May 2008
You are currently browsing the articles from Asset Run Blog written in the month of May 2008.
I have recently launched a new project called Webdesigndev.com which offers Web designers and Developers advice and tutorials on how to create unique websites.
About Webdesigndev:
Two years ago when I had Webdesigndev online it was bringing in $2000 for me every month till I closed the website down because the website got banned from Google Adsense because of the quality of traffic. I then decided to launch my next big project which is Retire at 21, in the last few months I decided to put some ideas together to bring Webdesigndev back online, for 3 reasons:
- Domain is over 7 years old! Google loves me. I receive 5000 visitors a month from Google already in one month!
- Page rank of 4, although a lot of us don’t belive in page rank anymore, a lot of people do and it helps to sell advertising spaces!
- I have other related websites to promote the website to.
The website is packed with some of the most detailed tutorials on the internet such as How to create a flash website and Designing a Website In Photoshop. Producing this kind of content is very expensive but I have hired 2 designers so far to produce articles, these designers are Eli of Photoshopstar and Tom of Pushstandards.
3 Month Goals - My Goal’s for August 1st
Traffic: 500,000 Visitors
Getting traffic for the tutorials is one of the easiest ways to produce 1000’s of visitors almost instantly. There are 100s of tutorial indexing websites which will each bring you 100s and 1000s of visitors in the first few days.
Revenue: $2,500 Revenue
More traffic you have the more you can charge for advertising. I will be selling my advertising spaces through advertising brokers such as BuySellAds and Text-Link-Ads to minimize the work I have to do. I will also accept private advertisers and aim to offer a premium membership in the near future.
Subscribers: 10,000 Newsletter Readers/RSS Subscribers
I hope to really do well with gaining subscribers, I already have 214. I hope to gain subscribers mainly through building a newsletter list and auto subscribing them to my RSS feed. You can see how I attracted 214 people in the last 2 weeks by visiting a blog post and at the top you will see a box offering my free gift with my newsletter.
Web Design Dev Forums:
I hope to launch the forums some time this month officially, I will be offering every forum member free hosting for reaching 50 posts, so get ahead of the game and start posting now.
Register on the forums…
Suggestions and Requests
What do you think of the website? Any changes you would like me to make. We would also like to know what other tutorials you would like to see, we are going to be posting 3 articles next week:
Creating a blog from scratch and taking you through every step to making money online.
Building Websites To Earn Money
Creating a animated advertising banner in Photoshop
To keep up with the progress of the website subscribe to the RSS feed and follow me on twitter!
Written by Michael on May 31st, 2008 with no comments.
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We dropped by the People’s Square today to visit the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. The hall has a scale model that shows the future for the city of Shanghai. In this case, the future is 2010. After that, they’ll have to redo the model.
While pretty much everyone is aware that China is hosting the Olympic Games in Beijing, most do not know that China is also hosting the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. I guess once the games are over, the promotion of the Expo will begin. When you fly into Shanghai for the Expo 2010, this is the city you can expect to see.
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Written by John Chow on May 31st, 2008 with no comments.
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Whether you are trying to sell e-books or computer software, one of the costlier expenses that you may have to endure is paying for some shopping cart software. There are certainly a lot of options out there, but very few are quite as affordable as SWPal. This shopping cart service starts at just five bucks a month, but as you will find out through this review, it seems to have everything that you need to get started with your online store.
Sell Software and Digital Products
If you are looking to manage inventory and sell physical products, SWPal is not the service for you. Instead, this comprehensive shopping cart service has been designed specifically for vendors of software and other digital products. SWPal can be used to sell e-books, shareware, telephone cards, web templates, and just about anything else that can be delivered digitally via download or email.
The SWPal e-commerce solution not only handles the payment process, but the system also “automates and secures the electronic delivery of files and codes.” All uploads are stored in a secure folder. When customers make a purchase, they are sent a special link where they are able to download the digital product. You can specify the link expiration details based on number of days and number of downloads.
Compatible with Google Checkout and PayPal
No money from the customer ever passes through the hands of SWPal. This is only the shopping cart side of things. All payment is still being processed by your choice of either Google Checkout or PayPal. The money is deposited directly into your account.
The buying process consists of three main steps. First, the customer clicks to make a purchase on your website (link provided by SWPal). Second, they are directed to the payment page on either Google Checkout or PayPal. Third, they are sent to SWPal to complete the purchase and receive their special download link.
SWPal is able to handle both single purchase and subscription modes. There are options to customize shopping cart pages, create bundle discount offers, and offer coupon discount codes. The SWPal system can also be used to automatically calculate VAT and sales taxes as needed. When you upload your digital product, you can apply a tax to selected countries.
How Much Does it Cost?
While other shopping cart services may have fees involved for setting up an account, posting individual digital products, and processing individual payments, SWPal keeps things simple with a very straightforward flat fee pricing schedule.
There are no commissions charged on each transaction made. There are no bandwidth fees and no setup fee. The monthly rate is meant to be all-inclusive and is based solely on the number of products that you would like to sell and the relative size of these products. Plans start at $5 a month, getting you 10 product slots and 50MB of secure storage. The biggest plan is $100 a month and that gets you 1000 product slots and 1000 MB of storage space.
SWPal offers a 15-day free trial, so you can give them a whirl without paying a penny.
Integrated Affiliate Program Too
When you list a digital product through the SWPal e-commerce system, you also have the opportunity to integrate an affiliate program as well. You are ultimately responsible for paying your affiliates. The system is able to generate a tab delimiter file, which can then be used in the PayPal Mass Payment function. You use this to pay your affiliates.
Even the SWPal shopping cart software has an affiliate program of its own. You receive 100% of the first monthly fee paid by any new vendor that you refer. If you cater to the higher end of the market, you can get up to $100 for each referral. That sounds pretty lucrative to me.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR SWPAL SHOPPING CART SERVICE
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Written by Michael Kwan on May 30th, 2008 with no comments.
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Taking a ride on the Shanghai Metro subway system is a good reminder on why I hate rush hour. With a population of 20 million, it’s pretty much rush hour all the time in Shanghai. The Metro moves 4 million people every day to and from their destinations.
Shanghai is the third city in China to build a subway system (Beijing and Tianjin are the other two). The Metro is one of the world’s most rapidly expanding subway systems, currently with eight lines, and has more new lines under construction, along with proposed extensions to the lines currently in operation. The network of the system has outpaced the Hong Kong MTR as of December 2007.
Riding the Metro cost 3RBM for journeys under 6 km, then 1RMB for each additional 10 km, to the highest fare of 9RBM. That means you can ride from one end of Shanghai to the other end for about $1.25 USD. Inexpensive, yes. However, be prepared to feel like a sardine.
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Written by John Chow on May 30th, 2008 with no comments.
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In my post on adding video to boost your blog traffic and income, I said that video is the future of blogging. I was asked by a reader to explain why I felt this way. I can pin it down to the following six reasons.
Video Is More Interactive
Video is more interactive and can hold a person’s attention better than written words. Some things are very hard to describe without the aid of videos. Imagine trying to teach someone how to build a computer using words only. It’s pretty hard. However, it’s pretty simple to show how a computer is put together using a video.
Video allows the blogger to let his readers know him better. The written word cannot express what the blogger’s voice sounds like. It can’t show facial expressions. Most importantly, it cannot show the same level of passion the way a video can. Video help create a better bond between a blogger and his readers.
Mass High Speed Internet Usage
Most people have high speed Internet access. I personally don’t know anyone who is still on dial-up. High speed Internet has made it possible for large video files to be streamed onto the computer screen. Unless you’re behind China’s great firewall, you should be able to view most any video without any hiccups.
The Internet getting faster will mean ever improving video quality. Right now, the quality of YouTube videos are pretty bad. However, as the Internet speeds up and better compression systems are developed, we’ll be able to stream Hi-Def video content in the near future.
Rise of Mobile Devices
Does anyone actually read blogs from their iPhone? I’m sure it can be done but it’s not a fun experience. However, watching a video on an iPhone, or another mobile device, provides a much better user experience. With 3G just around the corner, you can expect video viewing on mobile devices to continue to rise.
As a money making blogger, you have to keep an eye on the market to see where it’s headed. The next Internet isn’t on the desktop. If you stay there, you’ll be left behind.
Low Cost of Entry
I already touched on this is my original post. It cost next to nothing to add videos to your blog. If you have a digital camera (and who doesn’t?), chances are you can add videos right now. You don’t need Adobe Premier or a Canon XL Hi-Def digital camcorder to produce great video content. Some of the best videos I’ve seen were produced using the inexpensive Flip Video camera.
Having said that, keep in mind that the future of video on the Net is Hi-Def. If you’re in the market for a new digital camcorder and have some money to spend, you should consider getting the HD model.
More and More Search Results Include Videos
Search engines like Google now have the power to spider video content and include them in the search engine results page. You’re going to be seeing more and more video results when you do searches. If you’re not doing videos, you could be losing out on a large number of searches.
People Are Lazy
People in general are lazy. They want everything done for them and don’t want to put forth any effort to do things themselves. If this was not the case, most of America would be bloody rich instead of barely scraping by.
It takes more effort to read than it does to watch a video. This is why TV news is bigger than the newspaper. Most people would rather sit on the lazyboy and watch the news instead of read about it. You want your blog to target a big a market as possible and the market for lazy people is huge! 
The Internet favors the early adopters and people who get in first. Video blogging on the Internet is still pretty much in its infancy. Technorati says there’s over 120,000 new blogs started every day. Most won’t have videos. Adding video to your blog is a great way to stand out from a very crowded blogsphere.
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Written by John Chow on May 30th, 2008 with no comments.
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A visit to Microsoft China shows what kind of opportunities are available for employees of a multinational. Like all multinationals, Microsoft has offices all over the world and employees looking for a change can request a transfer to not just another division, but a whole other country. This was the situation two of our friends found themselves in. They both worked at MS Redmond but an opportunity to return to Shanghai to head up MSN China presented itself and they decided to take it.
Microsoft offer several programs to help their expats offset the high cost of living in Shanghai. Microsoft pays the rent on the couple’s three-bedroom condo that’s just down the street from the office. MS also pays the cost of sending the couple’s two children to the nearby international school. That take care of the two biggest expenses expats face while working in China. MS has their own VPN to get around China’s firewall.
To offset the income tax difference between the US and China, Microsoft offers a tax equalization package. The company will top up employee earnings to ensure that they’re are no worse off in terms of net pay in the host country than they would have been in the home country. Our friends also received a 30% raise for accepting the China post.
With their biggest expenses taken care of, and a 30% increase from their US salary, the couple enjoy a high disposable income that puts them in the upper end of the elite working class. When your major expenses are taken of, you can really live high on the hog. Hell, you might even be able to shop at the Super Brand Mall.
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Written by John Chow on May 29th, 2008 with no comments.
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A new service just came online that will allow you to make money with your blogroll. Blogrolled.com is a similar service to Text Link Ads. However, they’re selling links in the blogroll to cloak the fact that they are paid links.
The blogroll is a place normally reserved for bloggers to link to other bloggers. Blogroll links are full follow links which mean they carry link juice and help with moving up in the search results. While Google has been cracking down on paid links, they’ve so far left the blogroll alone because the links on there are generally related to the blog topic and not paid. Blogrolled.com aims to take advantage of this fact to make money.
Advertisers will be able to search an inventory of publishing sites offering blogroll links. Once they found a blog(s) they like, they can purchase the link. Pricing is done on a flat monthly rate.
Blogrolled.com aims to be totally stealth in order to avoid the wrath of Google. Their system uses no scripts or codes of any of kind. When a sale is made, the publisher is notified by email. The publisher will then place the link into his blogroll the same way he enters any other blogroll links. Publishers are paid monthly by PayPal.
Paid blogroll links are not new. Advertisers and bloggers have been selling them privately for a quite awhile. However, Blogrolled.com is the first service to try to create a marketplace for it. It will be very interesting to see how Google responds to this.
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Written by John Chow on May 29th, 2008 with no comments.
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As you no doubt noticed, I’ve starting adding videos to this blog in a big way. The effect on traffic has been quite positive. Video is where blogging is heading and you should consider adding a video element to your blog if you haven’t already done so.
Videos Boosts Blog Traffic
I have noticed traffic to the blog has gone up by 15% since adding more videos to my posts. In addition, RSS subscription is on the verge of breaking 26,000 for the first time. Readers seem to really like videos. It allows me to express myself in ways words on a blog can never do.
Something I haven’t paid attention to at all was YouTube subscribers. I didn’t know I had any until I checked it. There are nearly 100 people subscribed to my YouTube videos. YouTube could be a nice traffic source if you built up a big enough subscriber base. I found iJustine via YouTube and I’m sure many others found her the same way.
Google Can Spider Video Content
Here’s another reason why you want to start adding videos to your blog. Google now has the technology to spider video content. YouTube videos are showing up more often on Google search results. For example, the YouTube video for the Macbook Air commercial shows up on page 1 when you do a search for MacBook Air. The video has been viewed nearly 2 million times. Imagine how much traffic you would get if you had been the one to post that video with your blog URL watermarked on it.
Videos Are Inexpensive To Add
You don’t need an expensive film studio to add videos to your blog. All my videos are shot with an inexpensive Flip Video digital camcorder. Most digital cameras can take video so you don’t have to buy a separate video recorder.
Editing the videos can be done with the software that came with your computer OS. I used Windows Movie Maker when I had the PC. Now I use iMovie on the Macbook Pro. While neither program is as powerful as Adobe Premier, they’ll get the job done and they’re easier to use. Thanks to services like YouTube, hosting your video is easy and free.
Videos Can Make You Money
I haven’t tried to make money with my videos yet but I can this as a viable income stream down the road. We already have sponsors giving us free stuff for the weekly Dot Com Pho videos and I can see product placement fees in the future.
Another way to make money with the video is by becoming a YouTube partner to get a percentage of the advertising money. YouTube is not the only service to offer partnerships. There are tons of video sharing sites, like Revver, that will give you a cut of the advertising dollars.
Maximizing Your Video Traffic
To get the most out of their videos, many bloggers will upload their videos to a bunch of video sharing sites. However, this can be a long and boring process. To make thing easier, I recommend using a service like Tube Mogul, which distributes your videos to all the major video sharing sites with a single upload.
The service also offers video analytics so you can see how your videos are performing across all the video sharing sites. It’s no harder to use than uploading a single YouTube video so I highly recommend it.
Another thing I recommend to maximize your video traffic is to always embed your blog URL into your videos. If the viewer likes the video, chances are he’ll want to know who made it and see any other videos you may have made. Putting your URL at the beginning or end is also good for branding purposes.
Written by John Chow on May 28th, 2008 with no comments.
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Just in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China has opened the world’s biggest airport. The new Terminal 3, built at a cost of $3.5 billion USD, measures a gigantic 501 square MILES! This one building is 17% bigger than the combined floorspace of all of Heathrow’s terminals 1, 2, 3, 4 and new Terminal 5.
From the air, the new airport looks like a giant guitar waiting for the God of all Guitar Heros to come down from the heavens and rock the planet. The building’s designer describes it this way:
This is a building borne of its context. It communicates a uniquely Chinese sense of place and will be a true gateway to the nation. This is expressed in its dragon-like form and the drama of the soaring roof that is a blaze of ‘traditional’ Chinese colours – imperial reds merge into golden yellows. As you proceed along the central axis, view of the red columns stretching ahead into the far distance evokes images of a Chinese temple.
The new airport is part of a series of structures that China is building for their Olympic coming out party on 08-08-08. No other country has ever spent this much money on an Olympics and I doubt any country ever will in the future. They’re making the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver look like a five and dine store. No doubt about it. To get rich IS glorious.
Check out more information and pictures of the new airport at Arch Daily.
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Written by John Chow on May 28th, 2008 with no comments.
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To get an idea on what it’s like to live in Shanghai, we went condo shopping. We tour a couple of apartments in the development where our friends who took us out to Tang Dynasty live. The development, located in Pudong, is made up of thirty 26 floor buildings. That’s only phase 1. There are five other phases just as big as the first.
The development is pretty much a self contain community (or city). It’s gated off, with security check at the entrance and a massive four floor common area building that would be mistaken for a community center anywhere else. The development is set up so you don’t ever have to leave home (except to buy food). There are parks, swimming pools, playgrounds, spa, tennis courts, etc. There’s even a golf driving range.
For the price, the condos itself are not at the same level as what I can get back home. Features that Sarah and I would want, like a gourmet kitchen and big master bath, are not on the most wanted list of most Asian buyers. It wasn’t until I moved up to the $3 million unit that I saw something that look like a real master bath.
The average Chinese worker wouldn’t be able to live in a development like this. Unless they’re members of the new elite working class, it’s simply too expensive. Sixty percent of the residents are expats.
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Written by John Chow on May 28th, 2008 with no comments.
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