Saturday, June 30, 2012

Prizes.org Closes Shop

Thanks to Brian for sharing this unfortunate news from the prizes.org team.



Hello everyone,
We wanted to take a moment to thank our Prizes community for all of your support and provide a product update. Over the next six months, we will be retiring the Prizes.org product. By January 31, 2013, Prizes.org across platforms--on the web, Android or iOS--will no longer be supported. 
We’re so grateful to all of you for your participation and engagement since we launched last year, but the product isn’t experiencing the kind of adoption we had hoped for. We wanted to provide you with advance notice and some additional information about timing, exporting your text-based entries and cashing out your remaining credits:
  • July 13, 2012 -- account creation and prize creation will no longer be available 
  • July 31, 2012 -- Prizes Entry Exporter will be available for contestants to export entries 
  • January 31, 2013 -- last day to cash out any remaining credits via PayPal
If you’d like to delete your account, you may do so by going to ‘Settings.’ Click on the ‘Delete Account’ link on the bottom right and enter your password. For more information, please visit our FAQ. 
We remain committed to our users, so if you have any questions or feedback, don't hesitate to contact us at help@prizes.org
Thanks again. It’s been a fun journey.
The Prizes Team


I only have one comment on this matter being that I've already written about it, they called it a "Product Update on Prizes.org."

Can you repeat that again?

"Product Update on Prizes.org"

No talk about people losing their jobs, no goodbye hugs and no warm fuzziness all around.

Alright, I'll make more comments. This is corporate Google talking, it saw a bad investment and now they're shutting it down. Kudos to the prizes.org team. From what I can tell, I think they knew it from the start. Maybe they have some metrics with regards to performance and revenue brought in.

From my perspective, it's Google just trying to enter the outsourcing scene halfheartedly.

At the end of the day, and I know some of you hate it when I say that, it was a very promising project that was poorly executed. They have the traffic which was still growing. What they lacked was content, if this project was outside of Google's hands, it would have flourished and competed with the best outsourcing sites on the web, like freelancer.com, odesk.com and elance.com.

Proof:
















They had the traffic

But they couldn't monetize and must have spent a small fortune on the contests. To think that freelancer.com's earnings was at $100,000,000 even if they only had roughly 60% of prizes.org traffic, something is really wrong.

They should have read one of my articles in how to build a business using freelancers....

Yep, prizes.org, it's been a wild ride.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

How to Build a Business Using Freelancers and Legos

So how do you build a business using freelancers?


Easy


Freelancer.com is a business, I am a freelancer, and I can build a 3D lego building using buildwithchrome.com 

This is Freelancer.com's business address


Freelancer.com
Suite 52, Jones Bay Wharf
26-32 Pirrama Rd
Pyrmont, New South Wales



I put the logos on the exact address on Google Maps. COOL!
Here's the first mockup that I made. >> buildwithchrome.com/build/B-fC


Here's the second one: >> buildwithchrome.com/build/B-_J



Awesome!

Really Cool: Build Lego Houses with Chrome

Build 3D Lego Houses Online for free on Google Maps with BuildwithChrome.com

Check out my house here





Monday, June 25, 2012

The Business of Ideas

This is easier done online than offline.

In the new virtual economy, ideas are the goods. Whether in words, pictures, videos or animations, the visual embodiment of ideas will continue to be the main and foremost currency that will be exchanged in the online world.

Creative Commons Image via Flickr: ieshraq
That is the premise that you have to build on if you truly want to build a business using freelancers.

When you hire a freelancer to create your logo, you are not just hiring an artist who can put shapes, lines and colors together. You are hiring someone to impart the idea inspired by that logo. This idea should be able to paint a picture of a thought on the mind of the person who sees it.

When you hire a freelancer to design your web page, you want the theme to reflect the mood and the emotions that go along well with your message. It is your canvass waiting to be painted with words, pictures and videos.

When you hire someone to write, you expect that someone to believe in what he is writing. To successfully impart what you want your audience to feel, think and eventually, do. Writing is nothing but painting with words. Writing is a more difficult form of painting.

The Call To Action
What is your unique value proposition? Think about that first before you even conceive any kind of business. What is the new thing, process, thought or way of thinking that can revolutionize or at the very least alter both perception and physical reality to anyone who wishes to transact with you.

On the Internet, most of these are related to advertising because once upon a time somebody said that eyeballs glued to a monitor have value. The system has been built with the assumption that the visual manifestation of a 250x250 block of colorful pixels meaningfully arranged as an advertisement could somehow, later on transform into sales.

That somehow these colorful pixels would eventually lead a person in Sumatra, to chop off a piece of bamboo, craft it into a ladder and then ship it to a person in Taiwan who happened to see that block of pixels, click it and then take the action to actually buy it.

We all work under those assumptions which if I may add, have actually created a multibillion dollar industry.

We live in an age where pressing a button automatically makes someone earn virtual money that somehow could be turned into real money. Amazing huh?

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Like a Hungry Dog

Persistence, is a unified effort. Almost like being a zombie, but really more like a dog who's chasing something. Always hungry. Forgetting pain. Finding the strength to get up despite the thorns in our sides.

Creative Commons Image via Flickr TheGiantVermin
It's about the errors of circumstance and the ability to balance nothing with something. It's about delving into the nook and crannies of the limits inherent in possibility.

It's about experience and imagination fused into one. Going about in ways that we have never thought of before.

With my current project underway on how to build a business online using freelancers, I have stretched my limitations and hopefully imparted something worth pursuing. It's about stating the things that are already in front of us and I will chase it like a dog would chase something that keeps on moving.

I'll only stop when my own body stops me.

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

The Best Gift A Father Could Have

I'm glad that you came into my life, all of you. With sparkling and shiny eyes, and laughter filling what used to be an empty heart and house, you've made this man more than just a man. You've turned me into a father.

Now I look forward to every day earning my keep in this world, knowing that all my actions are not for my own, but for you. You've given me a very good reason to strive, fight and work to be my best in this world.

I only pray that I live up to your expectations, that I would be able to provide you with the best I can give, that I can help mold this world and the future you would be living in and finally, that I may be able to leave you something beyond the mere words that I have.

My love, my passion, my life, you are all of these.

The best gift a father could have, is you.




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