Ricky’s Online Business Blog

Well this is something that we cannot run away. It must be done sooner or later, for the betterment of your experience

Ok, please take note that we will migrate the web sites below to a new server tonight at 11pm:

• NextLevel Tutor Network (Malaysia) at http://nextlevel.com.my
• NextLevel Tutor Network (Singapore) at http://nextlevel.com.sg
• RickySoo.com at http://www.rickysoo.com

The migration, which involves changing of domain name server (DNS), can take up the whole night. Hopefully you will be able to access the sites in the morning.

I enjoy doing planning and strategizing, not only for business but other things as well.  I like to think of stupid ideas all the time. But who knows some stupid ideas are not really stupid.  Maybe their time just has not come?

In these times of rising living costs, some of us may need to be more frugal and prudent in our spending.  We may need to stop spending on luxurious items, eating out in expensive restaurants, and buying more than what we need…

Mixed rice or nasi campur is one most popular and cheapest meal we can get in Malaysia.  But you know even it has gone up in price!  A normal dish for RM3.50 can now cost RM4.00 or more!

What if we open a mixed rice shop where we no longer decide the price?  Customers just pick their food, come to the end of table, collect spoon and fork, and pay whatever amount they want into a donation box?  Perhaps the stall can even be left unmanned and labor cost saved.

For those who cannot pay the normal price, let them pay whatever they want.  For those who refuse to pay anything, let them eat. Those who don’t pay anything maybe because they really cannot afford, or they are simply shameless.  In either case, let them eat all they want.  It’s a service and blessing to the poor in the society.

But I’m sure there are also those who can afford to pay more, perhaps they may pay more to cover for others?  When counting the money, who knows it may be even more profitable than is a normal mixed rice shop?

Who knows some people may even get impressed by such shop that they become our PR to spread out to the whole world by word of mouth?  Maybe we can open even more branches throughout the nation?

Anyway, weird idea aside.  I started to think of such idea not from a business point of view, but as a service to the poor especially in such times of bad economy.

Moreover, in gathering people together, we can get to know these people, talk to them, fellowship with them and expand our social network!

I know it’s stupid.  But don’t laugh at me.  Perhaps one day when I have a little more resources, I may put this into practice!

Today I attended the first BarCamp held in Malayisa. BarCamp Malaysia is part of the international BarCamp movement where participants get together to hold open and participatory workshops, content of which is decided and generated by the participants themselves.

There are many sessions to choose today and tomorrow. I missed the all-important Google Android session in the morning and I heard that the classroom was full. Anyway, I managed to join a few other sessions.

Getting started with Drupal – It’s an introduction to the Drupal content management system (CMS). CMS is used to generate a whole web site or web application with little or no programming skills. Drupal looks impressive. But I heard it’s not so simple to learn. I don’t know how it compares to other systems. But I will try it out myself soon.

Monetizing YouTube – Want to make money out of your YouTube video? Here it is! A very striking demonstration of an innovation to make money much like AdWords. Well done and I wish all the best to the team in their endeavor.

Monkeying around Yahoo! Search – Yahoo has something impressive called SearchMonkey in store for site owners and search engine users. It’s good for us developers to add value for users from the Yahoo search result pages.

Future of technology – Everything will come to pass including the now popular Web 2.0. What does the future hold? How can we innovate and position ourselves for future technologies. A very lively discussion and true nature of open, participatory session. Suddenly all of us became futurists!

How to develop API for web services – I had to skip two other interesting concurrent sessions for this one, as I really need a foundation on web services. Technical but good knowledge learned about using AtomPub for web services.

Blogging in Malaysia – Another lively discussion on the current blogging landscape. Many prominent bloggers were present to contribute, including those from Singapore! Facilitator was good to notice those quiet ones (including me) and gave us a chance to speak up. Shame to me, that’s the only time I spoke up in the sessions

Unfortunately, due to time clash of many sessions conducted at the same time, I was not able to attend many other useful sessions. Perhaps next time the organizer can consider arranging them in different tracks for different kinds of participants.

Anyway, I thank the organizer for their dedicated effort and good job done in organizing the pioneer BarCamp in Malaysia!

Did you attend any same session with me? Do you share my experience?

Just attended the MIRC KL TechNite in Bangsar Village II.  Today’s speaker was Kenneth Tai, the e-commerce doctor, on “Digital Branding & Marketing”.

I knew Kenneth three years ago when both Kenneth and I were called to a meeting by a common customer to advise him on Internet business.

It’s good to catch up with him again. Kenneth has been an e-commerce consultant and Internet marketer.  Impressed by projects done for clients and ideas inspired by him.  The web sites are showing among the very top in search engine result pages!

I feel grateful to have listened to his presentation, though many ideas are not new.  There are a few facts and interesting points that I cannot agree more:

• 80% of companies in Malaysia are still not using the Internet to promote their brands!
• There are many well-known brands in Malaysia.  But amazingly you can’t find them on the first page in search engine result pages.
• Digital branding online does not need to be expensive.  In fact it could be much cheaper than offline brand building.  Branding using YouTube is an example.
• Your web designers can develop a beautiful web site, but may not be the right person to be your branding and marketing consultant.  You won’t hire an IT person to do marketing, will you?
• Many people are worried about payment and security issues on the Internet.  But when they come to buying air tickets from AirAsia online, there is no problem! Why?

Yes I think businesses are under-utilizing the Internet to do branding online.  What are they still waiting for?  Internet is not just a channel to reach customers, but is a market battlefield nowadays!

Besides the more technical aspects, I wish I could learn more about the more business aspect of building brands online, such as what brand image and personality to take relative to competitors.

Digital branding leads to me to think of how we as individuals and bloggers can brand ourselves on the Internet or in the blogosphere.

Kenneth took on the brand of being an “e-commerce doctor”.  Hanzo Ng poses as “sales ninja”.  Shall I become a “monkey blogger”?   How about you?