Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The Return of South Africa Rugby

Searching on the net for any gear related to South Africa Rugby has resulted in very few relevant search results due to their victory in the 2007 Rugby World Cup. For the first time since their stunning victory over England, their rugby jersey is now out for sale in the good ole US. If you are a rugby fan, and wish to be ahead of the curve, check out their 08' jersey's along with a huge selection of other World Cup replica jerseys and other club and team jerseys.

If you the fan or player are looking for something other than the usual rugby shirt, Australia has some new rugby gear as well. The Wallabies have a historic reputation of being a major powerhouse, and the US just got its first supply and look at the Wallabies new 08 training replica Jersey.

These two choices can allow you to step your game up when rocking a new rugby jersey out to the bar or to the pitch to watch a game. With either of these rugby jersey's on, you will stand out of the crowd. Furthermore, you will be ahead of the game when preparing for the gruesome Tri-Nations Series starting soon. Check out the schedule in this link and have a great rugby season

Friday, April 25, 2008

Fastcampuscredit.com

Today I embarked on a new business venture. I became an affiliate for credit cards. My new website helps students (mostly students bust anyone can use this site) to pick the right credit card when looking to build up credit. From living long distance to being broke, there usually is a credit card to fit any ones situation.
For example, say you live in Florida, but the college you got a scholarship to is in Oregon. A simple way for you to rack up savings is to get a preferred card that generates flyer miles based on spending. Not only will you be building credit to one day buy a house, you will be saving on your trips home to see old friends and your crazy family over the holiday season.
The pesky cards you get in the mail offer awesome introductory rates, but the reality will hit once your variable interest rate tops 20%. By doing some research and homework, one can identify the card that will fit the best, and be able to pursue accordingly.
On fastcampuscredit.com, you have your choice of cards. If you would like to choose based on your known credit score, we have that option. Should you wish to seek an incentive based card, where you can earn a % of your money back or redeem for items such as gas or travel, you can do that as well. Our site is a mere portal that opens up the idea that you do not have to wait for a great card in the mail. Building credit starts with you, and that responsibility can be strengthened by checking out the site and deciding for yourself. We are not just an application website, we have information from how to improve your credit score to effectively lowering your interest rate. For more information, just check for yourself.

Cheers and have a good weekend,
Eric Arrieta
Ceo
The coolest rugby site on earth

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Marketing Challenges

I have always been trying to figure out the best use of my advertising money. In the beginning of my ecommerce store I was only using Google Adwords. The program does serve a purpose, but without maximum optimization, your customer base will not ad up. You need options. Options in advertisement can add some complexity to your job, if going at it alone, but will pay high dividends in the end.
To begin, Rugby916.com is an up and coming rugby dealer. They sell rugby jerseys, rugby shorts, rugby balls, and any other gear a rugby player and rugby fanatic need. As a startup, I was faced with a shortage of cash, cashflow, and knowledge. Jumping into the fire was the only way progress was to be made. After blogging it up, digging some stuff, paying for seo, and countless other means of wasting money fast, I turned to ebay. Ebay is the home to many. At ebay, you can pretty much search AND find anything you are looking for. For 15.95/month, I had my own ebay storefront. Immediately I had found a new revenue source that had yet to be tapped by really anyone on a full time scale. When you look for rugby gear on ebay, there is a high chance that it is from ebay's Rugby916 storefront.
Choosing to pony up the 15.95 for my first month to see if it was worth it paid for itself within 12 hours, nailing a $200 order from France. Instant revenue was created by going where the customer base is and not messing around trying to gain recognition on sites where customers are a rarity. The marketing strategy currently is to tap into sources where rugby gear and rugby equipment is needed. Facebook and Myspace are soon to follow. Profiles have been made, groups joined. The massive attack to become rugby king is underway.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

New Age Rugby Protection

I thought I had seen it all. Rugby players wearing shoulder protection? No way! Yes way! Rugby is synonymous for "elegant violence". Parents do not want their kids to get hurt. More and more we hear a parent call out "Johnny come try on these shoulder pads." Is it football season? No no no, it is rugby season. Time to get the newest and best gear. Where do we find the best gear? The best selection on the internet has to be at this rugby store in California. So, you ask, what is the best gear and who makes it? My personal preference is to go with either Gilbert Rugby or Canterbury of New Zealand Rugby. These companies specialize in everything rugby and they carry the best overall selection of products to help with your decision making process. At Rugby916.com, they carry both companies to help with your selection and allow you to make a decision without searching multiple sites. So, rugby protection is something you need right? What kind do I get?

If you seem to get injured every game, like I used to do, go with something that has padding all around. For this I would suggest the Gilbert Synergie 12. This piece of equipment is a little more spendy, but it comes with the most overall protection. It comes with 12 ergonomically designed pads to give you the best protection. The areas of protection emphasized with this gear are the ribs, kidneys, biceps, back, and sternum. This gear runs around the $100 mark.

For mainly shoulder protection for increased hit power and less bulkiness, I would prefer to try something such as the Gilbert Quest XP or the Canterbury of NZ Club Vest. These mainly shoulder protectors will run you about $45-60.

All of this gear is IRB approved and ready to wear on the playing field. All you have to do is make a decision on what type of gear you wish to wear.

In between these different pads, there are many more choices. I have just given insight on a couple differences between the types of padding. Both work well and have the same purpose. So, when looking at choosing shoulder gear, remember the old boys who refuse to wear this stuff and ruin their shoulders. One coach used to constantly tell us to play smarter than the other team. Now I understand he meant to get equiped with the best gear possible!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Today's Actions

Today I watched TMA trade mostly evenly across the board. The early morning it fell, but stabilized around $1.52 throughout the day. Is anyone else waiting for this sucker to go bankrupt or at least trade a lot lower? If you do not know, TMA is looking for financing because they are broke. They need roughly a billion dollars to pay the banks so they do not cash in their collateral. I believe their deadline is tomorrow to finalize this financing. Either way, the current shareholders are screwed. The deal is only lucrative to the new finance companies. This deal will dilute the current shareholders by 40%.

In other news, I have been reading 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris.
This book is awesome and offers a new way to look at life. It has inspired me to look outside the box and rely on my ideas and strengths rather than the voices of others. Time will only tell if he was right, but I can already tell that my new motivation has allowed me to get more done in current life and for the future.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Rugby916.com Success

Well, today I shipped a ball. All week it seems, I have been shipping items. Two weeks ago, I got my first sale. Not from our marketing trip to San Diego, not from Sacramento, not even from California. Can you say New York? The online e-commerce solution can be seen by looking at this example. Had I not advertised in Google, I would have never had this customer. The success of the company right now relies on money management and clever advertising. Last night I did some guerilla marketing by passing out business cards at our rugby pitch. We had a professional kicker from New Zealand come show us how to kick. Well, high school ruggers from all over cam out to see just what they needed to do to become a great kicker. Taking advantage of an audience that basically came to me would have been suicidal to pass up. Till next time,

Cheers and have a good weekend

Eric Arrieta
President
www.Rugby916.com

Not Too Much Lower Please?

Friday March 7 2008 928AM
Below 12,000?
The market has some thinking a bottom has been placed, but not yet. Today, we are below 12,000 and virtually everything is trading lower. The short sell of SHLD has held up, and we are holding this position below 97. Many companies are now trading below book value. They are not trading off of fundamentals, but trading by market reaction. Bear Stearns (BSC) is one example of being hurt by being a financial stock. Two companies I have taken a holding in are (PALM) and (AKAM). Palm makes cell phones and I believe their marketing strategy of offering their new gadget, The Centro, at a cheaper price will pay dividends. Akamai Technologies seems to be trading up after earlier in the week winning its patent suit over Limelight. Going into the weekend I am taking some profits off of the table and letting my new holdings ride.
One more idea to think about is shorting (ABK) Ambac Financial Group. They just had another money raising offering at 6.75. Today it is down 5% from its Thursday pricing, but still not below its offering price. For a company that just over-diluted its shares, taking the short position seemed obvious. I am short around $7.04.

BUYS
AKAM, PALM

SELLS
SHLD, ABK

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Still Making Money?

Closing hour is upon us today, and as the market slumps, I cannot help but ask if everyone made money today. I let go of solar, took some profits in agriculture, and help on with my SHLD short. With my quick profits from FSLR, I bought some PALM and LVLT on their dips. They are small speculative plays for the medium term. SHLD reports February 28th and the early week will indicate the trend for the report, but I will guess it should be terrible. I would sell my short position if it crept over 99.50. Even in a down market, money can be made. If you're losing money on your long positions, someone is making a killing on the short position.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Market Runs Out Of Steam?

The market fed off of a strong week prior to open today. The strength turned into weakness as the day progressed and oil topped $100 a barrel. Many things are still working in a market that has 100+ point swings almost every other day it seems. For example, I am still shorting SHLD, and am now long all of the agriculture and seed stocks like Potash Corp (POT), Mosaic Corp (MOS), and Monsanto CO (MON). These stocks will see plenty of growth outside of the USA this year. Also, I am counting down the days until the earnings release of SHLD. This release should take the stock down further unless it trades down a good 5-10% this week before the release. Either way, staying on the short side of this company has made a profit. We have been short SHLD since around $102.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

First Solar (FSLR) Kills Earnings

Well, this has been a new blog that I have been writing on, and the success has been fruitful. First Solar reported great earnings and soared more than 25%. To read up on their excellent report and amazing outlook, check out this article.

This quarter has been full of upsets, so the market loved being able to trade up on excellent earnings. Their was up trading all the way until the market closed, symbolizing some strength in a recent completely bullish market. This is all relevant because people have been used to down days, and a dismal outlook. Today, President Bush signed the tax bill giving many homes in the US a rebate from $300-$1200. This "economic stimulus bill" also was a factor in todays trading.

Also, a report on increased retail sales boosted those stocks such as JcPenny, Nordstrom, and Sears Holdings. This will be short lived due to the earnings of (SHLD) Sears. They have already stated they will report horrible earnings. Once numbers come out, I will update, but as of now I am shorting it heavily.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Investing, Working, Running a Business

Well, today we just crushed the market. (POT) was up huge, and MBI was down over 15%!!! How can you make so much money from two stocks? Well last night I gave my rendition on why MBI should be shorted, and it looks as if bad news and shareholders realizing their demise led the way to the down day. I covered my short position with MBI down 12.5% for the day. Not too shabby for a mornings work. Like I stated, we can make money in an up or down market. Today the market was up and I made money from going long some stock and selling short another company. Another big morning for Wednesday the 13th with First Solar (FSLR) at 5AM Pacific Time.

I have been working all day and trying to get my website up to date and ranking higher with the competitors in my business. The idea of multi tasking is evident in the efforts of the day. When you are dedicated to a task at hand, nothing can get in the way. The technology of allowing you to work on two computer screens or more has enabled many, including myself, to eliminate tasks twice as fast. I am currently scanning in images, editing a website, sending emails, listening to Larry Kudlow on CNBC, and trying to figure out what to eat for dinner! When you are pushed and realize that time does nothing but kill, you put more into that time. My idea is to work really hard right now, putting countless hours into work, and then be able to have time in retired life to relish on your accomplishments.

In SanDiego this weekend my buddy said it best "Success is when you are making 1 million in recurring revenue whether you're working or not." Heck why not 2 million? Everyone has their goals and we want to race our yachts and vacation on each others islands in Dubai. Good evening!

Eric Arrieta
President/CEO
www.rugby916.com

Monday, February 11, 2008

Does anyone out there play rugby? If so, I do too. I play for the Sacramento Capitals in California. I have played since high school, and the love of the game pushes me to keep playing. With the passion I have for the sport, I have created RUGBY916 as a way to get others interested and started in this tough sport. At that site, I sell anything a player needs to outfit them for an awesome season. We supply top of the line gear and nothing less than spectacular. Also, on the site are high school scores and rankings for Northern California. Anyways, check it out and gear up for the season. If you use the coupon code, sacramentorugby, you will get 20% off our already awesome prices. The coupon is good for everything including world cup jerseys, match jerseys, rugby shorts, rugby protective equipment, rugby boots, and various other items. My main suppliers are Canterbury of New Zealand CCC and Gilbert Rugby!

Cheers and good luck this season,

Eric Arrieta
President & CEO
www.rugby916.com

Market Rebound?

Today saw a lot more green upticks in the market than in the past few days. From First Solar (FSLR) rising almost 10% to Diana Shipping Inc. (DSX) running up nealry 7%, the moves were able to make the longs smile. Not to say shorting a stock cannot still make you money though. People quickly forget that MBIA Inc. (MBI) just sold a 1 BILLION offering at a set price of $12.15 per share. Before the trading began Monday, the stock was holding at a sunny $14.60, but that did not last. Increased fear that its days of a AAA credit rating were numbered, helped trade the stock lower, closing today at $13.58. Furthermore, AIG came out with two-month losses at $5 billion which sent most companies in the financial sector lower.

Looking forward, there are many ways to play this market. In a CBS Marketwatch fantasy investing game, I am shorting MBI and SHLD. I am long FSLR, DSX, GOOG, AAPL, and POT. The bulk shipping, agriculture, and Solar markets have fallen to a P/E worth looking at. With FSLR reporting earnings on Wednesday, I believe we are in for a nice suprise and a continued run-up in the stockmarket. I will check back in soon. Good evening.

Eric Arrieta
President/CEO
WWW.RUGBY916.COM