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- What Makes People Buy?
I found this at NonToxin.com - "if you like reading what Britney Spears did today, please go away, this site is not for you". It's a very interesting lesson in behavioural psychology - or What Makes people Buy? Check this out - The Economist magazine gives the following pricing options to people who want to subscribe:
* Website-only subscription: $59.00 per year.
* Print-only subscription: $125.00 per year.
* Print & web: $125.00 per year.David Airey, a behavioural economist himself is confused: why would The Economist offer the same price for print-only subscription as well as for print & web subscription? It didn’t make sense to him.
So David started investigating and found out why The Economist gave the 2nd print-only option that they knew no one would go for.
He gathered 2 groups of 100 students each and asked them to subscribe to The Economist. To the first group, he made the same offer that the Economist makes. And the results of what people chose are:
* Website-only subscription: 16
* Print-only subscription: 0
* Print & web: 84
For the 2nd group, David removes the 2nd print-only pricing option. The results this time are:
* Website-only subscription: 68
* Print & web: 32
The Economist gives the 2nd pricing option that they know no one will buy because it increases the number of sales their higher priced 3rd option gets!
Action Summary:
* People don’t make decisions in a vacuum. They make them by comparing various factors with each other.
* People pick an anchor and base their final conclusion near and in comparison to that anchor. So make sure that the answer you want is close to the anchor point.
* To persuade people, change their frame of mind by giving them a different anchor point. And they’ll decide in your favour.
There's also another interesting story on that site about an art gallery having trouble selling a $25,000 painting. Until they hung a similar but much larger painting next to it and priced at $40,000. The smaller painting sold within days.
Hmmm...how can I use this information? Hey maybe I should be trying to sell my paintings online? That's one of them up top. Yeah you can give me $25k for it if you like. How about $1500? Gouache on watercolour paper.
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:19:52 +0000 - Make Money From Domain Name Trading
Domain Name Buying & Selling
is still big business. Here are the Top 10 sellers so far this year -- 1. Fund.com $9,999,950 Pvt Sale 3/11/08
- 2. DataRecovery.com $1,659,000 Pvt Sale 3/4/08
- 3. Cruises.co.uk $1,099,798 Pvt Sale 2/5/08
- 4. SkiResorts.com $850,000 Moniker 4/8/08
- 5. iReport.com $750,000 Pvt Sale 1/29/08
- 6. Casino.de $625,060 Pvt Sale 3/18/08
- 7. Jobs.ca $600,000 Pvt Sale 5/6/08
- 8. Systematic.com $400,000 Pvt Sale 4/1/08
- 9.tiePorn.net $400,000 SnapNames 2/12/08
- 10. 770.com $343,208 Sedo 4/15/08
More here at dnjournal
BTW I have these beauties for sale at SEDO the domain auction house -
- bizoid.com
- boatscrews.com
- bongsr.us
- cheapparishostel.com
- free-keywordtool.com
- greatbarrierbeef.com
- inyourfaceforbreakfast.com
- irolx.com
- lovingit.org
- metronicity.com
- mylifeasafrog.com
- uh-huh-uh-huh.com
- wahkazoo.com
- yourinternets.com
Most are up for offers over $200. Free-KeywordTool.com and CheapParisHostel.com even come with Google links and PageRank 3.
Go ahead - Make Money From Domian Name Trading
Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:24:21 +0000 - Credit Card Crisis Looming
Credit Cards
- it had to happen - credit card companies are reducing credit limits - often without warning.Cards like Visa, MasterCard and American Express Company, are slashing back credit card limits. They are targeting clients with unsustainable large credit card debt and those that live in areas hit by the sub-prime mortgage crisis - like California, Arizona and Florida, where home prices have plummeted.
Self-employed entrepreneurs or those working in threatened industries are also in their sights.
You don't have to be Einstein to see what caused this - the weak American economy, the sub-prime mortgage scandal (yes, a scandal), rising American unemployment, the unsustainable Iraq invasion (note I don't call it a "war") and people living beyond their means propped up with credit cards and PayDay loans.
A big part of the problem is that people are using credit cards for household expenses like groceries, petrol and rent. While still lashing out on entertainment and luxury items. And to prop up the credit card debt they are taking out home equity loans. In 2007 half of all those who took out these kind of loans used the money to help reduce their credit card debt. The figures for this year will be even higher. But home equity loans are now not so easy to get.
Credit Card industry experts predict that credit card loss rates for lenders, now around 5.7 percent, could go as high as 10 percent in the next 18 months. Others are saying that 40-45% of oustanding credit lines will be slashed in the next two years - $2 trillion worth.
BTW disclaimers in the fine print of credit card applications pretty much give the credit providers carte blanche - they can cancel or alter credit limits any time, irrespective of a client's payment or credit history.
Credit Card Eye-Opening Facts
- In 1970 51% of Americans had a credit card. Today it's 93% today. The average cardholder has 7 cards.
- Americans owe $850 billion in credit card debt.
- A "preferred customer", according to credit card companies, is someone with a "taste for credit" who's willing to make minimum monthly payments—forever. Come on down sucker!
- 60% of Americans have been in credit card debt for more than a year. 60%.
- The average American household owes nearly $10,000 on credit cards - on a card with a 14% apr (the average interest rate) and making 2% monthly payments, it would take you more than 6 years to pay off that debt. And you'll pay $4,000 in interest.
- The average American household spends 14% of its disposable income paying off debts. And puts negative 0.5% into savings. Uh-oh.
- Americans charged $51 billion worth of fast food last year - a 29% increase since 2001.
- 1/3 of low- and middle-income households report going into credit card debt to pay for rent, utilities, and food.
I daresay the British and Australian figures would be similar.
You think there might be a Credit Card Crisis Looming?
Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:36:02 +0000 - Schapelle Corby Hospitalised in Bali
Schapelle CorbyJust read this report in the (increasingly trashy) Sydney Morning Herald about Schapelle Corby, the convicted Australian pot smuggler being hospitalised for what is thought to be depression. If you're not Australian you've probably never heard of this young woman. But in a nutshell: she was arrested four years back at Denpasar Airport, Bali after customs officials found 4.1 kilos of mary-jew-ana heads in her boogie-board bag unloaded from an Australian flight. Corby claimed no knowledge of the dope but that didn't cut it with the Indos and they sentenced her to 20 years in a Bali slammer. She has continued to maintain her innocence (even though her brother, who was with her on that flight, has several convictions for drug-dealing and assault).The Herald story quoted a Balinese prison official saying -
"At this time Corby is being guarded by two officials from Kerobokan Prison in front of her room in the international wing of Sanglah hospital.....she is being examined intensively, checking blood pressure and other checkups but so far it's suspected it is depression. There is still no explanation about the cause of the depression. Maybe we will get the results tomorrow.
"There is still no explanation about the cause of the depression"!!! Nothing to do with the 16 years stir she's still to serve I suppose. Or the fact that her Mother and Sister have both just won large defamation payouts, rumoured to be in the millions, from Channel Seven Television, Australia.
I wonder if we'll ever know the truth about this whole business. But still...20 years for a large bag of pot? Draconian. Wiki on it Here
Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:39:20 +0000 - Free Rental Cars For Paris
Cute huh?We have free (almost) rental bikes in Paris - Velibs (from velo- "bike" and libre - "free") and now, if Bertrand Delanoe, the Socialist Mayor of Paris, has his way there'll be 4,000 free electric-powered Autolibs put into service at the end of next year - 2,000 within the Paris walls and 2,000 in the 'burbs. They propose to have 700 rental stations built - 500 above ground and 200 below ground. The car to be used hasn't been decided yet. Perhaps it will end up being a doorless model like the Matra GEM on the right.
Matra GEM
Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:43:44 +0000 - 300k Frogs Driving Unlicensed
Lagerfeld laying it down.Karl Lagerfeld on the left there is saying -"It's yellow, it's butt-ugly, doesn't go with anything but it can save your miserable frog skin"
All part of a new safety campaign from Securité Routière - the French Road Safety mob. Yeah alright...the copy doesn't actually say that. Rather, it says "It's yellow, it's ugly, it doesn't go with anything but it can save your life".
Last year 4,620 frogs were killed on the roads and over 81,000 injured but French authorities are quick to point out that that's 1.9% less than 2006. And the 16th consecutive drop in the death rate.
Apart from the horrific accident figures, there are an estimated 300,000 French people driving without a license. And 75% of those have never had a license. Incredible figure isn't it? You gotta wonder where the cops are. And the French are still drink-driving - making it the main cause of fatal accidents. I think there's only half-a-dozen breathalyser units in the whole country. It's a joke.
Here are the latest French Road Safety campaign videos. This could be part of the problem. These are well lame. Nothing as graphic as the British or Australian campaigns.
And speed limits? Largely ignored. I drive down to Bourgogne (Burgundy) from Paris on the A6 motorway about once a month and sit on the speed limit of 140k but I'm regularly passed by cars that have got to be doing at least 200kph. And you hardly ever see les flics. When you do, its because there's been an accident.
And there are signs warning of "Radar ahead". C'est bizarre. Why have a radar trap if you're going to warn people its there so they can slow down and then speed up again?
Ah...the French. I have a perfect word for them - contrary. I've been having fun lately riding a bike through Paris. Pain in the ass. The French park their cars and vans across the bike track. The motorbikes and scooters dash in and out of them. People walk in them. Dogs crap in them. They are completely disjointed - one minute you're on a narrow bike-track - the next shunted back on to the road. And of course now that the Velib bikes are available for rent you have a whole other gang of bozo bikers wobbling all over the bloody place. The accident figures for bike-riding in Paris must be going through the roof.
Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:40:45 +0000 - .Org Domain Name Goes For $151k
.Org Domain name SEXE.ORG was sold today for a record $151,400 through thedomains.com setting one of the highest prices ever paid for a .org. But still nowhere near the $12 Million in cash and stock that Sex.com realised when it was sold a couple of years back.
Oh yeah...SEXE means SEX here in France. Sexy no?Hmmm...I've just rushed out and bought LovingIt.org - that's got to be worth something hasn't it? You can take it as loving "it" or loving "i.t." - information technology. Make me an offer I can't refuse.
Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:21:27 +0000 - Domain Name Appraisal Scam
Domain Name buying and selling has recently become a hobby of mine. Although I've yet to make any money from it. So I was quite interested when this message popped into my email the other day. Interested and wary.From: Harrison [management@phreaker.net] Hello,
We’ve have visited several online auctions. We are very interested in your domain name.
Just email me your price and we will consider it.
Of course, domain reselling is not a main direction of our business (we develop software). But domain aftermarket is hot now, so we are always interested in domain names.
Looking forward to do business with you. Regards,
Anthony Harrison
COO
PDS ConsultingSo I think hmmm. Either this guy is a complete amateur or he's a moron. Plus he doesn't write very good English, which always makes me suspicious. But what the hell, I'll bite. So I email him back - "If you're serious, make an offer". And bugger me, back comes -
Malcolm, Can you accept 9,000 USD? Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?
Domain without content is ok with me. Web site is not necessary.
Have you had your domain names evaluated in the past? I mean domain appraisals.
Without valuation we cannot be sure in the sale price. It’s very important for me in terms of reselling too.
But we must engage a valuation company with REAL manual service. So I will only accept valuations from independent sources I trust.
To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies.
Please check this posting from archive: (here he had a link to a dodgey domain appraisal business) If, for example, the valuation comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly. It will be fair. I also hope you can give me 12% - 15% discount.
After you send me the valuation via email (usually it takes 1-2 days to obtain it) we’ll continue our negotiations.
What is your preferred payment method: Escrow.com, International wire transfer, PayPal.com or something else?
Hope we can come to an agreement fast.
Looking forward to your reply.So immediately I think "9000 clams for Metronicity.com" WTF? I think it's a good name but this is bullshit. Noone would start with an offer that high. And why does he want me to get an appraisal? And conveniently supply a link to his preferred appraisal company? This isn't normal business practice surely? If you were interested in something you would do your research - your due diligence and make your offer. Something doesn't add up here.
So I did a search online with Domain name appraisal scam and sure enough, this clown's been trying this on all over the net. Sometimes using different names but with basically the same spiel. And believe or not people are actually falling for this. They are spending $50 to get their domain names appraised from the company he suggests. Obviously he's an affiliate - he's getting a kickback or he might even own the dodgey appraisal site.
It was a new one to me. I emailed him back - "Nice try. I give you 1 for cheek and 1 for presentation. Your score: 2/10"
BTW I've just had a legitimate offer of $400 on GreatBarrierBeef.com which cost me $10 to register a week ago. I didn't accept the offer and now it goes to auction with Sedo.co.uk. If there's no other bid I have to sell it for the $400. I'll take it. Great name for an Australian-themed steakhouse don't you think?
Today I registered YourInternets.com and Uh-Huh-Uh-Huh.com - and I'm rather keen on them both. I also like Bizoid.com. Ah well...keeps me out of the pub.
Domain Name Appraisal Scam.
Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:18:11 +0000 - How to Make Money Blogging - 7 Bombproof Ways
I get asked all the time, like I'm some kind of blogging guru, "how can I make money from blogging?" And I usually answer "When you find out...tell me". Because to be quite honest, I make bugger-all out of this lark. There are some people making good money from full-time blogging. My fellow Australian Darren Rowse of Problogger is one of them. He apparently pulls over six figures a year from his various blogs. But even he admits that he was somewhat lucky by getting into blogging quite early - 2002 - when most of us had never heard of the word blog.I started contributing blog posts with the now defunct Sydney Morning Herald blog Radar three years back. It was an unpaid gig and they sometimes chopped my stories to pieces which was a bit annoying but the best thing that came from it was I got a permanent link back to this blog from a major Australian broadsheet with a PageRank of 6 - deemed an authority site by Google.
So can you make money from blogging?
Bombproof Way #1
You'll read all over the web that one of the best ways of making money from your blog is to stick some Pay-Per-Click advertising on it. Programs like Google Adsense and Chitika. Well yeah...you can make money from that but unless you've got tens of thousands of visitors daily its not going to amount to much. Peanuts. Hardly anyone clicks on an ad. Do you? I'm currently getting around 6,000 unique visitors daily, which I suppose is quite good for a blog and I have 6,600 pages indexed with Google. I run a Wide skyscraper ad on the navigation column and some block ads in the copy. You'd think I'd do alright with that wouldn't you? Wrong. It helps pay the blog-host fees and the bandwidth and that's about it.
Some of the clicks pay quite well. Anything to do with dating or Search Engine Optimization or making money online can pay up to $2 a click. But usually the payouts on the other ads are quite small - 10-20 cents. So you'll need an awful lot of clicks to make any money this way from pay-for-click advertising. I've just about given up on it. I'm going to investigate CPM advertising instead - Cost Per Mille (thousand). Meaning I'll be paid so much per 1,000 impressions. Adsense is a combination of the two. I'm getting 222,000 page views at the moment so this might be the way to go. If they accept me. Last time I looked at this they knocked me back on content. But I've cleaned my act up a bit since then. So we'll see. I've applied to this mob - Casale Media but I'm not holding my breath. I can just see them spinning out about the naked ladies on the Paris Metro story for one. BTW I'm going to that guy's vernissage - his exhibition - in a couple of weeks at the Museum of Eroticism here in the Paris Pigalle district. Should be fun.
Bombproof Way #2
Donations. "Yeah, right" you're saying..."In your dreams". And quite rightly. You'll wait a long time to make any money out of donations. But it's not unheard of. When I first started this blog in 2005 I asked for donations through the PayPal Donate button on the side there and my regular bunch of readers who'd followed me across from Radar rattled the can. It was quite gratifying. Most of them sent me $20 but one Forex dealer chipped in $100 which really made my day. But since then...nothing. Oh wait...I did have one guy send me five bucks months ago. With a nice note saying "Your blog makes me laugh".
Bombproof Way #3
Amazon. Now you'd think this would be a stand-up start wouldn't you? I could throw up a link right here to Rule The Web - Mark Whatisface from BoingBoing's best-selling book. Something you'd think someone reading this would be interested in buying online. But no. Apparently not. I've tried and tried with Amazon. I've linked to relevant books. I've linked to Hot New Releases or whatever they call it. I've linked to music albums. And not a bite. Not one sale. Maybe this time. Check it out below. BTW BoingBoing featured me recently and I had an extra 60,000 visitors in a week. You'd think my pay-per-click advertising would have skyrocketed right? Nuh. My earnings/clicks stayed the same. I don't think a single one of those BoingBoingers clicked on an ad. Weird eh?
Bombproof Way #4
Affiliate Sales is another one the so-called probloggers say you can make good money on. And again, for me, the results have been dismal. The payouts can be good. Really good. I've made a couple of sales to what I think is a very good ebook on SEO - Search Engine Optimization - how to get on the first page of Google for your keywords. And I've made a commission of $60 or $70 bucks each time. But it's been a long time between drinks and...I dunno...there's something just a little bit distasteful about flogging somebody something that pays a kickback like that. But hey - don't let that discourage you. Buy from me. Here's a link to a program that teaches you how to optimize your pages to get higher rankings in the search engines (read "Google"). It's good. It's worked for me. I regularly hit the first page of Google.
Bombproof Way #5
Blogging pay-for-post programs. This was all the rage a while back and I thought it worth a go. But again - I've found it's hardly worth the time and effort. It takes a fair bit of work to write a good story and then to only get $10 or something is discouraging to say the least. I was making more than that as a magazine article rewriter thirty years ago. Think I was getting $80 a thousand words.
Bombproof Way #6
Write your own ebook/self publish your novel. There are plenty of self-publishing programs out there. LuLu is one of them. No I've never done it. And no that's not an affiliate link. But to make money like this your book would have to be pretty unique and you would need plenty of sales. Worth looking into.
Bombproof Way #7
This could work. If you scroll to the footer on this page you'll see an ad for GetAFreeloader...sorry GetAFreeLancer. It's an affiliate link. Meaning I make a small commission if you use their services. I can't even remember what the percentage is. 2 1/2% maybe. Dunno. Again I haven't made a cracker from this. But if you go through to that site you'll notice there are jobs advertised all the time. Quite a lot of jobs. I've just used this service to have this website built. Some Indian guys out of Delhi did the coding in PHP for me and it was very quick and cost probably a half or a third of what you'd normally expect to pay. You can post the project cost into their escrow program and release it in instalments as stages are finished. It didn't go without a few headaches but we got there in the end. But coming back to it, if you can code or design or write there are heaps of opportunities here to make money from blogging. I'm bidding for several writing jobs at the moment. I've steered clear of the write ten 450 word articles a day for $1 each and I'm trying to find somebody that wants me to run their blog or site. I reckon I'll get there. But I'll not work for $10 a day.That's it - How to Make Money Blogging.
Sat, 14 Jun 2008 07:12:59 +0000 - Live Goldfish Keychain For Chinese Olympics
Fish but no chips?Beijing Olympics unofficial bit of tacky merchandising - a poor bloody goldfish sealed in a plastic bag-come-keychain. Or perhaps, knowing the Chinese taste in eating anything that walks, swims or flies, it's an emergency snack item - just break the seal and grill it over your cigarette lighter. Or throw it down raw poisson cru style with some Japanese Wasabi on top.The fishy keychains are on sale in the waterfront markets of Qingdao, home of the Tsingtao Beer brewery and the venue for the Olympic sailing competition.
The little guy printed on the plastic prison is Huanhuan - one of the five official Beijing Olympic mascots.
Fishy Facts
Your common or garden-pond variety goldfish, Carassius auratus, was one of the earliest fish to be domesticated and is still one of the most common aquarium and pond fish. It's a member of the carp family and was first domesticated in China, funnily enough. It was introduced to Europe in the late 17th century.Goldfish can grow to a length of 23 inches (59 cm) and a maximum weight of 9.9 pounds (4.5 kg) - although I don't think this poor little bugger will see that. How long do you reckon he can survive in that bag with no oxygen and no food? BTW the oldest recorded goldfish lived to 49 years. The collective noun for a group of goldfish (trapped in sealed plastic bags) is a "troubling". Quite.
During the Chinese Tang Dynasty, it was popular to dam carp in ponds. As the result of a dominant genetic mutation, some of these carp displayed gold rather than silver coloration. And of course the Chinese have always been great lovers of gold - it represents wealth and good fortune. So people began to breed the gold variety instead of the silver variety and began to display them in small containers - not permanently - they would be kept in a pond and brought out for special occasions (like Olympic Games ;-)).
In 1502 the Japanese developed a taste for goldfish and began serving them up sushi-style. (No they didn't. I made that up. They actually bred more varieties.)
In 1611 goldfish were introduced to Portugal (through the Jesuits in Japan) and from there to other parts of Europe. But the goldfish didn't reach the U.S until 1850 where it quickly became a popular snack served in a bun at ball-games. Or was that the hotdog? I'm confused.
Hey maybe there'd be a bigger market for this keychain if the fish were piranha?
Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:47:50 +0000
