Good design (and serial numbers)
Bosch puts the serial number for its dishwashers on the side of the door, not the top. Which means that 50{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475} of the time, if the device is mounted in a corner, it’s impossible to see the serial number. Most companies use 0 and o and O in their serial numbers, as well as 1 and I. If they used nothing but letters, words in fact, there’d be no confusion. Make a list of 1000 short words, use each word twice and you have a million numbers. FISHY-LASSO, for example. Easy to remember, hard…
I didn’t see it because I wasn’t looking
My friend Alan came over to dinner the other night. Unbeknownst to me, he had a few plastic scorpions in his pocket (a reminder of a recent adventure). I saw a plastic scorpion on the bowl of nuts, but I didn’t see it, I just moved it aside and went ahead preparing dinner. A few minutes later, I saw a second plastic scorpion on the counter, but again, I didn’t actually see it, didn’t pause or consider it, I just moved on. It took until the third …
The naked corn paradox
Sometimes, the thing that’s done to market something makes it worse. And so, the corn at the local supermarket is already husked, because it looks better, sells better but tastes worse. And stereo speakers are designed with extra bass, so they’ll demo better, sell better but sound worse. The market isn’t always ‘right’, if right means that it knows how to get what it wants in the long run. Too often, we are confused, or misled, or part of a herd headed in the wrong direction. It’s almost impossible to bring the mass market to its senses, to insist that you know better. What you can do, though, is find discerning and alert individuals who will take the time to…
Price Action with Binary Options
Price action is used in binary options to trade with current price behavior while placing less emphasis on past prices. You save more time using price action and see more trading opportunities There are hundreds of trading strategies available that advertise their performance, how accurate their market readings are and what you should do to get your hands on them. Yet, time and time again, the one form of trading that always seems to outperform the rest is price action trading. What is price action…
How to Select Good Tenants
How to select good tenants? If you ever thought about investing in real estate, renting out your home or a room in your home, you should read this! Earning money from income property can make you rich or cause you a lot of problems! Late rent, bothering other tenants, destroying property in their unit and elsewhere are just some of the problems you can avoid! So take it seriously! Details, Details, Details The best way to avoid bad tenants is to never rent to them in the first place! Take your time, do not rush! Whether you buy an apartment building or rent out your home, condominium or a room in your home, you will have a vacancy at some time. …
Recovering from a Massive Trading Loss
The most important element of successful trading is the ability to manage risk and maintain composure. Even the best traders in the world lose on a regular basis. Success in trading therefore is not about avoiding losses. In contrast, we must embrace the process of losing and learn to lose gracefully. The best traders are also the best losers. We learn that losing is simply a part of trading that can’t be avoided or ignored. My friend Ross …
Thinking of Buying a Rental Property in a College Town? Do Your Research First
If you have kids in college, or kids about to go away to college and you’ve looked at the price of on-campus housing these days, you may have thought to yourself, “boy that’s expensive.” Then, the investment side of your brain kicks in and you start to wonder about the potential return on buying a house near the college and renting it out to your daughter and five of her friends. If you’ve mulled over thoughts like these, rest assured, you’re not alone. According to an informal survey of Coldwell Banker agents conducted last year, more than one-third of…
4 Ways to Make Money through Online Marketing and Save It
You can find several ways to make money online. One of the best ways to make money online is through online marketing. Below are some ways that you could make money through online marketing. Do affiliate marketing Affiliate marketing involves marketing and promoting other peoples products in order to earn a small commission on the sale of products that you manage to direct people to buy. You can promote products without having to manage the sales …
10 Things You Don’t Know about Money
You use money every day, yet you know very little about how to use it effectively! It should be no surprise that rich successful people spent the time and effort to learn about money. They do this without the benefit of a formal class or education. How do they do it? Simply said, they make an effort to learn about money. Here are 10 things you don’t know about money Credit cards are not evil – Too often I hear people complain or blame credit cards for their overspending. Credit cards are issued to adults and you have to handle them responsibly. In many …
Teaching Financial Literacy to Kids
Since this is National Financial Literacy Month, I thought I would start with a definition. “Financial Literacy is the ability to make informed judgments and effective decisions regarding the use and management of money”. Too many Americans are insufficiently educated about their personal finances.Why is it important and when should you learn it? Financial Literacy is a basic skill that is needed to function in society. Every person needs these skills to deal with financial problems, manage money and to make sound economic decisions…
What’s your Retirement IQ?
What is your retirement IQ? IQ is short for intelligence quotient! IQ testing was popular for many years because it was a way of assessing your intelligence and potential. Unfortunately, it also measured parental social status. It was used as a predictor of educational achievement, job performance, income and special needs. Saving for retirement does not take a high IQ or even much money. How is your retirement IQ? Savings – This is the first step to achieve your financial goals. Intellectually, we all know we need savings to achieve your goals, but it is difficult. I disagree; you …
What You Can Learn from Kids
I love to watch kids play! They are so willing to take chances and push boundaries. It is fascinating to watch how they seem to discover a toy or something for the first time. Have you ever watched a child interact with a dog? They will pet the dog and laugh. Then it goes further until the dog signals he/she has had enough. Children are naturally curious! Children are great sales people! If they want something, they stay after you until they get it. Is that being stubborn or tenacious? Good sales people…
3 Different Types of Bounce Rates You Should Know
Often we hear about bounce rate and how it affects our bottom line. For those of you NOT aware of bounce rate, here’s a quick definition from Google: “Bounce Rate is the percentage of single-page sessions (i.e. sessions in which the person left your site from the entrance page without interacting with the page).” A high bounce rate is NOT good for blogging because it shows people simply visit your website and leave without visiting any other page. Over the years, research has shown there are…
Can You Remove Yourself From Your Online Business?
And even if you could, do you want to? Before we dive into this question, let’s go back in time. Let’s go all the way back to 2006 when John discussed the notion of trading hours for dollars. By far the most conventional way to make money is with a traditional job. You go into work, you put in your hours and, in exchange, your employers pays you. In effect, you’ve traded hours of your life for a certain number of dollars. And while this is by far the most common way for most people to make money, it is an inherently flawed model. Aside from the issues related to …
3 New List Building Apps You Need To Check Out Now
Email marketing is a vital tool for increasing engagement and overall blog growth. No serious blogger will tell you that “email is dead” because ESP (email service providers) are coming up with new and creative ways to keep subscription counts high. There was a time that obtaining subscribers became more difficult and much of it had to do with the stigma surrounding email marketing. Spammers found creative ways to obtain email addresses and then started to bombard email accounts with junk. However, the value of a…
Creative Ways to Make Money Online with Instagram
With so many different ways to make money online and with the Internet changing with each passing day, it’s important to stay on top of new opportunities. As you make your way around the web, you’ll likely come across a number of articles and guides on Facebook marketing, for instance, and how you can tap into specific demographics for specific purposes in order to turn a profit. You might remember when I wrote about using Pinterest as a prime example. Another hugely popular social network with remarkably high interaction rates is Instagram. Yes, a lot of Instagram feeds are filled with selfies and foodporn, but it also represents the opportunity to make some money here. Here are a …
How To Choose the Right Business Web Hosting Provider
Compared to running a traditional brick-and-mortar business, the costs of launching and running an online business are considerably lower. You don’t have to pay “rent” in the traditional sense, you don’t have to worry about heat and water (aside from the basic utilities you’d be paying for anyway in your home), and there is practically no physical maintenance to speak of either. At the same time, you can’t possibly assume that your online business doesn’t need any infrastructure at all or that you don’t have to open your wallet in order to turn a profit. And one of…
Links for 2015-04-27 [del.icio.us]
Disinformation Visualization: How to lie with datavis | Visualising Information for Advocacy When working with raw data we’re often encouraged to present it differently, to give it a form, to map it or visualize it. But all maps lie. In fact, maps have to lie, otherwise they wouldn’t be useful. Some are transparent and obvious lies, such as a tree icon on a map often represents more than one tree. Others are white lies – rounding numbers and prioritising details to create a more legible representation. And then there’s the third
The Real Reason Why 80{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475}+ of Funded Startups Fail
A friend confessed to me the other night that his funded startup had failed. “It was growing,” he said. “We were getting customers. We just weren’t getting them fast enough to continue getting funding.” This is a familiar refrain with startup founders, and I personally know several founders whose businesses fit this bill (including my last funded company.) They have a business that works, with customers. It just doesn’t fit the ridiculous growth profile that most VC’s (venture capitalists) expect. That’s the untold story…
WikiLeaks has started accepting secret documents again after nearly five years
You can once again submit secrets to WikiLeaks anonymously, without worrying that some network spy or even a WikiLeaks staffer will reveal your identity. The site announced today that, after several years, it has now launched a beta version its leak submission system running on Tor, the anonymity software. This will once again allow people to share secret documents and tips, according to a report by Wired. This new secure site will upload documents to the WikiLeaks staff. It’s been four and a half years since some WikiLeaks
Windows 10 Preview, LG G4 Phone Both Unveiled
New technology ruled the news this week. And that technology might be of interest to small business owners too as they build stronger companies through better operating systems and mobile technology. Microsoft and LG were among the companies with new products to show, even if they aren’t available to your business just yet. Take a look at this week’s Small Business Trends news roundup for more: Technology Trends Windows 10 Preview Reveals Mail and Calendar Upgrades The launch of Windows 10 is set for later this summer, the official Windows blog reports. And excitement is building, The latest technical build preview was recently revealed, giving more of a taste…
Discovery fatigue
When Napster first hit the scene, people listened to as many different songs as they could. It was a feast of music discovery, fueled by access and curiosity. Now, the typical Spotify user listens to music inside a smaller comfort zone. When blogs were fresh and new, we subscribed to them by the hundreds, exploring, learning and seeking more. Over time, many people stopped following the outbound links. When Twitter was new, just about anything seemed worthy …
Never Pay Full Price for Anything
Who pays full price for a car? No one! Yet there are stories of people paying over list price for high demand vehicles such as Toyota Prius. Do you negotiate prices in every purchase? Of course not, that would be too much trouble. So when would it be worth it? There are two (2) categories of purchases that would be worth negotiating a better price. The first is a large purchase such as buying a house, car or travel. The second is recurring purchases such as groceries, services, or clothes. This is …
Online business fear
Do you have online business fear? “To fight fear, act. To increase fear – wait, put off, postpone.” -David Joseph Schwartz So try the best for your online business,internet business.