I used one of my favorite new tools, evernote, to make notes and am sharing them below.

Different groups in Hong Kong for those interested in web analytics:
web analytics wednesday – hk web analytics
digital analytics association hong kong
digital analytics summit

today, talk about Google Analytics
besides others – web trends is good but expensive.
trying to get google to offer google premium in HK

5 steps of digital analytics
standard report – traffic data, content data
advanced report – segmentation, funnel
optimization – channel effectiveness, conversion
experimental – split test, multivariate testing
business insight – ROI, customer behavior

version 5 of google analytics just came out. new interface, new structure

other analytics tools (besides Google analytics) – web trends, core metrics, omnivore, social bakers, post rank, twitalyzer, crazy egg, woopra, flurry,

New in the Google analytics upgrades:
connect with webmaster tools
also social engagement – from google + statistics, as well as Facebook like and tweet sharing.
also new is real-time google analytics
also new in google analytics update – flow visualization

even in China, there is conversion optimization, for example Chinese are liking less cluttered websites, less advertisement websites now
what about weibo, have API? similar to Facebook API?

The analysis exchange program
new initiative help the web analytics industry. only 40-50 people in hong kong, so locally there aren’t many people.
in china, though, people come from all over Guangdong to get to a meeting.
objective is to get more non-profit organizations, local startups to connect with local experts in analytics.
they need projects, they will sign NDA, will not share the data. many local companies will not do that.
currently a closed group on Facebook.
3 month program only a few hours of your time.
benefits of mentors – contribute hours to society. its free. and want more local experts.

questions:
getclicky does show heat map, where google analytic does not
how about google signin problem not showing referring keywords now – that is only for yourself being logged in.
does it show uptime of your website? like chartbeat has. there is also pingdom
do you have to have an image download as a way to track? actually now many are using javascript
normal bounce rate – 30-40% on normal site, but blog is different 60-70% as its only 1 page

Incoming search terms:

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But here we go, Doug helped me finish the blog template and I like it!

Some negative feedback:

• Red is too agressive of a color
• Seems more “template” / standard – loses the personal feel of the old template
• Miss the photo at the top!
• Looks like a news site

Some positive feedback:

• Faster loading
• More professional
• More “China” feel

I do want more feedback, but this new template does reflect the changes I’m making with the blog…it has gotten to be more “business like” – but I don’t want to be too professional here, I will still talk in “first person” telling people my feelings as a human being and not some boring new site.

But I will be trying to podcast and interviewing Chinese business and internet people, talking about their perspective doing business in China. I really think that is what people like the most on this blog, the real-world, simple talk about china business, the struggles of a guy like me trying to do his own business in a foreign country, the adventure.

So more of the same, but please comment below on your feedback….even if its brutally honest and negative, I will hold my breath….

Incoming search terms:

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I didn’t choose to use “facebook” connect blog comments for a couple reasons….but main reason I didn’t want the comment system to be blocked in China (as facebook.com is blocked in China), but also, I am trying not to give everything up to the facebook gods.

SO SORRY if your blog comments here didn’t post during the past week!!! PLEASE, try to go back to that blog post and re-post your comment …..more headaches for me…right when I’m traveling to USA.

So seriously, this blog has been growing in visitors and commenters….and in google more and more as social media becomes the way to promote your website….THIS BLOG has been exploding in traffic and its becoming more and more important for my business…

But really, there is a lot behind the scenes in the IT stuff for this blog…..its just a wordpress blog! I think to myself it can’t be that difficult….

blog moved from blogger to wordpress a couple years ago….China blocked the blogger blogs….lost some photos even when I manually patched as many in as I could.

new template AGAIN, here below is a preview..I tried my best to have it live by the time I arrived in USA, but maybe this weekend it will be launched.

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I do not consider myself a programmer. I have the basic idea, I understand the language. Sure I have made websites and spent hours tweaking code to make things work. Maybe that is what a programmer is? A PATIENT person to keep on testing code and scripts and looking at help files and posting on forums. THAT IS DEFINITELY not me.

Some programmer friends say I should spend more time to learn programming….but I hate it. Really, I am a connector between business and technology, I switched my major at Stevens Tech from Computer Engineering to Engineering Management in my sophomore year BECAUSE I hated to do programming. I spent summer 2000 at an internship Kozmo.com doing database programming….I was miserable at the work I was doing, but I loved the energy of the startup. This will probably sound racist, but whatever – the majority of the IT department in this New York city were Indians and Chinese. They were nice, I am still in contact with a few of them to this day, but it seemed strange to me, and they were not American born Indians or Chinese, they were immmigrants on F1 Visas or whatever. Why weren’t any Americans there in the IT and programming department?

Most of the Americans I saw, whether they were white, black, indian, or chinese backgrounds, were in the business department, were in the project management department. I met a IT business liason, and I loved what he did. He worked between IT and Business departments to ensure proper communication was done.

So after that summer programming internship, where I dreaded debugging PL/SQL database trigger scripts each day, I switched my major to Engineering Management. I remember the comments I got from my IT friends at school. “don’t take the easy way out”, “EM is not a real degree”, and other comments like this. But at the same time, the smaller class of EM majors told me, let those techie nerds say what they want, but they can’t do what we do. The EM majors were the sales and marketing people, forget even about the course load, just clearly could see in a school function…..the EM majors were outgoing and natural charismatic personalities. And its always kind of been this love/hate relationship of IT managers and the actual IT workers. But I am noticing many excellent programmer SUCK at managing a project. They even prefer to stay in a lower position if they don’t have to manage a team. It’s a completely different skill all together.

Then we have link Mark Zuckerburg, and the facebook movie the Social network all over the news, who is an excellent programmer himself. And then people talk about Google too. So I am constantly in sometimes heated conversations with my fellow entrepreneur friends, and they use these as case studies that you have to be a techie yourself in order to lead a successful IT startup. Or have a programmer partner. Maybe they are right about the partner part, but if you watch the social network movie, doesn’t seem like those business partners were well treated as the facebook business grew, right?

Anyway, I am writing this rather emotional post based on some recent heated conversations I’ve had with programmer friends here. As the world gets more and more flat will there be less of a need for marketers and sales people? By saying that technology will be able to naturally market the “best” product and weed out the rest. Obviously I would not like to agree with this, as I feel I am mainly a connector and a marketer, but bias aside, I really think the world is going to NEED NATURAL HUMAN BEINGS to market and sell technical products, as well as lead them into the marketplace.

Pic is something i bought off fiverr of a cartoon of me, seems like a programmer nerd, right? hah!

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Finding the right product to sell online is CRUCIAL. I am always asked how I started selling bar products, back in 2004. I kind of wish I knew what I knew now, then, because the bar products market is rather specialized and niche – learn how I got into the bar products industry. Maybe if I had started drop shipping mobile phones and electronics back then….I’d be much more (maybe) financially well off.

The other issue to take into account is to take inventory or not. Taking inventory means it will tie up cash, as well as make it more difficult to change your product line later. I have learned this all too well with the bar products industry….warehousing and logistics headaches galore!

I blogged about a year ago about how to start an online ecommerce business in more general terms. Today I just received this question on all experts about CHOOSING the right product group (a common question, but this question was much more interesting and detailed then the normal ones I get) and thought I would share with everyone today:

You answered this question on 02/18/11

Questioner: adriana

Category: E-Commerce, Web Businesses

Private: No

Subject: ebay store

Question: My husband started an EBay store about 3 months ago and he’s been selling more and more little by little. Mainly used/new electronics that he gets from either Ebay itself, people on Craigslist or Thrifty Store. He is really good at it, I can tell. He is really organized and calculates his profits and control his small inventory really well.

So, I’m wondering if we could have any kind of help on advising us in how to move up to next level, with wholesale retailers and such. It seems that are lot of scams on the internet offering this info anyways.

On top of that, I was thinking of having a section for women on his store as well, so I could sell items as well. However, the items that I’ve been trying were not in demand at all…

Anyways, if an appointment is necessary I’d be more than glad to do so. We are in Los Angeles, CA.

Thanks!

Adriana

Answer: Hi Adriana,

Its great to hear your husband is doing well, and you will join him as well to earn more money!

There are a few things / ideas. You can use ebay to see which items have been selling by doing an advanced search and seeing what has closed/ sold….and if those listings are selling, and for what price. This will help you make a better decision

I STRONGLY recommend you try not to be soley dependant on ebay…they are dropping every day in the market because they keep increasing fees and buyers and sellers are moving to their own .com shops or to amazon.com so I suggest you looking into your own online shop and selling on amazon as well.

more ways to search for demand in product is reverse keyword tools, a free one is:

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

there you can put in product names / keywords and it shows how much people are looking for and what they want to find. Selling on the internet is all about GIVING PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT….instead of push media w/ television ads that is TELLING PEOPLE WHAT TO BUY. To be successful on the internet, you have to listen to what people want and give it to them.

I would love to meet you for consulting, it is a passion of mine, but I am based overseas in Hong kong / China. I would be open to a phone call or skype call – email me at site@michaelmichelini.com

Hope this helps and Good luck! Main thing is not to give up!

Mike

There is also the idea that you should pick a product line you, yourself are interested in, and a customer of.  This is because a business is mostly serving YOUR CUSTOMERS. I love the article – CEO means customer, employee, and THEN owner (in that order), so if you yourself are already a customer in that product / service industry, then you will understand the perspective of those customers. Also you want to pick a market group inside of the product group, not just sell products- BUT TO WHO? Old women? Teenagers? That is also just as important as selecting which type of products, but which demographic of customers.

The main idea is to DO YOUR RESEARCH. I am not one to talk, as most who know me well know I move quickly…because all talk and no action isn’t good either.  People also use this “market research” task as a way to find an EXCUSE why they have NO TIME to start their own business. That they don’t want to sit down and write everything down, make a plan….

I love getting emails like this, people motivated to do their own business, create value in the world by jumping into the world of entrepreneurship. While I myself cannot call myself a true success story, I have lasted a few years at it, and am not afraid to tell people the real deal. I think its a fine balance of preparation and GUTS to actually execute and do it.

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I remember being in Stevens Tech university, in a class, and my friend showing me google.com as a way to find information and websites I was searching for. I remember how everyone said it was so amazing and quick and relevant…we were tired of altavista and ask jeeves or other search engines that had to search again and again, going through pages and pages of crap to get to the answer or site we were looking for.

So people just started to believe what Google said, whatever came up on the top of google had to be the answer, right. Don’t know what you want to buy, or where to go, google knows. “just google it”

But then….companies and businesses realized this is the best way to get customers….and studied more and more how to do it. Read books, attended seminars…and industry called SEO and internet marketing emerged to rank on google. Then when I came to China end of 2007…not many people really knew about web marketing (or marketing in general really)…seemed like most of the SEO and internet marketing was done in Europe or USA…..maybe some outsourcing projects in Asia….but the main projects were being done in the west.

So many people in China were curious how to improve their rank on google….to get direct access to American buyers….they mostly would use alibaba and globalsources to promote their business. I would preach Chinese need to learn online marketing more….(and still am preaching) but in the back of my mind…I wondered what would happen when 1 billion people learn also how to market online, as well as indians….and filipinos…..and everyone else in the world. It would have to get more competitive.

Sure, Google says it is always updating its algorithm to ensure only the best sites come to the top of the search engine…..but when you create an internet marketing industry of people working hard to optimize websites….and rooms and rooms, or departments and departments of workers building pages, building content, cross linking, networking in groups and on forums on how to build their website to be the best for GOOGLE. And come on….sure webmasters all over the world can say “make it for the user”, but you can’t kid me they are making it for the search engines at the same time.

So what has SEO become? A couple months ago, New York times reported on a online seller of eye glasses who would use negative online feedback to boost his website (notice later its again New York times doing these articles about negative SEO), and then google was defending itself that it had ways not to allow these kind of bad customer service websites to rank in their search engine and punished the website.

And we have social media exploding now, with the news and people mostly talking about Facebook, Twitter, foursquare…..none of which are owned by Google.

Then recently in the internet world, right when the superbowl came out, Huffington post was bought by AOL. Many said AOL was buying an SEO optimized website, other bloggers criticizing that huffington post “keyword stuffs” by writing the content with an emphasis on keyword desity for target keywords, and grabbing other website’s hot content and re-writing it for SEO purposes.

Now, we see Google punishing jc penney deparment store for black hat SEO and buying links to specific pages that would rank the website to the top of google, breaking Google’s webmaster guidelines. This story was covered by new york times actually, just as the earlier article with the reputation management SEO issues in the eye glasses above…..strange to me, but seems NY times has a lot of SEO people of their own to understand and cover these stories. (kinda cool, would like to meet them!)

We also have to think about a company called Demand Media which is a massive company of contents all over the world who are paid (rather low) to write content…..cranking out tons of new articles every day….and most of its traffic coming from Google and SEO. Many claim this Demand media is simply a “content farm” (there is a defensive article from Demand Media stating otherwise) which adds little value to the internet, and is one example of how the internet is polluted with low quality webpages made just to receive advertising revenue. There are others like answers.com and ehow.com that also are often called this, filled with advertisements and low amount of valuable information.

Then this week, we also have google coming out with a chrome extension to filter websites YOU choose, which is pretty cool, if you are tired of some annoying websites that you never go to (that have pop ups and are just full of advertisements. But this seems like a strange timing…like a defensive move by Google to do anything it can to have users stop saying their search results are full of spam and sellers who have bad customer service. BUT….thinking as an internet marketer…I can always see how this can be used negatively, maybe competitors in the industry will add this function to their browser and have as many people as they know DOWNGRADE their competition’s websites. Maybe Google has ways around this, but the idea Google gets is that they see enough people blocking a website from their results, I am sure they will look into the site.

People in the past used to 100% no questions asked believe anything that came to the top of Google. now seems…there is more questions there, and Google is getting desperate. Maybe they feel overwhelmed by social media (facebook, twitter being the center), and all this negative press about content farms, black hat SEO, and irresponsible ecommerce sellers….they are doing everything they can to keep the loyalty from their users (those of us who search google.com each day). I do love Google, lets hope they can adjust…..but as they adjust, so do many internet marketers and SEO guys.

For example, Social media keeps growing, and its said Google now is looking at tweets from twitter.com as links and counts this in their ranking algorithm. Also we have companies like klout social media optimization and this has nothing to do with google at all, the tools or the companies and services used….and more and more people are looking to facebook and twitter for experts and services….asking their friends for advice and help.

Lets see what happens.

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Seems a lot of that money is going towards international expansion outside of the US market. And…….CHINA seems to be red hot on their list………so many of my friends have been chatting about it the past week or so…..job offers flying around, offices opening…..

Will they be another eBay? Coming into China and trying to copy/paste their technology and translate it into Chinese? Or like Google and stop listening to Chinese government and un-filtering their results? Or will they try to do it like Yahoo China, and instead do an equity swap with a Chinese internet company like Alibaba and hand over daily operations for a minority stake?

My friend Marshall Taplits at Shenzhen Standard just published a great layout of the current group buying marketing in China and how Groupon China will have to react to compete.

Marshall writes it a bit more “politically correct” and luckily on my personal blog here I can say what I want to say…..Definitely groupon has play CATCH UP in China…..there have been copy-cats out here almost since groupon opened its doors (and especially since it got popular over a year ago).

Love it or hate it, when a new product comes out in USA, other countries copy it. But they don’t only COPY it, they tailor fit it for their culture, their people’s tastes!

And how many foreigners are they going to hire? With a foreign headquarters, you will need English speaking management, and translating everything back and forth English to Chinese and Chinese to English. I bet many of those Chinese groupon sites only operate in the Chinese language, have already built their technology, and customized it for the Chinese market, and move very quickly to changes in the market, without having to wait for foreign headquarters to approve a new budget or changes in strategy.

Interesting to see the outcome from this.

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This Shenzhen ecommerce meetup came from a open forum discussion over a month ago on the Shenzhen stuff internet marketing group I made years ago. People had been asking for me to call a meeting and get all like minded people together. So this wasn’t a two or three day prepped event, it had been discussed for a few weeks via online forum.

Still, I was trying to guage what people wanted, I didn’t want it to be another “bar drinking networking event”, but rather a way to connect chines and foreigners in a neutral setting focused on business.

In the past I had presented at a punch party speaking about USA & China business differences with Guang Yao in the Nanshan High Tech Park, at the King Dee building, and after talking to the group afterwards, they told me I could use this new King Dee company meeting rooms for other events in the future if I ever needed. So I remembered this for this event, as it’s a very nice, professional setting in a high tech park…only thing is its hard for people to find, especially foreigners, as it’s a new area in the high tech park, and taxi drivers don’t know the names of the streets yet.

There were 3 speakers for this first event, I would speak generally / high level on the differences I have noticed between Chinese and American / European (western) ecommerce, Guang Yao would speak about Chinese Social Media (download pdf slides), and Huck Liang would speak about Importing goods into Mainland China via Hong Kong.

As expected, people had trouble finding the new King Dee building. A map and photo was posted on the event page, and….as much as I didn’t want to, I listed my mobile number so people could call if lost or needed more specific directions (thinking to setup a separate phone number now to post online). So while it was supposed to start at 1pm, we allowed general meet and greet between attendees while I and others were doing are best to text and voice call people to direct them to this location.

Approximately 50 people attended the event, from Shenzhen standard email blast to the Shenzhen stuff event page, couchsurfing post, and direct invites from myself and others attending, I definitely feel it was a success, especially for the first meeting of its kind.

I spoke from about 1:30 to 2, we took a quick break, then Guang Yao spoke. I had asked him to present in English, but he insisted he was more comfortable to speak in Chinese as he is not confident of his English. A common issue, I and other foreigners here just have to learn that we are in China, and if we want to do business here and learn, we have to become fluent in Chinese!

Huck couldn’t attend, but he gave me his notes on how to present on importing into China, which I presented on the whiteboard.

After the 3 presentations, I wanted a bit of an open forum about what the next steps are for the group, how often to meet, what topics / focus, good day or time to meet. Seems people liked the Saturday afternoon, and the fact that its not in a bar or restaurant. I think when its in a bar or restaurant, mainly only foreigners go. Some wanted to have meetings focused on startups, new technologies, comparing English and chinese business practices. I am more interested in keeping a more focused group based around internet marketing and ecommerce, but maybe we’ll branch off into a couple different groups.

Date hasn’t been set yet, but approximately 1 month from now, after the Chinese New year, on a Saturday afternoon in the same King Dee meeting rooms. Looking for speakers, hope to keep it focused on internet technology and marketing.

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But this is further in the development of LIFE! Not just the internet here, its affecting our lives…the way we decide what we are going to do, where we will go.

For me personally, its pretty freaking awesome, I have been checking into places all over the world….making my mark online. And at the same time, I see people around me in that area, both friends I already know, and meeting new people along the way. I have made friends in Philippines (MikeMo!) as well as re-connected with friends in NYC (Christina!) who saw me check in nearby on those locations. I remember meeting up with Christina a couple months ago and she said she saw me check into JFK airport in new york and got excited. She mentioned she keeps seeing me eating at taco bell in the Philippines….that is just hilarious to me.

People see where you eat, shop, how long you are at work. And you share this with your friends…..

This is one thing I miss in USA, more people use it there then in China, where its blocked by the chinese firewall (Well for some reason it works on my mobile phone via china mobile GPRS…but shhhhh, don’t tell the Beijing government) but not on the website. In America, there was a SWARM in the LAX (Los Angeles) Airport, which is when more then 50 people are checked into the same place at the same time.

I can only imagine this further evolving. I forget the name, but one system I heard that is developed or under development is a social system that shares your credit card transactions on your social media accounts. Imagine that! Makes you think twice before buying that mcdonalds food when you’re trying to lose weight right? Or imagine stores can give you discounts if you buy from them three times, or at certain times or seasons or days of the week.

My friend I met in New york, Billy Chasen, has another cool venture (he’s more of an entrepreneur then even me!) working on a mobile app called stickybits – which lets you scan barcodes of products and add them to your account. Why do that? See who else has scanned them, what they have to say about that product. Or maybe you can price compare, see what stores are selling it. How long its been on the market. This is an awesome idea. He just did a promotion that if you scan in mentos gum (I think that is the product) then you can get a coupon for a free one – something of this matter. How awesome is that. Imagine the marketing programs a business can run with this.

Its all about sharing information online….the beginning of the internet was about sharing news, and forums to chat about topics….but now the internet is developing into your real life…..who your friends are, where you are, where your friends are, what you’re buying, how much you are spending.

Sure, there will be many people who resist all of this sharing of their “personal information”, but really, it helps people find other like minded people, get work done faster, and improve efficiency by allowing people to find the best deals, closest location, and tips from friends.

Incoming search terms:

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57% Of Americans Have Googled Themselves: Pew Study

May 26, 2010 at 7:47pm ET by Matt McGee

The Pew Research Center has released a deep study today that paints an interesting picture of how U.S. adults use the Internet — search engines, in particular — to track their online reputations. One of the primary takeaways that contradicts previous research is that more than half of adult Internet users have “Googled” themselves. The study doesn’t actually use that terminology, but you get the point.

Or doing business….so many people check the name before hand. In various formats, keywords – by location, industry profession, etc. In google, I see so many people searching by name coming to my website, of course by my own name – but many times on my friends names.

I have even had friends from years back contact me to update information I have on this site!  Its pretty funny, sometimes its like “hey man, long time, I was googling my name, and saw  your site comes up – and you said blah blah – can you update it”.  Its a great way for me to stay connected to people.

I remember I bought this domain michaelmichelini.com back when I was working in kozmo.com (now bankrupt) as an database programmer in New york City.  Everyone there was IT and Techy, and buying their name domains before someone else did.  It was the first domain I bought, and then at my university, my fraternity brothers kept cracking jokes at me for having my own name as a website.

At that point, in 2000, people were HIDING their personal information from the internet.  But as time passes, more and more people BECOMING SOCIAL – and realizing its not about companies and websites online, its about PERSONAL people being online – I am noticing so many people buying their own name website.

Anyway, we’ll see how this develops, but this article was a good read and got my mind thinking, supporting the idea of the revolution of PEOPLE coming online, not just businesses.

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Bangladesh Blocks Facebook Over Muhammad Cartoons

Published May 30, 2010

| Associated Press

AP

May 28, 2010: Bangladeshi Muslim protesters burn a Swedish flag during a protest against Facebook. Reportedly, Swedish artist Lars Vilks has angered many Muslims by caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladesh says it has blocked the popular social networking website Facebook over a page that urges people to draw images of Islam’s prophet Muhammad.

Chief telecommunication regulator Zia Ahmed said Sunday that access to the site has been temporarily blocked because it was publishing caricatures that may hurt the religious sentiments of people in the Muslim-majority nation.

Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favorable ones, as blasphemous.

I mean…….when can the world……be free. Then people will say its because America always controls the news, and blah blah blah – but if I don’t like Obama, I can say it. I can joke about that. I can talk about any religion, joke, sex thing I want to. And the US government will not block it. No matter how much they may disagree or not like it….they will allow the us citizens to read it.

I really wonder, I guess, try to understand. here in China, I have learned maybe why, the Chinese government has to control its people…..as the history and culture developed over time that “if the government rule or law is not there, then it is legal”. I don’t even know how to explain it, but the Chinese people feel, like with tax and local laws, that if it isn’t clearly stated and governed by the ruling “law” or government or police, then its OK to do……

So the idea here is, and connecting the filtering of internet information is that, if anyone in China can say or do anything on the internet, without there being guidelines, rules, and CONSEQUENCES for breaking these rules, then it is feared it would become an INSANE FREE FOR ALL. Complete insanity, and anarchy….

Now, is that is what would happen, who knows…….but I think the older Chinese businessman I talk to believe that is the case.

But I think Bangladesh situation is a bit different, its about religion. But….I mean…..seems like a bunch of cry – babies. Why not blog back, post something on facebook to oppose this, and to make fun of someone else’s religion….instead of having it removed or blocked…..post back….

blocking it…..hmmm…accomplishes what really???? I mean…ok, so people in Bangladesh won’t see these horrible images – BUT EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD STILL WILL!!! haha, i mean…..and then it will still exist…..and still be disrespectful.

but maybe that is cultural differences too…..

Update May 31

Damn…facebook took it offline, but why give in? I dont understand……I would not have removed it if I were facebook

Online chat - MSN, skype, google talk, QQ
Mobile phones – texting , talking on the phone, playing video games, surfing the web
Social media – facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc
Portable video games – sony PSP
Listening to music – ipod, iphone, mp3 player

I mean, how many people do you see reading a book! We are cramming our days with new “filler”, but is this improving our quality of life? Is it assisting the advancement of society! Even my blogging, right now I am writing this while I am in a bus stuck in traffic coming back to Shenzhen from Hong Kong. Is this blog entry going to add value in my life, and in others lives?

What did we do before we had all these high tech gadgets:

1) read a book
2) talk to a neighbor beside us on the train
3) LET OUR MINDS WANDER….
4) write things down – ON PAPER

For those times we just sit and stare…..what is this – is this a waste of time? Waste of productivity? Or is it a way to destress. A way to sit back, reflect on our days, on our lives, and prioritize what it is we want with our lives…..

I really do try to stop using the net, music, twitter, facebook and others sometimes – just to hear my own mind THINK. To reflect on what it is I am doing and why. Am I just doing busy work that can be better done by someone else who specializes in it. Rather then my trying to learn to master everything ,and just keep on doing and doing and doing – I need to stop and think and reflect. Strategize….plan…….and win. I PREFER to write on a piece of paper sometimes….it just helps me think more clearly….cross things off, circle, write notes, put numbers next to one another. sure I know there is mindmap software – but I guess I’m a bit old fashioned and still appreciate seeing a physical piece of paper!

Then again, these technologies have allowed me to keep in contact with friends and family ALL OVER THE WORLD. As if they were in the room with me. Plus it helps me communicate to people whose english is not so good – they prefer chats as it allows them to read and write English – they are shy to speak it! So of course there are good things from all this internet and technology advancement, but i think it should still be used in moderation (for example I have 2 chat windows blinking on my laptop now….)

Anyway, just noticing people everywhere are in their own zone…..texting on phones, listening to music, playing on facebook – but I hope they take time to stop and think about the BIG PICTURE of life. We all have to remind ourselves to do this.

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So I am focusing Shadstone business on bridging the divide. Allowing USA companies the ability to warehouse in China and not have to ship a container directly to their USA warehouse, and on the other side, allowing Chinese companies the ability to have a USA presence with an address, warehouse for fulfillment or RMA (returns). This requires ecommerce technology for shopping carts, warehousing space, and management to organize it all.

Again, the world is continuing to “flatten” and get smaller. I hope that I can help bridge the divide more, and give both sides the tools and services they need to meet in the middle of this flattening society.

One more day of the trade show, then a few days in Xiamen to meet some people, see the city, then next stop – Philippines!

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And the name of the blog – Happiness in Pursuit, it comes from the OPPOSITE of the Will Smith movie “Pursuit of Happyness” because that movie is about Will Smith (or whatever his name was in the movie) trying to GET INTO CORPORATE NEW YORK AMERICA / WALL STREET.  This blog is me doing the exact opposite-  TRYING TO GET OUT OF CORPORATE AMERICA IN NY!  haha, that was the idea of the blog’s name.  for the blog name, I do have the domain  happinessinpursuit.com but still just use my personal name for now, blog.michaelmichelini.com – thinking to use the happinessinpursuit.com as a blogger network of those with the same goals and ideas.

I have about 3 paper journals I have back in my Florida that I was writing since 1997!  I flipped back once, and it was pure emotional about crushes on girls, disputes with people over gossip, hating certain classes…..but writing it down helped me.

But those paper journals I wrote as if no one was EVER GOING TO READ IT.  I even wrote in the journal through my university years, but once I got into corporate america….I stopped.  Well, actually a girlfriend in summer 2003 read them while I was in my New York job orientation meeting….and hated me for about 2 or 3 days….so that knocked the wind out of me for a few years in keeping a journal at all.  So most of my corporate america days aren’t recorded in any journal.

But now that I am being reminded each day of people being touched by my blog here, it makes me feel good, but it also adds a bit of pressure on me – should I worry about what I write for offending someone? Or should I tone down what I am writing for fear of it getting misinterpretted?

I always tried to write this blog as if I were writing my own journal entry back in high school, but having it published on the internet has to make me hesitate a bit.

I just want to stay genuine with this blog, and have to realize the reason people like the blog is because its REAL.  It isn’t some covered up, generic articles.  Its my real feelings, my real experiences, in almost real-time.

Strange thing is, I rarely had comments or interaction on my blog until maybe a year or so ago, and even lately its picking up even more.

I have to believe a lot of that is because of social media – and I integrated this blog into facebook, twitter, linkedin, and others.  People love reading motivational ideas, getting real life analysis, and there are MORE PEOPLE ONLINE then ever before.  Its just so true, the world is truly going cyber.  Cyber friends, cyber business relationship, What is real, and what is cyber?

Anyway, just wanted to thank you guys for reading, and hope I don’t let it get to my head too much, and can try my best to keep this genuine.

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Take for example last night, I went out for Saint Patrick’s day. First I had dinner with some friends and family (Jojo, Raine, and her family), and ate a wide range of homecooked Chinese food. I invited them out to the bar for Saint Patrick’s (they weren’t aware of the holiday, actually yesterday (st patricks) was also a famous day in China to get a haircut, it would give you good luck supposedly), but they don’t socialize in bars. Chinese people, especially the girls, don’t normally enjoy spending time in a bar. Maybe in a KTV (singing) or tea house, but not a bar. And if its a bar, its normally private tables and a limited amount of dancing.

Anyway, so they didn’t join me on my trip to the bar – and I ended up meeting my foreign friends there (see photo). It was an Irish pub – fitting for the holiday, and I met my American friend, Brent and a couple of his american friends, with him were 3 dutch people, a korean girl, and a socialite Chinese girl – Kiko Wu.

The discussions were rather wild, and the 2 American girls had just been vistiing for a couple weeks, they are studying at a nursing school in Yale, New Haven , Connecticut. I don’t see many American girls in China, actually I dont see many foreign girls at all, but especially not too many American girls. So they seemed more “uptight” to the maybe dodgy conversations that were brought up.

Maybe a couple years ago I would have the same feelings as they did, but these days I am more accustomed to dealing with the various cultures. The Korean girl, Kay, was very sweet and quiet, so she would be shy to say anything too bold. I have gotten to become pretty outspoken, so I would say some rather borderline crazy things. The Dutch, as I have learned so closely from my friend Bas – are much more open. I think its Europeans in general as they are much more relaxed to discuss topics such as drugs, sex, and nudity. Its the way they were their whole life, its so cool to be able to be that open.

So I tweeted (message on twitter) last night that:

I was chatting to some people on linkedin (sync’d up) about it in private emails, and shared similiar stories. Americans are known to be sheltered, uptight, arrogant, and “they have guns and are cowboys shooting up people on the streets”. I think for the most part, this is true.

But I do support the right to bear arms. I think in China, they only hear about the school shootings and they think its the wild wild west, because its someone with a legal gun going on a rampage shooting everyone.

And the uptight and arrogant….sadly, I kinda have to agree. Of course this is a massive generalization of a population of 300 million people – but for the most part, we Americans make judgements on different cultures without even leaving our own home country. I still have only a limited understanding of Chinese culture, mindset, and logic, and i’ve been submerged here for 2 years! How can my family and friends who have never been here be so opinionated when they have never stepped foot here.

I think the same goes for those other countrymen who never leave their homeland.  But its especially true in USA, because its such a large country and many people aren’t able to travel due to time and money (the short 2 week standard vacation is too short to allow people to fly to China for a holiday!!)

So I am fortunate to have been exposed to so many different cultures, it has allowed me to get out of my “shell” and realize there is a lot more out there.  But its almost SCARY…and OVERWHELMING, as I cannot keep track of all the feelings, thoughts, and mindsets of so many different people.

Thats why I have to try harder to be patient and respectful…..grr….my weaknesses.  But I feel I am learning.

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