Well like I said in my previous post Ashley and I moved into our new place this weekend. We signed the lease on Friday and moved some things in that day, but the big moving day was Saturday. We have a lot of large furniture so we hired movers, but they were not from a moving company. I got quotes from a lot of moving companies and they all were VERY expensive. My mom told me to look on craigslist, I did and found 2 guys that usually move pool tables, but he said they could do the job. He quoted me a price that was half of what I was going to pay for the regular movers. I was a bit worried at first, but the guys worked out great and actually cared about our stuff and were really nice guys. The one guy even went to school with my aunt.
After everything was moved in I was completely exhausted. We were moving from 11AM – 8PM on Friday and 8AM – 6PM on Saturday! I have way to much stuff, I really need to get rid of all this extra computer stuff that I don’t even use. Ashley and I spent the rest of Saturday and most of the day Sunday unpacking all of the boxing and organizing things. We still aren’t done yet! Mainly because I have been working on ThinkComputers. Most people wouldn’t even know that I have moved, we had 4 reviews last week and should have 4-5 this week. Only thing that I haven’t managed to get done is posting news on the site each day. Being able to get work done on ThinkComputers this week made me realize I can have good time management.
Like I said we are moved in, but a lot of things are still of place and need organized, but I wanted to show you some photos now so I can do a before and after sort of thing. The office and the bedroom are a mess, we haven’t even put together our bed yet! Also there are a ton of boxes of computer stuff in the office. We should have everything all cleaned up by the end of the week. The only room that is pretty much done is the living room. All I know is I’m not moving again in a long time! Enjoy the photos…
This week has been extremely busy for me. If you didn’t know I am moving this weekend. Ashley and I decided to move because it’s not worth wasting all the money on a townhouse when it is only the 2 of us. Also she wants to live closer to home. So after 2 full days of looking for places we found a great place, which is around $600 less a month then what we are paying now. Even better it is just about the same size living space, but on one floor. So that will save us on utilities too. The new place as has a balcony (something I have missed for a while) and a Jacuzzi tub. This place was the last place we looked at and I’m glad we did because it was so much better than all of the other places we looked at. The only thing we won’t have at the new place is a garage. Here is a floor plan of the new place.
Since we are moving this week has been very busy. Trying to get everything organized like movers, paperwork, utilities, etc. After I started packing I realized I have way to much stuff! Especially since we have moved every year for the past 3 years! We both really like this place so hopefully we will stay here for more than 1 year.
I’m not sure if I will be able to update the rest of the week, but keep in mind that the CES Swag contest is still going on and it will go until February 27th. It is really easy to enter, just subscribe to my RSS feed via e-mail:
As some of you know I sometimes lifecast on Justin.tv. I really like the Justin.tv service, I’ve been with them since beta and they have really made a lot of improvements since that time. All of the chat features and video features are something that you won’t find with other services like this. I also have made a lot of friends on Justin.tv and because of that I don’t think I would ever move over to another service. Also Justin.tv is more of a community now, you have a profile where people can add you as a friend and leave comments etc. But earlier this month Yahoo Live was launched and I had to check it out.
Yahoo Live is the first live broadcasting service from a major company that I know of. All the others are small startups, so with the amount of money that Yahoo has to use on their projects I was excited to see what the service could offer. It is pretty easy getting setup, especially if you already have a Yahoo account. Just go to the Yahoo Live page, sign in, and then click on the Getting Started tab. From there you will be able to create your channel. Once you are in your channel you will see a small control panel in the bottom left. Here you can choose your video and sound settings. There are no advanced options you are able to just pick your camera and microphone. Once you have that setup you just hit the Go Live button and you are broadcasting.
The first thing that I noticed was the quality of the feed was not that great, especially compared to Justin.tv and other services. One thing that was really cool was if someone came into your channel and they were broadcasting their feed would come in at the bottom of the screen. You can be watching up to 4 different people. If there are more than 4 people broadcasting in your room you can drag and drop the feeds to be able to see who you want. I think that this feature is really cool, it allows you to see who is watching you and allows you to interact with them better. Yahoo Live also has chat, one thing that needs fixed is the front size. I think it should be a set size, I don’t want people in my room spamming in huge letters.
As a service I think that it is good, a lot better then the other services when they came out, but it still needs some work. I would like to see some advanced options for video and a better feed quality. Also as I said the chat text needs to be fixed. And I would like to see more of a community like Justin.tv. So for right now I will be staying on Justin.tv, but in the future I might switch over to Yahoo Live.
If you are starting any new type of business and you are dealing with customers or other businesses sometimes it can be hard for them to take you seriously, especially if you are starting an online business. This happened to me when I first started ThinkComputers. I was about 16-17 when I started the site and when I would ask for something to review most companies would see how old I was and say no. I wouldn’t let this discourage me though. Over the years I would get these companies to take me seriously. Here are some tips on doing that for any type of business.
Make Business Cards
This is a very inexpensive and easy way for you to show someone that you care about your business and it is not just some website. Anytime you are talking about your site you can give someone a business card. It is a great way to promote your website as well as let them know you are serious about it. I definitely take someone more seriously if they have a business card. VistaPrint has a great deal, giving away 250 free business cards. If money is tight you should definitely check it out.
Get a Business Address
This does cost some money, but really not that much. Places like your post office and UPS store have mailboxes that you can put in a business name. So if anyone is sending you products they send it to your business name rather than you yourself. Even though the mail is going to the post office or UPS store the sender thinks that it is going to a business, not your house. If they think you have a business office they will take your more seriously.
Prove it to them
When I started ThinkComputers we didn’t have any sponsors or anyone sending us products to review. For a long time we wrote articles, guides, and bought hardware to review. By doing this companies saw that we were serious about it and after a while they started to send us products. Even at the beginning some companies would only lend us products, we did not care because that helped us build a good relationship with that company. This also goes hand in hand with blogging, if you want people to take you seriously you need to keep your blog updated on a steady basis.
Go to Trade Shows
This is the most expensive thing on the list. ThinkComputers growth really started to happen after my first CES in 2006. Every time I’ve gone to CES it has really been worth it. You get to meet the companies you deal with face to face and by being there they know you are serious about your business. I mean you’re not going to spend around $1000 on a hotel for the week just to hang out. I’ve always made great contacts at CES and it is the one show that I always have to go to every year.
Well this was not the best news to me. I had really hoped if Microsoft and Yahoo joined forces a lot of good would come of it, especially in the online advertising market. As I said Yahoo’s Publisher Network and Microsoft’s AdCenter don’t even compare to Google Adsense, but if they were combined, there could at least have been some competition there. On Monday Yahoo’s Board of directors said that the 44.6 billion dollar offer substantially undervalues Yahoo. But does it really? As I said their Q4 earning has been down 23 percent and their stock has been going down since November.
By the end of the day Monday Microsoft had sent a response to Yahoo saying that a Microsoft-Yahoo combination would create a more effective company that would provide greater value and service to its customers. A lot of stories are coming up that Yahoo does not want to sell it all, and never did. Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang is said to have reassigned hundreds of employees 4 month ago, to make Yahoo more relevant. Some of the plans are to rethink Yahoo’s homepage, consolidate Yahoo’s social networks, open up Yahoo to third parties (like Facebook), and revamping Yahoo’s network infrastructure. It seems the Microsoft bid came at the wrong time as these things had not been achieved yet. But even if they are achieved well they make Yahoo worth the $40 a share (nearly $60 billion) they want?
It seems this week will be a crazy week for Yahoo. Layoffs have already started and from the looks of things it is not going good. Among the no-names let go there was someone you might have heard of. Yahoo has let go their VP of marketing for their search-ads business, Todd Daum. Also people are saying that instead of the normal 3 months severance pay they are only getting 2 months. No word of if this is true or not. If you are a Yahoo employee best of luck to you this week.
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