Charles Lau

Chances are you might live in a failed state!

Enjoy!

I recently bought HyperCam 2 (aff) from Hyperionics at USD$39.95 and I think it is pretty good to use. Hence I decided to do a affiliated recommendation in software review. I think that it is great to share it out on my blog for everybody to take a good look at it.
I have been looking for a software to do a video presentation at an affordable price for quite some time. A lot of people has been using Camtasia Studio to do their presentation but it costs USD$299 which converts to S$452 in my country. I know of this Hyperionics company since they are famous for Screen Capturing software especially with their famous HyperSnap.

This software is pretty much simple with 5 option tabs:

• Screen Area
• Hot Keys
• AVI File
• Sound
• Other Options

You can select a regional screen area to capture your screen actions, adding a border (rectangle) with optional blinking effect. You can choose how your HyperCam window should be placed while your video capturing is in progress with the 3 radio options of leaving it opened, iconize it, or hide it.

Those layered/transparent windows (Example in Microsoft Word, you see Office Assistant? That’s semi-transparent window.) can be captured as well. This effect is found only in Windows XP and 2000.

While your HyperCam is hidden, you might need to press that button to stop recording without showing your tool to the public! That’s where the hot keys come in…

This is the setting for the directory where your video is recorded in.

You can choose the recording sample from your microphone that you are presenting.

This is where your mouse cursor is set. And you can even put in screen notes on the screen for your viewers to see while you are presenting.

Lastly, here’s a video presentation of the HyperCam 2 itself.

Conclusion
I just find HyperCam 2 pretty much cheaper at the price of US$39.95. And I can do almost everything I need to do my presentation in this blog as well as on my other websites.

The pros are that it is definitely affordable to buy, and the functions are very simple to use and understand. In just a while, you can start doing a powerful presentation with this program itself. It is definitely suitable for anyone who just needs to do a presentation once on his own computer, and the whole world will be able to watch it anytime. Moreover, it is saved in AVI which can be easily converted to flash videos with many programs out there.

The con is that it is not able to produce flash presentation straight. But this loophole is definitely covered with the introduction of YouTube where we can upload it and get this presentation up and running without hurting our bandwidth even. But it is definitely not suitable if you are to sell your presentation through subscriptions like Michael Cheney’s Adsense Videos (aff) since your videos have to be stored on your own server and not on YouTube.

You may want to download the demo to try it out.

It has been coming to the end of my second month since I started to focus myself fully on the Internet. Just a few hours ago, I found a fellow Singaporean who contacted me to engage on a networking session. It’s been fun to see people of my country coming into the Internet industry. I remember the times when I started my Internet business, I just roam around, looking for something to learn. Then, I start to move on to my learning curve which is quite deep… And kept on trying and changing while many of my fellow Internet friends are helping me along, giving me guidance.

Extended Introduction
While I know it is all about our knowledge that sells on the Internet since Internet is a place of information, it is nevertheless a learning curve for any one of us to start embarking our career (full time or part time) into this industry. I am most pleased to have been learning and doing businesses since 2003, where I am able to share some of my experiences I have faced in my startup companies in the past. Adding that to my constant learning attitude with lots of books, ebooks, videos and audios I have bought, it is giving me lots of boost to work on it… I was even called an optimist by an Internet friend.

My Difficulties Over Internet Marketing
Ok, let’s get some understanding of how I got started with my Internet and am already earning money. It is because of my past experience of starting up businesses, I have never been unfamiliar with the starting phase of any new business. It is so tough, it can make anyone of us to give up easily because of our comfort zone.

• I told myself that in order to succeed, I have to ask the right person for the right answer.
• I refused to go through all the Internet marketers who have been marketing themselves as experts. They are probably too exposed to me that I would think they are marketing gimmicks. (I was particularly humored by a self-proclaimed affiliate “king” saying that we must have our own products.)
• I went straight to the people who started the payment systems, affiliate programs and advertising programs. And they referred me to an expert whom I went ahead and bought his ebooks and understood so much more, and eventually signed up for his affiliate program because his stuff is really good! This expert is Ken Evoy. And he came up with this free viral ebook on “The Affiliate Masters Course” which I think is beneficial for any one of us who are looking into start an affiliate business. Take a look at his site (aff) here.
• Previously, I was really confused by that “affiliate king” because what he portrayed to me (and probably the whole world) is that he created some products (either by himself or re-engineering them) and sell them to his database. Somehow, I thought the only way of affiliating a product is to have your own database to sell to. But it is somehow ambiguous when this database has to be “conned” by me to sign up for my newsletters which are actually luring them to buy from my affiliate programs. And this affiliate king recognize the problem of such affiliation is not going to work always with the same database… And so he has to come up with bonuses from his own PRODUCT CREATION when his database bought those affiliated products and show him the “receipt”…
• It is only when I learnt from Ken Evoy of his free ebook, that affiliate websites are actually content websites that only do preselling! What the readers are looking for, is quality content…. Not those products! These products are by-the-way only… It is virtually telling us everything already.
• Then further on, I even bought a physical book called “Affiliate Millions” (amazon aff) by Anthony Borelli and Greg Holden where they wrote basic contents about how to get started by signing up with amazon, adwords, MSN Adcenter, etc… And give very little tips on the ad copy to write about. And eventually talk about content sites. This book is not that recommended though… I find that affiliate master course by Ken Evoy is even better and it’s free… But if you are really a beginner starting from scratch, probably this book “Affiliate Millions” might be better.

Ok enough of my explanations and complaints…

Step by Step in Starting Internet Business
While I am still at the beginning stage, I start to see a little result and got my first dime shining brightly waiting for me to collect. It is not easy to start, and definitely not a quick-rich scheme (This phrase is somehow over-used by lots of websites which actually promote quick-rich!!).

1. Get something to read about. Read something quality. I would recommend Ken Evoy’s free viral ebook. This book contains all the necessary information to get started. You should have an idea about the real meaning of affiliate. This book does upsell some of his premium software and ebooks for further progression in an easier way.
2. Do something about it. Whenever you learn something, you have to synchronize with your actions or else your knowledge might just “collect dust” (do nothing about it) inside your head…
3. Follow the instructions as closely. Read as widely as possible with other books as well. Apply as close as possible and twist it with your creative thoughts.
4. Keep doing it till you see some results (positive or negative). Don’t be affected by your surroundings while you are in the process of learning… You might get to see lots of other opportunities along the way… Make a note on them somewhere if you are interested, and continue with what you are doing… Concentration is the keyword to learn…
5. As you learn, you should be able to see some problem with your niche as you magnify it even nearer…
6. Do not ever use the brick-n-mortar marketing experience in your google adwords campaign! In other words, mass distribution of advertisement doesn’t work in internet… You only waste money… We are talking about niche here… just niche!
7. Keep doing on your business in spite of your feeling of high or low momentum… You will eventually get your momentum!

Conclusion
Just like any business out there, every online business is an endeavor on our part to make it a success. You will constantly be focusing on building the business and maintaining its operations while the web server is constantly acting as your sales representative… That’s how an online business is working 24 hours a day… In fact, Internet Business is probably the most perfect business for any entrepreneur to come in an almost any way that they could!

We have now a technology where it detects your eyes contact and awaits your orders. This is especially true that we tend to focus on things that we see, more than what we don’t see.

Roel Vertegaal @ Google Tech Talks
May 7, 2007

It can be quite interesting to note how many of us are going to stay poor for the rest of our lives. The way that we are living, and the way we are making money. It is no wonder so many people find money insufficient to use. Just take a look at a person’s typical life… Working on a job for that mediocre salary, looking forward to spend on their favorite things in life, giving treats to people on special occasions, buying gifts for people’s birthdays, splurging on good food, buying house and a car, etc… Just take a look at how much they are earning, and how much they are spending… It is not surprised that they are going to stay poor, right?

So How To Stay Poor?

• When you are working on a job, you will start to make some money from it.
• Keep spending that money you made on things that you can’t make money out of it.
• When your money is going to be depleted, wait for the next month’s salary to come.
• And keep doing it like a life cycle. Do this for the rest of your life.

Middle Class Income
A lot of people thought that in order to live righteously on earth, they have to work in order to make money. They didn’t realize that they are going to work for the rest of their lives in fact! In the kind of middle class lifestyle, how can they ever stop working? They are neither rich nor poor… But in reality, they are poor in cash and rich in properties!

Middle Class People Is Going to Disappear
I read from the book co-written by Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump titled “Why We Want You To Be Rich?” (Aff Link). It says that the middle class people will either become very rich, or very poor. It all depends on the mentality of these people to choose which way they want to become.

While many middle class people’s mentality of becoming rich is to work on a high pay and spend that money on luxury life, they are actually living in the style of a poor man’s life in the big way! The most unrealistic way of spending that hard-earned money is to put most of them on your liabilities (car, condominium, jewellery, etc).

On the other hand, the most realistic way for those middle-class people’s mentality of becoming rich is to spend their salary on assets that can make them money. It is even more safe and secure doing that while only fractioning small part of it on your liabilities. Yes, liabilities are important in our lives for survival (We do need a rooftop to live in, and food to eat.).

How is Middle Class People Disappearing?
But the middle class people are very likely to disappear gradually still… Think of those big companies employing lots of middle-class people for their production… These companies are slowly outsourcing their operations to smaller companies and even to self-operated computers… Even then, more and more one-man companies are born to become millionaires, leveraging their operations and sales to computers. Companies are spending less and less on operations, and making more and more money from its sales! Imagine outsourcing your operations to a small company, paying only a fraction when compared to employing your own staff… Those small companies might actually employing people who are willing to be paid lower to do the job. And it is usually because of the uprising of Asian countries such China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam that these small companies employed from to work overseas or local.

Notice that the middle class income is getting nowhere better… And these people usually don’t really care about the happenings in the economy, and have a strong belief that their skills can fetch them more money as they job-hop from one company to another, carrying with them the working experience they had with powerful companies. Job-hopping has been an ongoing trend before job-loyalty trend… That’s because the companies are in the transition of growing up, and hence wouldn’t want to bear the cost of maintain an employee for their loyalty when the companies aren’t making money. As the time come, we can foresee a trend of almost-no-employee style of working on a business… That’s when these middle-income people start to be awakened from their sleep…

The Feeling of Staying Poor
It is almost no difference from staying in the middle class. Just that, they have lesser income and hence lesser spending power. I can’t imagine how to survive in this stage but it must be pretty hard to make both ends meet on every single day! It is like the days when I have to start a business from scratch and have to live on instant noodles and bread to keep my stomach full while working on my income.

The Feeling of Staying Rich
Over here, we have an option of either to work or not to work. While money is already working hard to make more money for us (our investments), we have the option to work to make even more hard-earned money and to contribute to the society to grow to the next level… At this stage, we are consistently contributing to the society with our huge money expenditure for other entrepreneurs to have a chance to grow their own businesses. Everyone of us will be thinking about where to enjoy our lives, and don’t have to think about cash flow problems. It doesn’t matter whether the economy is good or bad anymore… It is all about thinking what business to do next to make more money… With good money management (eventually we will learn this as we work on our businesses), the damage wouldn’t be as bad as hurting our cash flow…

Conclusion
While people think of money as a means to buy more things, I like to think of money as a means to make even more money. And because of making more money, we have even more time to do many other things. Why is it so? We can spend money for others to help us wash our cars so that we have more time doing other things… Spend your money wisely, make your money wisely too!

With the introduction of pinging Google, it is pretty fast that your page will get indexed almost instantly from the time you published your post. (Google Indexing Many Web Pages in Real time)

I remember publishing my post only a while, and somebody is already searching for that topic and got onto my site through search engine. That is amazing. Does that happen to you? Well, it sure does for me.

Sometimes, I do look back at the blog posts that I wrote, to spot for any mistakes if I could. (Do email me for corrections if I have made any, ok?) That’s to keep my posts as accurate as possible from the time I posted. And because it is almost publicized as soon as it is published, I have to maintain its accuracy as much as possible.

Singapore National Day Is Coming on 9th August. As a Singaporean myself, I would like to shout out to Singapore in advance a Happy National Day! Singapore has its official website of celebrating national day parade. To learn more about my nation, see wikipedia.To tell you the truth, I am most proud of Mr Lee Kuan Yew who has made all these things possible. Where everybody looks at what they have and be settled down with, he has the faith and vision to bring possibilities in Singapore to the next level when he has none in his pocket at that time. He is the role model of all of us whom I have been emphasizing on being a positive thinker.

Just imagine at that time when our country was still poor and had no resources to bring in wealth, he was already thinking what to do with the country to bring in that “resources”. To bring the world together, we have to put the men together. He has that capability to gather all the talents together to become a synergy to make Singapore possible today. It is not about being a sole fighter to make Singapore strong here… He brings the best in every man in Singapore to express themselves to bring us to the next level.

And when I thought he could be the leader in Singapore, he stepped down and let the talented people do the leading in Singapore while he silently guided behind with the position of Minister Mentor… What a brilliant person that I would want to learn from. I even told my friends that I would be happy to learn something from him about life. I bought his books which he authored and were amazed by his entrepreneurship as well. What a wonderful combination of skills he had…

A place where different cultures and religions live together… A wonderful place to live in with different kinds of food as a result… A place where we get to see Chinese cultures, Malay cultures and Indian cultures… Every religion is living in harmony together… Every race is living as though we are of the same race… Our common language becomes English because of different races… And we attracted many different English-speaking countries as well as our own language-speaking countries… I could only credit Mr Lee for all his effort through the years down the road to make this possible… And because of this, we became the attraction of western countries in Asia since we are already an English speaking country in a way… In fact, I am so proud that I could speak multiple languages because of my country’s nature where I have no problem communicating in China, USA and England… The places I would love to go..

Thank you Singapore for giving me such a secure home to live in. I have found this music video from YouTube which I would like to let all my readers to listen to. Enjoy!

Have you ever thought the childhood days of being so enthusiastic about something? Well, life is supposed to be like that! It’s because of the “trend” of being “matured” as we all grow to become adults… We were all afraid of being remarked as “childish” as it seems to be a negative term. Well in fact, the child always gets what he wants while an adult will just keep quiet and lost what he wanted…

Well, enjoy this video!

Again, I saw yet another news from New York Times about Microsoft adopting web-based strategy now. They have been really weak at this area (Internet) where Google and Yahoo reigned the world with. Microsoft has spent lots of money on its AdCenter technology but it don’t seem to work, and so Microsoft resorted to buy aQuantive at $6 billion. Microsoft also started buying AdECN company to boost its online advertising market presence too.

Big Company Spends More Money On Buying Time
While a big company has too much money (its huge income) and too little time (to keep up with the market and competitiveness), they would spend their money to buy more time. Which will constitute to make more money later.

Small Company Spends More Time On Buying Money
Small company has too much time (not many people still know them and so they have all the time to make mistakes before their business takes off), and too little money (little or no income). They would spend more time to work on the things themselves to create products and services for people to to buy.
In other words, big companies spend money to buy time while small companies spend time to buy money.

The Wise Businessmen
The wisest way eventually would be to spend money to buy time. because time would eventually be converted into money when you have too much time to spend (to buy time).

I think this topic is a little complicated here if you couldn’t catch what I am trying to say here. It is all about leveraging. Just like when I just started my first online business now, I am now spending time to buy money… In other words, I am now doing my routines to blog and to work on my online activities to make more money for myself…

And when I am making lots of money for myself, I will have the money to buy time which is to employ people (or just using the computer servers since almost everything can be automated in the Internet) to make more money for me (which is to buy money eventually)…