The Rise & Fall Of Starbucks Coffee

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Everything comes in cycles, real estate, employment and economic growth, even coffee? Once I started seeing StarBucks on every damn street corner in Vancouver (and on Robson kiddie corner to one another), then you know it can’t last forever. In one way Starbucks killed themselves with their saturation of the coffee market. Starbucks made coffee what it is in Vancouver, but at the same time they over killed it. I mean seriously, they went overboard. Robson street alone has over 5 coffee shops, on one street!

I just saw in the news today that Starbucks is closing 600 stores in the USA. Yeah, yeah I know it’s because of the economic slowdown in the U.S but they grew fast, really fast. And seriously, the prices are killer. People drink coffee everyday, well I do anyways. However you won’t catch me buying a Caffe Mocha every day for one reason, the price. I don’t feel like paying $4.50 every single day for that Mocha. After a month at $4.50 per cup, it’s $135 a month just on Caffe Mocha, no thanks….

I could go to Tim Hortons and pay about $1.50 a cup, so $45 for the month compared to $135, you do the math. I make my coffee at home, way cheaper than buying it. If I do go out for coffee (roughly 3 times a week), I go to Tim Hortons. I visit Starbucks maybe once every 2 months. Sorry Starbucks but come on, $4.50 for a Mocha? Hell, even McDonalds sells iced coffee and it tastes just as good as Starbucks but only $1.35 compared to Starbucks at $4.50, again no thanks. I mean geez, it’s only coffee, why do you guys charge so much????

Gas is at $1.50 per litre in Vancouver, houses here have doubled in the last 5 years to an average price of just under $550,000 for an OLD home. Once prices start rising on staple products, then the luxuries such as Starbucks go first.

Thanks for some good times but I’m not that sad to see you go, sorry. I get ripped off enough at the gas pump, government taxes and at the grocery store. Good luck Starbucks.

Sincerely,

C.V

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random pics

Sunset in East Vancouver July 1, 2008

sunset shot from my porch Canada Day July 1, 2008

Seagull chilling on lap post in AmbleSide park in West Vancouver

seagull on lamp post in AmbleSide Park, West Van

Smoking Hot Day, Perfect For Power Washing

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Well, it’s great to see the hot weather has finally kicked in around Vancouver. I spent the whole day power washing then sealing my stamped concrete driveway with a lacquer clear coat. Being out of the labor workforce for 10 years , you can sure feel ti when you have to work hard again. Sitting on my ass building pay per click campaigns sure does nothing food for you health, the pocketbook on the other hand is a different story.

I actually did power washing as a business for about 2 years in the late 1990s. It’s a labour intensive job, but you can make some great money. It’s seasonal work but you can sure make some nice side cash, that’s actually how I paid for my computer college to learn web design back in 1999.

Well, it felt nice being off the computer on such a nice sunny day. The weather for tomorrow, who knows?

Stamped concrete with clear coat

shot of the stamped concrete and slate stairs after I did my magic with power washing and clear coat sealer.

oooh closeup of flowers, yeah!

The Rocky Road To Financial Success

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About one week ago, I posted about my AdWords account being suspended obviously I wasn’t very happy about the situation but I learned to live with it. I couldn’t do anything about it. One thing I have learned with working online for the past 5 years is to take everything that happens good and bad and learn from it.

You can make huge money online, and I have done my fair share. With this latest situation, it was unexpected however I learned from it. With every drawback I have ever had online I came back stronger and I made more money after the “crisis”, this last AdWords fiasco is going to be no different.

After I basically had a heart attack from being “suspended from AdWords”, I started thinking about how I can get back on the railroad to success. Since I already have the tracks laid out for me, it is just a matter of jumping into the engineers seat and taking control of the train . I am basically set and ready to go full speed ahead.

My goals haven’t changed I still want my to buy investment properties to make me my $20 k per month, I am already 25% of the way there. That part is easy and I know where to buy , it’s just a matter of when I want to make the down payments and but my Vancouver condo apartments.

Nothing is going to stop me, nothing. I have worked way to hard to stop and kickback now. A drawback is just that a drawback, it’s not the end of the world, unless you think it is. I have gone through so many online drawbacks online, it’s insane. You definitely need tough skin and perseverance to work online. The problem with giving up is this, you will never what could have become because you just let it go. You went back to playing your Guitar Hero, or you went back to watch SeinFeld.

You need to realize many times the answers to your questions are right in front of you, you just need to find the answers. Finding the answers is sometimes easy and sometimes really tough, but either way it’s there waitng for you to find it. The question is this, do you have the faith in yourself to find the answers to move forward?

I don’t consider myself a scholar by any means. Hell I only graduated grade 12 and went to a local computer college for web design. Oh and I also have a certificate as a journeyman cabinet maker. Something more important that schooling is smarts, is YOUR ability to trust yourself and your instincts. You need to have balls, taking risks to succeed is critical. The more chances you take, the better chance you have of making tons of cash online. And “paralysis analysis” is another huge problem for tons of people. They know how to do pay per click, they know all the terms and everything. But they never get started, why? Paralysis analysis…..

If I never quit my job as a cabinet maker making $17.27 per hour back in 1989, where would I be right now? It scares me to think about it actually. You need to consider, the risk and then decide what are the consequences, and if it’s worth taking the chance.

Ans don’t listen to the naysayers, they are usually the ones who have never taken a chance in their whole lives. Boring people who offer nothing but negative criticism. Yeah I’m babbling on now.

Here is the bottom line

I don’t know what you think you can do or what you can think I can do, but remember this. The only thing holding you back from anything is you. Yeah, yeah I know things get in the way, but if you want something bad enough you can have it. I’m going to come back even stronger than before, don’t let anyone hold you back EVER, not even yourself.

Where are you going to be in 5 years from now? Start writing down your goals, so you know………

Italy Out Of The Euro Cup

Suspended From Google AdWords

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Logging into my account AdWords account this morning and I see that I have 0 impressions. I then do a quick search on Google.com for some of the keywords that I pay for, they are not there. I get a little worried but at the same time I think it might be one of Google’s little glitches. I then contact an adwords specialist via AdWords online chat.

I explain to the person on the chat what is going on and I wait a few minutes as they are “checking into the problem”. Unsure of the what the problem is, the person then “escalates” it to the “AdWords technical department”. I wait 2 day to get a response back (still no traffic) and I get this lovely email.

Google’s email

“Thank you for your patience. It has come to our attention that your
Google AdWords account does not comply with our terms of service and
advertising policies. You have repeatedly submitted ads that violated our
Affiliate URL policies in a related account. As a result, this account has
been suspended, and your ads will no longer run on Google.

As noted in our Terms and Conditions, Google reserves the right to
terminate advertisements for any reason. To view our Terms and Conditions,
please visit https://adwords.google.com/select/tsandcsfinder.

We appreciate your cooperation.”

I almost had a heart attack, after I read this seriously. I have a family to feed and Google just turned off the waterfall of money. I admit it was my fault, but it was unintentional really. I never meant to break their rules, it’s just that their rules are so vague, they are seriously hard to interpret. They could at least have some suggestions on how I could fix my landing page so I wouldn’t be violating their terms. Their only suggestion was that I direct link to the affiliate company, basically scrap my landing page all together. Is that a good idea, I don’t think since it limits my ability to control how the user interacts with the page. Basically my landing page was designed to convert with a big “click here” button, with some basic information about the site in bullet points, something they don’t like as it is an “affiliate bridge page” in their eyes. It’s tough to make AdWords happy and at the same time have a profitable campaign going, that converts into buyers.

I emailed back stating I was truly sorry and it would never ever happen again.

This is their response

“As mentioned in our previous email, your Google AdWords accounts have been
suspended due to multiple policy disapprovals. We are unable to revoke
your account suspensions, and we will not accept advertisements from you
in the future.

Please note that our support team is unable to help you with this issue,
and we ask that you do not contact them about this matter. If you need
more information about our content policy guidelines, please visit
https://adwords.google.com/select/contentpolicy.html.”

I then called then and pleaded my case, still no go. The AdWords specialists decision is final… ( like a judgement from God). I cannot do anything, I am banned from Google for life, FOREVER. I explained that I was truly sorry and also explained I spend roughly $45,000 per month with them on advertising, no go. $45,000 x 12 months=$540,000 per year that they are saying goodbye to. I am truly in shock that they would let that amount of money disappear, for such silly “violations”.I got kicked to the curb, and I was completely shocked as you might imagine.

Google is my business without it I have nothing. This to me is like life and death, honestly. It’s how I support my family and how I planned on retiring.

So Now What?

Well I started researching online for “banned by AdWords”, “suspended by by AdWords”, “AdWords suspension” and so on. It seems like Google AdWords teams like to ban people very frequently and easily. For the time being I am relaxing and remaining calm. I am still in shock as to how they treated me, I wasn’t trying to advertise porn, it wasn’t gambling. I made the mistake of not designing my affiliate landing page properly (which they call a “bridge page”). I didn’t realize how to create the right design for an affiliate landing page so as to not break Google’s golden rules. I was wrong I admit it, but do they need to ban me forever for advertising for such small mistakes. Even criminals get second chances. We are human and we make mistakes, don’t you Google??? Have compassion for people, it would do you a world of good.

In any case it’s their company they can do whatever they like. I would love to know what amount of advertising income is derived from people like myself, affiliate marketers? They hate us, but how much money do we make Google AdWords? I would love to know………

I did find numerous posts from people wondering if they can create a new AdWords account. Apparently this is a difficult task to do, to say the least. In order to create a new Google AdWords account from what I have read you need to do the following:

New business name
New address
New name.
New credit card
New websites
New computer
New IP address

That is an insane amount to do for being banned from AdWords, to get back in. I guess it would be worth it to do, but seriously I’m too stressed to even bother. Maybe I’ll get my real estate liscense and forget AdWords and their Nazi attitude. It’s amazing how poorly they treat people., but what comes around goes around. No one can stay on top forever, especially if you bit the hand that feeds you…..