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The Curly Tree Money Blog Has Moved!

2006-09-27T23:31:00.000-07:00

THE CURLY TREE MONEY BLOG HAS MOVED!

We're turning down the lights here at this blogspot...
After a few laborious days, I have finally completed my port of this site to my new domain. This will be my last post here for I have relocated to
http://www.curlytree.com!

Don't forget to update your bookmarks with this NEW URL and please join me at my new haunt.

Blogger Beta Feed Problems

2006-09-27T00:04:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, there were problems with Blogger Beta and the Atom feed for this blog. This prompted me to hasten my migration of this blog to its new home and now that I am in the midst of this effort, the syndication of this site is no longer available at this time. It won't be long before we sail away from here (Blogger) and into WordPress, where syndication will be resumed via Feedburner. I'll be posting an update. Thanks for stopping by!

Million Dollar Listings

2006-09-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

The last five years have seen a huge boom in the United States real estate market, which for the most part, floated all boats. But in California in particular, it has become insanely inflated since in this little piece of paradise in the West Coast, you are basically buying the weather.

What are the signs of a toppy, frothy real estate market? How about if:

you see a crumbling, rundown shack on undeveloped land with a flyer listing it for $1,300,000. Okay, that's too obvious.

everyone you know and their brother is becoming a real estate agent/broker/loan consultant.

you see a house change hands in a span of two years after a few coats of paint and new plants in the yard.

everyone you know and their brother is talking about opening a home equity line of credit at 6%, 7%, 8% APR so they can cash out to buy more property.

all those people who say they would be great landlords don't even own their own homes yet.

the guy who sits next to your cube spends most of his time scouring the internet for new homes in the flood plains as potential "investments".

that same guy turned himself into a real estate AND mortgage broker in two months time (wow, you get two skill sets and services for the price of one!).

your day care provider closed her school down to become a real estate agent who advertises on the community pages. You see her beaming face on ads for foreign property. She invites you often to sales presentations held at what used to be the kids' play den.

someone you know who used to live in a hovel now lives in a mansion reminiscent of Palm Springs replete with faux flagstones and a spillover pool and spa designed as a mini Niagara falls. Oh yeah, she's a real estate agent too.

people are combining forces and families to pool their financial resources together to snag their first house, which is over $1,000,000 but with 5 bedrooms and 4 baths. Oh yeah, around three families will be living in this mcMansion (read: a house which is bigger than the lot it sits on).

your junk mail is 50% offers for refinancing, lines of credit, real estate agents' cover letters and the flyers of homes they are selling

your mobile dry cleaning guy is moonlighting as a real estate agent. Or is he an agent now moonlighting as a dry cleaning guy.

I swear all these are true, and are my own personal encounters with real estate mania. I could go on and on but you get the picture. It's been ridiculous for so long that I felt compelled to regularly visit this site; and for the good length of time that I've followed it, it would say the same things over and over (housing bubble will lead to crash -- yadda yadda and repeat...) and yet, the market wouldn't budge anywhere but up. Except now. Finally there are signs that the market is cooling. It's about time. Now in a couple of years, I can think about jumping into the glut of underpriced properties or foreclosures and becoming that person I've always aspired to be.... a landlord.

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate market, housing bubble, housing market, real estate bubble, real estate market bubble, real estate investment, real estate agent, loan consultant, mortgage, home equity, landlord, foreclosure, real estate broker, mortgage broker

< Thank you parca.org! >

The Price Of Preschool

2006-09-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

Is that wonderful bundle of joy you have at home finally ready to leave the nest? I'm not talking about your 21 year old boomerang kid. It's about your preschooler. And at 4 years old, if he or she is set to start school, get ready for a trip.

It's one thing if you have a great supply of preschools or elementary schools around you, but if you live where I do, that isn't the case. It's a hot topic among parents in my neighborhood, where heated discussions in message boards erupt whenever school is discussed. It's because there appears to be some sensitivities surrounding the private vs public school debate -- and the bottom line is the question of quality.

In San Francisco, families are in waiting lists for a spot in a K-6 school. It doesn't matter where you live, if you decide for your kids to go public, you are subjected to a school assignment lottery, which turns into a rather strange case of school system roulette. There could be a fantastic school by your doorstep, but the San Francisco public education system may, through this lottery, cause your kid to end up in a more questionable place quite farther from where you live. So it's no surprise many families opt to go private, and when they do, they just found a fantastic new way to use up their retirements savings. If you're one of those people, just put your 401K in an envelope and mail it to the headmaster down the street. Of course you can opt to apply for financial aid, or bet on the special talents and genius of your child to eke out a spot for himself in the roster. But that's yet another lottery you will need to play.

So to all you soon-to-be parents out there in some booming metropolis, sign up your unborn child NOW for PRESCHOOL! For all new parents out there....good luck!

2004-2005 Tuition Rates for some Bay Area Private Schools

Castilleja (Palo Alto)	$24,000
Challenger (multiple locations)	$10,160
Chinese American International School (San Francisco)	$16,800
Crystal Springs (Hillsborough)	$23,280
Girls Middle School (Mtn View)	$16,500
Harker (San Jose)	$21,000
Hillbrook (Los Gatos)	$17,450
Keys (Palo Alto)	$17,150
Menlo (Atherton)	$24,800
Nueva (Hillsborough)	$22,940
Phillips Brooks (Menlo Park)	$18,900
Pinewood (Los Altos)	$11,950 - 16,800
St. Joseph (Atherton)	$21,870
St. Nicholas (Los Altos)	$4,950 (in parish) $7,245 (out of parish)
Trinity (Menlo Park)	$16,740
Woodside Priory (Portola Valley)	$23,830

Technorati Tags: preschool, public school system, public school, private school system, private school, education system, tuition, kindergarten

The Amazon Associate's aStore

2006-09-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

Amazon Associates is Amazon's affiliate program, which allows web publishers and webmasters to receive referral fees from their users who buy stuff from Amazon through their sites. Very recently, Amazon came up with the aStore, which is a nice way to set up targeted items on your site in a manner that is seamless and well integrated. You get to choose Featured Products on the first page, configure categories and subcategories, select the right look and feel for your aStore and incorporate various Amazon features such as a Search box, Listmania, Similar Products, your Wishlist and Reviews. To give it your site's identity, you can even add a logo and use your site colors. To incorporate the aStore to your site, you can do so via

a link to an external standalone store
an inline frame that generates an embedded store
a frameset that generates an embedded store

So all in all, it seems like a marvelous feature to add to your space....in theory. I tried it, and it's not bad. But here's what's still missing:

You can only create one aStore per associate account. If you run more than one site, you'll need to create multiple accounts in order to have multiple aStores. What a pain.
If you decide to link to an external aStore rather than embed the store in your site, you will find that once you jump to the store, there is no way to get back to your originating site other than the back button. So if your user gets engrossed in the reverie of their shopping experience in your aStore, and find themselves several pages deep, needless to say they will be stuck in your store with no means to get back to your blog without punching that back button several times over. If they don't remember your URL, then sayonara! No fun. The workaround is to use one of the embedded store scenarios.
The Search can be tinkered with to provide more relevant results via filtered keywords. But the catch is, it does not yet support operators such as ",", "+", "and", or "or" in the search. Which simply means you can only set your search to be limited to ONE theme if you decide to use this feature! But what if you want to provide a broader yet still specific spectrum of products? You can't -- not with their search box limitation. So you're stuck with NOT using a filtered keyword search at all -- that is, your categories will not be targeted, which sucks. There's a hack for this which involves fashioning a query string and tagging it with a "keywords" parameter like so:

http://astore.amazon.com/silkwillow-20/search/002-3084472-6072859?
node=22&keywords=Business

which will give you this instead of this.

What this implies is that if you want to have multiple filtered keywords available from your site, then you can do so by manipulating the query string and creating an index page in your site that links to various query strings. If this is all gibberish to you, that's fine -- the point is that you'll have to do a little hacking if you want a variety of filtered products via the aStore's search box. But really who wants to go through all that trouble when you can just wait patiently for Amazon to fix these limitations?

But because the aStore is in BETA, I can forgive its shortcomings for now. I'll live with it since I would rather have the wider product selection than implement its red-headed stepbrother the "Recommended Product Links". Ok that's not so bad either but after the experience of the aStore, it's hard to go back.

Technorati tags: Amazon, affiliate programs, affiliate, aStore, passive income, internet marketing

Ways To Monetize Your Blog

2006-09-16T11:42:00.001-07:00

This ProBlogger article neatly summarizes the different ways of monetizing your blog. I've been trying a few of the suggested avenues here for fun to see what would click. As expected, monetization has been slow for the Tree House, but is growing! Then again, going from 0 to 10 is still a 10-fold increase...

Income Streams for Bloggers

Advertising Programs:
There is a wealth of advertising options available to bloggers, including:
Adsense, BlogAds, Chitika’s eMiniMalls, Adgenta, CrispAds, Text Link Ads, Intelli Txt, Peak Click, DoubleClickTribal Fusion, Adbrite, Clicksor, Industry Brains, AdHearUs, Kanoodle, AVN, Pheedo, Adknowledge, YesAdvertising, RevenuePilotTextAds, SearchFeed, Target Point, Bidvertiser, Fastclick Value Click and OneMonkey, MSN Adcenter and YPN.

RSS Advertising

So far, I've only tried AdSense and the results here are paltry, but certainly expected. The average click rate is 1 per 1000 visits and if your page impressions are miniscule at best (like mine), it follows that AdSense on your pages would be nothing but. You can always try out other ad campaigns to see what works for you.

Sponsorship:
Some businesses are directly advertising on popular blogs. It follows that they do so when they see there is traffic to attract to their ads. Ergo, we here have not yet earned the stripes required to be part of any Sponsorship Inner Circle. For instance, Federated Media Publishing will only sponsor your blog if you are an influencer, and goodness knows that influencers don't grow on trees. Anyone up for free sponsorship?

Affiliate Programs:
More recognizable affiliate programs include: Amazon, Linkshare, Clickbank and Commission Junction but also literally thousands of others from the large to the very small.

I just added Amazon on my sites. Retail based affiliate programs are great especially if you or your extended family love to shop online.

Digital Assets:
Increasing numbers of bloggers have been developing other digital assets to support and add revenue streams to their blogs... e-books, courses and tele-seminars being run by bloggers.

Don't be surprised if one day some e-book springs forth from here. Only because my Dad has authored a book and is raring to get his book published somewhere. Anywhere. More on that later. And it's good!

Blog Network Opportunities:
With the rise in popularity of Blog Networks - bloggers are also being presented with more places to earn an income from their blogging - by writing for and with others. While it might be difficult to get a writing gig with one of the bigger networks - there are plenty who are always asking for new bloggers to join and who are willing to pay bloggers using a variety of payment models.

Not entirely gestalt but close. Some are hiring! Some you can explore opportunities with. And some are specific, and can even be in your own realm!

Business Blog Writing Opportunities:
As blogging has risen in it’s profile as a medium more and more businesses are starting blogs. Many of these companies have internal staff take on blogging duties - but an increasing number of them are hiring specialist bloggers to come on and run their blogs.

Wonderful for interns, graduates, students or even career shifters. This could be a stepping stone for those who seek to make a career in the business they are blogging about.

Non Blogging Writing Opportunities:
Also becoming more common are bloggers being hired to write in non blogging mediums.

This is a more uncommon and esoteric option, and less likely to be adapted by your average joe blogger.

Donations:
Tip Jars and donation buttons have been a part of blogging for years now but this last year saw a number of bloggers go full time after fundraising drives. Perhaps the most high profile of these was Jason Kottke of kottke.org who through the generosity of his readership was able to quit his job and become a full time blogger.

An update on Jason Kottke's fundraising: he has quit actively doing it but the jar's still there in case you're feeling generous. Not a bad idea especially since web publishing does take your money and effort to run. It probably won't hurt if it's inconspicuous.... I guess...

Flipping Blogs:
What in the world is this and why would anyone do it? Since blogs = cyber real estate, it's no surprise, but it seems just so...faddy. But it's happening. It's not one for those who are more emotionally invested and rooted in their own little piece of the net. You'd less likely flip if your blog is an extension of yourself or if you use it for creative expression.

Merchandising:
This avenue has been showing the most promise for me. I was pleasantly surprised at the feedback and reaction received by our new store. With the resources I have in-house, I foresee opportunity and growth in this area and for me, this seems like a natural focus and fit.

Consulting and Speaking:
If you are a blogger who blogs about stuff you are an expert on then this could be an avenue for you to consider. Though this may be more applicable for subject matter experts who seek to educate and provide information, it could still work for someone engaging, enlightening and who has the gift of gab who can offer themselves, their ideas and opinions. Oh yeah, and who likes to be around people.

Technorati Tags: advertising, AdSense, monetizing blogs, ad, Chitika, BlogAds, sponsorship, ad campaign, affiliate, Amazon, Linkshare, Clickbank, Federated Media, blog network, blog writing, blog flipping, Jason Kottke, blogging, blog, blogs, Weblogs, business

< Credit: problogger.net, webpronews.com >

Cash In On Clutter

2006-09-12T07:04:00.000-07:00

Do you want in on a secret? What you are seeing here are the skeletons in my closet. This is my secret for generating a good amount of spare change. Actually, a pretty penny. This is the fourth year I've participated in a great recycling program -- that which clears my attic and adds something to my pocket at the same time. Thanks to the power of the internet, I don't have to advertise on the community paper or the neighborhood newsletter anymore. I just do it on web classifieds that are local to my community.

Many folks go for the volume and set up a rummage (aka garage) sale on their driveway or front yard or even in some shared location where they can get together with their neighbors to do huge gatherings for the purpose of unloading or exchanging junk. I don't even go to that trouble. I am one of those who prefers to clear my clutter on an annual basis -- which helps, so that I don't get overwhelmed with the work.

Here is basically how my system works:

Separate your clutter into three categories: SELL, DONATE and KEEP. Make sure you have much more items to SELL and DONATE than you have in the KEEP pile. Otherwise you're just being a packrat who refuses to part with your known clutter.
Take photos of your items in the best possible light. Models are discouraged.
Post photos of your items on craigslist or some other web classifieds site for your local area. Ebay or other online auctions should work too if you're able to ship the item. Amazon is great for used books, CDs and DVDs.
Price your item well. I do this by checking what the going rate is for the item then knocking off 5%. Rules would obviously be different for auctions -- try no reserve.
If your item does not sell in 2 to 3 weeks even after heavy discounting, consider putting it in your DONATE bucket. This will guarantee you will never see it again.
When you are done parting with everything in your SELL pile, call up the Salvation Army or Goodwill and have them pick up the goodies in your DONATE pile. Here's a nifty book I use to determine the cost of items donated for tax purposes.
Count your bucks and enjoy your more spacious environment. I normally clear at least $500 a summer doing this!

Interestingly, my bestsellers are items like these:

A note about being a packrat. I know it's hard to bid farewell to your old junk. I know too many people who are this way. I was one myself for a long time, until we had to pull up stakes and move to a new house. After filling up 4 driveway sized containers of old collectibles, equipment, papers and stacks of musty clothing and finally realizing that we can actually hide our cars somewhere where people need not see them, it was definitely a eureka moment for me. From now on, space is more valuable to me than stuff. Plus stuff pays my commute fares.

Technorati Tags: Craigslist, Ebay, Amazon, garage sale, yard sale, clutter, auctions, classifieds

Welcome To Our New Store: Anime Culture!

2006-09-09T10:07:00.001-07:00

Last week, I mentioned I was looking into the whole idea of merchandise fulfillment via CafePress. The whole idea intrigued me, and as a huge fan of art and design, I thought it would be interesting to see how it worked. CafePress is a retail site that allows anyone to be able to apply one's own designs to various merchandise such as apparel, bags, mugs, buttons, paper products, and more. You can then set up a storefront with your chosen items for sale. When you sell an item, CafePress handles the fulfillment and shipping details and takes the base price of the item that is purchased, while you receive your mark up price as earnings. It's a win-win situation and definitely worth a look if you are the creative type and would like an outlet for your art creations, whilst leaving the operational matters for someone else to handle.

Having partnered with a graphics illustrator and designer, GraphikAddik (his web site is under construction but will be up and running soon!), we have come up with our first new CafePress store, Anime Culture. The whole idea behind it was to provide designs that were fun and whimsical in the style of anime and manga. This new store's vision is a testament to our affection for American pop culture as well as for Japanese products such as Pokemon, Totoro or even Gorillaz, as you will see in this design:

We'll be coming up with additional designs down the road, and we'll be testing them out in similar sites as well, such as Zazzle and Spreadshirt. Here is an interesting article discussing the realm of retailers handling "on-demand manufacturing and fulfillment".

Technorati tags: CafePress, Zazzle, online stores, anime, manga, Pokemon, Totoro, Gorillaz, Clay Aiken, ATDW, A Thousand Different Ways, American Idol

< Credit: www.anikaos.com >

Of Black Holes and Insurance Claims

2006-09-05T22:51:00.001-07:00

As we all age, finances only get steadily more complicated as assets and debts rise alongside life's own complexities. These days, I'm not losing sleep over debts or credit lines. These days, I've been grappling with insurance claims. The reason for this is that the last few years, my family and I have been seeking and receiving rather more exotic medical services than the usual HMO type checkups normally covered by insurance. Seeing out-of-network providers usually means paying out of pocket first then trying to get your money back from insurance later. That's the pit I'm in right now -- we racked up out-of-network claims, and the job has fallen upon me to deal with the insurance bureaucracy to get back some of my dough.

I already have a weekly routine with our friendly neighborhood insurance agent, except that the agent changes every week. After going through the requisite voice mail system, it goes like this:

Me: I'd like to check on the status of my claims please.
Rep: All the information we need is not in the documentation you sent us.

Me: What is it this time?
Rep: The clinical codes are missing.

Me: I just had the documentation sent 2 weeks ago.
Rep: Okay one of the clinical codes is not valid in our system, it's a stale code and you need the new one used for this year.

Me: Can you just ignore that one code in the receipt?
Rep: No.

Me: Is that all that's wrong?
Rep: There's another code that has 3 digits instead of 4. We need it to be 4 digits or we can't process your claim.

Me: Is there any way you can expedite the processing of my claim?
Rep: If you're lucky, we'll send it to the adjusters in 30 days. Then you can wait another 30 days for the adjusters to review them. If we notice any more missing information we'll stall your claim and have you start over. If we wake up on the right side of our beds tomorrow, we may send it to rapid resolution, which will only take us just 45 days instead of 60 to send you your $10 reimbursement.

And when the benefits plan states that out-of-network coverage is 70%, it really means that the insurance company only considers 50% of the total as the basis for the claim, then applies the %70 coverage against that. Hence, insurance REALLY just covers 35% of my bills, not the advertised 70%. In effect, this insurance thing only works fine if you stay "in network" and with a cookie cutter HMO to avoid having to file claims yourself. I am beginning to think that PPOs are a rip off especially after you consider the sky high premiums. Why do I stay with a PPO? It's a matter of trusting the medical providers and I'd much rather be able to select the experts I'm comfortable with. So I've done the trade off and am living with a necessary evil here.

Here are some suggestions to deal with your insurance company:

Suck up to the representatives. Maybe offer them free tickets to the next sports game. Basically, be nice and don't lose your cool. If that doesn't work...
Document every single correspondence between you and the company. Take down the names of all personnel you speak with and the date/time of correspondence. Then go on appeal. If that doesn't work, try, try again.
Best option of all, don't ever get sick, get into an accident, die, burn your house down or be a crime victim.

< Credit: newstarget.com >

The CT Money Report - Chaos Reigns

2006-09-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

My head is spinning after this week. It was basically "all hands on deck".

Online Business:
We've settled on a site design but I still need to mock up the pages. And goodness knows I'm no html whizz nor do I have Dreamweaver or some such editor. So it's another uphill exercise. Product development is about to start. What are we doing? What will we be offering? It'll be in the realm of software tools. We're starting small with the first release, which will be in a quarter's time or thereabouts.

Blogs:
Keeping up with content can be tough with everything else going on! But I slog on. Plus, the WordPress migration is moving at a slug's pace. I have downloaded skins that I like but it'll be some work to tailor it according to my needs, which includes everything under the sun.

Online Stores:
I'm also working on my first cafepress store. It's another way to unleash those creative juices! It isn't quite ready yet but we're at the homestretch. It'll probably be ready to show next week.

Stock Watch:
Yay! My dollar cost averaging strategy is working. So far I've bought in on 3 days and now have garnered a 5% gain with my position.

Real Estate:
My house is worth less according to this article. That's fine, I guess I'm stuck here for a while.

Budget:
Since I've been visiting a nutritionist to get myself "back to homeostasis" as she puts it, I need to open my wallet for various supplements and healthy eating. Apparently, that costs more than the usual fare offered in your garden variety Safeway. Plus, preschool just started! My wallet hurts.

Day Job:
Have you heard of The Mythical Man-Month? Let's just say we're classic.

< Credit: www.strategic-air-command.com for photo >

People And Things That Earn More Than My AdSense Account

2006-08-30T23:49:00.000-07:00

I am beyond certain that these people and things do rake in more in a day than my AdSense account does so in a month. Good for them. And for all of you out there who support me with your ad clicks, thank you so much! I do appreciate it. Now I know how it feels to build Rome...

< Credit: media.urbandictionary.com, londonstimes.us, thepopview.com, digicam.co.za, cridata.org, dollarmakersjourney.com >

The Long Road from Blogger to WordPress

2006-08-27T21:38:00.000-07:00

I am attempting to move this site from Blogger to WordPress.

Here is my own convoluted story about why I've decided to make the move.

I wanted to self host my blogs. So I thought I would just use Blogger's features to do that. They allow you to use your own domain with a flick of the ftp button. I also wanted categories and tags badly. Pre-beta, Blogger did not have that capability. So pre-beta, I managed to make this blogger hack work. The very next day, Blogger went beta and I converted my account to the new Blogger. And what do you know? They have categories, tags and other goodies. I felt optimistic. Then the axe fell when I discovered that of course, their categories feature had to use a database and of course, that meant if I wanted to self host, I couldn't use the dynamic features of Blogger Beta which depended on their database. That was because last I heard you cannot take Blogger's database with you if you plan to host your own Blogger sites. I was back at square one. It was then I decided to bite the bullet and go WordPress. Apparently, WordPress gives you everything and the kitchen sink care of PHP, MySQL, plugins and other programmatic extensions.

In summary, here are my reasons for doing this:

Blogger had no categories (though Blogger Beta does, I wouldn't be able to self host if I used their new "labels" features). Hence, my blogs have no categories. I have no tags. Without tags, I feel like a second class citizen in the blogosphere.
A fellow blogger gave me some advice and told me so
Some articles told me so. Here is one article about it. And another.
Better now than later (less content to import)
I want my own domain

Happily, WordPress installed itself easily on my server. Not so happily, the import facility refused to work between Blogger and WordPress. Why?? You got it... Whatever interface there was between the WordPress importer and Blogger got screwed up with Blogger Beta. So either I do the import manually or wait till a nice WP guru comes along to rewrite the import functions. I have decided that for now, I will just play around with the WordPress framework and work on my skins. I'm buying time for the WordPress importer to get back into business. I'm crossing my fingers I won't have to do copy and paste transfers! All this means that I have no idea when my blogs will end up in WordPress. But I sure hope it happens in this century.

Taking the Emotion out of Stock Investing

2006-08-24T07:36:00.001-07:00

I give up. As I've already mentioned, I've been following this one stock and it's driving me batty. Ever since I sold my moderately attractive position in it, it's soared. So what to do? I still want to build my stake in it and ride its cycle. Its cycle is expected to be two or three years long. We're at the trough right now, or at least, that's where I think we're in. And because it hurts too much to not be part of this stock's ride, I decided to resort to my tried, true and tested strategy for entering the market and building a stock position. I don't know why I refused to do it before -- perhaps, I was betting on a short term collapse prior to its expected run up. But in the absence of such a gift horse buying opportunity, I am simply going to have to dollar cost average.

Dollar cost averaging is the practice of buying into the market (or into a specific equity) at systematic intervals. You buy a bit now, a bit later, a bit when the cows come home. You buy in installments, ignoring the bucking market. By doing so, you can smooth out the volatility in your stock purchase price and earn not only a more acceptable average price for your stock position, but also some peace of mind and more restful sleep. And you can cut down on your anti-anxiety/stress medication at the same time!

Here's how you can do it.

Identify your target stock or mutual fund. Where do you want to put your heard earned $$$? Hint: oats, pork bellies, or ethanol may not be your best bets.

Determine how much you want to invest in this stock or fund.

Decide how long a time period you would like to take to build a position. In my case 1 month to 6 months will work for me.

Divide the amount you are going to invest by the time period you decided to spend investing. That magic number is how much you will be putting into the market at any one time, on a regular schedule. That will be your trade amount or mutual fund investment amount.

If you are investing in mutual funds, by setting up an automatic investment program, you are already participating in dollar cost averaging.

After all those steps, you can now return to your usual activities and ignore how the market bounces. Well, most of the time. You will still need to keep a fairly close eye on your investments but at least you can assure yourself you are keeping Murphy's Law at bay.

Here is an example of how it works:

Invest date	Amount	Price per share	Shares purchased
Jan 2004	$1,000	$100	10
Apr 2004	$1,000	$70	14.28
Jul 2004	$1,000	$90	11.11
Oct 2004	$1,000	$80	12.50
Jan 2005	$1,000	$70	14.28
Apr 2005	$1,000	$50	20
Oct 2005	$1,000	$80	12.50
Nov 2005	$1,000	$90	11.11
Dec 2005	$1,000	$100	10
Mar 2006	$1,000	$90	11.11
Total	$10,000	$78.81 avg.	126.89 shares owned

For those of you with an automatic debit from your paycheck going into your 401K plan, then you are employing this strategy in its classic form. For my more discretionary investments, I tweak the strategy a little. For example, in this single stock scenario, I will decrease my trade amount when the price is higher. When the price goes down, I may double up. I may not buy on a totally regular schedule but wait for certain trigger points to buy -- my point is that I am trying to manage how I feel about my position; when the stock goes up or down and I am not bothered, then I know I'm in a happy place.

Of course, investing is always something you need to keep tabs on but for those with a long time horizon, dollar cost averaging is quite a good strategy. It's the only time I feel like jumping up and down with glee when the market crashes or my stock of choice plummets.

< Credit: stock.xchng for photo >

The First Ever Curly Tree Money Report

2006-08-20T10:54:00.001-07:00

In the corporate world, there's this thing called a status report that is written up every so often to take stock of one's accomplishments, significant or otherwise, to see how much one has contributed to the company's bottom line. I'd like to do something similar here, where I reflect upon the deeds and mishaps of recent days and check up on how I'm doing on a regular basis.

So in this vein, let me introduce to you The Curly Tree Money Report.

This will answer the question: How has money (or its pursuit -- hey, we all do this) affected my life lately?

THE CURLY TREE MONEY REPORT

Online Business:
I've been working on a new online business. I finally got my new company logo whipped up, thanks to my new business partner, GraphikAddik. He's an uberskilled graphic artist who is helping me get my software site up and going. More on him later. We also checked out cafepress as we're interested in selling merchandise. There seems to be quite a few fulfillment sites available for this sort of thing.

Blogs:
I did some promotion on a bunch of blog directories. I would of course love to know if this is worth my time. And has anyone told you that writing original content each week is a walk in the park? Only if you're one of the few whose dayplanner isn't absolutely, completely tiled in blocks of work time, family time, play time, chore time, errand time or socials. I'm also still hacking these blogs and it's been a bit of a pain given what's left of my time. And one more thing: I am now in the process of migrating my blogs over to Wordpress from Blogger! Better now than later given the smaller hassle of dealing with my invisible Page Rank and nearly zero traffic!

Stock Watch:
In the last couple of months I've been following one stock. No worries, we are heavily diversified. But this one stock is a cyclical and I'd like to take my chances on it. I had bought it at its "cyclical" low around a month ago. Then I promptly (read: trigger-happily) bailed out right after the cusp of a #*$@^& rally. I WANT BACK IN! But it's up 25% now and I'm gnashing my teeth. My quest to build a position ain't over yet. It ain't over till after the dead cat bounces I say!

Budget:
I've been very good lately. No impulse buying from catalogs in a long while. I must really be preoccupied with these doggone blogs.

Day Job (That Which Feeds Us):

No comment.

< Credit: Scott Adams >

Undercover Business

2006-08-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

Dissenting opinions exist regarding companies operating in "stealth mode". One camp is all for shutting themselves up till the big reveal while another is for open talk (let's have everyone in the know) policy in order to use the publicity and feedback to hone their products. The latter folks claim that stealth mode is a Web 1.0 remnant. So where do I stand on this? Actually, having my embryonic company under wraps initially is where I am most comfortable, for several reasons. I went through this heart-to-heart with myself to find out how I should approach launching a startup and found myself answering these questions:

Are you gainfully employed but confident that your furtive behavior at work will not raise eyebrows?
Ummmm.... Yes but No.

Could you take the potential humiliation (ok, disappointment) of a failed idea before traction is even ever established?
Not really. That won't be pretty. My ego will be blown to pieces.

How ripe are those innovative ideas fomenting in your mind that are going to change the face of [commerce, retail, networking, fill other cause here]?
Not very. Maybe 40 days and counting?

So you can see why I'm not ready to say much at this time. Nonetheless, the time will come to shed the cloak of stealth, albeit the process will be gradual. Then again, with the production of this blog, it's not really the company that is in stealth mode, but yours truly. Best that way to avoid prying questions before I'm ready.

Wanted: Ads That Make Sense

2006-08-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

AdSense is driving me nuts. Okay. I'm actually amused. I have just learned about the importance of using keywords for site optimization and ad targeting (yes I've already admitted I've been living under a rock). So this tagging business is new to me, which means that if I would like for relevant ads to display on this page, then I need to stay on topic. But don't worry I won't try too hard to write for the robots out there. Thought it was a hoot that my ad channel was showcasing fertility clinics and police ring tones at one point.

So why oh why is this happening? Is the AdSense algorithm unjustly favoring a mechanical writing style, that which is devoid of figurative or literary flavor? If I try to be sarcastic on here, will AdSense go off kilter? If I compare my former boss to Hell's Kitchen's Gordon Ramsay, will I attract ads for kitchen utensils, home and garden recipes, virgin oil or even Daniel's Inferno? I'm afraid to see what my mere mention of these items will bring up. Please Google, don't break my heart by forcing me to write like this guy. I'm not yet ready to turn my blog into a directory that hawks random stuff or cruise schedules or indexed meta-information; not yet quite prepared to turn myself into the next craigslist (well unless it's like this).

Nevertheless, the novelty of this exercise is still quite fresh to me. Being a seasoned investor but a fledgling web entrepreneur, I am as thrilled over my puny AdSense revenue as I am with a $20,000 capital gain. Talk about cheap thrills....! Believe you me, my corporate job hasn't done me favors by allowing me to keep up with the trends. My goal of course is to see how far this social and financial experiment will take me, like this guy.

Money Making Web Traffic: All Your Eyeballs Are Belong To Me

2006-08-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

Many people are able to create sites that attract lots of eyeballs which turn into ad clicks and finally, to cold hard cash. Somehow some are able to swing it. How do they do it? Through a nifty (read: useful, attention grabbing, content-rich) site with targeted advertising and a solid audience. But first you need to find it.

Coming from a purely engineering background, I gamely scoffed at marketing efforts at places I worked. To us techies, it meant fluff and the icing on top. Despite first hand exposure to online eyeball power -- having had a couple of stints at dotcoms many moons ago -- I didn't quite fathom nor appreciate the significance of the relationship between marketing, advertising and $$$. I was from the camp "Build It and They will Come." That is, if a product was good enough, it will sell itself. All the ballyhoo that had to sell product somehow made me uncomfortable. In fact, all the hype that had to sell non-existent product (read: vaporware) made me cringe. My impressions were colored mostly by my personal relationships with the marketers and salespeople themselves, who I found to be too slick or too attractive for my taste. But I get it now. Without fast talk or greasy hair to distract me online, I can see how it can all work. Business 101: You need a bit of everything: great product + marketing + time to build a consumer base. "Free" can equal revenue at some point.

Here's proof of what a multitude of eyeballs can build.

How To Promote Your Site In 180 Days

2006-08-07T07:21:00.000-07:00

During my quest to improve my search engine results standing (which is currently nil at this time), I stumbled upon the concept of link exchanges. A link exchange is a scheme that boosts a site's search results rank by allowing the site to build its link network. Whereupon I discovered the strange designation of "PR" attributed to a site or blog. For a while, I thought that "PR" meant "public relations". Eager to learn more about site promotion, I chanced upon folks discussing how they were only interested in linking with anyone who was a PR4 or PR5. HUH??? I had no clue. Felt like a bumblehead who had to hire a PR guy to deck my pages in blinking lights, flash and dancing babies (ummm... that's how yesterday I am).

Well I just found out it meant "page rank". That was funny. I chuckled at my ignorance. Apparently, a site with a high PR is considered manna while those who don't have it are just inconsequential.
With further reading, I determined that:

I was chopped liver to the online community as I don't have a "PR"
I didn't need to have this blog do a song and dance since all I had to do was raise my "PR" by networking.

Oh joy. To improve my placement in search engines, and for the rest of the online world to acknowledge my minute existence, it is supposedly a good strategy to get into some link exchanges with people whose sites are of higher "PR" standing than mine (which is literally everyone else out there). Then I should let it sit, wait and bake for 6 months and maybe then I will miraculously enjoy a few visits from curious surfers. Sounds cool to me -- now all I need to do is join a web ring or two.... Okay so anyone want to trade links with me?

<All images on this post are copyrighted by 1996-2000 Burning Pixel Productions>

Baby Steps In Blog Design

2006-08-05T08:46:00.000-07:00

I am learning to walk before I run. If this page is making you see double, that's because I am still in the midst of trying to figure out this whole CSS layout thing. Granted I'm a novice, but I'm hoping to ramp up on this stuff in a few days or weeks. I wish I had a mentor who could teach me some of these things one-on-one, but for now, I must be content with the vast resources of the web to help me with my modest blog design attempts. This will be a work in progress for a good long time! I have realized a few things I thought I'd share. If you are a noob at this, you may want to keep these in mind:

you will never be content with your initial blog template
your initial attempts at configuring your layouts will fail miserably and will, unfortunately, suck
you will be frustrated and will be resigned to hair ripping moments
you will need to save your templates often
you will need some basic editing tools to help you
you will want to defer adding too many custom doodads to your site until after you've settled on a basic layout
you will appreciate web designers a hell of a lot more than you did before
you will no longer be stunned by the stratospheric fees web designers charge

...and this coming from a server-side J2EE/database engineer.

From Humble Beginnings, Great Things Can Grow

2006-08-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

I got the idea to pursue a couple of internet based business opportunities from the knowledge that it is relatively low cost to enter into this space and that I am fairly skilled in technology. As far as capital, you don't really need much other than your rainy day fund to try to cover your expenses in starting something up in this venue, so if you already have a steady job or income from some other source, then all you need is some time out of your day to work on your projects. I am always fascinated and amused with Pierre Omidyar's story about how he conceived of eBay by setting up a web site devoted to the ebola virus on one hand and his fledgling auction on the other. He did all this during his spare time. Same thing with Blogger, though that venture went through some humps throughout the years. Not that I have any delusions of grand success for my new ideas... Just a hope that perhaps I may be able to feast on a slice of the internet ecommerce pie and contribute something of value to the online world someday. After 17 years in the technology realm, it's about time I leave some kind of legacy behind.

AAARRGH ... CSS and XHTML

2006-08-02T00:33:00.000-07:00

Where have I been all these years? Under a rock? I just haven't kept up with the UI world for so long, my out-of-datedness is downright embarrassing. If I'm going to be launching these online businesses anytime soon, I better get serious here. I need to cram big time. I'm going to have to figure out how to stick the ads over there <--- or over there ---> and slap on some links to some storefronts. Instead with my currently limited skills, I have only managed to inject AdSense below the header. It's going to be interesting how long this will take me and will be a testimony to how amazing my juggling abilities are given my other jobs (the 9 to 5 IT job + kid duty). I have a couple of good ideas I'm really hoping to execute but I need to brush up on the technicalities first.

Welcome To The Tree House

2006-07-30T17:47:00.000-07:00

It's been about a month since I've decided to start up a few business ventures. This place is where I plan to discuss my adventures in entrepreneurship. I haven't personally tried my luck with my own ideas; and haven't felt the confidence to "strike it out on my own" but middle age has crept up on me and I'm going to have a go at it! I hope it turns out to be a rewarding effort in more ways than one. So here it is in a nutshell: no experience but lots of ideas, determination and vision. The online world is helping by making it a little more affordable to start something off. So to cyberspace -- THANK YOU for making it just a little bit easier for us budding capitalists to get our dreams started.