I Can Has $4000 A Week?

I m in ur internet cloging ur tubes Now for some Friday fun. As you may know (and silently feel embarrassment for me over), I’ve been not-so-secretly coveting lolcats, especially the site I Can Has Cheezburger?

Well, for you lolparty-poopers, did you know you can make about $4000 a week with lolcats? Yes! At least, according to the Unusual Business Ideas That Work blog:

Eric Nakagawa, a software developer in Hawaii, posted a single photo of a fat, smiling cat he found on the Internet, with the caption, “I can has cheezburger?” in January, 2007, at a Web site he created. It was supposed to be a joke.

This joke, which Nakagawa monetizes with advertising (or, should I say, loladvertising?), now brings in anywhere from $500 to $4000 per week.

While posting pictures of lolcats is fun, it’s hardly a scalable business if he has to find the photos, caption them, select the best ones, and publish them every day.

So Nakagawa intelligently built the ICanHasCheezBurger Factory, a tool that lets viewers submit their own pictures, caption them, and vote on their favorites. The most popular ones are then published on the main blog, while he gets to sit back and collect the money. Talk about automated lolgenius!

In fact, I know a friend who, during one sunny day, uploaded 2GB of photos. TWO GIGABYTES. Holy lolcat!

I don’t know how long the lolcat trend will continue. But if you look at how media and entertainment is going the way of niche markets, perhaps niche blogs like I Can Has Cheezburger and Cute Overload will be around for quite a lolwhile.

VMware’s IPO

VMware You may have heard: VMware just had their IPO. They’re now listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol VMW.

I’m going long on this company. I like their leadership and the fact that the President and CEO, Diane Greene, is a co-founder with previous CEO experience. She was the CEO of VXtreme, a streaming media technology company that was acquired by Microsoft (MSFT) in 1997.

I also love their products and have actually used their software before. As a front-end engineer trying to build web applications, you have to test your code across a large variety of web browser and operating system combinations. It’s a very tedious task. And it can be very costly if you go out and buy a separate computer for each use case.

Fortunately, VMware’s Desktop Virtualization Products can lower the financial burden considerably. Instead of five machines, you now only need one. Multiple that across an organization of hundreds of front-end engineers and you have mega moolah savings. I heart VMware.

There is a lot of buzz over VMware though, with the media calling it “the hottest tech IPO since Google (GOOG).” It’s easy to fall prey to the buzz and believe all the hype.

So if you’re thinking about buying some VMW yourself, don’t take my word for it. Here are two great articles pro and con their IPO for your enlightenment:

Free Stuff to do in San Francisco

SF MOMA Being on your own means you have a lot more “free” time. Well, honestly, it’s not free, because any time you waste now is your own time. And time is money.

But if you’d like to take a break from business and do something cost-effective (read: free), then here are some suggestions:

Parks

Take a nice stroll through one of San Francisco’s wonderful parks. Walk your dog, read a book, go for a run. Or just breath in the fresh air.

Museums, Art Galleries, & Zoos

Soak in some culture and brain candy at these great institutions. After all, one of San Francisco’s main charms is its culture! Some are free only on certain days of the month, others are free all the time.

Tours

Tours can be full of fascinating knowledge and surprisingly fun. At the very least, they make for interesting conversation pieces or help jump-start your brain when you’re in a mental standstill.

Movies & Concerts

Sometimes it’s fun to just relax and watch a good movie or listen to a good performance. During the summer and fall, San Francisco is full of such fun events.

Book Readings & Story Tellings

Another great way to get your creative juices flowing is to experience the creativity of others. These bookstores and organizations offer book readings and story tellings by established and up-and-coming authors.

Free Wifi Cafes

And what list of free stuff would be complete without free wifi cafes? These sources all list lots of great free wifi hotspots in San Francisco.

I’m sure there are a ton of other free things you could do in San Francisco. This city is a treasure trove of culture and activities. I haven’t even listed the yearly events that take place. That could be a whole other article in itself.

Do you know of any other great free activities?

The Caffeine Curve

Now for some Friday fun. This pic seems to be circulating the Interweb quite a bit; a friend forwarded it to me earlier this week.

Every entrepreneur lives off of caffeine one way or another. So what exactly happens when we ingest copious amounts of caffeine throughout the day?

Glad you asked. As this highly-scientific chart shows, you can reach deity-level elation at your peak, for those wonderful orgasms of creativity. Then you can drop down so low that you’re playing Duck Hunt with your neighbor’s dog.

The Caffeine Curve

Colorado-based cartoonist Tom Edwards is behind this hilarity. He’s pretty sure that he’s “the only cartoonist in the world who distributes his one panel cartoon almost exclusively on wheel-thrown porcelain pots.”

I’m not sure if he intended this pic to be a viral marketing gem, but it seems to have worked. This pic is on Digg and countless other blogs. He’s cleverly included his name in the pic, enabling people like me to be able to hunt him down. A smarter tactic would have been to include his URL, but hey, either way, he’s still gaining notoriety.

If you’d like to monitor your daily caffeine intake, you can purchase a mug and support Tom’s art. As an added bonus, you can even fill your mug with your favorite caffeinated beverage. Fun!

Biz Idea: Money-Making Facebook Apps

Facebook I was thinking about Facebook applications the other day. These new apps are kinda fun and getting a lot of buzz. But can you make money off of them, I wondered? Hmmm.

Here are a few that I think could actually generate money.

  • Fantasy Sports

    Since Facebook doesn’t allow sports bookings or gambling in any form, the business model here would be subscription-based, much like what most fantasy sports sites offer right now. CBS SportsLine Fantasy Sports is one such app.

  • For Sale Lists

    Commerce is always a good way to make money. If you have something to sell, perhaps someone on Facebook will be willing to buy it. Ebay To Go and Garage Sale are two such apps.

  • Freelance Services

    Customers don’t only buy products; they buy services as well. If you have desirable skills, why not offer them? No such apps yet exist, though I’m sure a company like Elance, oDesk, or DoMyStuff.com could offer this soon (wink wink).

What other Facebook apps do you think could make money?

The First Week

“How was your first week out?” I asked Eric. “Now that you’ve left your job, has it been great waking up and not having to go to work?”

He sat back in his chair. “The first week was great. I did a bunch of errands, got onto all the necessary social networks, and set up my routine. It was a lot of prep work.”

I nodded and took a sip of my coffee.

“The second week though, wasn’t as easy. That’s when reality began to set in,” he laughed.

“Oh? What do you mean?”

“When you’re working for a big company, it’s easy to screw around and waste time. But when you’re working for yourself, the time you waste is your own.”

“Ahhh…” I nodded slowly.

“I also miss my coworkers. I had a lot of good friends at work. It was easy to just get up and get coffee with them. Now, I can’t really do that.”

“I can see that. I had a lot of good friends at work too. I’m really going to miss them all.”

“Staying focused and motivated is hard too. It’s easy to get distracted. Sometimes I need to write down my goals helps me keep focused.”

I sipped my coffee and continued nodding.

“Staying at home can be a little cabin-feverish too, if not distracting. So I’d go out and work in a cafe or something.”

“That’s a good idea. I totally plan on working from cafes also.”

“I don’t about you, but for me, getting into a routine helps too. I decided to replace my morning commute with working out. So now I do that everyday, first thing in the morning.”

“That’s a really good idea.” I smiled. “A really good idea.”

“Finally, since I sometimes feel a little isolated, I make an effort to go out and meet with people. I’ve been calling up friends, ex-coworkers, former classmates, and doing lunch or coffee with them. I find it really helpful to stay socialized and in touch with people.”

I nodded. “That’s awesome advice man. Thanks!”

Eric smiled. “It’s not all fun and games. People think that when you quit your job, you’ll have a lot of fun. Not true if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur. Instead, you have to work really hard. But as long as you realize that, and keep focused on your goals, you can totally do it.”

Three Reasons to Become an Entrepreneur

I’ve been talking to many aspiring entrepreneurs lately. The question of Why usually comes up. Why do you want to become an entrepreneur? Why do you want to give up a steady, full-time job, to enter the uncertain world of business ownership?

From the responses I get, the answers seem to boil down to these three fundamental reasons:

  • To Be Independent

    You want to be your own boss, an employer, not an employee. You don’t want to work for The Man anymore. You want the flexibility to do what you want, when to do it, and how to do it.

  • To Be Wealthy

    You want to make a lot of money, to make millions. And you can’t do that with your 9-to-5. You’re aiming higher than financial security; you want financial comfort or financial wealth.

  • To Be Idealistic

    You want to change the world, to make a positive impact. You want to follow your dreams and do something you’re passionate about. You want to truly care about what you’re doing.

Each entrepreneur seems to be some combination of the three, in varying degrees.

Me, I’m mostly an idealist. I want to change the world, to fundamentally improve it. Being financially wealthy wouldn’t hurt either, especially since money is necessary for the kind of change I’m envisioning. Being my own boss isn’t as important, though it’s the ultimate test of my decision-making abilities.

How about you? Why do you want to become an entrepreneur?

Globalism and Racism

Mister Wong There’s been some drama over the German social bookmarking site Mister Wong lately. If you’re in the US, you may be able to guess the controversy. If you’re not, you probably have no idea what could be wrong.

The controversy is over the branding of the site: it’s name, illustration, and slogan. 8Asians, a group blog of Asian American & Asian Canadian bloggers (of which I am a member) was the first that I know of to publicly decry Mister Wong. As written by Ernie, one of the founders:

Maybe people aren’t as sensitive to political correctness as they are here in North America. But seriously, one of their web badges has the slogan “ping pong, king kong, Mister Wong.” Which I, of course, interpret as “ching chong, Mister Wong” and get INCREDIBLY FUCKING ANGRY.

The first few comments were sympathetic. One commenter expressed some confusion though. “Enlighten me. What on earth is offensive about the Mr. Wong website?” he wrote. After a few back-and-forth explanations, the issue died.

Two months later, Kristen Nicole of Mashable wrote about how Mister Wong was launching a US version. In her review, she wrote, “Despite the questionable name, Mister Wong has a lot going for it…” A commenter there also expresses some confusion: “Kristen, can you explain why you think the name is ‘questionable’?”

Another commenter replied, “It’s not so much the name that is questionable, more the cliched stereotyped image of Mr. Wong that comes along with it. I really hope they get rid of that on the US beta at least, otherwise there’ll be some angry Asian Americans out there.”

Then Kai Tietjen, the founder of Mister Wong, removed the illustration from the logo.

It was never my intention, nor that of my company, to hurt anyone with the use of the illustration. We are extremely sensitive to this issue and the feelings of others. We removed the original illustration off the top of the page some time ago, when the issue first arose, in hopes that no one would be offended by it any longer.

Apparently the 8 Asians article and angry comments on Mashable’s articles led to this decision. A short time later, a German newspaper picked up the story and Germans flooded the 8 Asians site. Some politely expressed their confusion and defended Mister Wong. Others haven’t been as polite, unfortunately.

Pete Cashmore from Mashable followed up on the story and succinctly summed it all up:

These kinds of clashes seem inevitable when companies launch globally: what’s culturally acceptable in one place is a hanging offense elsewhere. Often, as in this case, people are puzzled by the fact that they caused any offense at all. The “racist” label, however, is one that all startups will want to stay a million miles away from, even if they don’t fully understand their infraction.

That’s the real takeaway here, especially for any business going global. You may not agree with the controversy, but once you operate in the global arena, you have no choice but to respect the sensibilities of all the societies with which you want to do business. Even if you don’t agree with or understand those sensibilities.

Remember the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy? That’s probably an extreme example, but you get the point. A less extreme example is the Chevorlet Nova and how it didn’t sell in Spanish-speaking countries because “Nova” translates to “doesn’t go” in Spanish. This is actually an urban legend, but it’s a commonly cited example of going global.

Ernie, in my opinion, may have saved Mister Wong quite a bit of heartache and money by expressing his views at the early stages of their entry into the US market. For better or worse, the US society is relatively much more politically correct than other societies of the world. Denounce that all you want, but I guarantee you that if Ernie hadn’t spoken up, someone else would have.