manninchina

What I received for my bday in Beijing…has to be in the top  5 of best presents ever.

It is going to under-go an extreme make-over sometime soon.

1. Your geek knowledge
2. Your interest & enthusiasm in all things new
3. Your audience

Here’s how it plays out. You don’t sell anything. You have all the new, cool gadgets you’re reviewing and you help people understand them and compare against their competitors. You don’t purchase anything…companies provide product to you in return for a review and discussion in the store (and online) … regardless of a positive or negative review. Maybe you even review ideas & introduce those to people looking for business connections (they will come to your store to do so).

How do you make $? Referrals. You get the consumer to the point of ready to buy…point them to the place to buy - providing a discount. You connect your stores to the web…to the blog. Maybe support plays a role too.

Just an idea, you’re probably already mulling it over. Hell, for $.21/share, how can you go wrong? You already do it better than they do.

A friend of mine had a bottle of Macallan 18 that was going to “expire” today (when you buy a bottle at a club in Beijing, they only keep it for 30 days). So, it was on to Lan in the Twin Towers (right across the street from the Silk Market). Lan is a pretty crazy looking place - designed by Philippe Starck.
After about an hour of sipping some whiskey, I look to the door and see a giant walking in. It was Yao Ming with his entourage. There weren’t a lot of people there, so it didn’t turn into a mad house, but it was hilarious watching the young girls who work there giggle while trying to get a glimpse of the Chinese giant.

Yao & crew hung out for a couple hours, didn’t seem like Yao had anything to drink at all. I walked by on the way to the bathroom to get a closer look … I look tiny in comparison. His feet, looked twice the size of mine (I have 15s). It was pretty cool to see him up-close and in-person.

Yao’s back in Beijing trying to recover from his foot surgery (going for some “traditional Chinese” medicine). Yao not playing in the Summer Olympics would be a huge disappointment to all of China.

Yao Ming seeks traditional Chinese…