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Oct 02

From Flippa to Sucka

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments
As I alluded to in my New Years address, I was going to become more busy with some website launches. Well, that ‘some’ has become ‘many’ thanks to an obsessive pastime I have had this year. That pastime is named Flippa.com. When I found Flippa, I was stoked. I quickly realized it to be the channel where I could direct my multitude of interests in business, media, and starting a business sideline. I found my investment with Complex Games not moving along as fast as I wanted so jumped right into the world of website buying. Flippa.com as a website and as a marketplace is attractively designed and very functional. It superior to eBay in both features and the quality of the listings. Flippa,com is like a well run computing machine. In July 2010 I purchased my first website, a Flash Arcade. I then purchased a second website, a Persistent Browser Based Game and between these two sites I started generating some money! I could not believe it. These websites were established, had traffic, and a revenue record. I quickly thought it should become possible to develop a sideline that I could expand into a full time job. In January […]

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Sep 16

Pirates And Their Sense of Entitlement

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments
It is truly stunning. Software developers are releasing games and applications on the iPhone platform for $0.99 and despite the low price their games are still pirated. Developers are finding evidence that 90% of their games are being played without being paid for. The same thing appears to be happening in the music, movie, and book industry as everything has become digitized. People expect their content to be free. But content creation is work, and for the most part people need to be paid for their work. Pirates disagree and feel completely entitled to use this content without paying for it. There are even political parties that articulate their position. They tell us that all copyrights and patents are harmful and that stealing from content creators is an act of freedom. Yes, playing a iPhone game that sells for only $0.99 without paying for it sure makes the world a freer place. Talk about self-deluded self-entitlement. Well, here is an article that completely destroys their position. PC Game Piracy Examined. Check it out. To me the solution is not to prevent piracy (which is impossible), but to punish it. The only way to change a deluded sense of entitlement is […]

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Apr 16

Book Review: The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments
The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea is an apt title for this book. It is a short history, but a very interesting one. And its interesting because the subject matter is treated with enthusiasm which becomes a source of entertainment. This is a book written for the non-academic, acting almost like a Reader’s Digest version of a business history course. The book enthuses how the revolutionary idea known as the Company is one of the single greatest contributions to civilization’s development. This enthusiasm does not mean that they ignore the negative aspects of the Company, namely the grotesque pursuit of profit and company goals over human needs such as in the Belgian Congo, but the tone of the book is fan-boyish. Tone aside, the authors do accomplish what they set out to do. They illustrate how the idea of the Company is pretty revolutionary. Basically a government body grants a charter for a collective of disperse individuals to work together by pooling their capital and resources for the purpose of wealth accumulation. The book talks how the different national governments dealt with the rise of the Company (limited-liability joint-share corporations), and how in places like Britain they […]

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Feb 21

Book Review: The Origin of Brands (and the Games Industry) by Al & Laurie Ries

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments
Origin of Brands: Discover the Natural Laws of Product Innovation and Business Survival was written for all businesses, but I have tailored my review for game developers since this is where a bunch of my investment money is currently tied up. The Origin of Brands by Al & Laurie Ries is a contrarian argument against conventional wisdom that the battle in the marketplace takes place between brands. Examples of some battles would be Dodge Caravan vs Chevy Uplander, Domino’s Pizza vs Pizza Hut, or for those in the game industry: World of Warcraft vs Guild Wars or Supreme Commander vs Command & Conquer 3. The book argues in 295 pages that people think category first and then brand. Their explicit example: “I’m thirsty and feel like having a beer.” The 2nd thought is: “Which beer? I think I will have Bud.” Beer is a category of drink that is popularly perceived to quench thirst. Within milliseconds the brand is invoked, but it is critical to understand that the category is the first thing that is thought about. The category address the need, while the brand address the want. Conventional marketing will ignore the entire question of category and instead focus […]

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Sep 01

Competition Is Over-Rated In Capitalism

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 2 comments tags: Contrarian, Free Enterprise, Human Condition
One of the biggest criticisms I have heard from the anti-capitalist crowd (which I was once a part of in my younger years) against capitalism is that it is all about competition. Capitalism has no room for cooperation, or so we are told in the countless business and marketing books and courses (The Art of War) which focus primarily about how to beat the competition. Yet, this is a gross misunderstanding made by both anti-capitalists and pro-capitalists. Capitalism is not about valuing competition over cooperation. It is about having freedom to decide how to engage in the marketplace, either employing competition or cooperation or typically some fluid combination of both. Capitalism is the only system where voluntary economic cooperation can exist. Collectivist societies will place extensive social pressures on its members to “play nice”. This will determine what you are allowed to produce, who you are allowed to buy from, and who you are allowed to sell to. In a collectivist society you might not be allowed to sell your product to a particular region because they are not part of your social or ethnic group. The essence of being collectivist and having a common identity also means that there […]

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Jul 24

Opting for Stock Options

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Investing Knowledge
Purchasing stocks carry with it risk. Your money could be lost if the company goes out of business. You could lose money if the company is losing sales. What if you could own a ticket that would allow you to purchase a company if it did well? Would it not be kind of like having insurance policy that you could exercise if the conditions were right? Film or theatrical producers often buy the right – but not the obligation – to dramatize a specific book or script. That is what a stock option is. A stock option is the right to buy (call option) or sell (put option) a specific number of shares of a company, at a certain price, by a specified date. They add a delay effect to the normal direct purchasing and selling of companies. This delay if used wisely, can give you added advantages as an investor. Because of this, Options are very sophisticated financial instruments and should only be done once you have a working understanding of the stock market. Options Help Limits Losses Consider this for a moment; two men invest in the same stock. One man invests $10,000 and he hopes the stock […]
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