notes, not preparing for a Regatta. He then responded again:

From: chillaxer0008@mail.utexas.edu – Jorge Eduardo Leal Jr.

“You just dont get it man,selfish bastard, stop trying so
hard to make money,eventually everything will work out”

Yeah Jorge, NOT trying hard to make money will really rocket me into wealth. Good luck with your strategy. You better start buying lottery tickets buddy.

This next guy was not a man of many words:
From: h00ter_bill@mail.utexas.edu – Dustin Travis Jenkins

“go fuck yourself”

Very well said. Almost poetic.

SO after shooting a few fun emails back to my newfound friends in the lower echelons of society, I tabulated my results:

Not bad for one class. I also learned that if I had done the exam review and included it in the notes, I could have sold them for $10 a pop easily.

It’s finals time so I must go study, but I hope you enjoyed watching me SAIL my notes!
-Nev

Coby Sonnier, Coby Jude Sonnier, Jorge Eduardo Leal Jr., Jorge Eduardo Leal, Jorge Leal, Dustin Travis Jenkins, Dustin Jenkins

I was cruising around the web one day when I stumbled upon ANOTHER financial blog. I’m not going to lie, I’m getting sick of these things popping up. I delete many off my list after 2 or 3 months.

Have a computer and a stubby protuberance on your body to type with???

Obviously many of these blogs are useful and interesting, and I do enjoy financial blogs from real experts in their field, or at least people who practice what they preach.

WHAT I REALLY LIKE are financial blogs where people keep track of their plans to make more money or outline their goals for success (whatever they may consider success).

Smarty runs a blog called Growing Money where he thinks of new ways to increase his wealth little by little. He did a whole series of money-making idea posts which I felt were “All hat and no cattle” so I challenged him to act upon one of them. Well, he did.

He Ebayed a bunch of his junk and will report the results. I told him I’d link him if he completed one of his ideas. Well here you go! Smarty, Growing Money, Smarty Growing Money
Ebaying is easy Smarty, your next challenge is to do something more gutsy! I am interested to see your results though.

On another ‘note’, literally…..I sold my class notes for two of my classes yesterday. The results were not what I expected! I will report full results by Friday.

Another thing, the Bottled Water Experiment continuation is not going well. I’ve met with Barry every day for the last week, only to be dissapointed by the weather. We need hot and swealtering….not cool, windy and gloomy like this whole last week.

Ciao,
-Nev

Yesterday morning I got a pleasant surprise as Dynegy (DYN) was up 12% in my portfolio after a steady, downward decline.

After learning to be patient with my portfolio, it has really paid off. Dynegy has for example has earned me a 25% profit at times and put me in a 30% loss at times….but that’s in the short term. I won’t even bother explaining why long term holding makes a lot of sense, I’ll let Ramit Sethi from “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” do all the work.

Water Experiment Update:

After going home for Mother’s Day this weekend (I actually forgot to bring any clothes to Houston!), I found Barry yesterday and loaded him up with the remaining 60 bottles of unsold water.

Once we unloaded the water from my trunk, the sky became dark and the air became cool. Not good for selling water. Needless to say, sales were extremely low, and we rescheduled the selling.

Despite the results, Barry was still optimistic about upcoming hot, summer days:

So far, this bottled water thing is NOT going how I expected. But with the low sales aside, you’ve got to appreciate the fact his shirt says “Water $1” and then “Captain Morgan“!

Roadside liquor sales?? Now THAT’S a good idea!

During my first bottled water experiment I learned how to setup shop and shamelessly sell a product. The next item on my agenda is to delegate that task to others while I do nothing.

During the first experiment I met a homelss guy named Barry. He has a can-do attitude and also likes to make money. What he does NOT have is Capital and transportation.

Well I do.

I recently tracked Barry down and gave him a proposal. If I set him up with several cases of ice cold bottled water and a couple of ice chests, he could sell the water all day (instead of simply begging for money) and we would split the revenue down the middle. Obviously at first I get the sour end of this because I will be paying for everything…..but I also don’t do a fraction of the work he will have to do.

SO LET’S GET STARTED:

The previous day I went to Walmart and loaded up my car with 5 cases of water and one ice chest.

120 bottles of water cost me $19.80 + tax. The cooler cost me $18.86 and tax.
Total Spent so Far: $40.22
Even if he sells all 120 bottles, I will barely make a $20 profit on the first run.

I then brought all the products home and began cooling them:

Each 24 pack case had 3 gallons of water and packaging:
1 Gallon = 8 lbs.
1 Case = 24 lbs.
5 Cases = 120 lbs.

I could only fit 3 of the cases for cooling overnight. The rest would be cooled in the ice chest later.

The next morning I met near the selling corner where Barry and I agreed to meet at exactly 10:00am. He showed up exactly on time (Seriously, the SECOND my watch hit 10, he showed up riding a bicycle). Unfortunately for us, it was gloomy and under 70 degrees (I’m in Texas approaching summer…what the hell!?!)

I gave him another shirt I made that said “Water $1” on both sides. I forgot to take a picture but it looked exactly like the last one I made:

Barry then immediately started selling the already-chilled bottles of water while I made an ice-run (I didn’t buy ice in case he didn’t show up). I went to 711 and bought 40 lbs. of ice, a sandwich for Barry and a spare box (box was free). The total came to $9.22 . Total cost of experiment so far: $49.44. The chance of making a profit are pretty much gone now.

We loaded up the ice chests with water and ice, Barry did most of the work.

I had got the spare box from 711 upon Barry’s request. He had an idea where he would place the box saying “Bottled Water $1” further down from his starting point, informing drivers of the approaching vendor.

Before I saw what he wrote he said, “Damn, I spelled ‘bottle’ wrong and I misplaced the dollar sign.” It was too late to change the spelling, and we both agreed the comedic value would probably increase sales!

Before I left for class, we took a pic together. A guy in a wheelchair took it. I accidentally had the camera on black&white mode. I only sold one bottle of water, and that was on accident. A taxi driver saw me carrying the “Bottel” box, smiled and pulled out a dollar. I sold a bottle before I even reached the median, without trying! Keep in mind the purpose of this is to delegate the grunt work.

Barry tried his best to look clean, I even brought him an old pair of shorts I no longer use.

BUT ALL HOPE IS NOT LOST. This Wednesday Barry will sell the remaining 60 bottles. It shouldn’t cost me anything as the bottles are still being chilled with the same ice in the coolers.

We also want to give Barry a “brand name” by making him the “Water Guy” that everyone knows and trusts. People are more likely to give money when it looks like you are working for it.

This water experiment might actually turn out to be a decently lucrative side income for me in summer. I will be in Austin over the summer, and Barry is willing to work everyday. I will keep posting updates on the progress!

-Nev

Frequently when starting a new business, the proprietor will usually experience a certain amount of criticism and skepticism from others.

If the business fails, the proprietor will get a million “I-told-ya-so’s”….but if it succeeds, everyone wants to be your friend.

Here is a quick illustration of this phenomenon.

Notice the rapid change of opinion once success has been tasted. The reason is because most people are afraid to take the risk of failing (which pretty much every entrepreneur will do at some point).

Once the original proprietor has got through all the initial risk, it is very easy to find people who all of a sudden think the business was a great idea.

Lesson Learned: While you should take comments to heart, you should not let doubters discourage you from trying a new business idea. Business ideas are only good as their jockey’s.

Starting a side income is not hard as most people think. Take for example the “business” I thought of, then created in 15 minutes: www.FancyBlog.com

FancyBlog will be one of the only sites that offers free blog templates for a variety of blogging formats.

FancyBlog will offer:
Blogger Templates
Xanga Templates
Xanga Skins
Movable Type Templates
WordPress Templates

Here is the quick story of how I thought of and ACTED UPON the idea behind FancyBlog. This all happened on Sunday (4-10-2005) at 2:15pm:

• 2:15pm – Doing some work at a coffee house when….
• 2:16pm – Realized people like to “fancy up” their blogs.
• 2:17pm – Checked availability of domain name.
• 2:19pm – Had the domain name registered.
• 2:20pm – Setup the DNS service on my server
• 2:22pm – Designed a simple yet dynamicly upgradable site.
• 2:25pm – Posted 2 blog templates for each blogging format.
• 2:28pm – Adjustments and preperation for more templates.
• 2:29pm – Added an advertisment for another business.
• 2:30pm – BAM!! NEW ONLINE BUSINESS!

Will I make any advertising money on this? Who knows. Did I complete a business from “idea” to “live” in the time it takes to watch half a sit-com?….you betchyour ass I did. New blogs will continually be added and the business will hopefully take off.

Ideas are all around, just keep your eyes open for them.

On another note, people have lately been asking how much traffic I get. Here is a direct screenshot of my Plesk reports:

(Keep in mind that April is not over, so all traffic is not accounted for)

I love google and everything they do. Google.com is my homepage and I use just about every feature on the Google Toolbar (which is the BEST software product in the WORLD….in my opinion).

Check out this simply AMAZING map tool. It’s a version of Google Maps where you can actually view satellite images of any location you enter. You’ll see what I mean: Google Maps (click on “satellite” at the top/right).

They are extremely innovative, fast-paced, a money-making machine and OVERPRICED.

Google is in a quick-growth phase. Take a look at a yearly chart:

It took only 5 months for the stock to double, not uncommon, but this is a stock with a $50,000,000,000 market cap. ($64 Billion at the time of this writing). The P/E ratio for Google has been over 140 for quite some time….it’s like a bull maket relic!

I’m sure there is tons of money to be made with the Google stock, but I am going to stay conservative and not buy. “Everyhing reverts back to the mean” according to Warren Buffet, who was also one of the few investors to come out of the tech bubble in a profit.

Take a look at a five year chart I pulled of Google:

Viewing the yearly chart really shows the rapid growth of Google. While I love ’em, I feel paying for a stock trading with a 140 P/E spells disaster in the longterm.

I’m looking to open an E-Trade account in addition to my current Ameritrade account. E-Trade allows you to buy specific international stocks, and I’ve had my eye on a few lately.

I could really go for a Google Lunch right now.
Ciao.

Publicity, companies pay dearly for it and many people (such as bloggers) want it.
But how can you get free publicity?

An easy answer can be found by viewing some successes of the free publicity world. This is the stuff they do not teach in marketing classes:

Eminem –
A white rapper that spits out lyrics which offend, criticize and make fun of every imaginable race, gender, ethnicity and celebrity out there. He has effectively used “bad” publicity to propel him to one of the top selling rappers of all time.

GoldenPalace.com –
In the extremely lucrative online gambling business, it is important to get your name out there. GoldenPalace has taken on a completely unorthodoxed approach for their advertising.
They bought on Ebay:

• Ad space on a woman’ cleavage. (here)
• A 10 year old grilled cheese sandwich which has an apparent image of the Virgin Mary for $28,000 (here)
• A “haunted walking cane” bought for $65,000
• Bumper sticker for $10,000
• Much more crazy stuff

Is this the most foolishly spent money ever, or the sign of a brilliant ad campaign? By buying a $28,000 grilled cheese sandwich, GoldenPalace got tons of free media attention on CNN, The Register, BBC, Fox, local stations, newspapers, magazines and now my site. Looks like their “silly purchases” bought them a lot more name recognition than a television ad or other conventional method.

Marilyn Manson –
Gained tons of free publicity from his outrageous stage antics. His name is now known all across America and all the way to the bank. People would stage protests during his concerts which would just give him free media attention.

Maddox –
The prodigal example of how controversy = free advertisement. His painfully simple website which is not even updated that often receives more traffic than McDonald’s. He recently surpassed his 100-millionth visit. His website is so popular that his Google PageRank rivals CNN.com. The “Mothers Against Maddox” online petition actually boosted his visits, because:

If you ask me, this guy knows what he’s doing. He now has a book coming out thanks to his mass exposure.

——–

Controversy, scandals and rivalries get lots of attention. The effective use of these can mean tons of exposure for $0.00

These are just a few examples, fill up the comments section with other examples you may know of. I love hearing of how people exploit the free publicity machine.

Noah Kagan brought to my attention this blurb. In the comments they call me a “Bernie-Ebbers-in-training”….but they are just bringing more and more attention to my site. As a media-whore entrepreneur friend of mine once told me, “Let them say what they want, just make sure they spell your name right.”