Allen’s E-Commerce Blog

Health Care Debate Summarized

Posted by Kevin under Marketing Resources & Tools

Great post by a friend summarizing the current debate on health care without the fringe rhetoric on either side of the argument…  He made some very good points as well as summarizing the situation.

I work with the ex-CFO of blue cross/blue shield. i talk to him frequently about business, finance and his experience with them. i talk to him quite often about this very debate and discussion. i consider him to me more informed than most. and i hear very little rhetoric about health care/costs that is supported by honest facts from any side.

its about choosing the least worse choice. there are no good choices. there is a dream and there is fiscal reality. there are arguments for and against and the greatest difference between them is peoples willingness to totally ignore the other side of the argument.

to address your remark above… yes, i think big corporations can do better. the simple fact is that corporations have incentives to do better. obviously you can pick out examples that support your point… be my guest. i can reply with 100X the examples to show how government is grossly inefficient and incompetent for each example you produce.

When government fails (as they will), they will simply keep taking more of YOUR money to shore up the system. Government has no incentive to cut costs, work better, be more efficient as an private company does. With government, you have no hope of competition which creates efficiency. All you have is a giant vacuum that sucks money from your pockets, operated by a group of assholes that just tried to sneak in a purchase of new gulf stream jets for their “official use” in a military budget bill.

one can’t argue that the health care system we have is perfect.

however…

one can’t honestly argue that there is a perfect health care system either.

does it need changed? sure.

Should government be the one to step in and take control of your health? Should they be creating a new multi trillion dollar bureaucracy in a recession, on the back of trillions of dollars in deficit spending? i personally don’t think so.

Anon…..

Jim Rogers : Must Let Banks Fail Feb 11 2009

Posted by Kevin under Marketing Resources & Tools

Jim Rogers Obama does not Understand Economics !!!!!!

Posted by Kevin under Marketing Resources & Tools

GOP Leader Boehner Floor Speech Opposing Democrats’ Trillion-Dollar Spending Bill

Posted by Kevin under Marketing Resources & Tools

Peter Schiff Calling The Stimulus Package Out

Posted by Kevin under Marketing Resources & Tools

Cross Country Bike Ride

Posted by Kevin under Marketing Resources & Tools

Personal Accountability & Alzheimers Charity Cross Country Bike Ride.

60-75 Days Of Riding Covering Over 3,000 Miles From Coast to Coast!

$1500 Misc & Overage
$6000 Food & Lodging
$500 Bike Repair Fund - Tires, Inner Tubes, Other Repairs

I am hoping to raise  $60,000 which 30,000 will be donated to ALZ.org for alzheimer research
and the remainder will go towards offsetting trip expenses of $8,000.  and $22,000 to pay off all personal debts, 2 credit cards & personal loan.

16 Rules For Success!

Posted by Kevin under Marketing Resources & Tools

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone.
I believe that not much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone. I hear people say, “But I’m concerned about security.” My response to that is simple: “Security is for cadavers.”

2. Never give up.
Almost nothing works the first time it’s attempted. Just because what you’re doing does not seem to be working, doesn’t mean it won’t work. It just means that it might not work the way you’re doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn’t have an opportunity.

3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think.
There’s an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: “The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”

4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be.
Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of “undefined consequences.” My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, “Well, Robert, if it doesn’t work, they can’t eat you.”

5. Focus on what you want to have happen.
Remember that old saying, “As you think, so shall you be.”

6. Take things a day at a time.
No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don’t look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.

7. Always be moving forward.
Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.

8. Be quick to decide.
Remember what General George S. Patton said: “A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”

9. Measure everything of significance.
I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.

10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate.
If you want to uncover problems you don’t know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven’t examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.

11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing.
When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.

12. Never let anybody push you around.
In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you’re doing as anyone else, provided that what you’re doing is legal.

13. Never expect life to be fair.
Life isn’t fair. You make your own breaks. You’ll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).

14. Solve your own problems.
You’ll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you’ll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: “You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others.” There’s also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: “A wise man keeps his own counsel.”

15. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.

16. There’s always a reason to smile.
Find it. After all, you’re really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: “We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time!”

Nicole Sullivan: “Design Fast Websites”

Posted by Kevin under Marketing Resources & Tools

Amazon claims record holiday orders in ‘08 season

Posted by Kevin under Marketing Resources & Tools

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Online retailer Amazon.com Inc on Friday reported its best holiday sales season yet, even as sales and traffic at U.S. store chains were the weakest in decades, sending its shares up nearly 4 percent.

Analysts have pointed to Amazon as a rare bright spot in this year’s holiday shopping season due to its scale and flexibility, as retailers try to outdo each other with deep discounts to lure consumers during a recession.

Online sales were also helped by winter storms that hit large sections of the United States on the last major shopping weekend before Christmas.

In a release titled “Amazon.com’s 14th holiday season is best ever,” the company said more than 6.3 million items were ordered on its site worldwide for the peak shopping day of December 15, amounting to 72.9 items ordered per second. On its peak day, it shipped more than 5.6 million units.

However, the company gave no financial details regarding the sales, such as how its margins fared with the discounts seen across the retail sector.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt said Amazon’s day of peak orders represented a 17 percent rise from a year ago, while its peak shipments represented an increase of 44 percent. He rates the share a “buy” with a $61 price target.

Amazon shipped merchandise to more than 210 countries, and said it shipped more than 99 percent of orders on time for holiday deadlines.

Amazon shares rose 3.6 percent to $53.31.

(Reporting by Michele Gershberg; Editing by Derek Caney and Steve Orlofsky)

The big buzz in the domain name industry

Posted by Kevin under Humor, Marketing Resources & Tools

Reposted from DNJournal : Ron Jackson

The big buzz in the domain industry over the past 24 hours has centered on Google’s announcement yesterday that they have opened up their AdSense for domains program to all North American publishers (domain owners), with other regions soon to follow. That means that

anyone can now park their domain names directly with Google. In addition to potentially siphoning customers away from parking companies, this, for the first time, opens the PPC door to those who did not have a large enough portfolio, or domains of high enough quality, to get an account with one of the parking companies that have traditionally served as the middlemen between Google and individual domain owners.

Many are declaring the move is a death sentence for Google’s parking company partners, like DomainSponsor, Sedo and Fabulous, but it is far too early to determine what impact this will have on PPC providers who offer the Google feed. It will all boil down to one question - can those who go direct to Google make more money than they can make using one of the parking companies? We won’t know the answer to that until those who make the switch start reporting on whether their revenues are going up, down or staying the same.

On the surface it looks like a no brainer - if you cut out the middle man and go direct you are bound to collect more money, right? Not necessarily and in this case probably not even likely. I have used AdSense in the past and (like many others I have spoken with) have found the payouts to be underwhelming to say the least. In addition, there are a lot of problems with Google’s offering, starting with an archaic system for implementing their parking program.

You can’t just change nameservers like you do with the PPC companies - for each domain you have to setup CNAME and A records (and more than a few people will have no idea what that even means). Their landers look like “throwback jerseys” - pages from a time long ago - just a list of links with no graphics and no way to do critical keyword optimization. In another major drawback, those who want to let visitors know the domain is for sale have no way to do that either and that could mean forfeiting the ultimate payoff - sale of the domain itself.

Below is an example of a Google AdSense for domains landing page.

The ability to optimize pages, add relevant graphics and custom content, utilize cutting age management and reporting features are all value added services the parking companies have provided. Google is going to have to pay individuals a nice premium to get them to forgo all of those things or they are going to have to match those services point by point with something just as good or better.

Over time maybe they will do that. In the short term maybe they will pony up and pay more to get people to switch now - or maybe they won’t. For now they may be content just to pick up some of the stragglers who can’t get parking company accounts. Google has never been one to nibble around the edges though - they only think big - so I’m sure they have something more in mind as time goes on. There is no doubt the PPC companies need to accelerate planning (that most already have underway) for a day when Google (and probably Yahoo too) decide to cut them out of the picture all together.

This episode has featured quite an ironic twist. At the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in Orlando last spring there was a lot of hubbub about rumors Google was going to pull the plug on the entire domain channel (in other words not monetize domain traffic at all). Instead they have just embraced the channel and possibly taken the first step toward pulling the plug on their parking company partners instead.

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Rick Schwartz has been a parking company critic in the past. He is currently out of the country on a vacation cruise ship, but I managed to track him down this morning to see what he thought about Google’s move.

“I think the numbers will tell the real story,” Schwartz said. “The interface each PPC company uses and how well they filter the traffic (to eliminate junk traffic) will be what determines the future of PPC companies. This may be more complicated than it might appear.

I think the question really is “What is the motive for Google in this decision?” Was the motivation to cut out the middleman or is their decision based on economics and the economic turbulence we are about to enter or is it a

Rick Schwartz
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder

future house cleaning to have more control and identify those with trademark and other questionable traffic? It may end up being a mixed bag but for now it seems like a positive development and maybe trying to insure their hold on the space from a serious challenge by Microsoft or others in 2009,” Schwartz said.

“Hopefully this will open up new opportunities to maximize the value of our traffic. We’ll know in the upcoming months. May be good for some, disaster for others and may have several phases as it plays out. Parking companies may or may not survive as they have been bleeding all year and now this is like a giant blood vessel that just exploded. The weak are going to fold. The strong are going to fight for their very survival, growth is gone,” Schwartz concluded.

In times like these, you had
better have an ace in the hole.

However this plays out my personal opinion is that for real control of their own destiny, domain owners must find an alternative to relying on Google and Yahoo for their primary revenue streams. That is way too much power to give anyone over your life.

The current best solution I see is to get serious about development. It is true that development cannot be done on the massive scale that parking accommodates, but if you can develop just one site on a subject you are truly passionate about, one appealing enough to attract direct advertiser relationships, that one site could produce more revenue than thousands of parked domains put together. It will also give you a revenue stream that Google and Yahoo have no influence over, so if your parking revenue completely evaporates, you will still have an ace in the hole.

The ability to create multiple revenue streams is what makes the domain business such a beautiful thing. You can make money parking, make it selling or leasing domains, or make it by building a business or media property on the domain. Those who are smart do it all. You never want to be dependent on any one of those streams. The path to freedom is there. Don’t let a new wrinkle in the parking game distract you from it. Get on that path so that you are the one who has control of your future.