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My food log in photos - Oct 4, 2011

The Founders Institute starts in Chicago on Oct 17, 2011. It’s a 16 week program for entrepreneurs that is less demanding on the personal life than TechStars or Y-combinator. Thus the average age of accepted participants is 34 vs 20 something for typical incubators.

Today, I paid $900 for the FI semester in Chicago. I have to reincorporate anyway due to the Affiliate Tax problem in Illinios and external FI deadlines will help me move Treazured.com along.

The program starts in 2 weeks!

PS. They ask two essay questions on the application. Interested in what I said?

Write 2-4 paragraphs on why you want to be an entrepreneur:
I must be an entrepreneur to bring my own ideas to light. Building websites and seeing users interact with my sites is an obsession that makes me rise at the crack of dawn.

The benefit of entrepreneurship is the ability to spend my time on things that truly matter to me. I choose the people I work with, the unique service we deliver, and the business model. If a site succeeds in earning money, we get paid. When a site fails, we learn and simply move on to the next release. It’s forever fluid and stimulating.

Provide 2-4 paragraphs on a field that you are passionate about:
Creating shopping websites and finding treasured items is my passion. My first entrepreneurial act was to start an eBay business. I worked one-on-one with shoppers to understand why they bought expensive items over more frugal products.

Treasures are things that make a person’s life better. Many shoppers are constantly on the hunt for treasures. A typical buying scenario is when person has a need or problem and they then search for an item to satisfy the requirement. Another important purchase driver is when people fall in love with a treasured brand or item, then look for a reason to justify the purchase. Deals effectively stimulate non-essential purchases.

There is a lot of room yet for innovation in shopping sites, particularly in the UX.

ForumCon 2 was a great Chicago conference put on by VigLink that attracted 165 forum owners, affiliates and forum services. I was asked to be on a panel to discuss the Affiliate Tax (aka Amazon Tax) with Brian Littleton, founder ShareaSale, and Steve Thayer, attorney.

My story is pretty simple: I’m an affiliate publisher that drives traffic to eBay and Amazon. I built a site which generated $1,300 a month in revenue from Amazon within 5 months of startup. 30 minutes after Illinois passed the Affiliate Tax, I got a termination letter from Amazon Associate program.

Now my only option to regain Amazon revenue is to reincorporate in another state and take an office in Indiana.

We’re working on a new shopping site called Treazured.

Our goal is to assist serious shoppers who research before they buy in the beginning of the shopping process mainly, discovery and watching.

Our other sites, Watched Item and PopWatchers, focus on discovering the most watched / most popular items. This is a great way to find things, but it’s hard to keep track of the hard to find items and to share a list with a friend.

So we’re adding the feature to save any item on a Treazured list.

Another new feature is helping shoppers and sellers understand a niche. I get an eBay market research question each week asking how to explore a niche in terms of identifying the most valuable items in a niche, the size of the market, and who the top sellers are. I’m happy to help users, but clearly this needs to be automated.

Wish us luck!

We had a great time demoing PlaceHero at the Startup Showcase! Thanks to everyone that stopped by.

You’re in my head again, Seth? I was just about to chicken out from emailing Chuck Templeton. If I hear “Redrum”, I’m locking myself up!

Make big plans

…that’s the best way to make big things happen.

Write down your plans. Share them with trusted colleagues. Seek out team members and accomplices.

Shun the non-believers. They won’t be easily convinced, but they can be ignored.

Is there any doubt that making big plans increases the chances that something great will happen?

Is there any doubt that we need your art and your contribution?

Why then, are you hesitating to make big plans?

Seth must work for Apple. I read these posts and bought an iPad.

You don’t need more time

…you just need to decide.

Autarky is dead

Self sufficiency appears to be a worthy goal, but it’s now impossible if you want to actually get anything done.

All our productivity, leverage and insight comes from being part of a community, not apart from it.

The goal, I think, is to figure out how to become more dependent, not less.

Greetings from the Amazon Associates Program:

We regret to inform you that the Illinois state legislature has passed an unconstitutional tax collection scheme that, if signed by Governor Quinn, would leave Amazon.com little choice but to end its relationships with Illinois-based Associates. You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of Illinois. If our records are incorrect, you can manage the details of your Associates account here.

Please note that this not an immediate termination notice and you are still a valued participant in the Amazon Associates Program. But if the governor signs this bill, we will need to terminate the participation of all Illinois residents in the Associates Program. After that point, we will no longer pay any advertising fees for sales referred to amazon.com, endless.com and smallparts.com nor will we accept new applications for the Associates Program from Illinois residents.

The unfortunate consequences of this legislation on Illinois residents like you were explained to the legislature, including Senate and House leadership, as well as to the governor’s staff.

Over a dozen other states have considered essentially identical legislation but have rejected these proposals largely because of the adverse impact on their states’ residents.

Governor Quinn’s office may be reached here.

We thank you for being part of the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you continued success in the future.

Sincerely,

Amazon.com

Groupon’s secret recipe for 90% off! The 2011 biz plan calls for 1 billion more cats.

Check out CatRecipes.com.