Personal Blog of Carl Pei

Living in the EU sucks big time. Not only do you have to pay 25% taxes on virtual goods like vBulletin, you are also limited by all these regulations. This time, European Union Anti-Money Laundering regulations get in my way. I log in to check my email and immediately my heart sinks as I read the title, Notification About Your PayPal Account. I knew it was bad. Below is an excerpt of the email:

We are sending you this notice because you have received more than X0,000.00 SEK in total payments to your PayPal account.

PayPal is required by law to comply with European Union Anti-Money Laundering regulations to collect information from customers when they receive more than the set limit in total payments. Please log into your account, go to the Account Overview page, and follow the instructions there about how to provide the required information. These steps need to be completed as soon as possible to comply with this regulation.

They want me to fax a proof of identity (ID card, drivers license or passport) and a proof of address (utility bill). Oh well, I can’t do anything but comply. I hope they’ll sort it out quickly after I fax them the documents.

It feels strange to finally be free. It’s both exciting and frightening.

I finished High School and will be taking some time off before continuing to University and am planning to stay in China for a year (hopefully). Last week, I went to apply for a Visa. Yesterday, I finally got it. I have permission to stay in China for 180 days starting July 1st.

Yesterday, I also bought plane tickets, they cost 6300 SEK (approx. $900 USD). I will fly Economy with SAS and arrive on Monday July 9th in Beijing and come back to Stockholm on November 10th.

This past week I have been planning and researching about what I am going to do. This is how it currently looks (subject to change of course).

• Stay in Beijing 1-2 months, depending on how I like it there and price & location of apartment. I am having a hard time finding an apartment at a good district for a reasonable price for short-term renting. The minimum requirement seems to be 6 months everywhere.
• Move down to Guangdong and check out the cities Zhuhai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, see which one I like best, and settle down.
• Attend the China Sourcing Fair on October 13-16 in Hong-Kong. Meizu will be there. But I have a visa problem. 180 day visa holders are only allowed to enter China once, if I visit Hong-Kong I may not be allowed back. This is an issue that I’ll look into once I’m in China.

I get home in November to visit family and renew my visa to China again.

After the recent site sale, I now have enough money to live comfortably for 6-10 months in China. This includes eating in restaurants everyday, good pocket money and partying on weekends.

During the last few days, I have also been registering domains and working on a few websites. There will be 6 new sites spanning 3 different niches being released by me in the coming months. And 2 E-Books. Gotta keep busy, eh?

Yesterday I took the Cambridge CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English) English exams at a certified university in town. The Cambridge English exams come in five levels, and Proficiency is the highest. The exams started at 9:00 AM and ended at 4:00 PM, and on the night before I thought it was going to be hell doing a test for 7 hours (or actually slightly less than 6, as we were to be given an hour for lunch and some small breaks in-between the different parts of the test).

The test cost quite a bit (1600 SEK, $200 USD+), but luckily our school, being an English one, paid half the fee. Looking at practice tests, I got the impression that it would be very hard and was pretty nervous. However, doing the actual test went much better than expected. Me and a few friends always finished the parts much (20-45 minutes) before the deadlines so we had comfortable breaks in between, arriving fully refreshed for the next part. I answered all the questions, and had very few problems. I expect an A, or at very least a B.

Why did I take the test?

Some universities abroad require an English certificate. I’m planning to study in Sweden, so I don’t need it for my education. The reason I took this test is because I’m planning on taking a year off for adventure in China before university, and as a high school graduate, I really have nothing to offer potential employers.

Nowadays, everyone graduates from high school, and graduating from high school alone will get you nowhere. Therefore, it can feel good for me to head off to China with a CPE certificate so I at least have a backup plan - working as an English teacher if my web adventures goes kaput. Also, CPE certificates are valid indefinitely unlike many other English certificates, so I’ll definitely have use for it in the future. At the very least, a good CPE grade can be used as a qualification when looking for a job.

I’ve finally concluded my anime network auction, and accepted a private bid. The sale included two established sites, beginnings and plans for a forum, and one month email support and viral marketing plans/strategies for the websites. This morning we moved the sites and I’m all done.

It has been a few hectic days, and I think one of the buyers was trying to pull a trick on me to make me lower the price by bidding and then not replying after I accept bid. Luckily, there were quite many people interested so I still managed to sell. In the end, it sold for $4,200 USD. I could probably have gotten more if I let the auction run for longer than 5 days, but I am happy with the sale. The buyer was an avid anime fan, and I know that he will do a good job with the sites and earn back his investment quickly.

This Was a Huge Step

This sale has been my largest to date, actually it’s only the third time I sell a website. I remember half a year ago reading a friend’s blog that he sold a site for $x,xxx USD, I was very shocked and a little jealous. Those amounts were just pipe dreams for me, and who knew that one day I could do something like that too?

Nice Hourly Wage

During the three or so months, the sites have made around $1,100 on AdSense and $100 on Chitika. The sites sold for $4,200 which brings the total to $5,400 USD.

Investment has been minimal. Not more than $30 has been spent on domains, and $30 was spent on the Sitepoint auction. I used the same Host Monster hosting account as for some other sites, so no additional cost here. This brings profit to around $5,340 USD.

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Blogs are all the rage these days, and with everyone and their grandma trying to maintain one – things are bound to get messy.

Whenever I browse a blog by someone whose name sounds natively English, I logically expect the author to write in proper English. No chatspeak, 1337speak and excessive grammar mistakes. Is that too much to ask? Apparently it is, so in an attempt to eradicate poor grammar on the web, I have compiled a list of the six most common spelling mistakes by bloggers.

During the last month or so I have quickly made a note every time I found a spelling mistake while reading a blog, and here I present you the fruit of my hard labor.

This post is dedicated to those who slept during English classes; here is your chance for a brighter future (no kidding). Without further ado, below are the six most common spelling and grammar mistakes made by bloggers.

1. Its and it’s: Its is used to describe a possessive relationship whereas it’s is short for it is.
   

   Example
   The cat chased its tail.
   It’s currently raining.

2. There, their, and they’re: There describes a location, their describes a relationship of possession while they’re is short for they are.
   

   Example
   There stands Carl, let’s ask for his autograph!
   Our neighbors are treating their new cat really well.
   Watch out, they’re probably pretty upset.

3. Your and you’re: Your, again, is a possessive pronoun describing a relationship of possession while you’re is simple short for you are.
   

   Example
   Your breath stinks.
   You’re an idiot.

4. Then and than: Then describes a kind of time relationship while than is used when comparing two or more objects.
   

   Example
   Back then, life was so simple.
   I am better than you.

5. C and S: Contrary to popular belief, the letters c and s are not interchangeable. This means that the phrases resent blog post and common sence are incorrect.
6. IGHT and ITE: Similar to the above, the letters ght can not be replaced with te, and vice versa.
   

   Sight seeing can not be written as site seeing.
   Alright is not spelled alrite.
   Night is not nite.

Without pointing fingers or dropping names, remember that these are all real mistakes made by real, semi-established to established bloggers.

If you’re having problems with mistakes 1-4, stop using contractions. Spell two words instead of misspelling one and risking making a fool out of yourself. Mistakes five and six are harder to fix but also a lot more annoying, especially when A-list or wannabe A-list bloggers make these mistakes. It gives me a tingling sensation in my neck and the sudden urge to smash my mobile phone to the ground and throw the pieces out of the window.

So please, start spelling properly. If I, someone whose first language isn’t English has made the effort, then you can too.