I Got a Crush on Obama
Posted on June 26, 2007 by Neo
Filed Under General | 1 Comment
This post isn’t about the “I got a crush on Obama” video. It’s about what this video means. This is going to be the first presidential election in the internet video era. I think that this video is going to wake up many politicians. The fact that ordinary people can create they’re own videos about candidates and get the SAME media attention and press coverage of the big networks has got to be scary.
While I have no idea if the video is helping or hurting Obama, it is definitely increasing his reach in the online world. I’m not really into politics and have no opinion on this actual video by BarelyPolitical.com. I just think that it’s a new barrier broken for the internet.
We may start to see floods of online videos from candidates very very soon. The videos may not be from the candidates themselves, but may be secretly funded by them. While the standard boring ones probably won’t get alot of views, I’m sure there will be some very creative videos coming soon.
Win a Ipod Shuffle at Live Learn Invest
Posted on June 20, 2007 by Max
Filed Under Internet Biz | Leave a Comment
Two contests in one day?? I’m contest whoring today.
Live Learn Invest is running a simple contest where the winner gets an Ipod Shuffle and a free linkback. The main difference between this one and many of the others that I’ve seen is that he’s promoting a different site and mainly wants a link to Printed Circuit Boards instead of his blog.
You don’t have to write a review of the blog or even create a separate post even though I did. So if you’d like a free linkback from a PR4 site and a chance to win an Ipod Shuffle go check out his contest.
Pure Blogging Contest for $200!
Posted on June 20, 2007 by Max
Filed Under Internet Biz | Leave a Comment
Pure Blogging is holding 2 separate contests this month worth a total of $200. The contest rules are here.
Pure Blogging is awarding $100 CASH to whoever posts the 1000th comment on his blog. The blog is in the 800 comment range, so hurry up and comment. Also, there is a random drawing for another $100 CASH to anyone who blogs about this contest, like what I’m doing right now!
25 Blogs with Page Ranking and low Top Commentators
Posted on June 18, 2007 by Neo
Filed Under Internet Biz | 19 Comments
In my post about increasing your site ranking through commenting I mentioned that the fastest way to boost your Technorati authority and get high ranking inbound links is to find blogs that have high PR and low Top Commentators and comment regularly on their site.
There are literally thousands of sites out there that fit this criteria and in all honesty it’s not worth the trouble to keep these dynamic links up if this is your main source of inbound links. However, this is a very quick way to boost your link very fast on any blog. I was able to pump this blog from 0 to 20 high PR links within 3 days. My friend, who had more initiative went from 0 to a whopping 100+ in a week. I wouldn’t recommend this unless you have alot of time on your hands and want to comment yourself to death in the future to keep up the links.
Using this method has additional “side effect” benefits. If you visit all 25 of the blogs below with the sole intention of getting on their top commentators list, chances are that you will actually become a regular reader to a few of the blogs. Also your comments will generate traffic back to your blog. So make quality comments!
Here is a list of 25 sites that have low top commentators. They are listed by PR and the number to the right is the current lowest number of comments you need to get on their list. The page rank was determined using the Google Toolbar.
PR6
- Shoemoney - 7
- JohnTP.com - 1
PR5
- Lazy Man and Money - 2
- Everybody Goto - 1
- Bigger Pockets - 1
- Vincent Chow - 3
- Infektia - 2
- Steve Olson - 2
- Kyles Cove - 4
- Jeff Kee’s Blog - 3
PR4
- Live Learn Invest - 2
- All Tips and Tricks - 1
- Gather Success - 3
- Vinod Live - 5
- Geeks are Sexy - 1
- Blogging Away Debt - 3
- Harpzon - 1
- Investor Trip - 2
PR3
- Gadget Venue - 1
- Make Money Online - 2
- Thor Schrock’s Technology Blog - 1
- Webgrrrl - 2
- Seeds for Wealth - 1
PR2
- Pure Blogging - 3
- How to Buy Websites - 2
And of course… this lowly blog
- 2 Bros Blogging - 3
I hate cheap businesses
Posted on June 17, 2007 by Neo
Filed Under General | 3 Comments
Today, I go to fill up my gas tank at a local gas station that I never go to. This one always seems to be empty, there is never a wait for gas here. I slide my credit card in the pump and proceed to fill up my tank. While I’m waiting, I go inside and grab a bottle of Pepsi. The bottle costs $1.39 and I don’t have any cash, so I take out my credit card to pay for it. The guy points to a sign and says “There’s a $0.50 charge for purchases under $5.00.”
I tell him I’m paying $50.00 for gas outside! I’m charging well over the $5.00 minimum. He’s says it’s a $5.00 minimum per charge. What a crock of sh!t. I just left in amazement. I wish I could have unfilled my tank cause I’m obviously never coming back.
Why do some businesses lose customers over a few pennies. Was he not going to make a profit off the $1.39 Pepsi?
Here are some huge pet peeves of mine when it comes to cheap ass businesses.
1) I once went to a hamburger/hotdog place that charged extra for condiments. Seriously, it was like $0.10 for onions, $0.10 for relish, $0.10 for ketchup! The place was out of business a few months later.
2) Italian restaurants that don’t give you enough pasta. Come on! That’s the cheap part of the meal. Piling on the pasta gives the impression that you give huge portions.
3) Chinese restaurants that charge extra for sweet & sour or soy sauce packets on take out orders. Is it really costing you that much money? Are people just hoarding soy sauce so they don’t have to buy the bottle?
4) Fast food places that don’t let you get your own napkins. Then when you go ask for some they give you “one” napkin. Ok, how am I suppose to eat your greasy food with one napkin.
Any others?
African safari video - Lions, Buffalo, Crocs… can we ask for more?
Posted on June 15, 2007 by Neo
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment
Here is a video taken by vacationers on safari in Africa. They definitely got to see a once in a lifetime battle between buffalo, lions and crocodiles. For those in a time crunch you can begin watching it at the 6:25 mark (timer goes backwards).
Interesting timeline points (backward timer):
- 6:15 - Lion makes a great tackle
- 4:50 - Enter the crocodile, tug o war
- 3:15 - The buffalo fight back
- 2:38 - Lion goes airborne
- 1:59 - Baby buffalo saved!
Should you feel bad for not tipping?
Posted on June 14, 2007 by Neo
Filed Under Finance | 3 Comments
Today, I played golf for the first time in 3 years. We played at a fancy course but got a nice first timer’s discount for $20. I know that golf is an expensive sport. In addition to the greens fee, I had to buy some golf balls and tees, another $20. Then halfway through the round we met the drink cart girl and got a Dr. Pepper for $3. That’s all fine and dandy except that we get back to the club house and there’s a guy there who cleans your club heads.
See, I don’t play golf so I don’t know this. I walk over to the throw away the empty Dr. Pepper bottle in the trash and when I come back, I see this guy cleaning my clubs with a towel. Well, I don’t have any more cash on me, since I spent $3 on soda earlier. So I tell him to stop. He says, “too late, all done” expecting a tip I presume. If I had a dollar or two, I would have gave it to him, but I didn’t so I just said thanks. He seemed miffed.
As I was driving home I got to thinking… Why should I feel bad for not tipping him? I didn’t ask him to clean my clubs. He just went and did it. If I had $2 in my wallet, it would be $2 lighter right now. Is that how easily I spend my money? I look for sales, online coupons, use pricegrabber to save a few bucks. Then I would just give it away to some guy for 30 seconds of work. Geez, I better think before I tip now.
IKEA makes you pay for plastic bags
Posted on June 13, 2007 by Neo
Filed Under General | 4 Comments
I was at IKEA today and after I bought my stuff I realized that I didn’t have any bags to carry my stuff out. For those who don’t shop at IKEA, you self bag your things after checkout. I looked around and couldn’t find any. When I asked the cashier for some bags she told me that they are $0.05 each. I was like WTF? How am I suppose to carry this stuff from my car to my house once I get home? While I was there watching, I found that most people paid for the $0.59 bags because they are reusable. But honestly, who’s gonna remember to bring their $0.59 bag back the next time they shop IKEA.
Still in disbelief, I had to go back to the line and take a picture of the sign with my camera phone.
How Real Estate Investing Keeps Your Taxes Low
Posted on June 9, 2007 by Max
Filed Under Real Estate | Leave a Comment
An attractive element of real estate investment is that it creates a paper loss when in actuality you have gains. To understand how this can lower your taxes while increasing your income, here’s a quick example.
| Rental Condo | |
| Rent Collected | $15,200 |
| Mortgage Pmts | (9,000) |
| Assessments | (2,000) |
| Taxes | (2,000) |
| Insurance | (200) |
| Total Cashflow | $2,000 |
| ——————– | |
| Depreciation | (7,000) |
| Total Income | ($5,000) |
The rental condo produced $2,000 in income - $2,000 of real money in your pocket. When depreciation expense is included, the condo shows a loss of $5,000. However, the loss is a result of depreciation, a non-cash expense. What this means is that depreciation is expensed on the income statement, but does not represent a real cash outflow, so it creates a loss on paper despite the positive cashflow in reality.
Now if you had 5 condos just like this one, you have reduced your taxable income by $25,000 (the passive rental loss limit you can deduct by law), when you have actually earned $10,000 from your properties.
Case in point. Last year, my salary was in the six figures. But my taxable income, due passive rental losses and other deductions, was a mere $36K. I paid only $5K in taxes.
Why are we addicted to reading blogs?
Posted on June 7, 2007 by Max
Filed Under General | 3 Comments
During the early days of the internet, I found myself passing work time through a slow AOL connection and reading discussion groups and usenets. Why did I read these? Because the content on these were submitted by readers and were updated daily.
Fast forward to the introduction of the web in 1994. Most webpages were static, once you read them that was it. They were updated maybe once a month. As the web evolved the news sites like Yahoo & MSN had daily updates. But reading the news gets old and it’s not really that captivating.
Blogs can be like ongoing TV shows. They can be the source of many hours of reading. With the advent of blogs, we became exposed to literally millions of on-going real life stories posted by the everyday person. When reading these blogs, one gets caught in a life story. We get to read about what other people are doing as they do it. Best of all, we can comment and make suggestions and actually make a difference. It’s like reality TV that interacts with you.
It’s no wonder that people are addicted to blogs. They have great un-edited content. They have new posts daily. You can interact directly with the author. And there is a blog for every subject in the world.
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