Internet Entrepreneur and Weekend Hacker

Start up time

frischman — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:03:19 +0000

I am sitting here at bank of America opening new accounts and I flash back to every time I have done this for every business. I am answering her questions before she asks.

I sold pcsecurityshield at the end of dec 2008 and this is the first time I have been motivated since. I am ready to go. pcss took 5 years to get to 8m … don’t expect this one to take that long.

hopefully I can cut down on the mistakes this time

A Coakley Loss Gets President Obama 4 More Years

frischman — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:45:34 +0000

I did not vote for President Obama and do not approve, like or support most of his political views but with that said, I was sure that he was going to unite the country, black white, republican democrat, east west … you get the point. The one thing I did not consider was Reid Pelosi. I believe the dynamic duo have pulled him so far that they have assured him of being a colossal failure as a president. He has gone back on almost everything he has said in the campaign and in my opinion, is actually going to push this economy into years of general malaise (i.e.:Europe).

Bring on Brown as he defeats Coakley in what amounts to a total refuting of President Obamas first year in office. So what next? Reid and Pelosi are bullies, bullies from small districts that are pushing their crazy agenda that most democrats don’t like and all republicans can’t stand. With the Coakley loss the bullies took the proverbial punch in the chin that always shuts a bully up. Now, President Obama has to run this country in a bipartisan way and bring the republicans back into the political spectrum and into the discussions. Reid and Pelosi have one more year as leaders only to never be heard from again.

Now, when he was elected, President Obama brought some degree of optimism, even to those of us who did not vote for him. Like JFK before him (I was not around but I have heard) he was bigger than the party and stepped above partisam politics. President Obama will now be able to move back to that position without the pressure of tweedle dee and tweedle dumb and move this country in the direction that is best for the country and not democrats or republicans but the whole country.

A Coakley win will ensure the most disasterous bill ever being passed, the economy in a free fall and a certain 1 and done for our president. A Coakley loss will put this country and our president back on the road to greatness and four more years for President Obama.

Curt Schilling on Hannity

frischman — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:54:05 +0000

I have ranted many times before about the lack of respect that the opposition party gives the President, be it President Obama or President Bush. Calling them by their first name or just their last name, it is simply disrespectful of the office and of the man.

From what I can tell, Curt Schilling, ex-Red Sox pitching star, is a true Republican to the bone. Can not stand a thing that President Obama stands for or the democratic party and is hoping that the Mass. election goes republican. That said, last night on Hannity (a Yankee fan), he continually referred to President Obama as President Obama. Not Obama, not Barack and not a myriad of other derogatory terms that are available. Schilling, like myself, realizes that President Obama is his president, even if he didn’t vote for him and we, the US, are better off standing behind our President than throwing him under the bus.

Now maybe Hannity can follow Curt Schillings lead. You can disagree with someone and still show them, and the office, some respect.

Optimistic Jets Fan

frischman — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:02:45 +0000

Like every long suffering Jets fan, I am starting to list the reasons that the Jets should beat Indy and move on to the Super Bowl as if we come up with enough good reasons then Indy will just forfeit and the Jets will be Miami bound.

Jets have been hearing that they backed their way into the playoffs and that they don’t belong. That talk all started after Rex didn’t realize that they weren’t actually eliminated and then they went out and beat the Peyton-less Colts in the much talked about “rest your starters” game. Jets say they beat the team that they played but the only way for the J E T S JETS JETS JETS to prove to the world and themselves that they belong … is to beat and beat up the Colts with Manning taking all the snaps. So Sunday is much more than just a Conference Championship game to the Jets, it is a redemption game, their way of saying shut up, we belong to be hear and we are headed to Miami. I suspect when the playoffs started, the Jets were not high on the list of teams that Peyton and co. wanted to see.

I think the case that I make is certainly worthy of consideration by Peyton and crew that golf next Sunday would be preferable to 3 hours with Gang Green. Does anyone have Peytons numbers so I can plead my case?

evaluate what you need before you start

frischman — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 08:02:44 +0000

Part of the build your website for your local business series

What is your goal? Let’s skip “make more money” as the goal and lets focus on how the web can help your company. The key part is “help your company”, I am not referring to someone who is making the web their business (that is a whole new area of discussion). You are a doctor, physical trainer, house cleaner … all things that people can/do search for online and businesses that a website can be of some assistance.

So, what do you want to provide to customers and potential customers. Information and an incentive to become a customer, information for current customers and long term, information for people who may become customers in the future. Step back for a second and recognize the size of the internet and the size of your market. If you are a fitness trainer, you may handle 30-40 customers a week. Your potential clients are people that live with a reasonable driving distance and not someone that lives in another state. So you want to focus your efforts and information on this local group. Potentially, your website can add a few customers and also lower the attrition rate of your current customer base. I am mentioning this because here is where this goes south often. A fitness trainer decides it is a good idea to start selling nutrition supplements or workout clothes on their site. So now, not only have you opened yourself up to market to the whole internet, you have now opened yourself up to competition from the whole world as opposed to supporting and focusing on your business … fitness training. Nothing wrong with selling supplements, but that is not the same mentality and same website and same investment that you are going to make in your fitness training website. Stay focused, there is no great money making idea that you can add on for free at your local business website that is going to make you money, it will just hurt your website and clientele in the long term. I think I have made my point.

So what do you want to do? Let say you are a real estate appraisor and you provide commercial appraisals in your state. So, you have current customers that look to you for information and services and you have potential customers that are using your website as their first impression of you. So looks are important but we will get to that later. We are going to want to provide detailed descriptions of your services and where you provide them, who you are, relevant news, possibly recommendations, contact information (not only a phone number). Anything else that you would provide for your business?

This appraisor makes money appraising NOT with Google Adsense. Do not put advertising on your site. Do not put the joke of the day or a news feed that is not relevant about your specific industry. Make your site clean, easy to use and easy for you to update.

We will talk later about hosting and templates but for now decide what you want to put on your site that will help with customers and potential customers. In all likelihood your site may be small, a handful of pages so lets make those effective pages.

websites for non internet businesses

frischman — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 07:36:35 +0000

I have been in this (internet) business since 1999 and have focused mostly on ecommerce websites and companies but have dabbled in the advertising and affiliate side of the business (blogster and starreviews). My companies have created $10’s of millions of dollars in revenue with no venture capital money to start them off. I have a pretty decent idea how to functionally build a web business from the ground up … some might say that I am very good at it.

I always felt bad for lawyers and doctors because they can’t meet someone socially that didn’t have a legal issue or ailment. Behind doctors and lawyers have to be webmasters because everyone has a business idea or a business they want to launch. For all the sites I have built, I have never done if for anyone else, at least for pay. I have assisted charities and friends build their web businesses but in general, you can’t afford me for your local business.

So, this string of posts categorized Web Advice is basically the book I was too lazy to write but still wanted to get out their for small and local businesses on how to effectively and within financial reason build a website. Sites do not have to be flashy but they need to effectively support your local business and that should be your main focus.

2 months past

frischman — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:02:01 +0000

I haven’t slept since early Nov and it is amazing to me how fast those two months went. Anna is doing great, getting past all the minor setbacks we had, and almost sleeping through the night. She holds her head up great and keeps dad from going to work early. Best two months of my life and I feel an energy at work and in life that I have not felt in a while.

Looking forward to building a family, building another business and getting back to NY in 2010.

A Slight Distraction

frischman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:17:29 +0000

I have not posted in a few days as I have been distracted. My wife gave birth on 11/12 to Anna Hansen Frischman who was all of 6 lbs 9 ozs. She has all 10 fingers and all 10 toes. Jess and I are doing our best not to screw her up at an early aging assuming we can do that in her teens.

Mom and daughter are doing great! Dad is a little overwhelmed.

Keeping Your Job

frischman — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:45:22 +0000

In this tough economy everything pretends to be an expert on how to get a job or how to keep a job but very few of these people are the ones doing the hiring or doing the firing. As the owner of a 25 person marketing company, I think I have a pretty reasonable perspective as to what a business owner is looking for in his or her employees and what they are not looking for

The rest of this post about keeping your job is on StarReviews.

Finally

frischman — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:57:13 +0000

It takes something new for me to let go of the past. I use white boards a lot and today, 2 years after it failed, I have erased the white board for Onscribe. Time to move on!