ari_
But for the rest of you, email capture is valuable precisely because you own the delivery channel.
The author Nate says all his traffic is from search and social. Two platforms he doesn't own. An algorithm change or someone marking his link on spam on Facebook could be disastrous.
Having that email channel is crucial to any online business. And if your metrics stink, then you need to revisit how you're capturing emails and how you talk to your subscribers.
I've had lists with 5% opens and lists with 20% opens. The difference was how the list was built and how I positioned myself.
2. Why we continue to put up with this nonsense is beyond me.
In other words, they know what they're doing.
The crazy thing is that the scales are all different, so your Classic 04 Score could be completely different from your Classic 08 Score.
Conversely, if you believe in God and want to serve him, but are not that interested in Sabbath Observance for example, then strictly speaking you would be sentenced to death if there was a Sanhedrin (old high court of Jewish law, non existent since destruction of the Second Temple).
Of course if you declare your apostasy that's a separate issue.
Your claims are more how you feel about the religion then what it strictly requires. Also the Rambam's tenants are 13, not 12.
The other issue, not mentioned here, is that it's really hard to build a new park. No city wants them so they won't allow them. Effectively there is a cap on supply and demand is growing.
1. forming a 1099 relationship with your devs if they weren't working full time.
2.Using a Personal Employment Organization.
3. Doing your research before blindly incorporating in Texas. We could debate for ages the merits of the state and federal system, but if you were going down this whole road of opening a company in another country and hiring there, then it would have been useful to talk to a tax lawyer and an accountant who are familiar with the issues involved.
TLDR;Europeans whining about things they didn't research, again.
In regards to that US Lawyer, read this always entertaining blog post [original site nomadlaw.com down for quite some time, quoted verbatim here: http://greyenigma.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/i-am-detained-by-...]
US Citizens are taxed on their income by the US regardless of where it was sourced and regardless of where they live. There are exclusions for foreign earned income up $97,600 in 2013 [1], but that does not exempt you from FILING the 1040 and whatever else.
In addition the US has tax treaties [2] with various countries that dictate who gets first right to tax, based on various criteria. Remember treaties trump internal law.
None of these exempt you from filing a return, even if you owe no tax to Uncle Sam.
Then there's the FBAR[3], which is actually a US FinCen form that is administered by the IRS and must be filed by June 30 of each year. It's for people who either have or maintain "signature authority" on bank accounts with a combined value of over $10,000 in the previous year.
Finally there is now FATCA [4], which imposes new reporting requirements on both US persons and Banks. If you live overseas the amount required to report is quite high, but it's still more reporting. For banks it's a royal PIA and many banks will not turn you away if you are a US Citizen (this is anecdotal, I Don't have numbers).
The problem is that the affected parties, US Citizens living abroad, have no real franchise in congress. That's because you vote in Federal Elections based on your last state of residence, which means that your Senator could care less about you.
The solution: We need about 300,000 expats to move back to Wyoming for a while. Once they decide that they no longer like Wyoming and want to move back overseas, they will vote in Federal elections in Wyoming. The expats will then have a voice in congress and be able to have some influence..
[1].http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Forei... [2]http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/International-Businesses/Unite... [3]http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employ...
Also in the USA there's no such thing as No Refunds No Exchanges - if you pay for something by credit card you have extensive consumer rights regardless of the merchant's policies.
Finally, the real reason these sales pitches work so well is they MAKE SKIN CONTACT - and there's something about the actual physical touching that makes the sale a lot easier.
Anyway, the issue is that no merchant account will accept your US company, even if it has an EIN and a bank account, without a personal guarantee. And they won't accept a personal guarantee unless they can either: 1. Pull your US credit report (which you don't have) 2. Be assured you have some assets that are within reach of the US judicial system or 3. take a huge rolling reserve off of your payments.
I would strongly suggest using 2CO, Paypal to get started. Too often we get involved in the paperwork and other stuff without proving the MVP.
Good luck from due east.
2. I am not shocked that this happened to two US Citizens of Arab descent - they fit a certain profile and were PNGed at the border. I am sorry for their experience and would demand more professionalism from the security agents at the border. At the same time, any country can declare a non citizen a persona non grata. If there was a plane leaving in 2 hours it's safe to assume they would have been on that one.
3. Quoting the USG: " Israeli authorities might consider as Palestinian anyone who has a Palestinian identification number, was born in the West Bank or Gaza, or was born in the United States but has parents or grandparents who were born or lived in the West Bank or Gaza. Any such U.S. citizen might be required by the Government of Israel to travel to Israel using a PA passport. Without the PA passport, such U.S. citizens might be barred from entering or exiting Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza, or they may face serious delays at the ports of entry." http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1064.html
4. Folks, encrypt your laptops at border crossings and forget the password. This goes for the US as well. The 4th Amendment does not apply at US borders, and most countries don't even have the niceties of the Bill of Rights.
5. The US is just a little nicer:http://nomadlaw.com/2010/04/i-am-detained-by-feds-for-not-an...
Finally, the country was founded mostly by eastern europeans with a strong socialist ethic, and doesn't have the same genetic code that democracy in the USA has. So for example: You can be detained indefinitely without habeas corpus inside Judea and Samaria, and it's a little bit more complicated in the rest of Israel (if you read hebrew this article gives a good overview http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%A6%D7%A8_%D7%9E...)
(Disclaimer: I have 2 kids, I manage to exercise each day, but it definitely comes at the expense of other things).
This is like asking Om not to take money for GigaOM..
As a buyer I always want to see stats before making an offer. As a seller I will give basic revenue figures and then ask for an LOI with a # or at the very least a number in writing to see if these people are serious.
I think when you hit a certain price range you're better off taking an M&A firm that works in your market. 7 figures is definitely in that price range. The really good firms take your company, wrap it up, and basically take it to auction.
If you're really serious you need an advisor + counsel to make sure you don't screw yourself over. Taking advice from people on the internet is never a good idea.
http://nomadlaw.com/2010/09/more-law-refusing-answer-questio...
[codename47 site:fatwallet.com]
Also check out these: http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/how-to-fight-debt-coll... (note that this site is now owned by Quinstreet so caveat emptor) and http://www.creditboards.com
What about S3 or a bunch of VPSes to test the idea and then go to the Investors with a working startup?
Ari