Blog Summary

It was been over eight weeks working on this website, trying to improve it any way I can with the help from the comments from my classmates and looking at what my competition does (i.e. Chegg). It has been a process, seeing it change every week and looking like a real entrepreneurship idea. My website is the exchanging, selling and buying of college textbooks from actual students and from companies (if they are willing to lower their prices). Its name is www.collegetext.com. It is similar to the way eBay works, except it is with college textbooks. This website will be completely reliable. If someone does not fullfil their order, they will be charged with a fee and perhaps even banned from the website. I do not want people just playing around on the website. This is a way students can save and earn money.

There will always be ways to improve the website but for now, I am happy with how it is developing. I definitely want there to be an office in New York City with a few employees. I want this company to be like a family. I do not want it to become a corporate company where receiving service means that the customer is talking to a recording on the phone. I want my customers to be able to freely talk and discuss any problems they might have or even something they really enjoyed on the website. I want there to be a chat room within colleges so people can discuss everything from professors to what to buy for college. My website will be easy to use for people that are inexperienced with computers.

My goal is to free up the burden of buying and finding all these college textbooks for four years (maybe more). I know from personal experience how annoying and irritating it was to find and buy these unfairly priced textbooks. I know how expensive college is already. Why have the costs go up just because of these books you will only use once a semester, maybe not even at all? I want there to be an easy way for students to just focus on school and their studies, not the cost of it.


3 comment on blogs: 
http://esther0748.blogspot.com/2011/09/week-2-social-media.html?showComment=1320114973124#c3245584929137471268


http://hj2seo.blogspot.com/2011/09/blog-3.html?showComment=1320115571817#c2360949989360646902


http://helenology.blogspot.com/2011/09/week-2-privacy-social-media.html?showComment=1320116197205#c3421246891965643174

Week 8 - the Internet

Since my idea is itself a website, I will have to know how to function on the Internet. I should know what everything means in case I get any questions or if I have some trouble while working. I will have to hire people that are intelligent in the job they desire along with knowledge on the internet. That will be very important for the hiring process. As I mentioned before, I want to hire people that are young and either just graduated college, almost done with college or in graduate school. I want the website to be made with people who understand the people that are using our services.

This week's lecture reminded me of how important e-mail is. Everyone uses it, including me that checks my e-mail every chance I get. That reminded me of how contact information is very important in every business. If there is a wrong order or any questions, there must be a number to call or an e-mail to write to. I will set up a number with very long hours because I know college students do not sleep much. For me, I do my best work when I am up late at night. There will be a few e-mails on the contact page. I want there to be two e-mail addresses for questions and for internships/jobs. I also want my e-mail address up because I want my company to be very friendly and welcoming. I do not want it to seem like a big corporate company where the owner does not care.

All this talk about the internet and technology makes me want the students on my site to be knowledgable too. I want there to be a section on the site that teaches about technology and the internet. I want there to also be a "tips" section for college students, such as "How to get along with your freshman roommate," "What to bring to college," "How to keep yourself on track," and more. I want my site to be useful for than just buying books. I want to help students, like myself.

Week 7 -Os & Colors

We learned all about Os and colors this week in class. I found the second lecture particularly interesting because I love photography and the whole edit process. It was interesting to actually understand the color schemes and how the colors are named with the hex value. I think I could use this for my pictures on my website and for my advertisements. I want ads that are bright enough to catch a person's attention but not so bright that it annoys them. I really enjoy pictures with high saturation because it just looks nicer to me. The colors become more vivid and realistic. I want to have two types of ads.

One type is the "typical" educational ad with a student looking studious while reading their textbook. That will show how the textbooks are helpful and that students need them from our websites. The second type will the fun, unique ads that are different and strange. I think being typical and boring gets you nowhere because everyone is doing it. Why do skittles get so much popularity? They have these amazing ads where it catches the viewer's eyes because they're so funny, witty and down right weird.

I also want the website to be available on Mobile Os because technology is mobile. Everyone uses their phones to look up movie times, facebook, etc. I want there to be an app for the iphone, Android, droid, and more. It has to be easy to use and of course, it will be free. I think technology is moving so quickly and the one who moves at its speed, will be the successor. A company will not move forward without any knowledge on the new technology.

Week 5 - Professional Blogger

The professional blogger I chose to discuss today is Jeff Jarvis with his personal blog, BuzzMachine. His website was listed in the New York Time's article "Blogs 101" under the technology and media section. Jeff Jarvis is the author of Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live (Simon & Schuster, 2011) and What Would Google Do? (HarperCollins 2009). He blogs about technology, media and the news on his website, BuzzMachine.  He is a professor at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism. He consults for media companies. He is a public speaker. Jeff Jarvis is a busy man, from writing on his blog to teaching to being a columnist.

While reading just the first few blog posts, I could already tell that Jeff Jarvis talks about all topics but always manages to incorporate technology into it. He talks about cancer on his most recent blog article, which is from Steve Jobs death from his cancer. I love that in one of his blogs, he gave an snippet from his book, What Would Google Do, with a twist because in this version, he replaced google, with Apple. He discusses how both Apple and Google know how to attract, retain and energize talent. He wrote that Apple understands the power of networks and the successful products are all about connecting. Obviously, Apple and Google are about connection people and technology together. Other topics he discusses are about Wall Street, failure of institutions, review of Public Parts, books that other people, including his friends wrote, his books, and current events.

I think that I can learn a lot from Jeff Jarvis, from his books to his blog. He is talking about real life topics that affect me and my idea for the website. I think I need to follow his advice on how Google and Apple are constantly successful because they are connecting people and technology together. I need a new plan for my website to connect college students in a stronger way with technology and their lives. I think it won't be that hard to do since college students are constantly using the internet and such.

Week 4 - RFID technology

Every company has an office and I would have mine be in New York City. I would get an office where all the staff will work. New York City is the heart of America. The city never sleeps and is constantly growing. I think it would be a great area for an office. If the company grows even more, we will get an office in California, that way we can have offices at both ends of America. My website will also buy textbooks in bulk for the students that want certain books but is not selling on our website. Our New York City office will also be a small storage for those textbooks. If our customers want to come by to our office and buy it on the spot, they are able to. We just want to make everything convenient for our customers by giving them many choices.

Since most, if not all, of our customers will be attending college, the textbooks from my website will be all over the globe. I think that it would be interesting to see where the textbooks ended up. I want to put RFID tags in some textbooks and have the books tracked so the previous owner can see where their book ended up. It would also be fascinating to see what part of America has the most sales. When we figure that information out, we can have strong advertisements in those areas to bring more sales. I want advertisements on the internet and on television. I want the website to be something everyone knows of.

 At our office, I want the purchases to be able to be made by Google Wallet. I think it is a great invention, especially with all the identity thefts online and on the streets. The Google Wallet is so quick, faster than Bluetooth, and also more secure than RFID and Bluetooth. I think that this invention will be the next huge thing in our society. Slowly, everyone will drop their clunky wallets that can be easily lost or stolen. They will switch to the next Google wallet from the trustworthy company, Google. This company will have all the newest inventions and technology because this is the digital age.

Week 3 - Website Security

Being in IST classes has opened my eyes about online identity theft. I never really thought about how easy it would be for a hacker to get my personal information until now. This is a problem most people face in our society since most people are using the internet constantly for business and pleasure. I will have different links on my website that will aid in the life of a college student. One of those links will include how to be safe with your money online. My website will have little warnings on the bottom of the page, such as "Monitor your credit." I do not want to rip anyone off and I do not want to see someone being ripped off. I want everyone to see my website as a safe place to do their shopping.

 Even though I am scared when I put my personal information like my credit card number online to purchase something, there are websites that I KNOW I can trust. I always feel safe when I am using big companies like amazon.com or urbanoutfitters.com. For this idea to become successful, I will need to make sure the website is a safe place for college students to freely use their credit cards. It will take a while for the website to get started up because the website is not selling anything, but is providing a service for others to sell, trade and buy. For my business to get started, I will need customers right away. It might take a while for the company to get started. I will have to have many advertisements on college websites, facebook, twitter and more.


In order to make sure there is no foul play when selling and buying items on my website, I will use the services "PayPal." PayPal will provide a safer way to pay. PayPal is used for many online shopping websites such as amazon and ebay. I think everyone trusts PayPal so it will work out well to use that service on my website. If the website does extremely well with many customers, I would want to create the website's own online "money" called T-bucks (textbook bucks). T-bucks would be PayPal but for only my website. T-bucks would only be created if there were enough customers. For the beginning, PayPal is a good idea. 18-29 year olds account for almost 30% of all identity theft complaints. That is mostly college students, graduates and graduate students. I need to make sure my website is secure so none of the people using my website will get anything stolen from their identity to one dollar.

Week 2- Using Excel in the workplace

I figured out a name for my entrepreneurship idea, collegetext. My url can be www.collegetext.com. Since this website is for college students, I would like the staff to start off with all college students. Because this website will be making a profit (hopefully!), I will have to keep track of the fiances, all the highs and lows. Excel will be perfect for keeping track of everything. When I look for students to help with the website, they will need to know how to use excel, as well as knowing how to use the computer and the resources on the internet well.

I do not think there will be much of a profit in the beginning of the website. Every business takes a while to grow and prosper. Because there will be a lot of lows, I will definitely have to track everything so when the website DOES begin to make a profit, I will be about to figure it out. I think the charts on excel are excellent for businesses because they are easy to make and maneuver. They are also easy to read and analyze. I will make charts for every month with all the sales and losses. The great thing about excel is that I can figure out the sums, averages and more with a click of the mouse. I am not amazing at using excel yet but I am getting used to it.

I am definitely good with Microsoft word and powerpoint. Powerpoint will be useful for making presentations to my staff members and even potential clients that will pay to have their advertisements on www.collegetext.com. I can include the charts from excel into the powerpoint presentations to show the increase in profits and how collegetext is growing. Advertisements will bring more profit to the website but first, we will have to bring the companies to us. The website has to be successful if we want the advertisements to come. Because I want advertisements on the website, I will have to put advertisements on other websites to attract buyers and sellers. I will put advertisements on social websites where college students are found such as twitter, facebook and tumblr. I will have to keep thinking of new ideas to make the website grow bigger and bigger. Technology is always improving and the only way to keep up is to improve with it. No company can make profit if they never have new ways to attract customers and keep their original ones.

Since excel will be a big part of www.collegetext.com, I will have to learn excel inside and out. This website is my idea so I will have to understand how everything works. Sure I can get someone to help me out but it is my idea and my plan. I want to know how everything works and not just rely on so many other people.