Stop Chasing The Money!

Stop chasing the money. Money shouldn’t be the goal! That is the number 1 mistake that people make today. People have the wrong perception and therefore their reality rarely transforms into what they actually want. Stop chasing the money. Find something you love. Do it with PASSION. And I mean the raw definition of passion. Love what you are doing. Make it something where you can actually benefit other people. Learn and find out what you can do for someone else and you will find that the rewards are far far greater than trying to make other people do something for you.

Listen closely now, if you do something that you love, with absolute sincerity, passion and dedication, you will find that you will be the best. And through that, people will see value in your work. And through that, you will earn better. And through that, you will begin to see your dreams and goals becoming the reality that you hoped.

Find that passion. Don’t concentrate on your weaknesses, harness those strengths. Always play to your strengths and you will find that not only will you touch the stars, but you will touch a million galaxies.

Have a wonderful day.

Imraan Moosa

Blogging – The new way of earning money!

Blogging can be thought of as an online personal diary in which the author posts on a variety or specific topics of interest. These blogs are made public to the the whole world, where a difference of opinion and comments are shared. Authors usually post fresh articles and interesting reads on a daily basis with the sole purpose of deriving unique and repeated visitors to their blog. It’s interesting to look at the idea of such a simple concept and wonder how the internet has brought on some unique and out-of-this-world to previous generations concepts and made them into a daily part of our lives.

Lots of people use their blogs as a way of voicing their opinions and thoughts to the world, however more and more people are beginning to see the light of using their blogs as a form of generating income. How is this so?

Well, with the advent of new and easier by the day technology, you can get paid by merely saying interesting things funny thought. Companies and other blogs are constantly looking for ways to market their new products and services, and with blogging, it allows those companies to advertise on blogs. So the visitors of the blogs see the advertisements and click them. Each time an advertisement is clicked, the author of the blog gets paid a tiny amount. So a win-win scenario takes place.

Google’s free AdSense service is a common and most revered option chosen when looking for ways to allow companies to advertise on your blog. A small rectangular advertisement is placed onto your blog, and all you have to do is generate traffic to your blog and get paid.

Sounds easy?

Not quite so. There are millions of blogs and websites all competing for internet users attention in this global era that we live in. You as a blog author have to be able to lure that internet user to your blog and if you manage to keep that user on your blog for more than 40 seconds, well then congratulations my friend, you are on the right road

So how do you generate more traffic to your blog?

Well for each problem, entrepreneurs (in the definitions true sense) see opportunity. Special tips and tricks are out there that allow you to generate more traffic to your blog.

Here are just a few secrets that I will share with you:

1. Join a forum of interest and add a link to your blog in your signature.
2. Write valuable and quality articles daily.
3. Add meta-tags to your posts to improve your rankings on search engines.
4. Use back-links when posting your articles on other sites.
5. Post your articles on other sites such as ezinearticles.
6. Search for blog directories (a simple google search) and submit your blog on them.

With these few words in mind, I would like to tell you that at first it will definitely take time to establish your blog, but so do all good things. Just keeping working at it and in due time you will see results.

Happy blogging.

MindTools.com – Essential skills needed for any person

I recently came into contact with an amazing website. A site dedicated to improving your daily skills that will help you improve your problem-solving, decision making, leadership, distress, communication skills, information skills and many many others.

These type of skills are mandatory to develop in order to be successful, both in business and your personal life. I believe that it is just as important to invest in your inner-self than to invest in your outer-self.

Learn, learn, learn.

Don’t ever stop learning.

And the best part of all is that each article on the site is short and free. My recommendation is to spend at least only 20 minutes a day reading and applying ONE new principle into your life. Therefore in just 1 year, you would have made yourself 360 times better than you were the previous year. Now isn’t that something??

Link to MindTools.com

- Imraan Moosa

Entrepreneurship From A Young Persons Perspective

We have all seen articles, blog and websites regarding entrepreneurship, but today I intend on writing from a different perspective. Many young folk today are looking around and seeing young people, entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Ben Kaufman (Mophie), Bobby Chang (Rapidshare) and many others and become motivated by their success. These people have made it..but only through hard word and determination.

Now I understand that you as a young person may have many things that you need to balance ie: studies, side work, friends and relaxing in general. But with a little work and determination – you can be on the road of success.

Please remember that becomming successful or making a name for yourself will not happen overnight – you will have tons of obstacles and difficulties that you need to persevere through, but you know what? At the end of the day IT’S WORTH IT! Why you may ask? Because in reality this will be experience on its own!

So what does it take to become an entrepreneur you say?

My first advice to you is to find something you love. In my experience and reading, doing something you love is the most important because in it you will find yourself passionate about it and without even realising, you will work hard. And work isn’t work if it’s something you love

2. Always think BIG – Now don’t backpaddle, always be thinking big, but remember to think realistic aswell. When you start small, take one step at a time – persevere and work towards a goal.

3. Focus! Focus! Focus! – I cannot stress the importance of this point. Many and I say many people tend to find an idea..think it through and through – but don’t follow up. They forget that the follow up is the most important thing. Everybody has ideas, but it is those few who follow up on their ideas, work hard through it and are determined that truely make it.

4. Keep a balance in your life – Too much of something is never good. You need to balance your studies, work, friends and social life. Equilibrium is the best state and always try to plan yourself accordingly so that none of your obligations suffer.

5. Find something that motivates you – Whether it be you sticking a page on your roof saying “I WILL BE A YOUNG MILLIONAIRE” or by you reading about other young successful entrepreneurs – find something that motivates you. It will help you in times of difficulty and lack of motivation. Remember to act upon that motivation every single day.

If there is one thing I’ve learnt it’s that.. you become what you ultimately think about most. So if you’re thinking about your idea of entrepreneurship contineously – you will ultimately become successful.

One step at a time, slowly but surely you will get there. Trust me, if you want it bad enough – you’re definately going to get it.

Wotcha,

Imraan Moosa

Mobile Apps

The U.S mobile apps market is set to reach $9 billion by 2011.

Web Apps

By 2010, at least 60 percent of new applications will have web capabilities.

C# String Searcher

Below is a little C# program that I wrote which searches all files within a directory for a custom string. Could come in handy nah?

If you have any comments regarding the code, feel free to comment.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;

namespace MyProgram
{
    class Program
    {
        static int results = 0;
        static int dirs_searched = 1;
        static int files_searched = 0;

        static void SearchForString(string _dir, string searchstring)
        {
            try
            {
                DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(_dir);

                string[] _files = Directory.GetFiles(_dir);
                int counter=0;

                foreach (string file in _files)
                {
                    files_searched++;

                    if ((counter = ReadIt(file, searchstring)) > 0)
                    {
                        results += counter;
                        Console.WriteLine("Found \"{0}\" in {1} - {2} times.", searchstring, file, counter);
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Error: " + ex.Message);
            }

            try
            {
                string[] _dirlist = Directory.GetDirectories(_dir);
                foreach (string subdir in _dirlist)
                {
                    dirs_searched++;
                    SearchForString(subdir, searchstring);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Error: " + ex.Message);
            }
        }

        static int ReadIt(string file, string searchstring)
        {
            string line = "";
            int counter = 0;

                try
                {
                    StreamReader sr = File.OpenText(file);
                    while (!sr.EndOfStream)
                    {
                        line = sr.ReadLine();
                        if (line.Contains(searchstring))
                            counter++;
                    }

                    return counter;
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Error: " + ex.Message);
                }
                return 0;

        }

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            string searchstring="";
            string dirstart = "";

            Console.WriteLine("String searcher.\n");

            Console.Write("Enter string to search for: ");
            searchstring = Console.ReadLine();
            Console.Write("Enter directory to search: ");
            dirstart = Console.ReadLine();

            try
            {
                if (Directory.Exists(dirstart))
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("\nSearching {0} for \'{1}\'", dirstart, searchstring);
                    SearchForString(dirstart, searchstring);

                    Console.WriteLine("\n================\nFound {0} results.", results);
                    Console.WriteLine("\n{0} directorie(s)", dirs_searched);
                    Console.WriteLine("\n{0} files.", files_searched);
                    Console.WriteLine("\n================");

                }
                else
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Path could not be found.");
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Error: " + ex.Message);
            }
        }
    }
}

Compiled version can be found here: Download String Searcher

- Imraan Moosa

Is your website/blog ready to launch?

People and customers judge you by your website. It is especially important for a startup company/website/blog to have all the basic information covered. Check your website against the following to make sure you are giving your viewers the things that they require.

• Contant Information – Do you have all the relevant information on your website/blog for your viewers to contact you? The most frustrating thing for a viewer is not finding the right information in which to contact you.
• Consistent design – Be sure to have a consistent design throughout your website (if you have one) or your blog. Be sure that menu’s, logos, colours are all in the same place for every page.
• Search menu – Have a look around the most popular and large websites. They all have a search ability to search for material from within your website/blog.
• Updates – The most critical thing is for you to consistently update your website or blog. Keep it updated! Post new things all the time. Remember that each day is a new beginning and brings new viewers. You want to keep updating so that you give reason for your viewers to come back.
• Analytics – What if you built a website and nobody came? Thankfully blogs offer a system in which you can view the number of viewers on a post, the most popular topics etc. Google Analytics ( www.google.com/analytics ) offers such a tool for websites. Another tool that you could use is Woopra ( www.woopra.com ).

Enjoy your day.

- Imraan Moosa

Starting an Import/Explort Business

- Imraan Moosa - CrackerSolutions

Hello again I recently received a comment asking for some advice on starting an import/export business and so I decided to read up a little on the subject so that I could provide some insight and share what I have learnt. I do not claim to be an expert on this topic, however I am most willing to learn together with you. With that said..let us begin!

The international market is becoming more and more popular as the world progresses. Actually it is becoming hot! Gone are the days were things like flying, sailing across countries were laughable. We live in a world with endless possibilities and it is becoming more and more common for the average person to begin an import/export business.

Take a step back however. International trading is not something new. Remember the old days, when travellers around the world use to set sail in order to barter cotton, spices and other precious stones. We as more technologically-advanced people, have just found easier ways to import/export our products.

Not everybody is cut-out to be an international trader. If you are the type of person who shudders at the thought of making a sales pitch, or you are an organizationally challenged person then I would say that you don’t want to be doing this kind of business. If however, you are a really enthusiastic person- who enjoys tracking receipts, invoices – or if you love the idea of working with people from different cultures, then I would tell you to just keep going! You are on the right track!

Why do we Import/Export?

It comes down to 3 main reasons being:

1. Availability: There are certain products you just can’t obtain from within your own country and therefore need to import it from another.
2. Image: Sometimes the ‘image’ of a product from another country just appeals more or has a greater effect even though the same product is available in your country.
3. Price: The price of a product from another country in comparison to the price in your country being lower – would be profitable to import and sell within your country – at a lower price.

Aside from these things, countries usually export products which they can product inexpensively due to technology and resources and import products which they can not/find difficult to produce. Take for example a country such as Saudi Arabia which is gifted with oil. They contain the resources together with the technology to take advantage of this oil and export it – but they may need to import clothing.

There are different types of Import/Export Businesses niz:

1. Export Management Company (EMC): An EMC handles the exporting or a product for a domestic company that wants to sell its product internationally, but does not know how to or does not want to know how to. They handle most of everything. They take care of distribution, packing, dealers, arranging shipping and sometimes the EMC takes title to the goods becoming their own distributor.
2. Export Trading Company (ETC): An ETC focuses on the other side of the coin. They find out what products are in demand from foreign buyers and then find domestic sources that are willing to export. See the difference between an EMC and a ETC?
3. Import/Export Merchant: This sort of entrepreneur is like a free agent bound to themselves only, taking all the risks – but gaining all the profits too. They specialize in no specific product, nor do they have a permanent client base. They look for whatever is in demand at that moment, import/export it – package and ship it.

Other things that you will need to look into – finding a trade market! Every product needs customers in which to sell to and you will need to research what foreign customers are in demand for and do market research so that you are fully equipped.

I have now come to the end of my mini Import/Export Business guide. What I have written is just the beginning on a major topic of how to start an Import/Export Business. However, I hope that I have hyped you, oh future Importer/Exporter enough to continue reading more on the topic so that you may fulfil your dream.

If you have any furthur questions, comments or suggestions – feel free to comment on my blog or email me: id3ntity@gmail.com

Lunch is ready..and I’m out

- Imraan Moos

C# Ebook – Round 2!

Hello there. My name is Imraan Moosa and for those of you who do not know me, I am the author of the CrackerSolutions blog.

While browsing the web, I came along an interesting e-book taken from the www.programmersheaven.com

To all those programmers or wanting-to programmers out there, I suggest you take a few minutes to check out that website. It contains alot of programming material and guides that will assist you and help you familiarize yourself with the programming environment.

Now back to the point

The e-book that I came across can be found here: Download C# Ebook!

Take your time. Read through it slowly. Follow the examples if any..but most importantly keep programming! The best way to learn programming is to practise. Don’t be afraid. Try things. Programming is all about exploring. Pushing your computer into creating something extraordinary. You will be suprised at how satisfying a working program can be.

Happy programming friend! :

- Imraan Moosa (id3ntity@gmail.com)