Monday 19 May 2014

Fishmonger and Beer Buddies (Why bloggers do what we do)

Frequent readers of blogs may want to pickup some books on blogging (Blogging for Dummies is a good start) if you are curious why some bloggers do what they do in their blogs.

For those who prefer reading stuffs online, you may want to google "Problogger" and you will find the granddaddy site of how to  make money by blogging.

The keyword here is if you are curious. Without curiosity, there will be no "automatic self-learning reflex".  It's back to the default setting of waiting for others to tell us what we "should be" learning...


Why should I? I'm not going to start a blog, or have any illusions to make money on-line. 

Hold this thought.


If anyone has bought insurance in your early twenties, and knowing what you know now versus then, and you are honest to yourself, the reality is you have not bought any insurance at all.... Have you? Yes, you were sold to.

Would it have helped if you had read some books or attended a course on Selling? You would have known the "hooks" and "techniques" we salesmen use to reel in our catch. How we size up our potential customers and grade them instinctively into "easy" or "it's a challenge" targets?

OK, the last comment is maybe more in the realm of consumer behaviour... How different groups react to stimuli.


How about advertising? Are you not curious how advertisers aim to attract your attention, arouse your interest and desire, and give you a nudge to displace your state of inertia into action?

Have you noticed property ads always portray a drop dead gorgeous lady model (never a housewife?) in a swimsuit, bikini, or plunging neckline/low-backed evening gown? The male models, if any, are merely props? Try recalling what the male model wore in the property ad!

Now, are these property ads targeting Men or Women buyers?

If you are a male reader, what buttons the advertisers are trying to press in you?


But I have no desire to work in advertising. Why should I care about what goes on behind the scenes?
  
OK... Evidently you have never caught yourself asking why am I doing this (buyer's remorse)? And curious enough to look up to see what strings others are twiddling above you.


I can go on to other examples in politics, spirituality, sex. But you get the picture.


Now back to blogging. 

Have you noticed why some websites are eager to give away "free" stuffs? (Go back to the first paragraph if you curious).

With the proliferation of "financial" bloggers and websites (which by itself can be an interesting market indicator), just thought its good to swing my little hammer onto the tiniest of bells - ding, ding, ding!


Talking to fishmongers and beer buddies about fish is not the same.







31 comments:

  1. Hi SMOL,

    Hmm, thought provoking :) I hope I belong to the beer buddies/fishmonger type lol!

    I'm immensely interested in the psychology of persuasion. Maybe it's one of the key skills I need to do to motivate students. Just a few days ago, I was asking my wife the difference between manipulative and persuasive. Eventually the debate comes down to the motivation behind it..but even then it's still greyish, not black and white.

    I think everyone should know about persuasion, if only to defend yourself from other practitioners haha!

    I did notice a lot of newbie bloggers. I also rmb a time when all the bloggers that are of the same 'batch' as me, going offline one by one during the deepest bear. We'll see if the cycle repeats :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LP,

      Beer buddies are like hobbyist bloggers (me?) shooting our mouths - full of sound and fury; signifying nothing. It's all in the name of jolly good fun!

      Argue till we are blue, and the next moment we can break into "We are the world, we are the children..." With beers in our hands swinging. LOL!


      Fishmongers SELL fish. Period. (Snigger, snigger)


      Normally I would cheer anyone who starts on their dream or passion. Be it a dream of a successful internet business, or some alternative income from their regular work.

      However, the situation is getting a bit blurred recently - a bit like "amateur" food bloggers who are getting paid to do food reviews; and contrast it to newspapers and magazines where the professional food critics state they have PAID for their own meals for the reviews. Who is more credible now? Hmm...


      We don't want to practice the dark magics, but how to defend against the dark arts if we have no clue what we are up against?

      It's like Starcraft. The best preparation for a Terran player to beat Zerg is for the Terran player to play Zerg in training sometimes. (I think I've just lost the non-geeky readers)


      I was not into blogs back then, but I was with the Wallstraits forum. Don't talk about the regular forum members during the dark days, even Wallstraits - a Value Investing evangelist business - faded away like so many others before them...

      It's never about the nouns we choose to call ourselves; it's always the adjectives that matter more - good, lousy, great, abysmal. Ouch!


      My bad. Pop-corn in hand with giant coke, and watching the movie....

      I bird-watcher.

      Delete
    2. Passion and motivation?

      When we can't make money out of them, few can tahan that long. Right?

      Delete
    3. Time is the only true element to tell who are fishmongers or beer buddies. LOL!

      Delete
    4. CW,

      Again we defer to our 5,000 years of Chinese wisdom:

      The longer the distance travelled, the better we know the endurance of our horse.

      The longer the time spent together, the more a person reveals his heart.

      Delete
  2. do one always need good valid reasons to blog?
    it's really a personal choice.

    is it wrong for one to blog for some ulterior motives?
    it's really a personal choice.

    some people invest from young till dying old age but only made a few thousand bucks. Is the longest distance of travelling necessarily equates to wisdom? We are only human.

    the time when one is in financial distress (or serious illness) is when we will know how true a person is to you or it is still the longer the time spent together, prevails? It is a deceitful world we lived in.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Money Honey,

      I'll join you in asking rhetorical questions:

      1. Who is making this decision? Is it me?

      2. What motivates me to say what I say? Do what I do?

      3. That ah long that appears at my time of financial distress a "friend"?

      4. Why do I remember fondly the teacher that kicked me out of class?

      5. Am I the same I at 47, 30, 21, 16, 6 years old?


      Good stuffs Money Honey! Your questions interesting ;)

      Delete
  3. Hi SMOL,

    This blog post resonates with me.

    I hope I am considered a beer buddy and remain so since I probably can't get past myself to recommend stuff I am not too keen on. Conflict of interest sucks.

    But well, sometimes it's good if readers could help to "pay" for my beer while I offer to chit chat? =)

    Best of both worlds too much to ask for? Hmm...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello 15HWW,

      Thanks!

      You? Definitely!

      I do get the equivalent of some cups of coffee during good months, but that's not the motivation for my blogging - I enjoy the interactions and have got in return much much MORE than those cups of coffee ;)

      You and I can share our opinions freely at our blogs, open ourselves to counter-viewpoints and alternative suggestions.

      But when we say this works for me, therefore it will definitely work for others... Only fishmongers say such things.

      Fishmongers would want their flock to keep coming back for fish.

      Fishmongers will NEVER encourage or share with their flock HOW to fish for themselves.

      Delete
  4. i feel like i'm blogging too, on other people's turf haha.

    being like that for 5,6 years already, no change.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i like to blog, at least it help me to kills time.

      but i don't like to set up a blog, its wasting time.

      same for eating, i (like to) eat but don't like to cook.

      Delete
    2. so are you doing things that you like or are you doing things that you want or have to, there is a great different.

      let me re-say it, there are things in life we have to, we have to eat, to sleep, bath....that does not mean we like to, we have to. is it not enough things we have to already, why bother to find more things we have to do it? its a waste of time.

      the more time we spend on things we like to do, the better we are.

      Delete
    3. just beware of over doing it, it can kill you too!

      Delete
    4. coconut,

      It's amazing I've been blogging for 3.5 years now!?

      At first it's fun but bloody work and stress... What to write? Write about how I feel or what's popular as in flavour of the week? How often should I write? Should I include pictures? Eh? That blogger (butterfly man) has a nice technique; steal with pride! Learning, exploring.

      Now it's fun without thinking about blogging. I've found my own pace and rhythm :)

      Delete
    5. center around trading, especially phycology on trading, it will reflex on our lives too.

      but you usually did the opposite, said something about lives and i usually bring the topic down to trading!

      damn you haha..

      Delete
    6. don't you trade often? i know its boring to bring out topics that are so cxlose to our heart but if repeat enough times, it may subconciously change our behavour you know.

      Delete
    7. and i can tell when people blog, they tend to hold bvack a lot, saying things very superfacial, not deep (to the heart) enough!

      this is my observation, as in real lives as well, they just not frank enough.

      when you speak to the market, there should not be any holding back or else....

      Delete
    8. coconut,

      I am man of leisure first; trading is to pass time and kopi money second.

      You are trading first; trading second; and trading third!!!

      LOL!

      Delete
    9. what kind of leisure? all round? can you be more pecific?

      so trading is the product of your leisure? so you continue to find the products that will keep you leisure?

      i think leisure is the product of my trading.

      Delete
    10. but when comes to snooker or golf or sometimes even trading, they becomes the products of my leisure too.

      Delete
    11. however, blogging is the product of my trading, not leisure, leisure is...

      er starting to get confuse haha.

      Delete
    12. coconut,

      It's OK.

      Rest your mind. Don't hurt yourself now.

      Happy can oredi!

      Delete
  5. Hmm...

    I am a fishmonger by intention but a beer buddy by market circumstances LOL.

    Cannot sell fish, aiya, close shop and have beer la. But beer talk among men usually only centered around work, money and women. Family, ya.. It props up a while only to be drown by beers and followed by: change topic Change topic, cheers cheers.

    Fishmongers. Sell fish, wonder if there is a market for beer sellers? Talking about power and women? Oops, u did a blank post on women. Hahaha

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anyway, on a more serious note,

    Talking to fishmongers and beer buddies about fish, are both ok, and fun.

    Talking to beer buddies, you realised you are are talking how you wish you catch that biggest fish, how each of us catch fish differently, and marvel at how seem to use a rod, when others use a trawler. Basically, we are talking co**

    Talking to fishmongers, is a more intelligent exercise, you need to decipher intentions, enthics, capabilities. is he trying to sell me a seabass or ikan bili? Or a staled soon Hock? Or pass off a oyster as abalone?

    Go market more often and damm yourself for not doing household chores if you cannot differentiate between oyster and abalone, and didn't bother to ask your mum or google!

    ReplyDelete
  7. But maybe the fishmonger dun even know what he is selling? or not sure the different between wild catch and farmed...

    So when I am not sure, as a fishmonger I will confuse to convince. Hahahaha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sillyinvestor,

      Hey! Your the 2nd person who can do a monologue at my blog!

      Glad you are having fun ;)

      A person who can 笑谈风月 definitely deserves a beer!

      Cheers!

      Delete
  8. We all can respect each other positions, but in the first place it's better to be clear about that when comes to serious business, this shall always applies:-
    “道 不 同 不 相 为 谋,志
    不 同 不 相 为 友”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. temperament,

      And it shall be.

      I remain polite and cordial; but there are people I prefer to keep at arm's length.

      Delete
    2. ya you better do!

      $#^%@(&!!!

      Delete
    3. coconut.

      LOL!

      You talking to me? (Robert De Niro)

      Delete

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