I went on a random urban exploration adventure yesterday!

We ventured inside this abandoned factory that my friend found somewhere in the westend of Toronto. There wasn’t too much inside but open space, 2 levels, some tags and street art. Overall, a nice adventure to end off a Sunday evening.

Off to Vancouver until the 25th. I’m excited to see where this trip will lead us.

August starts tomorrow and I have several big plans to end off the summer with… which will flow right into the school year.

A new online business - I will release a report with the logistics behind this idea after this has been out for at least 3 months:

Projects, projects, projects - I’ve finally updated my projects section of the site. It made me realize that I am juggling a lot at the moment (yet, oddly enough, I don’t feel stressed about them). The only two blogs I’ve decided to keep have been around for almost 4 years now?? Right now, they just need to be updated… as for turning it into a blog network (or using it for marketing a different project..) I will have to wait to come up with a strategy that’ll work. For now, these will be like land property, an investment over time… but not ready for use yet.

The death of nufrosh and birth of Visual Pile - I might kill off nufrosh… this might be really hard because I’ve formed an attachment, it’s always been with me since highschool!

I am looking to start branding a tiny design firm this year (it’s just a concept at the moment, and will be online-based for now). The goal is to have it decently established for when I graduate, which is when I will register the business name, and turn a concept into reality. This might be the birth of Visual Pile because of it’s marketability potential over nufrosh.

How can your business bring you business so that you can increase your business with direct profits?

I had a random thought one day when analyzing affiliate programs (or programs that pay their referrals through commissions). Many businesses start referral programs because they are looking to increase their profits through more marketing. They leave this into the hands of 3rd parties, which they pay through commissions.

I then had a separate thought that hypothesized why Google bought Youtube. If you put the concept of “making your business bring you business” it makes sense that Google would invest in such a site.

Google Adsense: This program consists of text based ads. Every time a user clicks on an ad, the webmaster gets paid by the advertiser. Of course, Google takes a % of the profits for being the bridge between the advertisers and webmasters.

A huge percentage of webmasters on the internet use Adsense revnues as their main income. Some people make tens and hundred thousands of dollars a day from such a program.

Keeping this in mind, why wouldn’t Google want to be one of those webmasters gathering daily large earnings? This is where Youtube comes in. Since it is one of the most visited websites on the internet, it has a great potential for gaining a lot of clicks from it’s users. So, of course Google would enroll Youtube into the Adsense program.

A smart business move: in turn, Google becomes one of those high profiting webmasters (under Youtube), but they are directly profiting from the advertisers because they do not need to pay commissions to third party webmasters. This is how their business (Youtube) is bringing profits to their own business (Adsense).

Putting this concept into practice
Imagine offering someone a commission each time they bring you business. Your profit would be project quote - % commission = your profit. Now, imagine if you were the person who brought in the commission to yourself. What are they doing different to bring in new business to yourself? If they brought business to you through their design blog, why not start your own design blog to promote your own work?

Another way this concept can be taken would be to start a business that requires the use of your own skills. An example would be a clothing line… if you are a graphic designer and can design the graphics for a clothing line, you are saving your business money because you are essentially hiring yourself to do your own work.

Food for thought!

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”
G.K. Chesterton

“Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you.”
Aldous Huxley

“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.”
Rosa Luxemburg

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”
Robert Frost

“If you don’t know what you want, you end up with a lot you don’t.”
Chuck Palahniuk

Attempted to draw a graffiti-like typeface for fun with my friend.. and it ended up looking.. vulgar:

Also, decided to go from long hair

To short… from Nikol D at Coupe Bizzare!

Also… on the side note: I will be participating in an artshow during the month of November at Sleeping Giant Gallery. Keep your eyes peeled out for details!!

In queue:
- Secret artshows (completely anonymous, maybe you’ll bump into them in the city)
- Zine making
- T-shirt silkscreening
- Finishing up another EP.. and perhaps a bootleg remix CD
- New business venture
- A soulful trip to Vancouver and NYC (which I’ll be taking some streetstyle photographs for my joint collaboration fashion blog with my bestfriend)
- Adding an interactive/UX design portfolio section to the site
- And lastly… people, people, people

Not done painting my room yet. Yikes.

Download - We Got The Purple Haze (Beastie Boys vs. Jimi Hendrix)

I made, yet another funky mash-up. Enjoy!