Sites to Help Setting Up an Online Business to Sell Stuff

I recently met a guy who was interested in setting up an online business to sell a product and needed help setting up shop.  I decided to put him in touch with a friend of mine who can help him set up shop.  As part of my recommendation, I suggested use of the following services:

New Approach to Blogging

OK, I seriously need to move to host my own blog.  Pain the ass.  In the interim, I think I am going to start blogging marking things by project tag.  Of course this is going to expose me to the world as a man of great ideas…  uh…  I mean, another one of those “strategic thinkers” who talk more than they do.  But whatever.  You all haters can jump on and help me out rather than hatin’.

Link: Stop Doing Crunches

Summary: crunches suck.  Stop doing them.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehumancondition/archive/2009/06/03/stop-doing-sit-ups-why-crunches-don-t-work.aspx

Idea: FlyEditors

Pain: when people write, often they are concerned about the style of writing – especially when writing in a non-native language.  This means that those who can produce valuable content might not contribute openly due to associated cost.

Solution: a distributed network of editors who can read through entries and correct them on-demand.  The system would need to be simple, yet flexible – one that allows tracking of changes.

Technical Notes: the service could be a stand-alone web-site that would copy-paste content that is being edited into its own framework.  Plug-ins for WordPress and other platforms could be provided later.

Business Model: writers pay a fee or reciprocate with reviewing other people’s work. (Urbis model)

Frustration: Why Sssooo Shhhrilll? Collateral Damage in Iraq.

WikiLeaks posted a video effectively claiming that US soldiers purposefully killed civilians.  Here is the video: www.collateralmurder.com.  And even the most rational people seem to completely lose their ability to think.  Now, I hate war.  I hate civilians dying.  I think it’s a tragedy.  But that doesn’t mean that we should lose our ability to think analytically when looking at various events.

I think this is a fairly decent response to the video: http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/39215.

This is why I think there is a need for a solid online debating system that would allow good individual participation without leading to circular discussions…

For some really depressing ignorance, check out Digg: http://digg.com/world_news/Classified_US_military_video_depicting_slaying_of_Iraqis

I don’t understand how people can be so focused on their position that instead of reasonable dialog , they go on emotional diatribes choosing to vilify rather than think.  Depressing.  My only hope is that those vocal are a minority when compared to those thinking.