February 26th, 2010
SitePal is a feature you can add you your website. It’s pretty much just an animated character that will speak a message to your visitors upon your page loading. You can change the message so the character will say whatever you wish.
People who visit your site don’t want anything popping up, they don’t want music blasting, they don’t want anything flashing, and they sure don’t want some cartoon character popping up and saying “Please type you message in the box..”. Well, somehow SitePal has made a business out of doing all that. And the kicker, they charge you for it. Why on earth someone would pay to annoy their customers is beyond me. SitePal is one of the most annoying things I have ever experienced. I can’t think of anyone that would enjoy the SitePal experience.
If you want to kill the traffic to your site, and drive them nuts, add SitePal. It’s sure to kill your traffic, or at least get them to instantly turn the volume off on their computers. If you want to kill your site and your profits, add Sitepal to it.
- Wealth Store
February 26th, 2010
Seth Goden, author, internet entrpreneur and founder of Squidoo has released a new free e-book. Most free e-books are just slick advertising pamphlets. I’m sure this is no exception to that rule. There’s obviously no reason to give something away for free unless you expect something in return. I have not read the e-book myself and don’t know enough about Seth Goden and his ideas to comment. But his work seems to have a large following. I’ll read some of his work and comment more on him later.
Anyways, if you’re a fan of Seth Goden’s work, here’s his new e-book for download.
SETH GODEN E-BOOK
February 26th, 2010
Scott Storch was born in 1973 in Nova Scotia, Canada. Scott quicky took a liking to music, and as a teen he was given piano lessons by his mother. He eventually got a gig as the piano player with the band The Roots after the family moved to New Jersey. The band got a record deal and things were looking good for The Roots. Then one day Scott quit, wanting to do something different.
Scott moved to Miami and started his own production company called Storch Music Company. After making some connections, Scott went on to produce music for major names such as Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Ja Rule, G-Unit, Jadakiss, Christina Aguilera, Nas, Lil Wayne, Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, Fat Joe and Beyoncé.
Wilth all those hit productions under his belt, Scott became very rich, with an estimated net worth of at least $70,000,000.
Current toys owned by Scott Storch are:
$14,000,000 house in Miami.
$22,000,000 yatch.
$1,500,000 Bugatti Veyron.
Among other numerous expensive exotic cars.
February 26th, 2010
William McCorckle. How could I ever forget him? I got sold an empty promise by this guy back in the early 90’s (hey, I was a kid). This silver tounged devil was selling hopes and dreams in the form of get-rich-quick real estate bookets for $69. If they thought you were a really big sucker, you were put on the phone with someone in a boiler room and they sold you a “boot camp” series of videos for a cool $1,000.
All I remember is William standing in front a a private jet that had his name on it. He smooth talked about how he bought all this stuff from his real estate fortune, and he promised he would help pay for half of any good real estate deals you find.
William McCorckle had it all. He had made an astonishing $36,000,00 from his infomercial. He had an empire. The world was his.
Then, in April 1998 it all came crashing down. William McCorckle’s house was raided by the IRS, the FBI and agents from the Postal Inspectors Office. William and his wife Chantel were arrested and charged with 90 Federal counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and one charge of using a fake social security number. Agents seized 23 bank accounts, nine parcels of real estate, four luxury cars and nearly $5.3 million in Florida and Cayman Islands bank accounts.
Then, in a Scarface-like fashion, William and his wife hired high powered attorney F. Lee Bailey and posted a $3,000,000 bond. But not even a high powered attorney and huge piles of cash could make the mounds of evidence against William McCorckle and his wife go away. In 1999 William McCorckle and his wife were both sentenced to 24 years in prison each. Upon hearing his sentence, William McCorckle vomited on the floor while being handcuffed by the deputy, and was taken off to prison.
Chantel proceeds to claim she is innocent to this very day.
- Wealth Store
February 26th, 2010
What’s in a domain extension? EVERYTHING. A domain extension can decide if your visitors think your web business is amateur, or a large corporation. It’s what can make a sale, or lose a sale. Nothing screams “I don’t really care about my website” like a .net or similar extension.
Chosing a Domain Extension:
Two words. DOT COM. Pay no attention to any other extensions. A .com address is THE address to have.
.net = WASTE
.org = WASTE (unless you’re actually an organization)
.tv = NOT EVEN WORTH THE MONEY FOR ANY WEBSITE
No matter what the name of your website is. DON’T SETTLE FOR ANOTHER EXTENSION!. Chose another name, or buy a .com domain name on the second hand market. Domain names are like virtual real estate. There’s less and less of it every day. A .com name becomes more and more valuable every day, while .net’s just sit there being worthless.
Do you think I paid $9.00 at GoDaddy in the year 2007 for a domain name short and simple like www.wealthstore.com? Nope! It was snatched up a long time ago by someone who knew it had value. I had to pay a pretty penny for it. The idiots that wanted the wealthstore.com domain, yet refused to pay the asking price (It cost me $x,000 dollars) did not think it through and made a big mistake. They chose to settle for the .net and .org extensions. Bad move for them. My domain was not cheap, but it’s beach front real estate that’s no longer availible now. It’s price will skyrocket. Those who refused to open their wallets, got cheap and opted for the cheaper $9.00 wealthstore.net and wealthstore.org domains lost out. They now own real estate in out in the suburbs, mine is beach front. Those virtual real estate lots are pretty worthless and have almost no value. On top of that, people looking for those .net and .org websites, will find mine first. I’m at the top of the ladder.
Being a great domain with the best extension, my .com website has been easy to market, and drive traffic to, and I’ve already made the $x,000 back that I paid for it within 3 months. So I got a “free” domain, that the others thought was too “expensive”. Big mistake. They passed on beach front real estate for worthless real estate out the in suburbs.
That’s why you choose a .com extension, and NOTHING else for a serious business idea. It can make you rich.
February 26th, 2010
Back in the good old days of free flowing VC money, skyrocketing .com stock prices, the Dack.com Bullshit Generator was born. Even to this day I still have a good laugh with this thing.
Next time you’re trying to raise a round of funding, don’t forget to spit out 1999 terms such as “integrate compelling eyeballs”, “reinvent cross-platform users” or “iterate front-end convergence”.
http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html
Oh those were the days!!!
February 25th, 2010
Lamborghini’s successor to the Gallardo has arrived. You have seen the pictures in magazines and on websites.Now see the video of it, and hear it roar…
Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Engine Revving
February 25th, 2010
According to Forbes.com:
Net Worth: $2.0 billion
Source: Oil/Gas, oil, investments
Inherited and growing
Age: 62
Marital Status: Married, 2 children, 1 divorce
Hometown: Fort Worth, TX
Education: Stanford University, Master of Business Administration
Family’s Bass Enterprises hit hard by Katrina: oil storage tank near New Orleans leaked 90,000 barrels into containment pond. But gains from oil boom more than make up for it. Drilling in the western states, Gulf of Mexico and internationally. Planning new deepwater oil wells off Nova Scotia. Family fortune founded by oil baron uncle Sid Richardson. Diversified into Disney, John Wiley & Sons publishing and Human Genome Sciences. Big shots of Fort Worth: Sid runs investments, Lee avid outdoorsman, Ed does real estate and backed Biosphere 2 project. Other brother Robert (see) invests on his own.
February 25th, 2010
Here’s a story about a furniture salesman in my hometown of Houston. Everyone who lives there know’s who Jim McInvale is. He’s known as “Matress Mack” around Houston and he’s been all over TV screaming “Gallery Furniture Really Will Save You Money!” since I was a little kid.
A few years back he paid some insane amount of money to have a 30 second slot during the Superbowl, and there was also once a NCAA galleryfurniture.com bowl game.
He started his furniture store back in 1981 from almost nothing. Today, his store does $250 million in annual sales. I read somewhere that it’s one of the largest grossing private retail business in the U.S. today. In his store he has a private collection for viewing. He has a Ferrari F40, one of Evis’ cars, Princess Diana’s jewelry, one of Jeff Gordons winning cars and some other neat items. He also owns some multi million dollar race horses.
He likes tennis and owns a private club called the Westside Tennis Club. Each year, out of his own pocket, he pays top tennis pros like Andre Agassi to show up and play against each other, like a kid would throw two scorpions in a small cage and go crazy watching them battle against each other. He gets pissed and rants on TV if the top two players don’t make it to the finals to play against each other. I guess I would too if I spend millions hoping to see that match, and it does not happen.
He does a lot of good for the community too.
Funny thing is, he still works at the store today. He has a desk right there at the front door and is usually standing there. You can walk right up and talk to him. He makes his fortune by getting you to finance furniture at high interest rates. He has EXTREMELY high pressure sales teams. These people make dealing with car salesmen seem like a pleasant experience. You won’t get 10 feet inside the door before being approached. Within 30 seconds you are asked for your driver license so they can run a credit report.
Pictured Above Left To Right: Linda McIngvale, Former President George Bush, Jim McIngvale.
http://www.freeenterpriseland.com/BOOK/MATTRESSMAC.html
- Wealth Store
February 25th, 2010
Do you want to make millions, or make sandwiches?
I have seen some people recently argue that being a franchisee is a road to riches. Sorry buckaroos, it’s NOT. You’re totally wrong. Owning a franchise store is an absolute nightmare for 90% of the owners. You don’t want to be a franchisee, you want to be the franchisor. That’s where you make millions. Not owning the store.
By purchasing a a franchise, you give up almost all hopes of getting rich. Profit margins are so slim, by the time all bills are paid, you won’t have enough money left over to buy a sandwich or mail a package from your own store. By owning a retail shop, you give up your whole life. You will be working 14 hour days, seven days a week. Then you hand over as much a 20% of those earnings to the franchisor each month. Most franchises only net about $40,000 a year. It’s tough to get ahead, and even tougher because you have to depend on unskilled labor, meaning highschool kids. Ever tried to manage high school kids who have no work ethic? I have. Trust me, you don’t want to. By owning a franchise, you’re basically just buying a job. It’s really not worth it, but it seems glamorous to those not in the know.
By being the franchisor, the world is yours. You can start one operation, test different marketing, design, menu, location, populations, pricing and see what formula works. Once you find what works, that formula becomes scalable and you can expand till you have millions in the bank. Beleive it or not, making sandwiches in a sub shop is just as difficult as building a global coffee shop empire.
Energy spent will be the same on both sides. What would you rather do? Make millions or make sandwiches?
- Wealth Store
