The Raging Tech

Marketing on MySpace

Lots of people have their own opinion on using social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook for marketing their own business or online affiliate marketing, but I’m not here to tell you what I think about it. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already made up your mind to use it or not.

What I do want to share with you is a convenient, non-invasive way to gather marketing and demographic data without pissing people off.

One of the things I notice about MySpace bulletins is that they are used almost every day by millions of people to fill out irrelevant surveys for fun. Why couldn’t you just as easily leverage the readiness of people to share information, to gather statistics on what people like - to most effectively direct and target your advertising campaign?

This doesn’t have to be just for a big corporation either - you can just as easily get free myspace surveys to use on your own MySpace profile to gather information about the people who have already expressed interest in your business by adding your profile as a friend. Just be careful and be aware of MySpace’s Terms of Use, so that you don’t violate them and get your account deleted.

Geek to Live, Instead of Living to Geek

How often have you thought, I just need to save up this much more money, or work this much overtime, so I can afford that new gadget or video game or computer when it comes out? Or how often do you spend hours on end in front of a computer screen?

As I get older (yes, I know I’m still pretty young) - I start realizing I don’t want to be old and thinking I wish I hadn’t squandered so much of my time. I don’t want to live with regrets.

I’m not having an epiphony or anything. I just want to use my geek powers to make my life easier so I can spend more time living it than just trying to make it through.

That being said, one of my favorite websites that I read every single day and has a permanent home in my Firefox Live Bookmarks is Lifehacker. It’s a blog about better living through geeky tips and tricks. Time-savers, money-savers, awesome software reviews, and tech tips and tricks for the masses.

It’s both technical and not technically overwhelming at the same time - so anyone can read it and glean usefulness from it. Check it out, it’ll become part of your daily reading.

New Year’s Resolutions

I gave up trying to give New Year’s resolutions a few years ago, because I got tired of promises I couldn’t or wouldn’t keep. They were all for my own good, but I couldn’t bring myself to form better habits. It’s one of my biggest vices, not being able to change my habits easily.

To start something new and really stick to it, I need proper motivation - usually some sort of instant gratification helps immensely.  For example, in order to stick to an exercise routine, I need to really be able to track my progress and set a goal and meet it, then reward myself for reaching it. That’s pretty easy in a gym, because you can track how much weight you’re lifting or how far you’ve gone on the treadmill. My problem is getting motivated enough to go. I don’t like to exercise alone because it’s easier if someone’s there to push you to do it.

I think maybe now that I’m in a better financial situation my New Year’s resolution will be to get off my butt and go pay the $30 / semester or whatever it is to at least get a gym membership at the campus where I work.  Then maybe I can find someone who will work out with me. Small, simple, easy to meet goals. That’s how you get started.

Christmas Countdown: 4 Days Left

So today’s the long night of driving (5 hours, for those of you just joining us) from here to my parents’ house. Ever since I’ve been back at the university (I lived in Virginia for a year), I’ve had second-hand furniture (minus my computer desk) and slept on a couple mattresses up on a homemade wooden loft. I kept lots of stuff underneath this loft in boxes and covered it around the outside with a few sheets to hide away the mess.

This past week I’ve demolished that loft (scroll saws are fun!) and had to clear out that mess. Now I’ve got two mattresses on the floor and my room is rearranged. I must have found about 50% more floor space after I rearranged some of my furniture! The reason for all this is that I will soon be the proud owner of a second-hand awesome full-size bed with box springs and frame and headboard, the works! I used to have one in high school but I didn’t take good care of it so it got dilapidated and put out by the side of the road. I’m excited to have a bed where my feet don’t hang off the end anymore! Hurray for Christmas - just 4 more days!

The Importance of Good Financing for Start-ups

I’ve blogged about having good financial health before taking out loans for startup capital, but I thought I’d write more in-depth about the importance of researching excellent financing for Business Funding. Every new business needs to be planned thoroughly before execution, or it may be the execution of your business. Review your current funding sources (interested relatives, friends, and your current assets) and see how much you can get done with unfinanced capital. Then, build a spreadsheet of your expenses and see what remains to be met. Even if you safely meet your needs, you’d hate to be at the starting line only to forget your running shoes. It would not be an unwise thing to speak to a small business adviser at the Small Business Administration (SBA) and get a list of common expenses overlooked by startups.

Next, speak to your current bank’s customer service representative, try to set up a meeting and talk about what you’ve calculated already, and see if your business could do business with them any easier or cheaper since you are already a customer with a personal account. Get information for but don’t sign-up for any accounts you might need, like business checking or a merchant account and payment gateway for credit cards.

Your financing plan (if you need to take out a loan) is really important. You should carefully review any terms of the agreements you sign, and use a loan calculator to see what kind of trouble you are in if (God forbid) your business fails completely. This is also an important time to check out the terms of your business: are you going to be a limited liability corporation (LLC) or a fully incorporated business? If you’re going to do any financing from a bank or other institution, I would not recommend staying as a sole proprietorship or partnership, because you could be liable if your business has any legal issues.

While you’re at it, take some of that startup capital and hire a lawyer and an accountant. No matter how business savvy you think you are, you’re always going to want someone with experience keeping up with your books and covering your hind end, legally speaking. Also, when you want to expand your business or (hopefully) sell your business for a profit later on, you’ll want their help then, too.

Mac Mini Upgrade

I have ordered two 1gb sticks of memory for my Mac Mini, to bring it up to 2gb. They arrived today! I was pleasantly surprised and headed over to Lowe’s to get a couple putty knives and then came home and cracked open the little sucker.

I pulled off the case, painstakingly enough, and then had to promptly go consult an online guide, because I forgot what to do next. I pulled off the optical drive and the hard drive, disconnected the wireless antenna, and then was able to see the ram chips.

They had clips on them very similar to the laptops I used to work on. They came out fairly easily, and I replaced them with the chips I just ordered from Crucial. Unfortunately, when I rebooted, only 1gb was recognized. I reseated the ram a couple of times, and swapped slots, it was the same slot every time. I put the original ram back in and it worked. The only thing I can figure is there is some sort of minuscule size difference between the two that is keeping the contacts from connecting.

I will call Crucial tomorrow and try and see if they have a solution. I’d hate to think I’d have to send the memory back or only order the memory from Apple directly. But for now, I’ve at least doubled the memory in my Mac Mini.