Interesting idea

Interesting… and a bad investment

Stocks, bonds or Steen? That’s a question that 19-year-old Ron Steen of Anaheim Hills,Calif., hopes investors will wrestle with.

In August, Steen put himself on eBay (Charts) to pay for his college education, offering 2 percent of all future earnings to the highest bidder, with a minimum $100,000 bid.

What with Steen having to average 1.5M/year until age 65 to match a 6% investment, I’m thinking he’s not going to have any takers. Bonus points for audacity, though.

Vino

Here’s a new idea (for me) for gift giving this year - wine! Now, I’m no oenophile or even a connoisseur, but in the under-$20 reds category, I’ve got some decent experience. Interestingly enough, wine.com has a category just for that (though they include whites too. Apparently, some people like it sweet), which makes my choices a lot easier.

We’re generally a shiraz/syrah house, but I’ve heard good things about the Folie à Deux Ménage à Trois Red ($9) and the Cantena Malbec ($18, 90 rating). Of shiraz’ I know and like, they have the Fat Bastard Shiraz for $11, though I can’t seem to find my favorite cheap deal find of the year, the Lindeman Padthaway shiraz 2003 (they don’t appear to carry Lindeman at all. Oh well) and that screwtop Pinot Noir $11 thing that was awesome but who’s name escapes me at the moment. Sigh.

Wine.com also offers glassware, of course, and they have their own most popular gift suggestion ideas as well.

Coming from what is essentially a teetotaler family, the idea of gifting alcohol on the holidays is new ground to me, yet appealing. This year, at least. And remember - a glass of red a day keeps the heart healthy!

Deals? Buy used and after market

I’m a huge believer in buying used things, particularly in areas where immediacy is not an issue and quality does not decline much, if at all.

Yeah, I’m looking at you, books. Textbooks, novels, hardcover, softcover, whatever. Used books markets are the greatest invention in the history of ever. The one I use? Half.com.

This is the least obnoxious banner they have offered (the others are all those lovely animated gifs. Woo.):

I think I saved over $300 last semester on ghostfinger’s textbooks by using half.com for most of the purchases (this was before I knew about Valore., so I’ll definitely comparison shop next semster). Anyway, half.com totally rocks and it’ll save you a bundle of money.

I’m a big believer in giving books away too of course, but iffen I’m going to be buying, the first place I looke is half.com. You can get CDs and DVDs on half.com as well, though I’ve been less successful for those products compared to its competitors (like Amazon marketplace) in terms of savings.

Comparison shopping

There are some things that the internet has made vastly easier, such as access to free porn, finding old classmates, and comparing prices for the goods you want to buy across multiple vendors.

One are where there is a market from the consumer perspective but not much from the advertiser/business perspective is automated comparison shopping. As a result, there are not a lot of valuable sites that perform this function and they are all almost entirely automated. Froogle is one example and Savings.com is another.




Savings.com particularly shines when it comes to finding coupons for items you were going to buy anyway. It's like finding free money.

They are branching out into mortgage refinancings as well. To the latter, I can't attest as to their service, but their rates look highly competitive. If you're in the market, give them a try.

Update: OK, apparently all of those (aff) links go to the debt consolidation or refinancing pages. Boo. Stupid affiliate links. Here's a direct Savings.com link.

One way to make money

Invest in pr0n

Wall Street is largely a boys club, a place packed with hypercompetitive tough guys proud to wear their machismo on their sleeves. Yet there’s still one investment the Street is generally wary of: porn.

That’s why Francis Koenig, a onetime Wall Street hedge fund executive now based in Los Angeles, believes there are riches to be made by matching investors with “adult entertainment” companies. He believes that plenty of people would back the industry if there were vehicles commonly available to do so.

Think of Koenig as a porn launderer. He makes it acceptable for the DAR to get a piece of some of that $12 billion-per-year smut money.

Originally posted at: http://cmoore.com/2006/11/10/one-way-to-make-money/

Music available on the interweb thing

No, really. And there's this place that is the leading music shop on the whole of the truck-filled tubular net doohickey, called eye-music. Now, I don't know why they call it that, since you listen with your ears, but that's what they call it so that's what I'm calling it.



iTunes has a better catalogue than its competitors, doesn't support reactionary social policies like W*l M*rt, and is American unlike that Russian pay-to-download site. Buy American! Buy iTunes!

Amazing fact! Music available on the interweb thing

No, really. And there’s this place that is the leading music shop on the whole of the truck-filled tubular net doohickey, called eye-music. Now, I don’t know why they call it that, since you listen with your ears, but that’s what they call it so that’s what I’m calling it.

Sure, Mondegreen is available for free download … but it’s also on the eye-music even without any videos! Isn’t that cool?

I gave it a look and it’s $1/song and $10/album (roughly). The best part is - you won’t get sued by the RIAA! Sweet!

Originally posted at: http://cmoore.com/2006/11/08/amazing-fact-music-available-on-the-interweb-thing/

Addicted... to Politics

While trying to figure out how I could monetize my “$100 million and climbing” HSX brilliance, I found Intrade. Holy cow is this awesome. Actual money on politics and news events. Of course, given my recent successful predictions (and GOP shenanigans), this is could just be an even easier way to lose money than Lotto.

Here’s a snapshot of some of the things you can trade in (I don’t know precisely what will come up; it’s a dynamically generated frame):

And their banner advertisement looks something like this:

Yet another thing that’s probably more Chartoo’s forte than mine, but I’m kind of excited about day trading in the presidential aspirations of Saint Rudy. I know. I need to get out more.

The biggest problem I had so far was actually getting money into the system - their security is quite a bit more comprehensive than the one-click universe we’ve been inhabiting. This is good in that I’m pretty confident any phishers aren’t going to be going there to take your money, but it can also be a drawback if you spot a sweet market opportunity for the avian flu’s arrival date in the U.S.

If you click the banner ad above, theoretically I get $50 if you both put some money in and do a bunch of trading over the next 90 days. If you just want to go to intrade.com and skip the lurve-giving to me part, I’m totally OK with that. I’ll just give you the puppy dog eyes and maybe sigh a little bit.

Originally posted at: http://cmoore.com/2006/11/06/addicted-to-politics/

Another easy way to save money? Ditch the phone line

For those of us who haven't switched to an entirely cell phone household, the traditional Baby Bell phone lines can get mightily expensive. Where I live, the minimum household line costs for a basic line add up to about $43/month with taxes, and that's with no long distance charges!

Assuming you have a broadband connection, the solution is obvious: VOIP (voice over IP). Using VOIP, you get to keep your current phone and phone number, lose no voice quality, and pay a lot less. VOIP offerings range from about $15/month for limited minutes (Vonage) to a high in the mid $30s/month for old monopoly offerings like those from Comcast. Skype, a European favorite, offers per-call pricing that is competitive with the best phone cards. You can also do voice-voice connections at no charge, of course, but for dial-in services (i.e. a number people using phones can reach you at), you'll have to pay. The best part is that your number is portable - just take your router with you anywhere you've got a broadband connection, and you've got a home-location phone while on vacation 3000 miles away (or, you can use a software phone and not bother with the router; their availability depends on the provider you choose).

Vonage is the best known of the VOIP companies due to their ubiquitous marketing. Packet8 (below) generally gets better user reviews and has equivalent service for a cheaper price.



Packet8's $20/month unlimited plan will save you at least $250/year over you basic land line fees. If you've got a broadband connection and don't otherwise need a physical land line, I can't recommend them highly enough.

Domain registrations, pt. 1

Since I'm on an internet/domain related kick, here's a good registrar for you: Register.com



They're not the cheapest registrar, but they offer a host of value ad services like marketing and analysis. Privacy protection is $9/year.

Another one of my favorite things

Netflix! Unless you’re a sports or talk show junkie, once you subscribe to Netflix, you no longer need to pay for cable. If you cancel your cable and keep a 3-disc Netflix setup, that will save you anywhere from $30 to $85 per month ($360 to $1020/year).

(if you join Netflix, enter m friends network so I can send you Kstrike>inappropriate movies that you’ll hate suggestions that you’ll love and vice versa)

Originally posted at: http://cmoore.com/2006/11/05/another-one-of-my-favorite-things/

Parking, domain style, pt. 2

Sedo is a German company that is well-known and well-regarded in the parking business. Their parking ads run on Google adsense and they give parkers a great cut of the revenue. Sedo also offers the most used domain auction system on the internet and even offer domain sale escrow services. For purchasing and auctioning, at least, they are the premier parking site today.

Sedo's RPM (revenue/1000 clicks) is somewhere between $24 and $80, so again you'll a large number of domains to make a significant amount of money (or one or two lucky ones that make a bundle). If you've got a domain that is otherwise unoccupied, however, it beats that 0% return you're currently getting.

Parking, domain style

Domain parking is another internet-based way to possibly, maybe, get a few dollars here and there. The typical domainer (a person who makes their living off of the buying and selling of domains) has a portfolio of thousands upon thousands of domain names. The ones who are lucky or quick get the nice 5-letters and under domains. The ones who are unethical typosquat and infringe on legitimate companies' trademarks.

You really shouldn't infringe on anyone's trademarks.

We might be doing a series on the benefits and drawbacks of the different parking services, but for now, NameDrive (banner below) will suffice. They're based out of the UK and set up for domain parking through them is a breeze.

First tip: Join ad networks

If you are looking to monetize your internet presence, affiliate programs are a good place to start. Beware, however, as affiliate programs are full of ne'er do wells, scamps, and tollywogs. However, getting started with a reputable company, like linkshare, can bring in anywhere from a little to a lot extra per month.

You can sign up for linkshare here:

Money, money, money

This blog is dedicated to finding ways to earn, find, get, and obtain more money than you thought was ever possible. This includes stretching your existing income farther as well as increasing that income for the future.

We'll have daily tips, tricks, and deals here.