In 2011, I was doing SEO and ecommerce consulting with Five Islands ecommerce center going between Dongguan, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen like a madman. Was doing Shenzhen ecommerce meetups as well, that then lead into developing Shenzhen coworking SZteam…that maybe I went a bit too fast with and had to make a tough decision about SZteam + me …. Luckily I blog (I consider…document) all of this along the way to save my time repeating to others, and those who want to read deeper can read those back articles.

Blogging also helps me learn about myself, get ideas from others, and save myself from repeating my story over and over (those who talk to me see I am constantly referring to blog articles to get the “full story”)….I’ll constantly tell people – I blogged about this, and if you want to know the full story check ____ month archive….

I have no regrets, and who knows which of my previous “adventures” got further ahead, and which projects set me back. I think we all need to appreciate every day we are here on this earth and try our best.

About HiWTO Chinese Foreign Trade Federation

I have blogged about this group a few times this past year – HiWTO means “hello World Trade Organization”, and when they asked me to market it to the west…I knew we had to change the name, for the Chinese language website, it will remain hiwto.com, but in English, we will call it HeroMeetsHero.com.

We’re working on the english translation of the group, Foreign Trade Federation Annual Meeting we had the overview roughly translated as below:

About Hero Meets Hero

Foreign Trade Federation is an association registered in Hong Kong and Mainland China，English Abbreviation：FTF
FTF was called Roundtable Meeting for leaders of foreign trade E-commerce, which has become the largest and most famous industry organization in foreign trade E-commerce industry.

The key tenet of FTF is to integrate industry chain of foreign trade E-commerce, including manufacturers, traders, foreign trade E-commerce platforms, service providers, VCs, governmental organizations, etc., which provides a platform of communication, cooperation, development and multi-win for the industry.

Since Oct. 2010, in every two month, FTF holds one meeting, inviting about 30 senior leaders from foreign trade B2C industry. Until now it has successfully held five sessions. For further communication, on the weekend of every two weeks, FTF also holds small meeting– “Business Life” for many times in different cities.

FTF QQ group has now attracted nearly 300 senior managers of foreign trade E-commerce enterprise in the world, and they are having active discussion in the group everyday.

I have been attending their last few meetings:

• HiWTO’s 6th meeting, (Yearly meeting where I spoke about English social media – over 300 people attended, all high level executives doing English B2C ecommerce export from China to the world.
• HiWTO’s 5th meeting, in Chengdu, China that was sponsored by Milanoo. It was not just business, we got chances to travel, I got to see PANDAS for the first time.
• HiWTO’s 4th meeting, Google China was the main sponsor, here in Shenzhen ecommerce back in May, 2011

I am really excited, I think this is a good fit for my skills, event planning, blogging, building buzz, ecommerce, networking.

They also want to interview their members, and I will do the English versions of their interviews. We already visited one, Interviewing Ebay China #1 Seller in 2009, Lu Haichuan …. and they can help me get the podcast going

This will be exciting, I am sure Dan and others who like this blog will really enjoy the new China adventures and business insight.

I want to do something different…. and introducing chinese ecommerce businesses to the “foreign” world is an interesting task.

Cheers to a good 2012!

Incoming search terms:

• thailand 2012 logo
• 2012 marketing
• china touch logo
• Chinese cities logo
• sell on line michelini

Its going one step further, as bigger blogs like techcrunch making people use facebook to comment…..PEOPLE HAVE TO BE PEOPLE to comment now.

Robert Scoble, a very open and bold blogger, really goes out there and calls people COWARDS who are afraid to put their name / identity to their comments on the internet, part of his article is quoted below:

Hello! Name one person on the web that doesn’t use Google or Bing. One. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Hint, your 700 friends are on Google. Your grandma is on google. Your five ex-girlfriends are on Google. My ex-wife is on Google.

Thinking back over my 46-year life I’ve only read something more wrong a few times.

Not to mention I worked with an executive at NEC who got fired for something he anonymously wrote on a forum (a racist post). Someone figured out where the IP address came from and sent the post to his boss, who quickly fired him. Being truly anonymous and untrackable on the Web is very difficult.

So, what’s going on here? Why is it causing people to lose all perspective on EVERYTHING?
These “authenticity is dead” people are cowards.

See, where I ONLY post opinions I’m willing to sign my name to, lots of people are actually cowards and just not willing to sign their names to their mealy-mouthed attacks.

He is a little harsh there….but if more and more big blogs force you to use facebook connect in order to comment….then either people will have to start creating fake facebook accounts (which do exist I am sure, but is not allowed by facebook’s terms of service) OR only comment when they are not afraid everyone in their life can see what they are saying, and new people they don’t know can look them up on facebook and connect with them more.

For example, I have had my fair share of “comment trolls” on this blog here…..they would use fake names and reach out and criticize me, one some of my friends and readers here (I’m not even going to go back on this blog and check his fake name) he really did annoy me…and he never would say who he was. Every blog post he would say some new annoying comment and upset me, as well as the readers here. I didn’t want to delete / moderate his comments, but after so many of my friends complained I had to block him/her from leaving future comments.

Maybe I will soon force blog commenters here to use facebook connect in order to comment?

Its also going to change SEO as well, as we all know how much comment spam we get in blogs with keywords as the comment name and the SEO target website too. Things keep on changing….social media and SEO merging. People and businesses becoming 1…..the dividing line between personal life and business life blurring….

When can we separate our work life from our personal life? that is another issue.

Incoming search terms:

• troll
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• people who are afraid of having their full name on a website
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• mean trolls images

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.

Incoming search terms:

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So coming back to Shenzhen, I chatted to Attila a friend I have made as both of us are moving from Shenzhen to Manila and moving more from manufacturing / sourcing and into internet / SEO / domaining. He was invited to a domainer meetup in Hong Kong, and gave me a last minute invite since he saw I am just back from USA and it may be something up my alley.

I was tempted to pass on it, as I am just getting back from jet lag and that exhausting 2 months in USA running from state to state, meeting to meeting, and the whole NY warehouse screwup. But it really seemed interesting, a domainer networking event with events including a cruise in hong kong on Sunday night, day trip to Macau on Monday, and office tour of the PPX.com domain advisor company and meeting on Tuesday about the domain industry and new projects they are working on.

For those wondering, what exactly is domaining? As the name says, it is buying, selling, holding, developing domain names in the internet world. Many times it is buying them for the direct type in from users searching for something, and having the keyword domain having advertisements on the page that then pay the domainer a fee if someone clicks on them.

This is another industry where everyone says, DAMN, why wasn’t I buying up all those .com domains in the late 1990s? Just like baseball cards, or Magic cards (yes, I’m a dork and I played Magic back in the early/mid 1990s) If only I had been buying domains back then instead of cards. People in the event owning some pretty awesome domains like tourguides.com , species.com , blackjack.com – none of these sites are fully made, but simply holding pages with advertisements. There are full time people making decent livings doing this business, and it truly is the definition of passive streams of income.

But I really connected with a lot of people in the event….I guess I network openly with anyone in the world, and therefore my network isn’t exactly focused on internet and marketing….but this event completely was, and I could chit-chat about domaining, SEO, hosting problems, merchant account fraud issues, and more and they people I was conversing with could understand my stories, relate, and give me advice and feedback! WOW, no longer do I have to keep on teaching other people, learning on my own, and feel like I am draining my brain of information.

I was also able to meet some domainers in the bar and restaurant sector, doing local event marketing, and interested in working with me on newyorkbarstore.com as they are in Canada and have a telemarketing center and experienced staff in the industry! Wow, this would be amazing, very early stage discussion right now, but also a big positive from the event.

Also many of these domainers are not into SEO, and asking me many questions how to better monetize their domain portfolios…..this is my kinda stuff….and have a bunch of new people to follow up with. Keep on searching.

SWAT – is the basis of Mobile marketing – S being Sms (text messages), W being Web, A being Applications , and T being Togetherness to keep a  balance in all of this.

Other cool highlights:

• Turning apps on/off free at different times or seasons – so you can let users download it for free, but only can use it free at certain times of the day or under certain cirumstances, seems like a win/win.

• Mobile search is 1 person – so the search database knows more about you….kinda scary, but true to realize, the websites know more about  YOU by your phone ,because its much less likely people share 1 phone, but common people share 1 computer.

• Google is all over mobile, more then anything – they are buying up startups, and agressively trying to dominate the mobile web, because they think it is the future!

• 1/3 of android search is voice – that is pretty amazing, I have a android phone and I don’t do that, but they say that many people with android phones do their search  by speaking into the phone….and this will only grow over time (LONG TAIL search terms anyone…)!

• Don’t think of mobile, think of the idea the web is everywhere now….car, google AI driven cars – Google isn’t trying to take over the mobile internet, its trying to take over the FUTURE of search….and taht is VOICE, speaking outloud where you want to go, who you want to meet, what you want to buy, and it will deliver it for you….from driving your car to the place to buy it, or the place to eat, etc.  MINDBLOWING, but maybe its not as far away as we think….

• In store searching, buy online, showroom – i didn’t keep the statistics, but the idea is more and more people PRICE COMPARE in the PHYSICAL STORE…..maybe then they see it cheaper on amazon.com and then buy it online and ship to their house, instead of buying at the store their in.  THEN THE IDEA OF SHOWROOMS comes to mind, without inventory….going inside a showroom of the products you want, testing it out, and ordering it to  be delivered to your home (MAYBE EVEN SAME DAY DELIVERY BY COURIER) its just amazing, but why not, right?  Stores can be more personable, smaller, and there won’t be massive stores with tall aisles of inventory….it is more sales-person driven and user experience driven.

• Video, ppl can watch local news now on phone – children at college away from their hometown can now use their mobile to download an app to see their hometown evening news, to see how the weather is, the traffic was, the high school baseball games.

• Not just in customer mind, but in their heart – this isn’t really new, but its the idea that you don’t just want to BRAINWASH the consumer with the idea that they have to buy your product, but MAKE THEM BELIEVE IN YOUR VISION and your idea, and want  your company to succeed and support your company by buying your brand over the competition.  Obviously good examples are apple, red bull

• The phone will be more connected to us, it will read our temperature, our emotions, our location, our friends who are near us, and suggest friends near us we should meet! Its our virtual assistant.

To wrap things up we had mizmetro sing, and pitched her new mobile app coming out tomorrow that will promote her music, as well as highlight all the cool UNDERGROUND bars and hidden spots for tourists and locals alike to see in new york city!

And this all reminded me another good reason I feel I should stay in usa, specifically nyc – as it s the 2nd largest mobile user base (from what I heard, being after san Francisco , third is baltimore).  THE WORLD IS CHANGING RAPIDLY.  In China, the idea that I have to use these stupid VPNs to escape the GFW (great firewall of China) that is blocking my internet experience lost me there.  Sad again that it is holding back innovation, but anyway, this is the advantage of America – and marketing is still dominant in USA over the rest of the world.  I want to be involved in this mobile revolution!

LOCAL, MOBILE, SOCIAL.

Online Sales, All the Time

I have always loved the hustle.  That’s what attracted me to Wall Street, to New York.  To China. to wholesale markets.  Life is going faster then ever….I’m running between 4 or 5 countries in a couple months.  Have alliances, offices throughout China (shanghai, fujian, shenzhen), Philippines, USA.  I’m getting phone calls from India, speaking bad chinese to phone call salesman.

Blood is flowing.  Making things work.  Deadlines approach.

I remember many times hearing “How is Mike gonna get outta this one this time”?

Locked out of an office, phone battery dead.  Supplier withholding product.  Customer Service Manager out on holiday unreachable.  Customer not providing delivery address and shipping courier is in your face pushing you to fill out the customs paperwork.

So many times I complain, but its the game. Its the hustle.  Having people approach me with their new product or service idea.  Someone coming to me as a resource, connecting them to the right person.  Helping someone get a job (been doing a ton of that lately).

How to monetize this, or is it all long term, relationship building.  That will come back tenfold.

I do have my core businesses selling bar products online and doing some internet marketing consulting.  But I get friends coming to me about a new product, where to get CAD.  Where to get rapid prototyping.  Black box manufacturing.  Its taken years of getting my ass kicked, on the ground, as the man in the arena in the warzone on the forefront of business…..

Then I go back to the “jack of all trades, master of none”, and focus focus focus!  But isn’t social media sales and marketing a focus?  The topic of what is sold or marketed becomes less important as the actual marketing and sales function.

Then there is PERSONAL BRANDING thats being thrown around everywhere.  People want to do business with people, not companies.  And facebook, twitter, blogs are not about being some corporate monster conglomorate, but an APPROACHABLE, friendly, knowledgeable source for others to come to.

I mean, i’m focusing around:

MAIN LOCATIONS: China, USA, Philippines

SERVICES: internet marketing, ecommerce, product development, (international trade and merchant payments)

PRODUCTS: More on the home decor, bar, and gift / novelty sector instead of electronics.

Just building up critical mass, online.  Sources, and people who want to access those sources.  And its value add is these people both trust my judgement……I’ve made some mistakes connecting wrong people, but I keep on tweaking it on both sides.

I have just become so passionate about interacting with people online, and turning online relationships into business and real life meetings!  I think it started when i was traveling and in order to stay in touch I decided to blog it online for those who wanted to keep up.  And my love for the internet kept growing, and finding more people, and that is where I’m finding my niche.

Is it a JOB, or is it a BUSINESS?  Networking.

Incoming search terms:

• demand media david ho
• sales blog for the new age salesman\

• Quick to the point
• All my friends can see what im up to
• Promote new ideas
• Ask questions and share information
• Network and find like minded people fast
• Internet marketing

Quick and to the point - i have ranted about emails being too long, so with twitter you are limited to ____ characters, so there isnt much room for fluff and other bullshit in your message
All my friends can see what i’m up to – i guess the internet has put my life in the public eye and i dont mind, like this blog, my twitter account shows anyone who goes to it see what i am upto. Maybe that scares some people, but when you really think about it, what is so secretive about what you are doing.? By publiclly showing what you are doing, you cab save time telling each person in your life the same story. Plus you can get input and ideas from what you are doing. For example, i was looking for a new cell phone, so i posted (on facebook and twitter) that i was looking for a new phone and needed to get input. My friends replied with their suggestions, and one friend, guilhem from intouch quality, told me he had a used one he could sell me! Haha, that is the phone i am using today! Plus when i travel, people can see what im doing, real time, and almost feel like they are with me. Especially being so far from home and family….i just wish more friends and family used it, but i speculate more and more will over time

Promote ideas – being a businessman,,,,selling and pushing my latest ideas is crucial. On twitter, i can blast a message that im promoting something new, and my friends, who know and trust me, can choose to get involved or not.

Ask questions and share information – this is a bit overlapping with above points, but basically i can ask a question and get real time, human being answers! The idea is the new internet is real time search. Seeing what is hot now! And when you search, you search what real people are saying, and what they are thinking right now…..crazy, and we will see how this develops.

Network with like minded people – twitter is all about building a following, and many people (i have to admit, myself included) get wrapped up with getting a high quantity of followers….but reallly we should focus on good quality. If we build a good following of people who like “basketball”, then when we check our twitter account, we will only get information on basketball….and we can talk to people who are experts. Since actively using twitter, i have found cooperations, friend, and customers from it. The networking is amazing.

Internet marketing – being an internet marketing guy, I see the value in twitter in promoting keywords and products I am selling – not just on twitter.com -  but on google and other search engines and social media platforms. Because  twitter is such a popular site, and so easy for search engines to see, it ranks high for keywords the users place on it.

But really, using twitter on a daily basis has made life more interesting, killed dead time waiting for elevators (I have it on my mobile phone), and allowed me to meet new and interesting people all over the world!  Check me out on twitter today – (@michelini  – twitter.com/michelini )

I quickly start to re-upload a backup of the site I have in my computer, as it was before this hacker code was inserted on the page. Then I see its FLAGGED ON google results. Luckily the rankings have not been affected, but as you can see below – THERE IS A WARNING on the top of the page that my site may be have harmful viruses! I can only imagine that this is going to do to my site traffic…..

I have fixed the problem, and resubmitted to Google Webmaster tools, lets see how long this takes to be removed from the google results…I’m told from 1 friend this happened to him before, and it took 2 – 3 days!

Also, I’m doing a virus scan on my computer right now, and it found a trojan virus in my TENCENT QQ instant messenger files. Must have been downloaded in a chatlog. This business of hacking has been picking up, I’ve been hearing and reading that blackhat SEO people are hacking sites, pumping them with malicious codes to benefit themselves (not exactly sure though)

Is this in response to the tough economy, and people finding ways to earn cash the evil way….sad….

I also hope none of my website visitors on newyorkbarstore.com were affected. The internet can be a scary place. I understand google and the search engines have to protect their users, its just horrible this scumbags can hack my site and place this malicious code there.

Keep on.

Incoming search terms:

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There is a coffee shop in Hangzhou city, China called “Beta Cafe” that is founded by some Alibaba Group execs. It has not spent any money on advertising, all of its customers come from word of mouth and SOCIAL MEDIA – blogs, social networks, etc – AND IS doing really well, as a token of chinese internet success and social networking.

We then talked about US internet, of course the google, ebay, amazon, twitter, and some other smaller sites. I’m not gonna bother writing about that, as this is an ENGLISH blog (haha) and you guys all know about this, and there’s tons of ENGLISH (amazing….) blogs talking about ENGLISH seo and internet marketing. Lets talk about these top chinese sites for those of you who don’t know:

I’m sure you may have heard, but if not, Alibaba Group is a major internet company in China, traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange (1688.hk. They own a portfolio of companies in ecommerce, listed below:

a) Alibaba International – this is the flagship site, which started as a bulliten board by Jack Ma in 1999 for manufacturers to post their products. It turned into a huge directory where factories and trading companies all over the world (well, mainly in China, but then again, theres most of the manufacturing these days) could promote their products to wholesalers, importers, and buyers.

b) Alibaba Domestic – in Chinese for chinese b2b transactions. Factories and Trading companies can sell to other chinese companies.

c) Tao Bao (www.taobao.com) – The Chinese ebay. Well, yea EBay tried to enter the chinese market a few years ago, and Tao Bao kicked its a$$! Tao Bao is free for both buyers and sellers though, so that may be a reason its such a dominent player. But Chinese love this site, and I would say is where 90% of chinese e-commerce is done. They also have an “amazon” fulfillment type system they’re working on, that will connect factories to buyers directly – with tao bao as the platform to “drop ship” direct to consumer (not taking on any inventory though)

d) Alipay – e-payment system. Basically the Chinese Paypal. 99% of the market share.

e) Alisoft – mainly a CRM system, it is cross promoted to its other channels in Alibaba and Tao Bao – and is how Alibaba attempts monetizes these other products, as they do not charge for usage on tao bao, nor do they charge much on alibaba china.

f) Alimama – an advertising platform, like google adwords and adsense. also another way it monetizes tao bao, with banner advertisements and the like.

Next we have Baidu , which is traded on the US NasDaq stock market (BIDU) is the dominant search engine in China, with approximately 75% market share of the search market here. Google China is trying to penetrate the market with maybe the 25% remaining market share, but Baidu still seems to dominate by a wide margin. They have the same business model as Google, selling sponsored advertisements, except they also have some advertisement IN THE ORGANIC results, not just on the left and the top. In addition to their flagship search engine, they also have:

payment system, shopping portal, and a new instant messaging tool. But there clear moneymaker is the baidu search engine.

Tencent, or more commonly known as QQ is a hugely successful Instant Messaging (IM) platform started and still based in the same city I live in now, Shenzhen. A private company (from as far as I can tell) this company makes the most profit of the 3, almost printing money.

Instant Messaging – A IM system like skype or MSN, with voice and video chat like those, But one cool feature I like is YOU’RE NAKED. Yea, you have a virtual “you” that is either a girl or a boy. You can then BUY clothing for your virtual person, picking shirts, pants, shoes, and accessories.

ONLINE GAMES make up 30% of its revenue, as the Chinese market loves to play online games, and Tencent’s games are really popular.

Pai Pai – C2C shopping site, a pretty much copy of tao bao.

Ten Pay – another alipay / paypal e-payment solution.

Other sites in china are more media (yahoo news) sites, that are also emerging with more products:
Sina.com
Sohu.com
163.com

What really amazes me, and was pointed out by the others tonight, is THEY ALL COPY EACH OTHER. And everyone has a product for every major internet function, payment, shopping, chat, etc. We discussed how its harder to copy in the USA because of trademarks and copyrights. But its sad to see in China. My friends tonight are almost afraid to share their ideas. here is why

THERE ARE REPRESENTATIVES From these above MAJOR Chinese internet companies building 100s of products in their R&D departments. they will attend events, work in social media sites, and then report back to their companies the ideas – AND COPY THEM.

So how can a young entrepreneur start his internet company? his ideas are stolen before he can even develop them…by huge multimillion dollar companies. Its sad. Its amazing, and it makes you wonder how innovation can continue.

crazy damn bird

follow me on twitter @michelini

But this twitter….for months I’ve had a username, hearing about it, but I’ve put tons of effort learning it…and yes, it takes some time getting the hang of it. And most of my friends still think its pointless…..which actually makes me realize there is still upside and opportunity for it.

Here’s how I’ve gotten exicted about it:

1) SHORT messages….I HATE LONG EMAILS….this is straight to the point, like my A.D.D. attention span personality needs.

2) CAN SEE WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING – no need to “friend request” like in facebook or linkedin to see who they are and what they are doing.

3) most people on twitter are friendly and curious! you can shoot messages to random people, and get answers. And both people enjoy it!

4) real time search – I want to partake in conversations about china, beer pong, new internet products – I go to search.twitter.com and then plug it in, see what people are saying, AND THEN REPLY TO THEM! get some answers. Interact. And most are still amazed – “how did you find me?”

5) use it when you want – roll my sleeves up, log in, jump into my messages, direct tweets, streams, and real time search. Interact with all people from the world, perspectives. Ruffle some feathers, get some perspective. now this is life!

So i’m pushing to bring back to life many old websites, learning more wordpress, more 2.0 ways to get internet exposure.

THIS IS THE NEW INTERNET, are you ready? strap in and buckle up.

Then I wonder why I didnt do this earlier? I remember always doing other people’s websites, and being overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated. Maybe its because I cannot sell the service correctly, maybe its because I cannot deal with people, or I’m a pushover / too nice. But I enjoy makeing internet technology, and getting people to interact with a website online.

Last week went to the biggest SEO event in china in the city of Xiamen, and was invited as a Speaker! Spoke about keyword tools, keyword research, and how to organize your website correctly. Met many like minded people and it made me wish I was doing internet marketing as a full time effort a lot earlier. better late then never!!

Dinner with the president of SEOMOZ.org – Gillian Meussig, aka “SEO mom”, visiting China from Seattle!

Speaking at the show, about 300 attendees.

In front of the entrance