Archive for August 14th, 2006
Springwise.com: Giving them priority access, Mobo lets customers order from restaurants and pay for meals using sms. Customers create an account, which includes their credit card details. After signing up for the service, they can order online or by text message/sms. The order appears on the restaurant’s in-store system, and is automatically billed to the [...]
Student Auctions Off Future Earnings For College Tuition
An 18-year-old Nebraska student is auctioning off 10% of his future earnings in an attempt to pay his college tuition. He has figured that he will need $65,000 to become a Software Engineer. The payback: 10% of his future earnings for each year, until the lump sum paid + 10% is achieved. According to his [...]
Two Simple Tips To Get More Out Of Your Business Card
BizInformer: Business cards are most often a missed opportunity. Grab a stack of business cards, thumb through them and what do you see? A bland mix of strikingly similar mish-mash of name, rank, and serial number. Forgettable as soon as they’re received. Here’s two ways to make your card stand out: 1. Put your greatest [...]
Some people were waiting in line at the airport awaiting the security check. One fellow said he didn’t want to give up his Swiss Army knife and wished he could mail it to himself. That got me thinking. Why not offer a service at the airport for travelers with ‘banned’ items that they could ship [...]
Shirley Frazier at Solo Business Marketing: When I bought my first laptop computer late last year, I considered it an investment in my business. I didn’t consider my laptop to be a marketing tool, until now. LapLooks sells a frame that attaches to the outside of your laptop. A photo, that looks to be the [...]
USA Today: See something you like on Home Shopping Network? Point your remote at the TV. Hit “select.” And buy, buy, buy! At least, that’s what HSN hopes its viewers will do. HSN announced the nation’s first shop-by-remote system for digital TV customers. It will be available in New York City and Hawaii, where it’s [...]
30 Second/One Question Interview with Tobias Buckell
My next participant in the 30 Second/One Question Interview series is Tobias Buckell. I asked: One man’s trash, is another man’s treasure. What product or service have you imagined would be a good business opportunity, but you’ve rejected because it’s too off the wall? Tobias responded on his blog: This one isn’t off the wall, [...]
Paul Graham: Explain what you’re doing. Get rapidly to demo. Better a narrow description than a vague one. Don’t talk and drive. Don’t talk about secondary matters at length. Don’t get too deeply into business models. Talk slowly and clearly at the audience. Have one person talk. Seem confident. Don’t try to seem more than [...]
A New Way to Get Rich: Google, Yahoo Ads
The Honolulu Advertiser: For hundreds of thousands of people, the dream of making an Internet fortune works like this: Earn pennies at a time in exchange for allowing Google Inc. or Yahoo Inc. to place advertisements on a personal or small-business Web page. Take Andrew Leyden, former House Commerce Committee counsel and founder of a [...]
Can a Gaming Cafe Be Successful?
Slashdot: For years I’ve been toying around with the idea of opening up a medium sized gaming cafe in the Chicago suburbs. I have already taken care of the issue on how to make money during the day, when our younger market is in school, However, the question of whether or not a place like [...]
The Law is Cracking Down On EBay Thieves
Selling suspected stolen goods on the auction Web site eBay has tripped up a Loomis man.The Placer County Sheriff’s Department arrested Eric Richard Fields, 21, on charges of grand theft and possession of stolen property after a buyer unknowingly bought stolen boat equipment from him on the Internet.Detective Chris Glaspell said Field is responsible for [...]
Attention eBay auctioneers: Want to get a higher price for an item you’re trying to sell?Set the auction’s starting price as low as possible.Unless it is an item you don’t believe there’s a lot of interest in; in that case, start the auction at a higher price.This advice is brought to you by PhD researchers [...]
Airports Profit on EBay with Banned Items
So what does the airport do with all that stuff you toss into the bins because you can’t bring it past security?In Pennsylvania, they hawk it on e-Bay.The government gets the items from security contractors at a dozen airports in five states. Then they go to the online auction site and wait for the highest [...]
Vintage Clothing Alive and Well on eBay
No, it’s not your imagination.Prices for merchandise at vintage thrift shops like Aaardvark’s Odd Ark and Decades have gone through the roof in recent years, giving new meaning to the term “thrift shop.”Sarah Bergman, manager of The Way We Wore, a high-end vintage shop on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles, said demand for vintage [...]
Sony Cutting Into Skypes Market
That’s the start of the 12th — OK, maybe 11th — round of an increasingly brutal telecommunications boxing match.In this corner, we have the landline telephone. In the other, we have VoIP.Let’s get ready to get pummeled!Why the sudden need for bloodshed?Ask Skype.The eBay company that lets people make cheap-to-free long-distance phone calls over the [...]
30 Second/One Question Interview with Yaro Starak
My next participant in the 30 Second/One Question Interview series is Yaro Starak. I asked: One man’s trash, is another man’s treasure. What product or service have you imagined would be a good business opportunity, but you’ve rejected because it’s too off the wall? Yaro’s response: I’ve had countless business ideas in the past – [...]
This week’s Carnival of Personal Finance is up at Frank the Financially Savvy Atheist.
This week’s Carnival of Marketing is up at Seeds for Growth.
