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As I said earlier, some companies cannot be beaten by anyone but themselves. I used eBay as the example, but this was reaffirmed recently by Silicon Alley Insider:

Don’t you know you can’t beat Google — it can only beat itself

The author was referencing some joke @ Yahoo who said his job was to beat Google. Yahoo can’t beat Google. Yahoo / Micro$oft can’t beat Google. Only Google can beat Google.

As a service, I believe Google is beating themselves by straying away from their motto, “do no evil”. As a company, the shareholders are feeling some pain now that Wall Street’s golden child is showing some signs of slowing down.

What does Google need to do, in order to keep from beating themselves up? Is it time for some new leadership? Or was Google’s ideals too Utopian, and their finances too optimistic? Is this just a natural correction?

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

All the buzz lately has been about the Yahoo-Microsoft talks, which apparently aren’t going to happen now. Whatever - their alliance still won’t topple Google. Toppling Google would be like toppling eBay. There’s only 1 company that can topple eBay, and that’s…. eBay.

I’ve been reading about eBay’s new seller fees and how big-time sellers are all upset over it. There’s even this video on YouTube:

Could eBay’s recent changes be the beginning of the end to eBay? Is this the opportunity the competition is looking for?

I’m joining in on the eBay strike - I will not browse, bid, buy or sell on eBay February 18th through the 25th (while I’m in Disney ).

This entry was posted by Eric on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Steve has ideas… lots of them. Too many, in fact. The worst part is he thinks each idea is a good one. “The one” as he calls them. “The one” that’ll let him retire early & rich. However, his ideas typically are based on the same, underlying concept, which I don’t believe in. Build up lots of members, make the service ad-supported, and sell it to someone who wants the user-base.

First, getting “lots of users” is hard. Think of an auction site, like eBay. What comes first, the buyers, or the sellers? Why would a seller pay to list their items if there’s no buyers looking for them, and why would buyers look at the site, if nobody is selling anything? Steve’s last big venture had the same problem… advertisers & users. Users wouldn’t learn how to use the system if there are no advertisers, and advertisers wouldn’t pay to advertise on the system, if there were no users. It was a flop.

Steve isn’t happy with a hit, or even a homerun. He’s looking for a lead-off grand-slam (hard to do, right?). I keep telling him, “baby steps”, but he never listens.

Until now.

Steve has an idea that can be launched with only 1 user, and he begin earning him revenue right away. Of course, 1 user may only earn him a few bucks per day, but the point is the system does not need 10,000 users to be successful.

When he first pitched the idea to me, it took about 35 minutes and I was very, very confused when he was done. He went back, simplified it, and told me again. This time, it took under 10 minutes, and I saw potential. The other night, he came over, we chatted for a couple hours, and broke the idea down into phases that could be launched over time. Phase 1 is very, very simple but still beneficial to the users, and Steve can make money. Phase 1 can be “sold” to potential users in under 2 minutes. Sign-up is a breeze, and users can start using the system in under 10 minutes, seeing results right away.

Is Phase 1 the whole thing? No. But why build the entire system if users don’t even embrace the Phase 1 elements? It’s still going to take quite a bit to get Phase 1 off the ground, but when he does, I think this project is going to keep him very busy and motivated for some time.

Good job on an idea I support, Steve! First one in 15 years

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 9:22 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

What do you do when half of your business is being threatened with a major lawsuit? Split the business in two, to protect the other half. That’s exactly what EchoStar is doing now in loom of Tivo’s current court battle over DVR technology.

EchoStar says it could split its set-top box and manufacturing divisions from its DISH Network business.

As a Tivo shareholder, I’m a bit pissed. EchoStar knows they’re going to loose this one.

This entry was posted by Eric on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 9:02 am and is filed under Business, Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

A strange thing happened this week: I found 2 affiliates online, who are both from Buffalo! And I don’t mean just newbies, but 2 guys that actually seem to know what they’re talking about.

This is huge for me, as I feel one of the reasons UK affiliates are so successful is because the majority of them are around London, and they actually (physically) get together and share ideas and success stories. In the US, however, you have the big players in Scranton, PA, Omaha, NB, and Boston, MA (yeah, there are others - if you’re annoyed I left you out, just leave a comment!).

So to have 2 affiliates in Buffalo, along with myself, Steve, and Kyle’s Jelly idea for the Buffalo area, it sounds like my professional-social life may pick back up! (Sorry, Scout)

This entry was posted by Eric on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 1:33 pm and is filed under Affiliate Marketing, Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Yes, I’m a busy guy, but I want to do business with some other companies out there. Do they want to do business with me? Apparently not.

The CPA networks in the affiliate industry are highly competitive. Just ask Danny over at Copeac, who’ll do just about anything for you. Danny saw the potential in me, and we’ve worked well together. However, there are others who just ignore me. I’ve been waiting for 8 days now for a phone call from another network, who said they’d call me in “like an hour”. I’m getting ready to launch another campaign, and guess who’s getting my leads?

Before I “retired” (according to my dad), we had a client that wanted to buy a secure certificate from us. That’s like what, $40? Guess what… they became the 3rd largest client we had.

The one that really ticks me off is a local home-improvement company who had given me a proposal for nearly $40,000 in work to my house. They had their ducks in a row, even aligned with a bank for financing. I was moving along, then the sales kid tell me they’re pulling the storm doors from the proposal, and I should just get them from Lowe’s. HELL NO! If I’m paying you $40,000 to work on my house, you’ll install the $600 storm doors you jerk! You’re leaving $40,000 on the table because of $600 in doors? Idiot.

The point is, unless you’re explicitly told “no”, don’t assume someone doesn’t want to do business with you. Oh, and small fish grow into big fish. Someday I’ll sink your boat.

“How do you like me now?” - Toby Keith

This entry was posted by Eric on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 8:42 am and is filed under Affiliate Marketing, Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.