The Rawpinions Weblog

I’ve been pretty stressed out lately, esp. because I’m very serious about starting my own thing and have been working hard this past 2 weeks (or has it been 2 weeks yet?) to settling everything that needs to be settled.  I’m not one to sit on an idea for 10 years and hope that one day the idea jumps out of my head and decides to develop itself.

I settled a whole lot of things last week.  Everything that could be done last week was done that same week (except for the logo).  My aim this week was to understand the legal stuff that needed to be cleared…right at the beginning of this week, someone told me I had to get a whole bunch of things “signed, sealed & delivered”.  That’s why I spent about 3 days procrastinating…because I was too stressed out (I also have other things on my mind that’s stressing me out but I don’t want to talk about it).

Last night, someone who deals with businesses like mine told me “nope, you seem to have everything in place, I don’t see why you’re not launching…” It’s just one of those times…you don’t know whether you’re glad about the burden off your back or even more frustrated because the stress made you relax for too long.  I literally refused a customer last week because I was “not ready with things”.  If I was dependent on this thing, that delay alone would have costed me food for a week.

I was going to get my elder brother to go over a sort of contract thing…I think I remember him saying he majored in business law…except I don’t really want to bother him, nor do I want my family members minding my business (every aspect of the word).

Ok, so whatever.  I only have the logo on pending and that’s pretty much it…I think.  It probably really is that simple.  I’ll just brace myself & roll with the punches.

A few days ago, one of my friends told me that she also wanted to start her own thing but wasn’t really sure how to go about starting.  Because of that, she’s decided to try starting up “one day”.  I must admit, I was a little disappointed hearing that.  I’m starting to believe that it’s not quite the start-up factors that don’t get people to start their own thing (or at least try to) but the fear they have inside them; the fear of embarking on something new and unpredictable.

One of my other friends have decided to take on that challenge though, she’s taken a huge leap and I admire her for that.

———-

Anyways…in other news, the Rawpinions.com logo symbol is due today (Friday).  I have made some sketches on a piece of paper, but I don’t have it on an image format just yet.  Off first, to watch So You Think You Can Dance (*sigh* William <3) and I’ll work on that logo thingy in a few hours.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to make myself a cup of tea.  It’ll taste great with the mouthful of jealousy I’m about to consume.:(

Yesterday, I was feeling a bit tired so I decided to browse paipai.com (China auction site).  I actually like paipai.com more than taobao.com (most popular China auction site), ‘coz it’s more…colourful.

So I decided to search for “塞舌尔” which is Chinese for “Seychelles”.  Apparently, 2 people are trying to sell 10 rupees for 20 and another for 30 yuan.

So now I know what “rupee” is in Chinese: “卢比” - I used to think it was “塞舌尔元” or something along those lines.  I don’t think I was entirely wrong though…just not entirely correct. *lol*

When I first got here a few years ago, the rupees was valued at 5.5688 to the dollar, and RMB was at around 8.1.  Now, rupees is at 8, and RMB is at 6.8 (or 6.9).

(It’s obviously better to keep RMB than dollars at this point).

*Sigh* if we could only find a value for the Seychelles rupees…then people would start wanting it again.  Somehow I feel, tourists should not be allowed to pay for stuff in foreign exchange (incl. hotel accomodation, island hopping, etc.).  The foreign exchange goes to the wrong hands anyway (or is that the point; is that how corrupt we are?).

I want to start my own company.

It is bound to happen.

I can’t live my life admiring entrepreneurs (no matter how successful or unsuccessful).

I have an independent mind, I never really listen to anyone, I don’t do well walking the path that was built by someone else’s dreams.  I need to step onto my own path, so any of the consequences I could potentially be dealing with are consequences I’ve practically asked for.

How am I going to do this?

Well, I have what it takes and to minimize start up capital I will have to learn how to be a one-man band.  In fact, I’ve spent the past year practising & researching.  I’ve met a few people who started learning all this at the same time I did or a little after me and they have already thrown in the towel.  And only after they left did I meet a few people who have succeeded and guess what they said: they’re the ones who never gave up on their dreams.

My Fear of Graduating

Many of my schoolmates think I’ve lost my determination in life and I am no longer interested in my schoolwork.  This is not true.  I have a fear of graduating: because I am on contract.

My contract states that I have to be a teacher for 5 years when I go back home, and more than a year ago I realized I am not fit enough in every aspect to teach.  I don’t want the responsibility.  I don’t even believe in being paid to teach.  Many teachers in Seychelles are forced into a job they don’t even enjoy…and this is sad because our kids are being taught by teachers who don’t even care about them.  I don’t want to be one of those teachers.

According to the contract, if I don’t graduate I will have to pay $25′000 period.  If I do graduate, I will have to teach…and if I were forced to do something I didn’t want, I’d consider that as failure.

So where graduating or not graduating is concerned, I would rather fail through the eyes of everyone else than to fail through my eyes.

The Need for Flexibility is Not Driven By Laziness

Most of my I-love-school friends look at me like I am just one of those students who spend time chatting on the internet.  They think I’m lazy and just like to chill.  They think I spend Saturday nights clubbing with my “other lazy friends”.

Most of my other friends, are clubbing at this hour (30 minutes after midnight aka “Saturday night”) or having s*x with someone they just met at the club.  They think I’m just being a freakn geek.

What am I doing on a Saturday night? I just woke up hours ago…because I hadn’t slept for 24+ hours before that…because I was self-learning PHP.  So my clubbing friends are right, I am a geek (and proud of it).

My point is this, lazy people do exist.  But I’m not lazy when it comes to a whole lot of things.  E.g., I am punctually challenged - I can never get somewhere on time.  But that happens even if I were to get up 4-6 hours before the scheduled appointment.  Subconsciously, it’s probably because I don’t like to wait for people so I prefer them to wait for me (another reason why I should be doing my own thing).  Notice that I’ll never be late for an exam though? Notice that I never miss the train or the plane?

The biggest reason why I should be doing my own thing: I only work well when I’m doing something for someone else.  I’m personally very satisfied with myself, I don’t have this need to constantly prove to myself and to others that I’m awesome (I firmly believe that humans are generally very capable at anything they set their minds to).  So if I’m going to paint my bedroom wall, I’d probably choose plain white paint to colour it with: because I’m satisfied with white and it’s a colour that works for walls, period.  But if I had to paint someone else’s wall, I’d probably go as far as researching about the different colours, types, brush stroke effects and I’ll even learn a bit about colour psychology.

But Do I Interact Well With Potential Customers/Clients?

Absolutely.  I had a call-back from my boss at the first and only job I had, and it was only because he wanted to compliment my phone skills.  I didn’t even know it was him calling, I thought it was one of our suppliers! I have also dealt with a lot of people online, all from different countries.

Customers are always right: If a customer wants to use your body as a bridge or a door mat, you have to be willing to stoop to their way of thinking and convince one of your workers to take one for the team.

I must admit, I’ve done some online jobs / services and I when I did (and whenever I do), I let the customers push me around and no matter what the issue is if any, I keep a scared puppy face on. If I make mistakes, I’ll offer to be paid only a percentage or if the ‘job’ is easy, I’ll do it for free. That’s what service is to me: customers are always right, and no room for the “rawpinions” attitude I maintain in here. Key: kiss-ass strategy. Keeps everyone happy.

This past week, the tables have turned and I needed a few people do so some fast & easy online work for me…and believe it or not, most of them treated me as if they were doing me a favour! Most of these people do online jobs for a living, and I’m starting to think it’s because they were fired from their non-online jobs due to attitude problems.

This one guy sent me a message, listing down the sort of online work he does. I replied, telling him “Thanks, I will browse through and let you know” (which was exactly what I planned to do). He then sends me another message telling me to “take this seriously, I don’t have time tomorrow” and I interpreted it as: “quit playing around you b*tch and give me something to do so I can freakn feed my family!” Thanks to his attitude [problem], I did not reply this time…and guess what: I won’t even be “browsing through” that list. *Rolls eyes*

A few weeks ago, I hired someone to do something really simple but it require visible results. He then tells me “ok job done, results are visible so pay me.” I had some minutes to spare so I decided to verify his work and only 30% of the work was “visible”. I then sent him only 30% of the total amount he was supposed to get and told him to “kindly fix these errors so I can process your payment” and he starts b*tching and saying stuff like “I’ve been doing this for years, and this is the first time I get an unhappy customer!” That’s one funny thing about service: many people feel, if you’ve been doing something for years it means you’re an expert. F*ck that assumption. He did a lousy job, and he should have corrected his errors. This is exactly why after all these years, he’s still working for random people at an affordable price.

What many people don’t seem to get, is that most webmasters are capable of doing these jobs themselves. The only reason they hire people is because they want to save time & the hassle of doing the work. If you’re working for a webmaster, the best thing to do is to do the job properly (especially if you want to be hired again in the future, and recommended to other webmasters). You should also avoid sending stupid emails to your customers. There should only be 2 emails: 1 - OK, I’ll do the job and 2 - The job’s done, pay up. The way I see it, it’s as simple as that.

Last week when I was ‘hanging out’ at a forum, members started praising Kiva.org. At the time, I had never heard of the thing, and didn’t know what it was so I visited the site. Turns out, it’s a site that helps poor entrepreneurs by providing them with loans from generous people.

Am I the only one who doesn’t like the idea of Kiva.org? I just don’t get it. Charitable people should not ‘loan’, they should give. This one person’s argument was that in third world countries, entrepreneurs care about their society and their people unlike the entrepreneurs in first world/developed countries. Just shows you, that the people who are willing to loan 3rd-world entrepreneurs are people who know nothing about 3rd world entrepreneurs.

If you can only afford a loaf of bread everyday and you’re selling slices of bread on the streets (retail price) and call yourself an entrepreneur then fine - you are a charity case. People should just give you money because you obviously need it.

At Kiva.org, I came across this one person who wanted the money so he could improve his house. Then there was this spare parts entrepreneur who needed the money to better his business. I mean, WTF?

What’s with the “I have a wife and 10 kids” thing? Any man with a wife and 10 kids who’s also looking for a $1000 loan - from any random soul over the internet should just commit suicide. Kiva.org should have a page where people from developed countries can donate condoms and contraceptives to these entrepreneurs who can’t seem to make ends meet.

There’s a difference between me and a person who’s willing to loan those on Kiva.org: I’m generous and they’re greedy because technically, it’s not called a donation. If you can spare a thousand dollars, why don’t you just give it to orphaned kids who can’t afford tuition and food? By helping out entrepreneurs in the 3rd world countries, you’re not only helping out the wrong people but you are helping people who can help themselves if they were to just think and work harder. You’re also encouraging a wider gap between the relatively poor and the poorest of all poor.

Adbrite
http://www.adbrite.com

Accelerator
http://www.accelerator-media.com

Adconion Media Group
http://www.adconion.com

Ad Dynamix
http://www.addynamix.com

Adengage
http://www.adengage.com

Ad Gridwork
http://www.adgridwork.com

Adicate
http://www.adicate.com

Adify
http://www.adify.com

Ad Jungle
http://www.adjungle.com

Adland Pro
http://www.adlandpro.com

Ad Link Media UK
http://www.adlinkmedia.co.uk

Ad Mob
http://www.admob.com

Ad Pepper
http://www.adpepper.com

Affiliate Sensor
http://www.affiliatesensor.com

Bidvertiser
http://www.bidvertiser.com

CBProSense
http://www.cbprosense.net

Chitika
http://chitika.com

Clicksor
http://www.clicksor.com

Context Web
http://www.contextweb.com

Enhance Interactive
http://www.enhance.com

ExpoActive
http://www.expoactive.com

Kanoodle
http://www.kanoodle.com

Mirago
http://www.mirago.com

Miva
http://www.miva.com

Nixxie
http://www.nixxie.com

Quigo Technologies
http://www.quigo.com

Qumana
http://www.qumana.com

Revenue Pilot
http://www.revenuepilot.com

Search Feed
http://www.searchfeed.com

Targetpoint
http://www.targetpoint.com

Value Click Media
http://www.valueclickmedia.com

Vibrant
http://www.vibrantmedia.com

Yahoo Publisher
http://publisher.yahoo.com

List Updated: 3rd April, 2008

Current Mood: Cool

100% positive rep is vital when your buying, selling and/or trading online. Also, the more people you deal with, the more easier it is to get a transaction done with someone who doesn’t even know you. That’s because people generally trust people with 100% positive rep. Newbies are usually worried about how to earn their reputation. It’s actually a whole lot easier than imagined. The best way is probably to start selling or buying low-priced items or offering services (or whatever) for a competitive price. People are usually willing to take the risk if they’re buying stuff at a really low price anyway. Work fast, get the transaction done asap to keep everyone happy. When everyone’s happy, you’ll get positive feedback which will help you gain credibility.

I’m a generally lazy person, and wait until the last minute to get something done. If someone I’m dealing with tell me to “take your time” I most probably will. But I have an extremely different attitude when it comes to trading and buying. Trading and buying is when you’re placed in an “I O U” situation, and I hate being in debt. There’s a big difference between the patience of a person trying to buy something from you, and the patience (or lack of) of a person waiting for you to pay up.

Guess who’s more likely to be pissed off if you’re running a little late, thus be more willing to throw you a negative rep point?

Current Mood: Bored

A few months ago when I offered to re-write 3 articles for a price of $1 per 100 words, I only realized how idiotic that was right in the middle of my first article. After 3 hours of pondering & playing with words to perfect an already awesome article, I realized I wasn’t working for money but was being charitable instead.

I found a pretty cool article (canadianmags.blogspot.com/2006/12/billable-hours-in-freelancers-life.html) where this blogger analysed the math of freelance writers’ earnings. It’s worth reading!

The other day I offered a low price of $0.03 per word for five 600-word articles to a guy looking for writers. He was surprised and told me that a “professional” offered him $9 per 500 words. I didn’t challenge him by offering a more competitive price. Rather, I let it go knowing the math of such earnings.

To be realistic, it would have taken me about 3-5 hours to compose a 600-word, keyword-stuffed (for SEO) article in his niche. So 5 articles would have taken me all weekend to complete. We’re talking about perfect grammar, perfect spelling and on top of that, handing him exclusive rights (i.e. I won’t have rights to publish it and he gets to resell it if he wants to…with his name on it).

Selling your article with exclusive rights is selling a piece of art that someone else gets to claim as theirs. I’m nowhere near being a professional, so there’s no way I respect my writing more than any professional writer. That said, there is no way the writer offering $9 for 500 words is a “professional”. He’s obviously a freelance writer and only a self-proclaimed “professional”.

The way I see it, he’s just someone with lots of time in his hands, who’s not really good at math. Kudos to him for being charitable though. His customer testimonials will go well in his CV. But in all honesty, I feel you can’t possibly be successful in life if you’re overly generous. Ultimately, you have to be realistic. You can’t spend a 10-hour work day writing 4-5 articles (under exam conditions, i.e not practical) and only get $40-$50 for such hard work.

After doing some online reading, I found out that many “professional” writers get $0.50 to $1 per word or even a whole lot more. Some are paid by the hour.

Current Mood: Bored

Now that all the 4L.coms have been completely sold out, what’s next? After the 3Ls were sold out the 4Ls were ‘in’, so do we resume the +1L pattern? I guess so! So today I bought 2 5Ls, one is a premium-letters CVCVC and the other is a premium letters VCVCV - and hopefully in about 2+ years (or less!) their value will increase a whole lot more than I bought them for (about $8 each).

I don’t really know how many CVCVCs and VCVCVs there are out there, but many of the really good combinations appear to be taken already.

Apparently all L-L-L.coms are gone too now (I don’t like the look of them but despite that I think their return can be quite a bit).

Update on the 4Ls: I now have 6 4L.coms and I don’t know if I should buy a few more from the resellers. Right now you can still get a few for about $20+ and although many are expecting them to increase in value over the years, a little more than a handful of domainers are questioning that theory - esp. concerning the domain names with “bad letters”. The pronounceable or catchy ones are worth betting on though - but they’re now being sold for over $50.

It’s almost 11pm and I’m really tired so I’m going to try to find something interesting to watch and then go to bed so I can wake up bright and early tomorrow!

Current Mood: Cool

I was really bored today so I was trying to figure out what I should do with $300. The other day when I was about to go out I found out that one of my synthetic leather pants had a rip on the side so I thought about getting myself a new pair of pants…

But as soon as I got up, I headed to my PC and just started surfing the net. I couldn’t come up with a catchy domain name so I thought about registering a random 4L domain name. So I visited DYYO.com - when I started domaining about 2 months ago, I remember there were thousands of 4L domains. So I was really taking my time - and silly me! According to DYYO:

• Sep-30: Every single domain currently available has at least one of Q/X/Z now.
• Oct-01: The number of avaiable domains (no traffic testing) is estimated to be about 12500 by Oct 01.
• Oct-11: LLLL hits XXXX.
• Oct-30: Our datebase now updated every 6 hours.
• Oct-30: LLLL below 5K.
• Nov-02: All LLLL registered.

So I’ve been participating in several auctions and was able to get 2 LLLL [dot] coms for about $30. I have absolutely no idea how much they should have costed me - they’re not readable 4Ls…but no doubt, it’s one heck of an investment. In a year or so they will probably cost over 10x the price I bought them for - or more!

That’s pretty much what has happened with the 3L domains (LLL) they’re now worth thousands of dollars, even the ones with the “bad” letters.

I’m participating on other auctions, I’m willing to go as far as $100 for 2 domains I find quite catchy. I don’t know if it would be a good deal, but I’m willing to take the risk. The problem right now is that it’s almost 7pm. When it’s 7pm in China, it’s about 7am on the other side of the world - I’m not asleep at night but the bank is…and if the person sells the domains for the BIN price, he or she will have to wait until the bank opens so I can fill up my moneybookers account.

Although I’m betting they won’t sell it to me - because I don’t use Paypal, and I have no way of getting $200 into my Paypal account! :S

As for a new pair of pants…bah! I don’t care if I wear old stuff at this point in my life. In 2 years, while the price of LLLLs increase, a pair of pants I buy today will probably be in the trash.

Key to possible success: risk+investment.
Key to definite failure: spending cash on a new pair of synthetic leather pants.