So I sold a domain a few weeks ago for $40 on a popular online domain marketplace. Anyway, I contacted the winning bidder several times in an attempt to get him to send the PayPal money for the domain. Sure enough, after about a week I get the money. All good so far. Anyway, I then emailed this person again and asked for his account number and transfer authorization code so I could push the domain to him. Free push, no strings attached, just part of the sale. No answer. I’ve now tried about 10 times through PM and email combined and have not heard back. I even looked up some of his domains through WHOIS and emailed him at those addresses. No answer. So to make a long story short, I have his $40 and I’m sitting here twiddling my thumbs while I wait for him to get back to me. I guess this is better than waiting for payment, or even worse, paying and never getting the domain I bought, but knowing how annoying that is, I’m confused as to why he hasn’t contacted me asking for the domain. I know I would be all over it, but, I guess it is only $40. Either way I’m planning to push it to him once he contacts me with the info. I just found this situation kind of funny because he paid for it already.

So yes, I’ve dropped the ball on the “daily updates”. Became overwhelmingly busy with some other things and sort of stopped blogging here altogether. Somehow readership has picked up though while I was gone, and after getting several emails from people wondering what had happened I have decided to be a bit more active on this blog once again. I can’t say for sure whether it will be a daily thing or not, but I’ll certainly try to get more than one blog post in every three months like this last break has been!

So, hopefully everybody has been well and thanks to the few who have continued to read this blog even though the latest post has been the same for quite a while now. Seems like a few of you should have emailed me sooner but hey I’m back for the time being and that’s all that matters.

If you have a new idea that you think will go over big, go for it. I know two people who are just now starting new businesses due to ideas they have had recently. Both of them have received large amounts of funding for their new projects. One of them is getting more as we speak. If you have a new idea, it’s best to strike while the iron is hot. Go for it while it’s still fresh in your mind and before you talk yourself out of it. Otherwise you could be missing out on a great thing.

I have some new ideas myself that I will be developing soon. I’ve just thought of these recently and am hoping to raise the necessary cash soon to get things going. The trick is to lay out everything on paper and make sure everything makes sense. If you are looking to bring investors on board then it is especially important to make sure everything is simple and straight forward. I’d recommend NOT using investors unless your project requires more money than you are able to come up with on your own.

As you probably know, the final installment of the ever popular Harry Potter book series has come out last Friday. I was reading an interesting article on Business Week about the money behind the franchise and who is profiting. Apparently the lunch box and school supply market hasn’t been able to cash in successfully on the series. It seems that the only person who has really hit the jackpot was J.K. Rowling, the author of the books. I’m sure Scholastic isn’t too far behind her in profits, but when it comes to cashing in, according to Business Week, things haven’t been as easy as people had expected.

The movies have done well enough that Universal Studios will soon be dropping close to a half a billion dollars to create the “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” with Warner Bros by the end of 2009. Disney apparently lost out in the bidding for the rights to build such an attraction. If you ask me this seems like it will be enough of a draw that Disney should have made sure they won it. Ooops.

Harry Potter has certainly been a great example of pop culture success during the last several years. Regardless of whether or not lunch boxes and toys are making money,  the name has easily become more than just a household name by now. It has become a part of many people’s daily conversations. J.K. Rowling could easily have retired after just the first book. Now with seven full books out it’s safe to say that she will be doing just fine. Maybe she will move on to write other fantasy based books. Only time will tell.

The US Federal Minimum Wage is set to go from $5.15 to $5.85 an hour this coming Tuesday. According to statistics from the Labor Dept, there were around 1.7 million people earning $5.15 or lower per hour in 2006.

At the new rate of $5.85 an hour, a full time employee would make around $10,000 or less per year after taxes. The federal poverty level for singles is also just around $10,000 a year. Some people are arguing that the minimum wage should be even higher, due to the fact that it seems unfair for a full time worker to be classified under poverty. The problem with this argument is that many businesses will simply compensate for the extra hourly expenses by raising their prices or cutting out jobs Restaurants will have higher menu prices, while grocery stores will have less people bagging groceries.

The change won’t effect every state, however. Several states have already set higher minimum wage standards. The Federal increase simply forces the states who were still at $5.15 to get with the times.

Source: AP

Last night Google shares (GOOG) dropped from $548.59 per share to $502.47 a share, a drop valued at around $13 billion in total value. $13 Billion is enough to buy some very big companies. It’s a shame to see this happen, but, it’s also good to see that Google isn’t perfect. At least this will encourage some competition to jump in while Google is down. Interestingly enough, Google stock opened this morning at $511.90, up a bit from the low $502 early morning and late last night.

It’s safe to say that if Google goes back over $548.59 that anybody who gets in now is bound to make some cash. The only problem is that with a drop of $13 billion, a lot of people are going to be hesitant to jump on board right away. Google has been purchasing several companies lately including Doubleclick, which has earned them a court date in Washington. On top of that, several Google AdSense publishers have reported that their AdSense checks have been bouncing lately. I don’t know what would have caused that, but, I doubt Google is going out of business anytime soon. At the very least their stock value is simply balancing itself out. A lot of people have considered it to be very saturated over the past few years. It seems that every once in a while it takes a drop like this. So far it has managed to rebound each time.

While Microsoft lost money on the XBOX 360 due to recalls and warranty claims, they have managed to do quite well all things considered. Their profit for Q4 is up 7% with Office and Vista doing well. While Vista didn’t do as well as Microsoft had hoped, it still is selling and after the initial bugs were sorted, consumers felt more comfortable with the new operating system.

Microsoft also released the Zune, an iPod clone that has also been doing ok. Overall, Microsoft continues to do best when it comes to software. Office is doing exceptionally well and has been getting very positive reviews. I’m not sure it’s worth buying the new Office every time a new version is released, but, either way, it seems that a good amount of people seem to agree that Microsoft Office is the best business software suite on the market.

Source: Yahoo

When you are a multi billion dollar company and one day you decide that you want to make and sell a videogame console, you can pretty much do it. You can do almost anything you want when you are a multi billion dollar company. This is very true for XBOX and Playstation. Both Microsoft AND Sony have been selling their newest videogame systems at a loss. Playstation’s $600 price tag apparently does not include any profit for Sony, and the XBOX brand has never turned a profit according to the Wall Street Journal.

The funny thing is that Nintendo was considered to be the underdog throughout this current generation of gaming. Instead they are the only ones to have made any money with their “Wii” console. The funny thing is that both Microsoft and Sony can both afford to run their videogame brands at complete losses year after year due to the overwhelming success of their products in other markets. I don’t think we will see XBOX of Playstation disappearing from the map anytime soon. If anything they are both likely on the verge of becoming very profitable. You’d think they would be making money already but I guess being innovative is more profitable than having the best graphics. That’s why the Nintendo Wii took and is continuing to take the market by storm.

Today marks Money Complex’s 100th consecutive daily blog. To be honest I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be blogging daily, but, I’ll be shooting for another 100 if possible. Today’s blog is going to be a bit short though. I’m going to be prepairing for a long hike tomorrow so chances are tomorrow’s blog won’t be too exciting either. Maybe though.

Anyway, check out Yahoo for a recent story about Google’s new site search engine feature for businesses. They are going to allow companies to pay $100 a year for a custom Google search function for their specific website. It doesn’t seem like something most companies will use right away but you never know.

“Air mice” have been around for a while now. The most common use for them has been in power point presentations. Just last year Nintendo brought a new functionality to the concept with the “Wii-mote” for the Nintendo Wii. Gamers who use the Wii can move the controller in the air to control the on screen movement. The idea wasn’t 100% new, but it was the first time it had been used in gaming. Now PC gamers can possibly enjoy the same air movement controller system. It will all depend if developers like the idea enough to include support for such a feature in future game releases.

Logitech has created the “MX Air Mouse” which is essentially a sleeker more high tech looking Wii-mote. It’s black, slick, curved, and costs around $150. It might not take off as quickly or as successfully as the Wii-mote concept, but, it does open the door for possibilities for more similar “Air mice” gadgets for the PC.

Source: Business2.com