Advertising and China the future of Social Networking Communities!

There is this huge tradeshow twice a year in Guangzhou, China. It is the Mother of tradeshows . You could take 6 of the largest tradeshows in USA and maybe it would equal this one show. You can get every type of product you would ever need. I always check out the Electronics first. They have like 200 different companies selling Mp3/Mp4's and the latest Cell-Phones, etc. Geek World!! Then I head into the building products and check out some kitchens and stuff. The machinery is wild! Like water filtration factory's, soda making equipment, candy makers, etc. Huge clothing selection....you can get cool winter Gore-Tex jackets for like $50 (if you buy 600+) . If you like business your head is turning imaginary profit models at every head turn! :-)

The future for Social Networking Communities is data-collection. I think there are cool ways to collect data without offending the users. I really do not like Text-Ads and I see that business model going to the trash soon. Google abused it nearly to death and soon the advertising police will put that model in Jail for severe abuse!

I think people will earn points/rewards for giving up advertising data. It will be nearly invisible but little glowing-animated Icons will appear allowing the user to hover their mouse over the animated glowing icon to see (1)how many points can be earned viewing this ad (2)what kind of ad(3)what kind of data collection will be needed and how many points can be earned. The end result is the user can earn points to buy cool stuff like a MP4 Video player with 8gig space. Or a cool Gore-Tex Ski Jacket!! Or perhaps some movie tickets to the new hot film, concert tickets to see their favorite band.

Beaware that buying goods from Chinese factories is not as easy as it seems. I have seen MANY American, Africa, EU, folks come to china with $-Dollar signs in their eyes. They buy the product and then they find either it was not a great savings over existing wholesale in their home country OR they purchased junk! You have to take your time and work with professional buyers. Dont let your ego run over your pocket book! You may think the 1,000 MP4 players is a good deal but what you dont understand is the entire purchasing process in China. The smallest detail can reveal a trick the factory is playing on you! I have learned fluent Chinese and still I am sometimes confused. The key is checking literally every single item you buy! Ohhhh yeah you say? The old-school American buyers give some mumbo-jumbo about how skilled they are because they worked for Dell for 8 years in logistics, or some junk line like that and that you only need to spot-check like 20% of the product. Well not in China!!! I have even spot checked 300 containers of Roofing-S-Tile before! I had to hire 100+ workers for a week and physically watch them un-stack and re-stack all 300 containers and Tile Factories are HOT from the big ovens. Recently I purchased Bamboo-Flooring for a customer and I had to unload 500 pallets of bamboo and re-pack it on new pallets. Guess what nearly 250 pallets were totally molded!

You can make a good profit in China but you have to do it right! I think Setting up a small warehouse in China and buying small amounts of cool stuff but lots of different cool stuff is the future. Then UPS/Fed-EX can ship it for like $5 in 8-14 days. 100% of all the costs to run this will come out of the users data-collection process.

Yup its a good idea! Hey I already have a warehouse hehehe :-) Now I just need to find the right advertising guys! hmmmm!

Anyway just my two cents....I hope Im correct and if I am my latest company will be successful! :-)