You can stack 70 items instead of 8. 
Rich Dad Poor Dad
Recently, I've read a book called "Rich Dad Poor Dad". This is actually quiet famous book and it has a lot of good points regarding personal finance.
I've read the first 1/3 so far and here's the summary.
- Do not work for money. Do not stick to money emotionally.
- Most of people either worry about money (fear) or desire money (greed).
- When those emotions get involved with money, people lose points or opportunities to make more money.
- Most of people do not know the differences between asset and liability.
- Rich buys asset and poor buys liability.
- Asset is something generating money automatically without your presence.
- Liability is most of simple spending.
- Example of assets: Bank Interest, Business not requiring your presence, Royalty from books or music, Property generating rent income
- Example of liabilities: A lot of simple spending. Once you spend, it doesn't come back. In his view, mortage for your house is definitely spending.
In my opinion, this book may not be perfect, but it has lots of good points.
The author is almost 70 years old, so he missed new types of assets created recently. In asset column, I would like to add,
- Ebay or half.com : It doesn't require my presence, but it still brings us more sales. In fact, it often brings more sales than store. Store open 9-10 hours a day and ebay is responsible for sales for 14 hr during closed time per day.
- Google Ad sense: We get paid for few cents per click.
- Bank CD: The interest rate is about 5% a year and you can get only interest monthly. If you have $300,000 CD account, you can get about $1,200 interest income per month.
- Bending machine
To me, this book actually changed my some of financial plans.
I was going to buy a house after saving money, but now I will get CD account first after saving money. I can get house by the money from CD.
To be rich, you need a lot of assets automatically working for you. Plus, you need a job.
As he said, it is not the same to buy a mercedes by your salary or income from assets.
How to Advertise Free
How to Advertise your Company for Free, but Effectively (without spending any money)
1. Making your own web site.
Technically, making your own web site with your own short domain name may cost you trivial amount of money. In fact, this would be only part you may have to spend money even if it's little.
In my case, I am using Yahoo! domain service and Yahoo! web hosting service. Yahoo! Domain service costs me less than $10 per year and Yahoo! web hosting service costs me around $8.99 per month.
If it's less than $10 per year, it's like $0.83 per month. But, by that you can have http://CybKnight.com instead of http://cybknight.blogspot.com. Customers won't remember that long name. (They will barely remember your company name + .com. No .net, .biz or .info allowed. Never ever use - between your domain name, also.)
Also, if it's $8.99 per month for hosting with 2 GB space, it's like little under $27 per three months. (I usually pay every 3 months.) It's like one dinner BBQ take out price. But, if you are serious about your company, you may consider skipping one night out and spend that money for your site.
And, here's one good point about yahoo! hosting. I know some people spend $400-$5,000 to make your site professionally. But, in my opinion, you don't really have to do that. Making web site is easier than ever nowadays. For example, this is the web site my fiance made in 30 min. (http://tsinamusic.com/) Personally, all I did was following their instructions and filling out their given spaces. (http://CybKnight.com) It's pretty similar to fill out this blog or myspace with photos and articles.
And, one improvement I found was they even make you to use your paypal on your basic hosting for sales. It was not true 2 years ago and now we don't have to use $39.99 merchant service from yahoo! necessarily for sales.
If you are rich or do not have actual retail location, you can hire professionals and blow $ thousands. But, if you have retail location already, what's most important is basic information. People need to know your existence, location and hours. And, in my opinion, this $8.99 service do this job just fine.
Maybe later, I can write about "Pros and Cons of Online and Offline Business". But, in my opinion, online may not always be the perfect solution for companies. There are people like me never buying anything online. Also, there are items impossible to deal online. We can talk about that later, but let's focus on "how to get your name out without charge" now.
2. Register your site in major yellow pages.
Nowadays, yellow pages has been improved a lot and they have made it easy to add lots of information on your company list after registering.
The examples of major yellow pages would be Yahoo! yellow page, Google map, yellowpages.com, Verizon super page, info USA, at&t pages and yelp.com etc.
First of all, you need to check if the yellow page has your company name and phone #. If not, you can register the site and need to list your company.
And, after that, still you can add a lot of additional info about your company there.
I notice that 95% of the business owner didn't add anything and it just shows the vacant name and phone # only. But, you can add your web site, hours, what products you are dealing and most importantly, you can add plenty of your company photos there. Instead of just adding 1-2 photos, if you add 8-10 photos, you can make it like almost mini homepage. (http://cybknight.yelp.com )
It just costs some time, but it doesn't cost any money at all. And, once you set those, it will go virtually forever. If you chose a little less visible location with low rent, you can use those online free features wisely.
3. Use blog, MySpace and YouTube wisely.
After listing in countless yellow pages, you can also take a look at those popular sites where millions of people go everyday.
Blogging sounds like waste of time, but it's powerful ad tool when you have a business sites. In this case, it's article in google blog and I notice that those articles are listed in google search quiet fast.
Also, in case of this blog, when you write your profile, if you write a word in interest field, it become link and you can find other blogs with the same interest by clicking it. If you write a lot of popular key words regarding your business, you can bring more target customers to your blog.
In case of myspace, it's member to member system, so it's little inefficient for ad. But, if you list good topics in forum, you can have a lot of replies and be visible little more efficient. Register user name as your company name is important.
4. Use Paper Magazine or Travel Guide Book.
I personally haven't try those myself, but you can ask interview about your business with a magazine like Chicago Magazine or Daily Harold. Also, you can send your business article and photo to guidebook company like DK guide book.
5. Use Ebay wisely.
When you list items on ebay, you can connect your site and make the price little cheaper than ebay. Also, you can list all those sales and relevant sites in my world or "me" page in ebay. It's important since it's bring you real target customers.
1. Making your own web site.
Technically, making your own web site with your own short domain name may cost you trivial amount of money. In fact, this would be only part you may have to spend money even if it's little.
In my case, I am using Yahoo! domain service and Yahoo! web hosting service. Yahoo! Domain service costs me less than $10 per year and Yahoo! web hosting service costs me around $8.99 per month.
If it's less than $10 per year, it's like $0.83 per month. But, by that you can have http://CybKnight.com instead of http://cybknight.blogspot.com. Customers won't remember that long name. (They will barely remember your company name + .com. No .net, .biz or .info allowed. Never ever use - between your domain name, also.)
Also, if it's $8.99 per month for hosting with 2 GB space, it's like little under $27 per three months. (I usually pay every 3 months.) It's like one dinner BBQ take out price. But, if you are serious about your company, you may consider skipping one night out and spend that money for your site.
And, here's one good point about yahoo! hosting. I know some people spend $400-$5,000 to make your site professionally. But, in my opinion, you don't really have to do that. Making web site is easier than ever nowadays. For example, this is the web site my fiance made in 30 min. (http://tsinamusic.com/) Personally, all I did was following their instructions and filling out their given spaces. (http://CybKnight.com) It's pretty similar to fill out this blog or myspace with photos and articles.
And, one improvement I found was they even make you to use your paypal on your basic hosting for sales. It was not true 2 years ago and now we don't have to use $39.99 merchant service from yahoo! necessarily for sales.
If you are rich or do not have actual retail location, you can hire professionals and blow $ thousands. But, if you have retail location already, what's most important is basic information. People need to know your existence, location and hours. And, in my opinion, this $8.99 service do this job just fine.
Maybe later, I can write about "Pros and Cons of Online and Offline Business". But, in my opinion, online may not always be the perfect solution for companies. There are people like me never buying anything online. Also, there are items impossible to deal online. We can talk about that later, but let's focus on "how to get your name out without charge" now.
2. Register your site in major yellow pages.
Nowadays, yellow pages has been improved a lot and they have made it easy to add lots of information on your company list after registering.
The examples of major yellow pages would be Yahoo! yellow page, Google map, yellowpages.com, Verizon super page, info USA, at&t pages and yelp.com etc.
First of all, you need to check if the yellow page has your company name and phone #. If not, you can register the site and need to list your company.
And, after that, still you can add a lot of additional info about your company there.
I notice that 95% of the business owner didn't add anything and it just shows the vacant name and phone # only. But, you can add your web site, hours, what products you are dealing and most importantly, you can add plenty of your company photos there. Instead of just adding 1-2 photos, if you add 8-10 photos, you can make it like almost mini homepage. (http://cybknight.yelp.com )
It just costs some time, but it doesn't cost any money at all. And, once you set those, it will go virtually forever. If you chose a little less visible location with low rent, you can use those online free features wisely.
3. Use blog, MySpace and YouTube wisely.
After listing in countless yellow pages, you can also take a look at those popular sites where millions of people go everyday.
Blogging sounds like waste of time, but it's powerful ad tool when you have a business sites. In this case, it's article in google blog and I notice that those articles are listed in google search quiet fast.
Also, in case of this blog, when you write your profile, if you write a word in interest field, it become link and you can find other blogs with the same interest by clicking it. If you write a lot of popular key words regarding your business, you can bring more target customers to your blog.
In case of myspace, it's member to member system, so it's little inefficient for ad. But, if you list good topics in forum, you can have a lot of replies and be visible little more efficient. Register user name as your company name is important.
4. Use Paper Magazine or Travel Guide Book.
I personally haven't try those myself, but you can ask interview about your business with a magazine like Chicago Magazine or Daily Harold. Also, you can send your business article and photo to guidebook company like DK guide book.
5. Use Ebay wisely.
When you list items on ebay, you can connect your site and make the price little cheaper than ebay. Also, you can list all those sales and relevant sites in my world or "me" page in ebay. It's important since it's bring you real target customers.
News Regarding Gamestop
Today I found one news regarding gamestop while I was browsing Gamespot site. It shows that the profits of gamestop has been nearly tripled this quarter, 2008.
Honestly, as soon as I hear that, I felt little disgusting. I know how they make money. Everyone knows it. They make money out of rip off.
Yesterday, the son of nearby restaurant came our store and complained that Gamestop gives customer $10 store credit for original DS and sell it for $110 in the store. I am sure most of people think it's rip off. Also, to me, I've been in Ebay for 6 years, but I've never seen such a case. Also, occasionally, they sell it as "refurbished system" depending on store, but I know it's not refurbished. They don't have any technicain for refurbishing. It's just cleaned at most.
When I spoke with gamestop employee last time, she said she doesn't like the company at all since she has to push too hard for minimum store credit for customers.
To me, I have only one question.
What would be the point to make $1.8 billion out of rip off? I will understand if they do that to survive barely. But, what would be the reason to do that to make 3 times more money than last quarter and continuously growing? Do they need that much money desperately for some reasons?
To me, I will never understand those billionaires making money stingily from customers and donate it to others. (Bill Gates would be one of good example. Xbox makes money out of xbox live very stingily. They wouldn't let you go for one car or one song free.) Instead, why wouldn't they give discount on customers upfront and not making $billion to donate? (Or less making at least)
In my opinion, they shouldn't discriminate customers from those who get donation. If you have to give a favor, you should do it to customer first since the customers are the one who gave your business a favor.
I know Gamestop doesn't give a single cent of discount on brand new games (360 and ps3 are always $59.99 strictly) But, they are doing nationlal TV ad on G4 tv. What's the point to make $1.8 billions and spend $500 million for national TV ad? Why wouldn't they just make $1 billion instead after spending $0.8 billions for discount upfront? They should spend the money for discount first, not on TV ads, Magazine ad or Lamborghini in their garage.
Nowadays, customers are not fools any more. I believe any money on ads would be waste and it's better to spend that much money on discount and better inventories first. That will gurantee the future business. What customers want is better deal, not bothering advertisement between dramas.
And, listen up, gamestop. You guys need to be careful.
I know tower record and EB games are closed out recently, but they were famous for maximum price a human can charge and rip off on store credit. Now a lot of blockbuster are closing since they charge $8 for 5 days game rent. That's higher than purchase price.
In stead of making 3 times profit that way, I would rather make 1.5 time profit after less ripping off on customers. That would be the only way people can come back to you and you can survive.
And, also, please eliminate the stupid cash out policy. By that, you attract a lot of criminals or poor people and need to rip off even more good gamers to make up your loss.
Honestly, as soon as I hear that, I felt little disgusting. I know how they make money. Everyone knows it. They make money out of rip off.
Yesterday, the son of nearby restaurant came our store and complained that Gamestop gives customer $10 store credit for original DS and sell it for $110 in the store. I am sure most of people think it's rip off. Also, to me, I've been in Ebay for 6 years, but I've never seen such a case. Also, occasionally, they sell it as "refurbished system" depending on store, but I know it's not refurbished. They don't have any technicain for refurbishing. It's just cleaned at most.
When I spoke with gamestop employee last time, she said she doesn't like the company at all since she has to push too hard for minimum store credit for customers.
To me, I have only one question.
What would be the point to make $1.8 billion out of rip off? I will understand if they do that to survive barely. But, what would be the reason to do that to make 3 times more money than last quarter and continuously growing? Do they need that much money desperately for some reasons?
To me, I will never understand those billionaires making money stingily from customers and donate it to others. (Bill Gates would be one of good example. Xbox makes money out of xbox live very stingily. They wouldn't let you go for one car or one song free.) Instead, why wouldn't they give discount on customers upfront and not making $billion to donate? (Or less making at least)
In my opinion, they shouldn't discriminate customers from those who get donation. If you have to give a favor, you should do it to customer first since the customers are the one who gave your business a favor.
I know Gamestop doesn't give a single cent of discount on brand new games (360 and ps3 are always $59.99 strictly) But, they are doing nationlal TV ad on G4 tv. What's the point to make $1.8 billions and spend $500 million for national TV ad? Why wouldn't they just make $1 billion instead after spending $0.8 billions for discount upfront? They should spend the money for discount first, not on TV ads, Magazine ad or Lamborghini in their garage.
Nowadays, customers are not fools any more. I believe any money on ads would be waste and it's better to spend that much money on discount and better inventories first. That will gurantee the future business. What customers want is better deal, not bothering advertisement between dramas.
And, listen up, gamestop. You guys need to be careful.
I know tower record and EB games are closed out recently, but they were famous for maximum price a human can charge and rip off on store credit. Now a lot of blockbuster are closing since they charge $8 for 5 days game rent. That's higher than purchase price.
In stead of making 3 times profit that way, I would rather make 1.5 time profit after less ripping off on customers. That would be the only way people can come back to you and you can survive.
And, also, please eliminate the stupid cash out policy. By that, you attract a lot of criminals or poor people and need to rip off even more good gamers to make up your loss.
One Absolute Rule of Advertisement
It's useless to advertise unless the business or item is actually good.
This is the One Absolute Rule of Advertisement.
I know a bunch of business I've tired once and never go back. I simply didn't like the business that much.
But, still, you need to advertise if it doesn't cost you any money.
In case of many yellow page sites, owners can fill up more information for customers. And, blog sites like MySpace or google blog would be good examples.
That would be the second rule of advertisement.
Only problem is currently I have no idea how I can be visible in myspace.
In case of google blog (Blogspots.com), I can be visible by using keywords in interest. For example, if I write "games" in my interest, "games" would be a link suddenly and if you click it, it shows 28,000 blogs whose owners having the same interest.
But, in myspace, to me, it seems you have to make a friend one by one. I think that's silly.
Also, to me, it seems the website whole contents are not very smart, too. Why people would want to reveal their private life or info that way? If a person do only myspace without doing Ebay, Amazon, Craiglist or any other types of money activities, I think it's a little bit not smart. There are lots of things you can do with Internet nowadays.
In case of MySpace, there's networking section below school section, but simply that's very inefficient. You can find some people in you area for the similar field that way, but you have to ask them to be friends one by one to be visible eventually. CybKnight simply don't have time for that. We are efficient company, not a door to door salesman.
Personally, I am very negative at spending any money on advertisement. We can do better job by that money. But, I believe we have to do something if it doesn't cost any moeny.
We will appreciate if somebody can share any tips to be visible in my space.
This is the One Absolute Rule of Advertisement.
I know a bunch of business I've tired once and never go back. I simply didn't like the business that much.
But, still, you need to advertise if it doesn't cost you any money.
In case of many yellow page sites, owners can fill up more information for customers. And, blog sites like MySpace or google blog would be good examples.
That would be the second rule of advertisement.
Only problem is currently I have no idea how I can be visible in myspace.
In case of google blog (Blogspots.com), I can be visible by using keywords in interest. For example, if I write "games" in my interest, "games" would be a link suddenly and if you click it, it shows 28,000 blogs whose owners having the same interest.
But, in myspace, to me, it seems you have to make a friend one by one. I think that's silly.
Also, to me, it seems the website whole contents are not very smart, too. Why people would want to reveal their private life or info that way? If a person do only myspace without doing Ebay, Amazon, Craiglist or any other types of money activities, I think it's a little bit not smart. There are lots of things you can do with Internet nowadays.
In case of MySpace, there's networking section below school section, but simply that's very inefficient. You can find some people in you area for the similar field that way, but you have to ask them to be friends one by one to be visible eventually. CybKnight simply don't have time for that. We are efficient company, not a door to door salesman.
Personally, I am very negative at spending any money on advertisement. We can do better job by that money. But, I believe we have to do something if it doesn't cost any moeny.
We will appreciate if somebody can share any tips to be visible in my space.
How to Make Money without Working
Let me rephrase the question.
How to make money automatically without your presence
How to make money automatically without your presence
- Bank Interest
- Bank CD
- eBay or Half.com sales
- Google Adsense
- Vending Machine
- Property generating Rent Income
- Royalty from your book or music
- Stock, Bond and Note
- Mutual Fund
- Business not requiring your presence
Any other Idea?
I think those are asset Rich Dad Poor Dad mentioned.
Ad Could Be Total Waste of Money
Before staring next article, "Effective Free Ads", I have to admit that Cyb Knight has pretty bad experiences and negative concept regarding advertisement.
We believe that any advertisement could be total waste of money. I think that CybKnight should depend on reputation, not on Ad. If the store is good, people will come back no matter what. To make reasons why people need to come back is manager's job. It seems a lot of companies do not realize this and they keep spending money on ad while they keep bad services.
Recently, I threw out one mechanics coupon delivered. It shows that $25 coupon inside, but I didn't even open it. The place is right across our plaza, but I had very bad experience with them a couple of years ago and so did lots of people around. (Rumor says that they break cars intentionally.)
In my opinion, if a company is over 3 years old, they shouldn't have to do any advertisement. If they still need to advertise to get enough customers, the company is actually failing. I know a lot of successful companies don't do any advertise at all. (Google, Sam's Club and Amazon etc.) Only thing they are depending is reputation and actual reasons to make customers return.
We believe that any advertisement could be total waste of money. I think that CybKnight should depend on reputation, not on Ad. If the store is good, people will come back no matter what. To make reasons why people need to come back is manager's job. It seems a lot of companies do not realize this and they keep spending money on ad while they keep bad services.
Recently, I threw out one mechanics coupon delivered. It shows that $25 coupon inside, but I didn't even open it. The place is right across our plaza, but I had very bad experience with them a couple of years ago and so did lots of people around. (Rumor says that they break cars intentionally.)
In my opinion, if a company is over 3 years old, they shouldn't have to do any advertisement. If they still need to advertise to get enough customers, the company is actually failing. I know a lot of successful companies don't do any advertise at all. (Google, Sam's Club and Amazon etc.) Only thing they are depending is reputation and actual reasons to make customers return.
General Rules for Retail
Recently, we posted a couple of videos on You tube for advertisement.
And, I wondered if those gamestops in our area do the same things. (We have three of them nearby.) So, I entered "Gamestop Schaumburg" in search box and those results came out.
A lot of people think any one can be a manager in a store. In my opinion, it's like being a driver. Any one can be a driver if the person has a car, but only few would make good ones. In fact, over 90% of business are closed within 5 years and poor management would be one major reason.
Cyb Knight has over six years in Ebay and over two years in retail store experiences. And, so far, we have either perfect or close to perfect review scores in both fields.
And, here's what I think in both cases and what people should do generally.
In the first video, simply there's no point to continue the conversation. If you detect anything wrong, you should end conversation wisely ASAP.
In the second case, I think the manager has very poor family education from the beginning and lack of college education. In 5 sec, I notice he is not polite generally.
Make sure people can be very aggressive for their children. And, by clear cut politeness (not kindness) and quick apology, you can save 90% of troubles in effective way.
Please never lose your temper, keep yourself calm and speak like robot without emotion if necessary. In CybKnight store, we have lots of customers everyday and probably more will come. Time is limited and we should know how to end the conversation wisely.
Here's general rules I recommend if you work for retail store.
1. Always be greeting, polite and calm.
In a lot of stores, I know the employee doesn't even say "Hello" or "Good bye" in any moment.
Make sure simple greeting is the most basic, essential and important. Sometimes, the basic is the most important. It can decide whether you will make sales or not. Also, you can be in trouble in any case way easily by not having that.
2. If you lose your temper, you must lose.
3. Never ask any personal question to your customers. Personal talk also strongly not recommended. Speak to the money.
Asking any personal question is the easiest way to lose a customer.
In most cases, customers are not interested in you at all and want to get out with what they want ASAP.
After greeting, give customers some time to take a look around and decide on their own. They need some time to digest information.
Be a very convenient checkout system yourself.
They will also feel comfortable that way and will come back to you any time.
Planet Sizes (Hyper Scale Level)
Click here to see the size of sun
Not Yet!
VV Cephei A is not the largest star known!
Recent Study shows that VY Canis Majoris is bigger than VV Cephei A.
Something I Like about Game Industry
Personally, I like the Game and Software Industry for the fact that it's totally depending on human brain.
Game companies don't produce any harmful waste or pollution like many factories. Every game is produced only by human brain resource and creativity.
Some industries heavily depending on natural resource often cause huge problems. The examples are diamond and oil industries. Diamonds is something you have to get out of earth. Most of African war has been broke because of diamond mines. Millions of African died. Most of wars in Middle east broke for oil matter and more than millions died.
Also, there are other industries depending on sacrifice of lives other than human. The examples are fur and meat industries. When I was in Finland, I've seen millions of fox farm. Those foxes are no different than dogs and apparently, the environment they have is pretty optimal. But, they are all waiting in line for death row in few months. And, the situations are not much different in cow or turkey farm in the US.
I am glad that game doesn't consume any natural resources or lives of humans and animals and produce way less pollutions.
But, still, this industry must have produced some pollution when they published those CD and DVDs.
That is CybKnight's job to recycle them to give someone else who need them. I believe we can help you to save money for refurbished quality items and trade in discount.
Also, I strongly believe we can help earth a little bit greener.
Why Is Game Recession Proof?
I think games are interesting and exciting enough to beat the recession.
Another reason would be that people usually cannot go too far or vacation during recession, so they need something to do at home.
Also, lots of gameshops are dealing used or refurbished items together. And, people don't mind getting discount for their items and buying used or refurbished items at lower prices especially during recession.
Also, lots of gameshops are dealing used or refurbished items together. And, people don't mind getting discount for their items and buying used or refurbished items at lower prices especially during recession.
That's why games and game business are recession proof.
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