Posts in category ‘Uncategorized’
Book of the day - The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions
You’re bored, really bored. The meeting had been going on for hours and hours now, with no end in sight anytime soon. Unfortunately, you don’t have much of choice. Like it or not, you have to see through the ridiculously boring exchange or you won’t get a full day’s pay. And then you ask yourself, what else can you do to keep your sanity in place? You look at your notes, and there, in the margins of your notepad, you find yourself doodling an awesome eight-legged creature with sharp fangs, an evil-looking grin and scorching red balls for eyes. As the hours slip away, you wonder how different things would be if the creature came to life and scared everyone in the meeting room away.
Sounds familiar?
An up-and-coming gaming company called Grafighters intends to do just that - bring your creatures to life and play with them, in the virtual world, at least. Grafighters is a gaming platform where users can send doodles to fight against each other. First thing you need to do is draw the creature you have in mind on a piece of paper. Using the app provided on Grafighters, you go through an uploading process where you specify the drawing’s body parts. If the drawing has a really big head, you get points for intelligence. If it has muscly arms, you’re awarded points for strength. If the drawing is tiny and well-balanced, expect some points for speed. Your character’s category, like “toughness category” or “intelligence category,” will determine its fighting technique the moment it goes into battle.
As of this writing, there are a couple of different environment stages available. There’s the Deep Sea Ocean, Ghost Town, London Street, and there’s also the North Pole, a Christmas-themed level.
Eric Cleckner and Dave Chenell, the brains behind Grafighters, are looking to launch the app on the iPhone, too, so that your character can be with you wherever you go - Tamagotchi fashion - except that this character is your own creation.
So will your character be breathing fire, or sprouting spikes when mad like a porcupine?
[Via - Madconomist.com]
Startup Spotlight - Apptopia.com
Million Dollar Ideas - Canopy Tours
Pet Business - Pawsitively Purfrect Petal Pull Cart
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneurās Guide
From 0 To $30,000 A Month With Dropshipping
How to Sell Anything to Anybody
Daily advice link - Designer? We Are Hiring!
Idea Spotlight - New Startup Pays Experts To Answer Questions
If you have you ever lost your child, even for a moment, you know that it is every parentās worst nightmare.
Hereās a product to make you feel better about that eventuality: SafetyTats are temporary child identification tattoos that when applied to a childās arm provide an immediate and highly visible form of identification and contact should your child become lost. Unlike just writing your telephone number of your childās arm, the temporary tattoo is waterproof.
Whereād the idea come from?
The idea for SafetyTat temporary child ID tattoos was born of necessity one weekend at an amusement park. On Labor Day Weekend, Baltimore Mom, Michele Welsh and her husband, there with their three small children, felt out-numbered. To stave her panic, she quickly wrote her mobile phone number on each of their arms with a ballpoint pen. As she did this, she thoughtfully explained to each of them the importance of staying close to Mommy and Daddy. She also told them that if they were separated that the number on their arm was a way to reconnect with them.
Throughout the day of fun, Michele had to rewrite the number several times as it smeared or washed off. Several parents in the park stopped her to ask if that was her number on the kidsā arms. Each time, they loved the idea.
The day was a success and the idea for SafetyTat temporary child id tattoos was born.
[Via - Dane Carson]
Startup Spotlight - Trademarkia.com
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneurās Guide
How To Sell A Dog For $230,000
From 0 To $30,000 A Month With Dropshipping
Up and down (and up and down) with Baltimore County internet-porn pioneers Jen and Dave
Daily advice link - Designer? We Are Hiring!
Need business name ideas? Visit PickyDomains.com
http://www.paulsammut.com/ramos/
There may be a lucky few who never have trouble getting up in the morning, but for everyone else, engineer and designer Paul Sammut has a new solution. Now fully funded on Kickstarter, Sammutās new Ramos alarm clock canāt be turned off by any ordinary means; rather, users must get up and walk to an accompanying defuse panel to punch in the clockās preset deactivation code.
Thereās no āsnoozeā button in easy reach on the Ramos clock, which has been in development for years, Sammut says. āRamos is a clock I made after I got tired of constantly oversleeping,ā he explains. āI needed something that would force me out of bed.ā No surprise, then, that the Ramos can only be turned off when the user gets up and enters in a code on a separate wireless defuse panel, which Sammut suggests be placed in the kitchen or bathroom. āYouāll have to use your brain a bit more, which will help wake you up,ā he notes. āBest of all, after you turn off the alarm youāll find yourself in your bathroom or kitchen, away from the evil alluring bed and ready to start your day.ā An optional snooze mode will be included, but users wonāt be able to exceed the number of āsnoozesā they preset in advance.
The Ramos can now be preordered on Kickstarter starting at USD 160, with options including either an LED or nixie tube display and a variety of hardwoods and finishes. Specialty retailers around the globe: one to get in on early?
[Via - Springwise]
From 0 To $30,000 A Month With Dropshipping
10 Strange But Successful Business Ideas To Inspire Your Inner Entrepreneur
How To Sell A Dog For $230,000
Will SproutSocial Become Google Of SMM?
In DC You Can Make Up To $50 An Hour Standing In Line For Others
Porn Industry Isnāt Shy About Using Crowdsourcing
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneurās Guide by Dan S. Kennedy
How To Get Rich Selling Unicorn Meat On Amazon.com
Daily advice link - Designer? We Are Hiring!
Interested in crowdsourcing sites? Here is a list of top 5 crowdsourcing services you might find useful
1. PickyDomains.Com ā this crowd sourcing site specializes in naming things. Like names, domains, product lines, slogans, etc. The service is 100% risk free, meaning clients pay only if they decide to use one of the suggestions offered. Contributors get 40 to 60 percent of the amount paid by client.
2. 99Designs.Com ā 99Designs is probably the best known logo crowdsourcing service out there (though it offers all kinds of web design services as well). Itās been growing by leaps and bounds and paid out over $25 million to designers since 2008.
3. oDesk.Com ā dubbed ELance killer, oDesk may not kill its main competitor but having a chance to work with both, I can tell you that I like oDesk a whole lot better. Itās probably one of the best sources for crowdsourcing jobs for writers, programmers, designers, artists, marketers, virtual assistance and other freelancers.
4. IdeaBounty.Com ā yes, you can even crowdsource ideas. (I wonder if anyone has used existing crowdsourcing service to generate ideas for a new crowdourcing service). As the name implies, IdeaBounty pays for ideas (most clients are corporations). And even though they say āideas are a dime a dozenā, IdeaBounty pays thousands and the top reward so far stands at a cool $20,000.
5. AgentAnything.Com ā Any Errand Any Time Any Where ā thatās the slogan AgentAnything goes by and thatās pretty much a close description of the service. Unlike the four you just read about, this one leans toward offline tasks and is a lot like Craigslist.
Tip Of The Day - How To Find Any Person In US, Do Reverse Phone Lookup And Check For Criminal Records
http://www.birdsbarbershop.com/
Michael Portman has heard his salon customers share information with their hairdressers that they wouldn’t confide in anyone else. As he says, it’s a business built on trust. After all, how many deals compel the service provider to wield a sharp pair of scissors to your scalp or neck?
Today, six years after he and childhood pal Jayson Rapaport opened the first of five Birds Barbershops in Austin, Texas, Portman is especially pleased when a customer comes in for a haircut in advance of a job interview. “That’s a pretty trusting moment there,” Portman says.
Like many entrepreneurs, Portman has found that savvy branding efforts go a long way toward cultivating that trust. And while there’s no single formula for branding your way into a client’s warm embrace, it’s generally agreed that it takes more than a clever slogan or a catchy jingle. At the very least, it takes strong job performance, effective marketing (often online) and favorable public opinion. Yet experts say building trust through branding also requires an ineffable something that leaves customers feeling good about the whole exchange.
“Branding now is trying to measure not just the affinity, but the trust a consumer has in you,” says Todd Copilevitz, a branding consultant in Atlanta.
To build trust through branding, says Karen Post, a Tampa, Fla.ābased consultant and the author of Brand Turnaround, an entrepreneur must establish a distinct identity. Portman and Rapaport did this by offering standard haircuts at below-market prices–$19 for men, $39 for women–and keeping salons open seven days a week. (”Every salon in the world is closed on Mondays,” Portman says. “What’s with that?”) Tapping into Austin’s rich musical heritage, they installed old-fashioned jukeboxes, then turned up the volume. Because Austin is such a bicycle-crazy town, they offered men who rode to Birds a free hair wash. (Women get a shampoo with the standard cut.) And abiding by the company ethos of keeping things local, they formed myriad partnerships in support of hometown causes and events.
Their mission was simple, really: They wanted to make the haircut experience more fun. And that’s where the beer comes in. After noon each day, anyone who gets a haircut at Birds receives a free can of Shiner beer. Birds pays nothing for the beer but gives Shiner plenty of promotional punch, including a neon sign in every salon window. Shiner comes from the Lone Star State’s oldest independent brewery, so it holds a special place in the hearts and minds of Texans. For Portman, the arrangement has been invaluable in helping Birds establish its identity.
And that has led to success. Last year, Portman says, Birds took in nearly $3 million in revenue. Birds has relied heavily on social media to build its brand. Copilevitz says the online world, which gives consumers a robust and timely forum for expressing opinions, has forced businesses to revert to old-school customer service. “That is, dealing with people as people,” he says. “They’re using social media to talk to their customers in an open, honest way, and they do that on a stage where millions of eyeballs can focus on that discussion.” Using social media effectively, adds Portman, also means knowing when to lay low. “We’re part of the conversation, just like when you’re sitting around the table with friends,” he says. “You don’t say anything unless you have something to say.”
For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.
[HT - Entrepreneur]
Catering To Startups - ZeroCater Story
Catering To Startups - ZeroCater Story