First off I want to  be clear on what I mean by capital ….  I am not referring to capital as a physical asset in terms of this discussion.   I am referring to the cash or goods that are used to generate income by investing in different businesses (whether physically or virtually) or even an investment in a physical asset such as a house, apartment building or commercial property.  I am defining efficiency as using our available resources (namely capital) to their maximum potential and “squeezing” every penny out of each dollar spent in an effort to maximize income.  This is not the traditional definition of capital efficiency but this is the term I’m using to explain how we can leverage the power of the virtual economy, in essence  taking advantage of the nontraditional economies of scale  that the internet provides.

I am no stranger to outsourcing sites as Elance.com and Scriptlance.com.  I have been using them for a decade now….. I have used them from everything to hire someone to ghostwrite for me to develop a windows program that I resold.   Naturally,  I use them to this day.   These sites truly take advantage of  the virtual economy.   Price is driven by supply and demand and contractors are rewarded when they do a good job… when people positively critique them their demand naturally goes up which increases the price they can ask for their services.   It is a shame that these websites did not exist when I studied economics…  I just wonder if their is a class on the “virtual economy”…  It would be so interesting because it can be studied in such grave detail.   You can extract details from companies and find out their business model with one simple keystroke…  it is so much easier to find out what a company is about than it used to be.   You can easily extrapolate  their income based on studying their social reach and keywords they rank for in the major search engines.  It is now possible to do a zillion and one case studies for any business related topic you could possibly think of.

Before I go off on a “how the virtual economy” has changed peoples’ lives and standard of living tangent,  I want to discuss how the virtual economy can help you save money and maximize the output of your capital.  I’m not going to go into the problems of excessive  overhead and complexities of starting a typical offline physical business,  I’m starting to do that for the first time actually myself… and I intend on blogging about my experiences.   I will focus on starting a virtual business from conception to inception…  meaning from  the day the idea is conceived to the day you open  for customers.

For illustrative purposes,  I will open a web hosting business…. a business that hosts websites….   if you want a definitive idea of what it entails, check out this Wikipedia link. So what are the steps you would take before you start?  You are attracted by the residual income aspects of the enterprise and awe struck by the number of websites that are out there…  Furthermore there is this new thing called mobile hosting….  so you are convinced you should start this business and possibly dive into the latter.     How would the internet and virtual economy help you in this endeavor?  How would you maximize your capital efficiency (remember my definition above) to increase your new company’s income?  Yes, you can build your company with never doing the following:

1.  Leaving your house
2.  Actually having employees in your office and or even “seeing anyone”.
3. Make sales calls
4.  Rent office space (see #1)
5.  Worry about being robbed
6.  Talk to disgruntled customers
7.  Worry about employees calling in sick

Now of course,  you can do the above,  it just depends on what you want to do and your personality…..    You can hire people to work for you all online…. and you can do it on the cheap…  but depending on your business and your level of trust,  you can scale up to have a “real” employee if you so desire.  But the cards are yours to play…. Later in the week I will discuss the  ”How, When, What and Why’s” of starting your virtual business under the radar of anyone who knows you physically.

The internet is a haven for criminals… I’m sure this doesn’t come to any surprise to you does it?   One of my bestest  (sic)  friends was almost a victim to a money order scam. He was sent a money order with very explicit instructions on what to do and what not to do. It was sent express mail (but I have my doubts as to that even because the tracking number didn’t show up). If he did in fact cash the check and sent the money to the foreigners he would be a accomplice in crime and legally NOT a victim…. think this isn’t true, go ahead and cash it and see if you don’t get a visit from the police….  I was going to do a video of the scam and what he recieved… but the guy below did a much better job!  Watch and learn…. it’s very sad actually.  If you do business online,  you need to watch yourself and your money….

My advice to YOU:  Before you do business online,  do a search on google or youtube.com for other’s experiences…..

My big thing is this: Don’t cash any checks or other financial instruments WITHOUT some kind of recourse. The first thing I told him to do was call any numbers that were listed on the money order (or check) to confirm its validity. But before you even do that, be sure that you are calling a legit number. You really can’t trust anyone these days…. My advice to ANYONE that receives a check or money order in the mail…. CALL THE INSTITUTION IT WAS DRAWN ON to check it’s validity…. even if it does in fact check out, DO NOT SPEND THE MONEY UNTIL THE CHECK CLEARS. I can safely say though, if you are asked to cash a check or money order then instructed to send the money via western union after you “take some for yourself” ….. RUN DON’T WALK FAR FAR Away from the situation. This trick is cleverly disguised… in this case it was a secret shopper job auditing Western Union. You can bet that if you are asked to send cash to someone out of the country it’s a scam…. and you’ll be left holding the bag. I told my friend he just saved $928. Don’t be a victim, have recourse on anyone you accept a check or money order from… btw, watch for the fine print that is sometimes put on endorsement side… Store clerks have to validate money before they take it oftentimes, how easy do you think it is to create a faux check or money order? Don’t be a victim, call the numbers the check was drawn on and verify… don’t cash anything that was unsolicited.

So you’ve already cashed the check? Did you send the money overseas via Western Union? Sadly, if you did this, you can most likely expect a call from your bank or local law enforcement agency for a follow up…. Luckily though, banks are aware of this scam and will put a hold on the instrument so you can’t spend the money until it clears. If it clears then all should be good… but don’t count on it… and don’t send anyone any money until the check clears…. you can tell your victimizers that…. Cash talks, everything else walks…. Many of these scams are perpetrated on craigslist.com…. they have some good tips I wanted to share below:

If you DO cash the check, you are actually an accomplice in a crime and not technically a victim. Take the test below to discover how vulnerable you are.

If you sell on Craigslist,   look at the video below…. better yet type in “craigslist scam” or “money order scam”….

SO you’re confused? If someone approaches you with an offer to rent your house, buy your car or any property you have for sale online, run for the hills if they suggest any of the following:

1. send them money via Western Union, if Western Union is involved, BE VERY CAREFUL. Only send via Western Union if you have recourse…

2. If they are out of the country, forget it, don’t even respond… most likely it’s a scam.

3. If you have sold something… Meet people in public places (if you even have to) and NEVER go alone… DON’T let anyone in your home…. it can be very dangerous..

Mein Leben in Berlin, Deutschland

I lived in Berlin close to the end of the Cold War which last roughly from 1941 to 1991.   I hailed from a small city in West Virginia,  so Berlin was magnitudes different from my hometown of Huntington.     Prior to Berlin we lived in Goppingen, which is in the state of Badden-Wurttemberg, one of Germany’s sixteen states.  Goppingen was more similar to my hometown than Berlin was… at least for me.  Berlin was a big city which seemed light years ahead of WV in technology and urban layout than my home city.  A lot of this was due in part to Berlin being rebuilt after the war.  Berlin was progressive back then and from what I can tell continues to be to this day.  You can see where I spent a lot of time during my childhood in the map below,  needless to say I was very excited to explore Sundguaer Strasse and travel the roads as I did as a child using the street view of Google maps.   Yes,  we did roam around pretty freely in the streets of Berlin and felt safe doing so.  I have dreams to this day of catching the U-bahn over to the KadeWe, eating curry wurst before we got on the train.  It was a fascinating time to grow up in Berlin during the 80′s.  I got to experience a culture and an urban life that would never have been possible if it were not for my parents being in the military.

Because of the richness of the German culture and me being directly in the center of it,  there was never a lack of something to do.  Never did I say “I’m bored”.  How could you possibly suffer from boredom in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, even at that time.  Of course it was unbeknownst to me where I was living,  I was just enjoying the way of life that the military and German culture afforded me.   Berlin during Christmas was especially magical,  and everyone thinks I’m crazy (who hasn’t experienced it that is) for wanting to visit Germany during one of the coldest months of the year…   but it really is a magical place.  I have known people that have visited that didn’t think of it as fondly as I do,  but I’m certainly coming from it differently than someone who only gets a taste…  I actually lived there for several years..  so naturally I would have a fondness that people just visiting would not.  I was actually sad when my family exited from military service to come stateside and settle in my hometown of Huntington, WV.    I think it was spending so much time in Berlin that draws me to the urban life,   something I have always felt was missing. I love to see progress and innovation,  something that certainly is not lacking in bigger cities.  They have the attitude it’s better to make a mistake an move on than to never have tried in the first place… something I have always aspired to.   The German government and their sapience for the  temporary military residents was very impressive even back then.  I developed  a respect for different religions, backgrounds and ethnicities at a very young age.  It was not uncommon to share a classroom  with Muslims, Turks, Jews and many more.  In the city I was born in  I would have not encountered this as frequently.   I always have  felt that a lot of the apathy or disrespect that minorities face is due in part to exposure.  If you are not “exposed” or socializing with people different than yourself it is much easier to hate or dislike them… anyway,  before I go off on a sociological tangent,  I want to note that   if everything else goes wrong in my life,  I will always feel eternally grateful for the gift of living in such an awesome city rich with culture, history and diversity.

In closing I would like to note some of my favorite places, foods and experiences in Berlin:

Sundgauer Strasse (the street I lived on)  Funny thing was,  I always wanted to live in Duppel  because the buildings seemed more modern and it was closer to the Wall.
T.A.R  - I always wondered what happened to the school.
Alexia Harrington – always wondered what happened to her,  she gave me her address and said that I would probably never write her and regretfully I never did.  that was the last thing she said to me… always wondered what happened to her.  She spoke perfect German and English,  I was always impressed how she could switch flawlessly between the two languages.

Brandenburg Gate

Curry Wurst (yum yum,  I’ve yet to reproduce this to my satisfaction)
German Brochen (crusty outside, soft fluffy inside,  mmmmm)
pommes frites (with mayo)
Imbissstand on the Ubahn station closest to the PX.
Doner kebabs (with shaven lamb fresh off the spit of course!)  to this day can’t find anything that tastes as good… the closest would be a gyro that i’ve had in different places)
Berlin Wall

Berlin Cathedral on the Kurfurstendamm or Ku’dam for short…
Spandau Prison (I remember this from school,  Rudolph Hess,  a famous Nazi was imprisoned there but did not get to see him… )
Peacock Island
Wannsee – Thought it was so cool to stroll in the whale looking boat down the Wannsee,  sooo cool. Wonder if they still have the whale boat?
The Snack Shop at Truman Plaza –  they had the best eclaires….  also loved eating pommes frittes with the little forks…..  By the way,  I heard they have torn Truman Plaza down…. how sad.  I remember catching the bus there after school (I stayed after school a lot to take an optional computer class)  and went to a friends house who lived in Duppel.     I remember thinking how nicer the Duppel apartment buildings were than the ones I lived in….  I believe they were newer, thus  more modern than  mine….

Plus many more,  I could go on for awhile…. but when I go back,  I will surely be visiting these once again and partaking in the awesome foods I enjoyed as a child!  Not to mention walk around my old neighborhood!

Below is the street I lived on…..  would love to hear from other people who lived or currently live on Sundguaer Strasse….  I have such fond memories.   The building in which I lived is marked below……  I lived on the 5th floor…. walk up….  I remember my mother being pregnant with my sister and having to routinely walk up 5 flights of stairs.

View larger map

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Winter Solstice  and Whatever You May be Celebrating this Season…. But Here is  my Christmas Wish List, What’s Yours??

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due:

German American Flag brought to you by Institute for German American Relations (IGAR)

Gif brought to you by Happy Holiday Christmas Graphic at ProfileBand.com:

First I want to say “Everthing is Possible,  Nothing is Impossible” and “Jesus is the Reason for the Season”. Give with an open heart and  mind… then remember those less fortunate than yourself.   With this said,  it comes as no surprise we are  living in avirtual economy, and NO I do not mean the kind of economy that exists in many Facebook or other endless number of sim type games that exist online.  I’m sure you play them all, right?  I’m not going to babble on about why I think this is so important, you can readVirtual Real Estate and the New Economy.    But seriously,  we are truly living in a virtual economy…  money is changing hands without any physical goods attached to the transaction…..   people are becoming more accustommed to the process everyday.  As mentioned many times before,  the world is evolving quickly….  are you ready?   I am not going to go into the details of  my ideas and definition of a virtual economy… suffice it to say it exist and what I really want for Christmas this year exist in the virtual world..   Here is a breakdown… beware, some of these have hefty pricetags,  but I’m sure many of you can find a way to pay for them.  After all,  you did read my post “Dare to be Different: Forego the Christmas Gifts this Year” and Investing in High End Websites…  I am sure you did, right?  Of course… so don’t write to me saying I’m contradicting myself before you read everything….  anyway…  If you are reading this blog chances are you understand where I’m coming from.  Most of my readers do….  But without further ado , here is my Christmas List this year.

WPRobot.com
Just about anything from Lisa Nichols
“The Secret” Movie (I’ve read the book, now want to see the movie)
Anything from Lotanas (perhaps a giftcard)
Audible Membership.  ( I love that  Amazon own’s them, so an Amazon giftcard would also be appropriate)
What Runs Where Subscription

For those of you wondering, NO, these are not affiliate links nor do I get credit for this in any way,  how tacky do you think I am anyway???  Geez!!!!

Now, I have that out of the way….   it is much better to give than to receive….   I don’t expect anyone to buy me anything anyway…. I rarely get Christmas presents from anyone and those that do take the time to send a gift or even a card have a special place in my heart, or at least my mind….   but here is what I offer to you:

Inspiration
Gratitude
and a wish that you may live long, healthy with abundance and integrity while having respect for you fellow man, no matter who they may be or what they look like.  Remember, like Suze Orman so eloquently  sums it up,  People First, then Money, then Things.  Sometimes we just have to get down to the basics, which by the way you can buy me any of  Suze’s offerings as well for Christmas..    Got where I’m coming from yet?   I bet your getting there!

Wow, how sappy was that…? Anyway,  you have what I want this Holiday season  and what I’m giving to you.  Everyone have a Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or whatever you may celebrate this winter season!

Missed Opportunity and Your Rude Employee

Dear Sir;
First off I would like to acknowledge I have respect for your company and the role it has played in Huntington over the years. In fact, my parents bought their first home from Mcguire almost 30 years ago.   Because of your position in the community ,  I believe people expect a lot of your company, which can be both good and bad.  Unfortunately,  my business was not given the professionalism I thought was deserving from your staff who answered the telephone at the main office on Tuesday, November 29, 2011.

 
I can say with certainity that you are both respected and  well connected in this great city in which we both live.  It can also be said that myself and four partners are well connected both within and outside of our community via the internet and other related channels.  We participate in several online forums and communities and are in the process of creating our own “virtual empire” residing in tandem with our collective physical assets.  Similiar to yourself in years past, we intend on creating wealth on many different fronts.  I only mention this because we are four enlightened, well funded and educated group of men that intend on making money in Huntington and elswhere.  Because of this,  we expect a certain level of respect or at the very least, common courtesy when we call on a business to inquire about their services.

 
When we called your company we were greeted with “attitude” and “resentment” that we felt was undeserving.  Furthermore, the phone was not even answered professionally.  What ever happened to old fashioned manners?   Answering the phone announcing your name and company is customary, is it not?    Regardless,  I did a blog post articulating my experience with Mcguire Realty.  It is my sincere hope that you will correct the situation that disgruntled us so, I wish the best for you and your company as we move forward into the future.  I simply wanted you to be aware of our experience,  I am certain you would not have been pleased yourself.    You may read the post detailing our interaction with your employee below:

http://landlordsjournal.com/blog/2011/11/29/can-you-afford-to-be-rude-in-todays-economy/

When you have good credit you are basically forcing others to compete for your business.  The higher your credit score,  the more valuable your business is.  The lower your credit score,  unfortunately the less options you have.  It is all about options isn’t it?  How many options do you have?  What is your credit score?  I basically wanted to put a link on my facebook page recommending an excellent credit card forum.   People have a lot of questions.  I get asked a lot of questions.  I have a lot of questions myself.  I believe it pays to research and asked “educated” questions… I am NOT saying that their are “stupid” questions… you simply need to know what questions to ask.   For example,  if you have a basic understanding of how credit works,  you can get a better understanding of a detailed question you may have.  This is where the credit forums come in play.  The board is creditboards.com .  Be sure to bookmark it.   They also have a unique feature that I think is pretty cool.   Have you ever wondered what kind of credit score you need to get a particular card, etc?    Since applying for a credit card will ding your credit anywhere from 2 to 3 points,  it would pay you to see what a company requires BEFORE you apply and what the typical credit limit will be.  You can find this information on the credit boards as well…. but more specifically this link:  Credit Pulls Database.   You can play with the database in many different ways… put your credit score and state in and see what offers you will eligible for along with the typical credit limit.   Know BEFORE you apply for credit what you will need to be approved… If you don’t meet the requirements,  don’t bother applying for the card..  You could use those 2 to 4 points on your score at a later time.  Be sure to know what your credit score is… it can change dramatically over time….

You want to truly be FREE, free from a boss who dictates when you can take off work.  Free from the demands of a job that is only making your employer (owner) rich.    Free to take your children to the park or school because you can…..  free to spend time with your family and significant other at your will.  You want all of this, but don’t know how to make it happen.
All of this is good and it can certainly happen if you focus and are driven to make it happen….   But don’t  quit your job just yet.   You have to learn some basics….  you need to find out what you want to do.  Today, more than ever, it is easy to make money “out of thin air”  …  It can be a rough road, but those who don’t give up and keep plugging on will most certainly reap the rewards of their labor and dedication.   It has been said that some of the concepts on this blog are over peoples’ heads.  Well,  this may be true for some people.   The people reading this blog possess varying aptitudes.  Some are not familiar with basic “computer related” terminology.  They wouldn’t know how to even put a website together…. let alone market it.   It all is very intimidating.   Well,  the good thing is,  you don’t have to be a so called “computer genius”  to harvest your money crop from the internet.  Luckily you have me that will allow you to look over my shoulder as I progress.   People a lot of times get overwhelmed with the “i can’t do this, can’t do that” I don’t have ‘this skill or that skill”…  What you should be saying to yourself is “how do I make this happen”….  use your creative mind to make it happen.  But first you need to discover what it is you want to  happen.  Do you crave  financial independence?   I think financial independence is a common denominator for a lot of folks.   So I primarily assume most people if they have taken the time to read my blogs basically want that.   So everything I write about assumes that one day you want to wing yourself from your job and be financially independent and wealthy.. and benefit from all the perks of having such a life.     Without getting verbose on why you are here or why you are interested in what I have to say,  I will continue to discuss why finding a niche and related keywords is important.
The internet is a HUGE place and it’s easy to suffer from information overload.  I get the following question often:  How do you determine what niche to go into and once you find it how do you determine what keywords are worth your time?    First I’m going to give you a short primer (for those of you who need a refresher) on the point of finding a niche and related keywords.
A niche market , as defined by wikipedia is:   the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing; therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact.  You can click here for a more detailed definition.  It doesn’t have to be overly complicated…  Basically,  it is a submarket of a general category.   For example,  a bridal shoe shop..   Bridal shops being the market and bridal shoes the niche.  There are seemingly an unlimited amount of niches you can dominate… More time than you will ever have by doing it alone…    I have focused on digital products for the past several years but recently have also added selling physical products to my website collection.   A word to the wise and those first starting out,  focus on digital products in the beginning and then move to online stores.  Online stores can be fussy and tricky to set up.  You need to get your feet wet before doing something advanced.
So you may be asking why try to find a niche market and not something general such as “fitness?”.  Did you realize there are a lot of niches just in the fitness category?    It is much easier to make money in a niche and rank for keywords than it would be for a broad category such as fitness.  The competition would be fierce to rank for the keyword “fitness”.    This leads to another question I often get.   What does it mean to rank for a keyword and why is it important?    If you type the word “fitness” in google,  you see a full page of website.  The closer to the top of the page your website is,  the more web traffic (visitors) you will have.   The more people (visitors) you have coming to your website,  the better the chance you have at making money.  Your goal is to be number one organically (not paid) for several keywords.    So if you have several keywords that you are ranking (being number 1 or at least the top 5)  for,  the more traffic you will get.   You can monetize the website many different ways…. but again,   I don’t want to get overly complicated right now… just let it be known that your goal at this point is to be in the top 5 of the websites  for your keyword.

Nephew