Link of the day - I will pay you $25, if you come up with a cool domain name for me.
1. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
According to Pink (A Whole New Mind), everything we think we know about what motivates us is wrong. He pits the latest scientific discoveries about the mind against the outmoded wisdom that claims people can only be motivated by the hope of gain and the fear of loss. Pink cites a dizzying number of studies revealing that carrot and stick can actually significantly reduce the ability of workers to produce creative solutions to problems. What motivates us once our basic survival needs are met is the ability to grow and develop, to realize our fullest potential.
2. America, Welcome to the Poorhouse
When I first got this book I have to admit it was the picture and title on the cover that caught my original attention. I put it aside for about a month and the other day I had a flight with a small layover down to Houston, TX so I took this book along. The moment I started reading the introduction I got hooked -- and by the time I got to Houston about 3 hours later I had read all 190+ pages. Let me just say this -- by the time you get 5 pages in you will be angry; by the time you get all the way through the book you'll be mad as h-e-double hockey sticks! The author tells us the way things are and how we got here -- and let me tell you it isn't a pretty picture. She doesn't hold any punches back. This isn't an anti-Republican book, nor is it anti-Democrat. She puts the blame where it belongs. She traces the corruption of our political system that helped create the groundwork that let a lot of the financial mess happen in the first place. If you ever thought for one minute Senators care about your interests -- you got another think coming.
3. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
If you are going to write a guide to crafting sticky ideas, your book had better embody your principles. Authors Chip and Dan Heath succeed admirably. What I love about "Made to Stick" is that it is not merely entertaining (though it is), it provides practical, tangible strategies for creating sticky ideas. Once you understand these recommendations, you can boil them down to a set of touchstone points to evaluate your own work. This sets "Made to Stick" apart from the work of Malcolm Gladwell, whom the Heath brothers cite as an inspiration. I enjoyed Gladwell's books but could not necessarily apply his ideas to my own work.
4. This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
The authors say it is "almost comical" that no governments reveal their true financial condition today, nor have they done so in the past. The lack of transparency and the shenanigans that go on behind the curtains contribute, of course, to the human suffering that ensues in crisis after crisis. One needs to find this book comical if one is not to slip into a permanent depression about the utter failure of national leaders to address shortcomings in national domestic and foreign economic policies in order to avoid systemic crises. No one has, from the 13th century onward, anywhere in the world.
5. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
For a former baseball player Billy Beane is a rare bird as a baseball GM. He used real baseball statistics, the kind the sabermetricians use to make great trade and bring a strong team back to Oakland. He had a great advantage over other GMs because he took advantage of their ignorance and tendencies to rely on the somewhat biased eyes of basebll scouts. What Michael Lewis did with this book was to show the world of baseball how Billy Beane did it and now I am sure that other GMs like Brian Cashman at New York and Theo Epstein in Boston are catching on. I don't know how much Steve Phillips put into action when he was the Mets GM. His lack of great success there indicates that he [robably didn't follow it enough. But now as an ESPN commentator he definitely mentions it. This book si so good that the term moneyball now means the strategy that Billy Beane used. So the title of this book became a baseball term! This book is a must for managers, general managers and owners of professional baseball teams. It is also great for the fans and the fantasy baseball enthusiasts.
Link of the day - I will pay you $25, if you come up with a cool domain name for me.
Minggu, 08 Mei 2011
Jumat, 29 April 2011
MixPanel Review
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
http://mixpanel.com/
The average student sees an internship as an opportunity to earn credits, gain experience and penetrate social circles that may lead to referrals or future entry-level positions. But Suhail Doshi, the 22-year-old co-founder of San Francisco analytics company Mixpanel, is far from average.
In 2008, following his sophomore year at Arizona State University, Doshi interned at Slide, a developer of social media apps. His stint there resulted in a business idea--and an investor.
As an intern, Doshi became increasingly aware that companies such as Slide, Facebook and social media game maker Zynga all shared a common burden: the need to build custom analytics in-house, because existing alternatives didn't meet their needs.
While services like Google Analytics worked fine for tracking traditional usage metrics, Doshi realized that the new crop of social media, online gaming and application development companies needed a way to measure user engagement and interaction, not just page views. This discovery turned a conventional internship into a commercial idea.
Back at school the following semester, Doshi met the person who would help bring his idea to fruition: Tim Trefren, his classmate in a discrete math course at the time and now Mixpanel's 23-year-old co-founder.
In the spring of 2009, Doshi and Trefren applied for funding through Y Combinator, a California-based seed funder of more than 250 startups, including Reddit, Loopt and Justin.tv. They were accepted into the program and given $15,000 in seed funding, which allowed them to spend the summer building Mixpanel into a viable business.
Upon completing the Y Combinator program, they took an official leave of absence from ASU and used the connections gained from the Slide internship and Y Combinator experience to secure additional investments of around $500,000 from Max Levchin, founder of Slide and co-founder of PayPal, and Michael Birch, co-founder of social networking site Bebo and reminder and e-card site BirthdayAlarm.
The result was Mixpanel, a third-party analytics platform that allows customers to track--in real time--how their users interact with websites, social games, applications and more. Instead of focusing solely on page views, Mixpanel shows insight into user-defined events, such as buying virtual goods in a Facebook game. Mixpanel's clients can capture and compare the data to explore a multitude of variables, such as browser type or retention patterns.
"A lot of companies said they would never use third-party analytics software," Doshi says. "But we continued to build a strong product, and eventually the people who said no started saying yes."
For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.
[Via - Entrepreneur.Com]
The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions
IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy
101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads
Make Your Ideas Mean Business
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
http://mixpanel.com/
The average student sees an internship as an opportunity to earn credits, gain experience and penetrate social circles that may lead to referrals or future entry-level positions. But Suhail Doshi, the 22-year-old co-founder of San Francisco analytics company Mixpanel, is far from average.
In 2008, following his sophomore year at Arizona State University, Doshi interned at Slide, a developer of social media apps. His stint there resulted in a business idea--and an investor.
As an intern, Doshi became increasingly aware that companies such as Slide, Facebook and social media game maker Zynga all shared a common burden: the need to build custom analytics in-house, because existing alternatives didn't meet their needs.
While services like Google Analytics worked fine for tracking traditional usage metrics, Doshi realized that the new crop of social media, online gaming and application development companies needed a way to measure user engagement and interaction, not just page views. This discovery turned a conventional internship into a commercial idea.
Back at school the following semester, Doshi met the person who would help bring his idea to fruition: Tim Trefren, his classmate in a discrete math course at the time and now Mixpanel's 23-year-old co-founder.
In the spring of 2009, Doshi and Trefren applied for funding through Y Combinator, a California-based seed funder of more than 250 startups, including Reddit, Loopt and Justin.tv. They were accepted into the program and given $15,000 in seed funding, which allowed them to spend the summer building Mixpanel into a viable business.
Upon completing the Y Combinator program, they took an official leave of absence from ASU and used the connections gained from the Slide internship and Y Combinator experience to secure additional investments of around $500,000 from Max Levchin, founder of Slide and co-founder of PayPal, and Michael Birch, co-founder of social networking site Bebo and reminder and e-card site BirthdayAlarm.
The result was Mixpanel, a third-party analytics platform that allows customers to track--in real time--how their users interact with websites, social games, applications and more. Instead of focusing solely on page views, Mixpanel shows insight into user-defined events, such as buying virtual goods in a Facebook game. Mixpanel's clients can capture and compare the data to explore a multitude of variables, such as browser type or retention patterns.
"A lot of companies said they would never use third-party analytics software," Doshi says. "But we continued to build a strong product, and eventually the people who said no started saying yes."
For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.
[Via - Entrepreneur.Com]
The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions
IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy
101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads
Make Your Ideas Mean Business
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
Senin, 18 April 2011
Creative way to lower your mortgage payments.
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
http://www.adzookie.com
If consumers are willing to accept advertising on their cars, in their personal lives and on their social web pages, then why not their homes as well? That, indeed, is essentially the premise behind a new initiative from California-based mobile ad startup Adzookie, which just this week launched an effort to turn homes into giant advertising billboards.
To be eligible, homes must be owned by the consumer, not rented or leased. Owners must also agree to leave their home in its advertising-emblazoned state for at least three months, extendable up to a year. When those requirements are met, Adzookie will paint the entire outside of accepted houses with advertising, minus the roof, windows and any awnings. The painting process takes approximately three to five days. In exchange, Adzookie says it will pay the homeowner's mortgage for as long as the home remains painted with advertising. If for any reason the owner decides to cancel after three months — or if Adzookie cancels the agreement--the company will repaint the house back to its original colors.
Adzookie launched its effort last Tuesday, and by the afternoon of that same day, it had already received more than 1,000 applications, according to a report on CNN. The lesson to be learned? Never underestimate sellsumers' willingness to go a step further to earn some extra cash. Be inspired!
For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.
[Via - Springwise]
The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions
IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy
101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads
Make Your Ideas Mean Business
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
http://www.adzookie.com
If consumers are willing to accept advertising on their cars, in their personal lives and on their social web pages, then why not their homes as well? That, indeed, is essentially the premise behind a new initiative from California-based mobile ad startup Adzookie, which just this week launched an effort to turn homes into giant advertising billboards.
To be eligible, homes must be owned by the consumer, not rented or leased. Owners must also agree to leave their home in its advertising-emblazoned state for at least three months, extendable up to a year. When those requirements are met, Adzookie will paint the entire outside of accepted houses with advertising, minus the roof, windows and any awnings. The painting process takes approximately three to five days. In exchange, Adzookie says it will pay the homeowner's mortgage for as long as the home remains painted with advertising. If for any reason the owner decides to cancel after three months — or if Adzookie cancels the agreement--the company will repaint the house back to its original colors.
Adzookie launched its effort last Tuesday, and by the afternoon of that same day, it had already received more than 1,000 applications, according to a report on CNN. The lesson to be learned? Never underestimate sellsumers' willingness to go a step further to earn some extra cash. Be inspired!
For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.
[Via - Springwise]
The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions
IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy
101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads
Make Your Ideas Mean Business
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
Jumat, 08 April 2011
$350,000 Selling Shirts
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
http://www.blanklabel.com/
For thousands of Shanghai residents, shopping the city's fabric markets represents little more than an errand. But for Fan Bi, a 23-year-old native of Sydney, Australia, a visit during the summer of 2008 represented both a consumer epiphany and an entrepreneurial milestone.
The founder and "chief shirt" of apparel company Blank Label was vacationing between semesters at the University of New South Wales when he first discovered the vast difference between shopping by size for a pre-made garment and shopping by fabric for a custom-made garment.
"I used to buy dress shirts off the rack in Sydney," Bi says. "But this idea of going to a fabric market, being measured, being able to choose different fabrics … I thought, 'Wow, you know, this is a really different experience.'"
Not only was it a superior experience and product, Bi says, but it was also far less expensive than purchasing shirts of similar quality in stores--an advantage that led him to consider college students, a demographic urgently in need of dress shirts and suits upon graduation, but just as desperately in need of savings.
Bi's idea for a new customized apparel company was well timed--it corresponded with a trip to study abroad at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., just a few months later. Faculty helped Bi hone his idea, and he recruited campus sales reps. What he needed, though, was a polished e-commerce approach.
That's when he got a call from Danny Wong, Blank Label's 19-year-old co-founder. Wong saw one of Bi's job postings for campus reps and was interested in the Blank Label concept, but he thought he had more to offer with his knowledge of online operations.
Then a student at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass., Wong initiated what would become both a partnership and a massive company pivot by posing a single question: "What's your SEO strategy?" It wasn't long before Bi and Wong joined forces to leverage the global power of the web and teamed up with a West Coast partner and programmer. By the end of 2009, they had launched the Blank Label website.
"We want to be the destination where people can come and design their own apparel," Bi says. "You see a dress shirt on the left-hand side and then style options on the right-hand side." Indeed, online visitors can build a custom shirt by selecting a fabric, color combination and style of cuff, collar, placket, pocket, button, monogram, even custom label--all for less than $50.
Since the site's launch, customers worldwide have ordered more than 7,000 shirts, generating over $350,000 in revenue. And the web-oriented founders have managed almost the entire process remotely. "Thanks to the Internet," Bi says, "you can work with the best people in the world, not just the best people in your neighborhood."
For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.
[Via - Entrepreneur]
The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions
IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy
101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads
Make Your Ideas Mean Business
Diet programs reviews
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
http://www.blanklabel.com/
For thousands of Shanghai residents, shopping the city's fabric markets represents little more than an errand. But for Fan Bi, a 23-year-old native of Sydney, Australia, a visit during the summer of 2008 represented both a consumer epiphany and an entrepreneurial milestone.
The founder and "chief shirt" of apparel company Blank Label was vacationing between semesters at the University of New South Wales when he first discovered the vast difference between shopping by size for a pre-made garment and shopping by fabric for a custom-made garment.
"I used to buy dress shirts off the rack in Sydney," Bi says. "But this idea of going to a fabric market, being measured, being able to choose different fabrics … I thought, 'Wow, you know, this is a really different experience.'"
Not only was it a superior experience and product, Bi says, but it was also far less expensive than purchasing shirts of similar quality in stores--an advantage that led him to consider college students, a demographic urgently in need of dress shirts and suits upon graduation, but just as desperately in need of savings.
Bi's idea for a new customized apparel company was well timed--it corresponded with a trip to study abroad at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., just a few months later. Faculty helped Bi hone his idea, and he recruited campus sales reps. What he needed, though, was a polished e-commerce approach.
That's when he got a call from Danny Wong, Blank Label's 19-year-old co-founder. Wong saw one of Bi's job postings for campus reps and was interested in the Blank Label concept, but he thought he had more to offer with his knowledge of online operations.
Then a student at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass., Wong initiated what would become both a partnership and a massive company pivot by posing a single question: "What's your SEO strategy?" It wasn't long before Bi and Wong joined forces to leverage the global power of the web and teamed up with a West Coast partner and programmer. By the end of 2009, they had launched the Blank Label website.
"We want to be the destination where people can come and design their own apparel," Bi says. "You see a dress shirt on the left-hand side and then style options on the right-hand side." Indeed, online visitors can build a custom shirt by selecting a fabric, color combination and style of cuff, collar, placket, pocket, button, monogram, even custom label--all for less than $50.
Since the site's launch, customers worldwide have ordered more than 7,000 shirts, generating over $350,000 in revenue. And the web-oriented founders have managed almost the entire process remotely. "Thanks to the Internet," Bi says, "you can work with the best people in the world, not just the best people in your neighborhood."
For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.
[Via - Entrepreneur]
The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions
IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy
101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads
Make Your Ideas Mean Business
Diet programs reviews
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
Selasa, 29 Maret 2011
Pond Scum Cleaners
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
http://www.bluewaterpond.com/
Pond scum, or blue-green algae, is a common sight in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
For Blue Water Ponds, a start-up company operated by two recent college graduates, pond scum is a business opportunity.
The company, which won the student division of the 2010 Minnesota Cup challenge, aims to prevent summer algae blooms with a sustainable solution: barley. The company offers its services placing bales of pelletized barley into ponds in the spring and then harvests weeds in the summer to allow beneficial plants to continue growing. The treatment for the average pond hovers around $400 annually, said Ben Schurhamer, president of Blue Water Ponds.
"Barley straw has definitely shown efficacy," Dave Wright, a scientist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said. But the exact science behind the barley treatment is unknown. Two theories exist:
•The barley might create a competition between harmful plants and other bacteria for nutrient resources that wouldn't normally exist.
•Other bacteria might create a growth-inhibiting compound after feeding on the carbohydrate-rich barley, reducing algal growth.
"We don't know how, but the barley changes the biological composition of the water," Schurhamer said.
The idea of using barley to clear bacteria from water is not a new one.
Though the method has been around for thousands of years, it was modified in the 1990s by researchers in England and became a standard practice for the many lakes, canals and ponds across Great Britain.
The treatment has received a wide following in the past few years as a more environmentally stable means of algal control. Normally, pond and lake owners use synthetic algaecides such as Polyquat or the hypertoxic copper sulfate to control the plants.
Blue Water Ponds is one of the few companies in the area that offers the barley service. Metro area cities have used the treatment in more than 100 ponds in Bloomington, Shoreview, Minneapolis and others.
Connor McComas, an environmental sciences graduate of Iowa State University, and Schurhamer, a biochemistry graduate from the University of Minnesota, co-founded the company in 2007 after completing internships with an environmental sciences research group.
Blue Water Ponds started officially in 2009 as a two-man operation, but recently added two more full-time employees, and often adds one or two others during the spring. The company expects to complete barley treatments on 200 to 400 ponds this summer, and to generate between $20,000 and $30,000 in revenue, McComas said.
Bloomington used the method last year to clear local ponds of algae, duckweed and other nuisance plants in a more sustainable way.
"We've used herbicides in the past, but we started the barley method to try and identify a more sustainable measure," said Bryan Gruidl, a water resources specialist for the Bloomington Public Works Department.
Dawn Sommers, a public information manager for the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board, said that the city has been using the barley method for several years, and said it has been "very successful in helping control algal growth."
Sam Villella, a homeowner in Blaine, lives near a community pond that had serious algal problems for several years. The residents were eager to remove the slime that covered nearly a quarter of the water, but were extremely wary of pesticides that might add harmful chemicals to the water and hurt the wildlife in the area. Villella said after some searching, he discovered Blue Water Ponds, and employed them the next year. Villella said he and his neighbors were thrilled with the results.
"The difference was night and day," Villella said. "We were very happy with the clarity of the water, there was no slime, and there was no stink. Even people that were skeptical were amazed.''
For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.
[Via - StarTribune.Com]
The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions
IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy
101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads
Make Your Ideas Mean Business
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
http://www.bluewaterpond.com/
Pond scum, or blue-green algae, is a common sight in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
For Blue Water Ponds, a start-up company operated by two recent college graduates, pond scum is a business opportunity.
The company, which won the student division of the 2010 Minnesota Cup challenge, aims to prevent summer algae blooms with a sustainable solution: barley. The company offers its services placing bales of pelletized barley into ponds in the spring and then harvests weeds in the summer to allow beneficial plants to continue growing. The treatment for the average pond hovers around $400 annually, said Ben Schurhamer, president of Blue Water Ponds.
"Barley straw has definitely shown efficacy," Dave Wright, a scientist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said. But the exact science behind the barley treatment is unknown. Two theories exist:
•The barley might create a competition between harmful plants and other bacteria for nutrient resources that wouldn't normally exist.
•Other bacteria might create a growth-inhibiting compound after feeding on the carbohydrate-rich barley, reducing algal growth.
"We don't know how, but the barley changes the biological composition of the water," Schurhamer said.
The idea of using barley to clear bacteria from water is not a new one.
Though the method has been around for thousands of years, it was modified in the 1990s by researchers in England and became a standard practice for the many lakes, canals and ponds across Great Britain.
The treatment has received a wide following in the past few years as a more environmentally stable means of algal control. Normally, pond and lake owners use synthetic algaecides such as Polyquat or the hypertoxic copper sulfate to control the plants.
Blue Water Ponds is one of the few companies in the area that offers the barley service. Metro area cities have used the treatment in more than 100 ponds in Bloomington, Shoreview, Minneapolis and others.
Connor McComas, an environmental sciences graduate of Iowa State University, and Schurhamer, a biochemistry graduate from the University of Minnesota, co-founded the company in 2007 after completing internships with an environmental sciences research group.
Blue Water Ponds started officially in 2009 as a two-man operation, but recently added two more full-time employees, and often adds one or two others during the spring. The company expects to complete barley treatments on 200 to 400 ponds this summer, and to generate between $20,000 and $30,000 in revenue, McComas said.
Bloomington used the method last year to clear local ponds of algae, duckweed and other nuisance plants in a more sustainable way.
"We've used herbicides in the past, but we started the barley method to try and identify a more sustainable measure," said Bryan Gruidl, a water resources specialist for the Bloomington Public Works Department.
Dawn Sommers, a public information manager for the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board, said that the city has been using the barley method for several years, and said it has been "very successful in helping control algal growth."
Sam Villella, a homeowner in Blaine, lives near a community pond that had serious algal problems for several years. The residents were eager to remove the slime that covered nearly a quarter of the water, but were extremely wary of pesticides that might add harmful chemicals to the water and hurt the wildlife in the area. Villella said after some searching, he discovered Blue Water Ponds, and employed them the next year. Villella said he and his neighbors were thrilled with the results.
"The difference was night and day," Villella said. "We were very happy with the clarity of the water, there was no slime, and there was no stink. Even people that were skeptical were amazed.''
For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.
[Via - StarTribune.Com]
The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions
IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy
101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads
Make Your Ideas Mean Business
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
Sabtu, 19 Maret 2011
When Crazy Means Profitable
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
1000000 pixels, charge a dollar per pixel – that’s perhaps the dumbest idea for online business anyone could have possible come up with. Still, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old who came up with the idea, is now a millionaire.
2. PickyDomains
Hire another person to think of a cool domain name for you? No way people would pay for this. Actually, naming domain names for others turned out a thriving business, especially, when you make the entire process risk free. PickyDomains currently has a waiting list of people who want to PAY the service to come up with a snappy memorable domain name. PickyDomains is expected to hit six figures this year. Full Story
3. Doggles
Create goggles for dogs and sell them online? Boy, this IS the dumbest idea for a business. How in the world did they manage to become millionaires and have shops all over the world with that one? Beyond me.
4. LaserMonks
LaserMonks.com is a for-profit subsidiary of the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, an eight-monk monastery in the hills of Monroe County, 90 miles northwest of Madison. Yeah, real monks refilling your cartridges. Hallelujah! Their 2005 sales were $2.5 million! Praise the Lord. Full Story
5. AntennaBalls
You can’t sell antenna ball online. There is no way. And surely it wouldn’t make you rich. But this is exactly what Jason Wall did, and now he is now a millionaire. Full Story
6. FitDeck
Create a deck of cards featuring exercise routines, and sell it online for $18.95. Sounds like a disaster idea to me. But former Navy SEAL and fitness instructor Phil Black reported last year sales of $4.7 million. Surely beats what military pays.
How would you like to go on a date with an HIV positive person? Paul Graves and Brandon Koechlin thought that someone would, so they created a dating site for HIV positive folks last year. Projected 2006 sales are $110,000, and the two hope to have 50,000 members by their two-year mark.
Christie Rein was tired of carrying diapers around in a freezer bag. The 34-year-old mother of three found herself constantly stuffing diapers for her infant son into freezer bags to keep them from getting scrunched up in her purse. Rein wanted something that was compact, sleek and stylish, so in November 2004, she sat down with her husband, Marcus, who helped her design a custom diaper bag that’s big enough to hold a travel pack of wipes and two to four diapers. With more than $180,000 in sales for 2005, Christie’s company, Diapees & Wipees, has bags in 22 different styles, available online and in 120 boutiques across the globe for $14.99.
9. SantaMail
Ok, how’s that for a brilliant idea. Get a postal address at North Pole, Alaska, pretend you are Santa Claus and charge parents 10 bucks for every letter you send to their kids? Well, Byron Reese sent over 200000 letters since the start of the business in 2001, which makes him a couple million dollars richer. Full Story
Fake wishbones. Now, this stupid idea is just destined to flop. Who in the world needs FAKE PLASTIC wishbones? A lot of people, it turns out. Now producing 30,000 wishbones daily (they retail for 3 bucks a pop) Ken Ahroni, the company founder, expects 2006 sales to reach $1 million.
To see other businesses that have not made the top 10 list but came pretty close, visit Uncommon Business Ideas Blog
10+ Unusual Ways To Make Easy Money On The Internet If You Love Writing
Startups That Work: Surprising Research on What Makes or Breaks a New Company
Start Your Own Business for $1,000 or Less
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
Rabu, 16 Maret 2011
Spicy Ice Cream
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
http://jenisicecreams.com/
While most ice cream entrepreneurs concern themselves with perfecting basic vanilla and chocolate, Jeni Britton Bauer started her career experimenting with flavors like bacon, salmon and curry. Her first concoction was a combination of chocolate ice cream and cayenne pepper essential oil.
"I just thought it was a super-creative thing to do: make something frozen hot," Bauer says. "So when I did that, I started thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh, I've never had ice cream with rose petal or basil or all these other wonderful things.'"
While most ice cream entrepreneurs concern themselves with perfecting basic vanilla and chocolate, Jeni Britton Bauer started her career experimenting with flavors like bacon, salmon and curry. Her first concoction was a combination of chocolate ice cream and cayenne pepper essential oil.
"I just thought it was a super-creative thing to do: make something frozen hot," Bauer says. "So when I did that, I started thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh, I've never had ice cream with rose petal or basil or all these other wonderful things.'"
Bauer teamed up with a friend to launch her "starter business," an ice cream stand in Columbus, Ohio's North Market, a public market with artisan food businesses. Although that business closed in 2000, her love of making unusual ice cream was still strong.
She and her husband, Charly Bauer, began working on a new business plan and opened up a Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in 2002. Brother-in-law Tom Bauer joined the company as a partner a year later.
Determined to make her second run at the ice cream business a success, Bauer visited other food businesses and tried to figure out exactly why her first venture soured. She decided she needed to be meticulous about keeping customer favorites--such as salty caramel and wildberry lavender--in stock while using a second dipping freezer for more experimental flavors, which "could follow the seasons of the North Market."
Bauer also realized her pricey $10-per-pint flavors needed to have exceptional ingredients and be backed by a team of enthusiastic employees. With about 15,000 independent ice cream shops nationwide, according to the National Ice Cream Retailers Association, it's a tough market to crack.
Malcolm Stogo, founder of Riverdale, N.Y.-based ice cream consulting firm Malcolm Stogo Associates, thinks the Bauers' approach of branding themselves as the "unusual flavors" ice cream company was a smart one. He says the plan to start out very small and focus on the quality and uniqueness of the product, in addition to finding locations with high foot traffic, were key ingredients in Jeni's success.
Eight locations, plus Dean & DeLuca
But such success isn't always easy. Bauer agonizes over the texture of her ice cream and admits some of her more "out there" flavors don't work. (Roughly one in 100 makes the cut.) It takes about 16 weeks for the Jeni's team to take a flavor from concept to cooler, a nimbleness Stogo says is impossible for larger brands.
"When you think of ice cream, you have to think of milk as being water, protein, fat and lactose, which is sugar," Bauer says. "You have to think about how they all interplay together when they're frozen. If you don't understand those things, you'll have trouble making ice cream."
It's exactly that attention to detail that earns Jeni's its loyal clientele and has allowed the company to grow significantly despite the recession. The eighth Jeni's location is slated to open this April.
In 2006, a Jeni's customer took a job with Dean & DeLuca, a chain of upscale grocery stores based in New York City, and convinced co-founder Giorgio DeLuca to carry Jeni's ice cream. Since that first wholesale account, the Bauers have landed over 150 more nationwide.
The company also does a brisk online sales business of nearly 100,000 units per year--no small feat when you consider the costs of shipping ($10 to $35 per package). That's on top of the product itself, which runs $48 for four pints to $92 for nine. Bauer says her staff has grown to about 120 people, including 30 full-time office and production kitchen staff.
Even in the midst of the growth, Bauer still retreats to a small test kitchen to develop new flavors and nurture her creative side. While she claims she has never been an athlete, she likens the process to being part of a sports team.
"You come up with a game plan … your strategy," Bauer says, "and you do your best to execute it and hope that's enough."
For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.
[Via - Entrepreneur.Com]
The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions
IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy
101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads
Make Your Ideas Mean Business
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
http://jenisicecreams.com/
While most ice cream entrepreneurs concern themselves with perfecting basic vanilla and chocolate, Jeni Britton Bauer started her career experimenting with flavors like bacon, salmon and curry. Her first concoction was a combination of chocolate ice cream and cayenne pepper essential oil.
"I just thought it was a super-creative thing to do: make something frozen hot," Bauer says. "So when I did that, I started thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh, I've never had ice cream with rose petal or basil or all these other wonderful things.'"
While most ice cream entrepreneurs concern themselves with perfecting basic vanilla and chocolate, Jeni Britton Bauer started her career experimenting with flavors like bacon, salmon and curry. Her first concoction was a combination of chocolate ice cream and cayenne pepper essential oil.
"I just thought it was a super-creative thing to do: make something frozen hot," Bauer says. "So when I did that, I started thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh, I've never had ice cream with rose petal or basil or all these other wonderful things.'"
Bauer teamed up with a friend to launch her "starter business," an ice cream stand in Columbus, Ohio's North Market, a public market with artisan food businesses. Although that business closed in 2000, her love of making unusual ice cream was still strong.
She and her husband, Charly Bauer, began working on a new business plan and opened up a Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in 2002. Brother-in-law Tom Bauer joined the company as a partner a year later.
Determined to make her second run at the ice cream business a success, Bauer visited other food businesses and tried to figure out exactly why her first venture soured. She decided she needed to be meticulous about keeping customer favorites--such as salty caramel and wildberry lavender--in stock while using a second dipping freezer for more experimental flavors, which "could follow the seasons of the North Market."
Bauer also realized her pricey $10-per-pint flavors needed to have exceptional ingredients and be backed by a team of enthusiastic employees. With about 15,000 independent ice cream shops nationwide, according to the National Ice Cream Retailers Association, it's a tough market to crack.
Malcolm Stogo, founder of Riverdale, N.Y.-based ice cream consulting firm Malcolm Stogo Associates, thinks the Bauers' approach of branding themselves as the "unusual flavors" ice cream company was a smart one. He says the plan to start out very small and focus on the quality and uniqueness of the product, in addition to finding locations with high foot traffic, were key ingredients in Jeni's success.
Eight locations, plus Dean & DeLuca
But such success isn't always easy. Bauer agonizes over the texture of her ice cream and admits some of her more "out there" flavors don't work. (Roughly one in 100 makes the cut.) It takes about 16 weeks for the Jeni's team to take a flavor from concept to cooler, a nimbleness Stogo says is impossible for larger brands.
"When you think of ice cream, you have to think of milk as being water, protein, fat and lactose, which is sugar," Bauer says. "You have to think about how they all interplay together when they're frozen. If you don't understand those things, you'll have trouble making ice cream."
It's exactly that attention to detail that earns Jeni's its loyal clientele and has allowed the company to grow significantly despite the recession. The eighth Jeni's location is slated to open this April.
In 2006, a Jeni's customer took a job with Dean & DeLuca, a chain of upscale grocery stores based in New York City, and convinced co-founder Giorgio DeLuca to carry Jeni's ice cream. Since that first wholesale account, the Bauers have landed over 150 more nationwide.
The company also does a brisk online sales business of nearly 100,000 units per year--no small feat when you consider the costs of shipping ($10 to $35 per package). That's on top of the product itself, which runs $48 for four pints to $92 for nine. Bauer says her staff has grown to about 120 people, including 30 full-time office and production kitchen staff.
Even in the midst of the growth, Bauer still retreats to a small test kitchen to develop new flavors and nurture her creative side. While she claims she has never been an athlete, she likens the process to being part of a sports team.
"You come up with a game plan … your strategy," Bauer says, "and you do your best to execute it and hope that's enough."
For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.
[Via - Entrepreneur.Com]
The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions
IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy
101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads
Make Your Ideas Mean Business
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
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