Log of what of Ka Long Ngai has learned at Techie Youth

Thu. Aug. 11, 2022

08/11/2022, SnapChat marketing

There are many ways to make money on snapchat, whether it is an affiliate promotion, ads for your own website/products or creating your own geofilter. However, you must understand that many people on the website are looking for quick entertainment and therefore will not be likely to pay attention to a specific thing for a long time. You must gain their attention quickly and understand who will and should be your target audience.

Wed. Aug. 10, 2022

08/10/2022, Video Game development, Video Game asset, HTML5 templates WordPress themes

When you are developing a video game, it is important to plan out all the aspects of your game and make sure that you have done enough market research before actually developing the game on Unity or anything equivalent. As video game developers tend to have a long workflow and require huge amounts of time to invest into developing a single game. However, once your game has gained attraction. You can expect to earn a lot of experience and money in return for your hard-work. Around $100k on average.

This is a little bit more simpler then developing your entire game as you are only creating snippets of 3D assets or code to provide to the public to use. And users on platforms such as unity can purchase your assets to use in their own game development.

You are developing your own website design/template for other people to use. You will be interacting with a lot of HTML and CSS and other equivalents. However you require knowledge on both design, user friendliness, accessibility and coding in order to make your website look attractive and accessible from all platforms of device and all people.

Tue. Aug. 9, 2022

08/09/2022, Apps publishing, IOS, Android

When you are publishing your own app, there are a lot of things you must check prior to publishing. For example compatibility between different operating systems, compatibility from phone to phone. Accessibility of all the people etc. Many of these issues need to be answered prior to the development. You are also required to have some sort of tools Ex: IDE, coding language to help you achieve what you need. Knowledge of software engineering and computer science are nice to have when you are developing your own app.

IOS is one of the biggest operating systems for any Apple hardware. It is basically what the iphone runs on. IOS origin from Unix. When you develop your software for IOS, you can utilize the SwiftCode feature which allows you to code in Xcode to develop your own app quickly. This process had been simplified a lot as the OS further updated.

Android is the largest operating system for any mobile device other than Apple. It is basically the OS developed by Google and allows greater freedom and flexibility to many aspects of which some IOS users cannot. When you are developing an app for Android. You will most likely be using Java or Kotlin as they are the mainstream language for developing android applications.

Mon. Aug. 8, 2022

08/08/2022, Commodities, Digital publishing

Trading commodities are basically trading natural resources in a way. Oil, coffee, and gold are the most common commodities when it comes to trade. Similar to other investments. There are always advantages and disadvantages for trading commodities. The advantage of trading commodities is one might argue that commodities prices always rise. The disadvantage is that your commodities really depend on the macroeconomy and vary from time to time.

Publishing either a book, webinar are great ways to earn some money online. Either by creating an educational webinar series or using your creativity to create books that interest the reader. There are plenty of websites to assist you to move forward on creating your own Ebook and digital publishing. Just be careful about how to attract customers/readers to discover your publishing as there is a lot of competition on the internet.

Thu. Aug. 4, 2022

08/04/2022, Options

Options are financial derivatives that let the buyers freely buy and sell an assert at an agreed-upon price and date. It is not required for them to buy/sell if they thought against it within the time window. Option trading is cost efficient and lower risk. However it is subject to high commissions and time decay which investors must be aware of to reduce losses.

Wed. Aug. 3, 2022

08/03/2022, Forex, REITS

Forex stands for foreign exchange. It is the exchange of currency between nations to earn a profit. It is the biggest financial market in the world and allows great freedom for the investor. However, you must be up to date with current news and make the right decisions at the right time. As one wrong move could make you lose a lot of money.

REITS stand for Real estate investment trusts. It is basically investing into real estate as a stock. Usually used in markets, stores, shopping centers, etc. It allows investors to invest into large scale incoming real estate. It provides a stable dividend normally but as pandemic have shown. It is not stable if people are not going out or there are huge empty stores that are not fully utilized.

Tue. Aug. 2, 2022

08/02/2022, Stocks, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

Stock has been the modern standard of the economy for a long time. Ever since the East India company was set up by the dutch. Therefore the system of purchasing, selling and trading stocks are a lot more refined compared to other investments. However, there is still risk. It is best to invest in stocks you know and have a vibrant portfolio when you are investing as it is important to not go all in into a specific corporation. There are also indexes that you can invest in such as NASDAQ and S&P 500 which further limit the risk. However, you should not expect a short term income from stock as most of the investments are long term unless there is an emergency.

Cryptocurrency is one of the creations of blockchain technology. It allows users to exchange virtual currencies with wallets anonymously. And the transaction is irreversible. However, mining cryptocurrency is very bad for the earth as it requires machines of GPUS and those tend to use a lot of electricity which further global warming in a way. In addition to that, crypto currencies are very volatile and it follows the rule of high risk and high gain. The market fluctuates very easily either because of an event.

It is the technology using hash, public and private technology to create secure and irreversible and unhackable transactions between a user and another. The private key is something only you will know while the public key is associated with your wallet for transactions. It is an advanced algorithm that takes advantage of big odd numbers and hashing algorithm that is irreversible. Making the transaction safe and secure.

Mon. Aug. 1, 2022

08/01/2022, Selling Funnels, Website design for product selling, inventory and pricing management

This is the marketing strategy of the process from getting your customer noticing your product to buying the product. This includes a website/sales platform for people to be aware that this product exists. Then you have to attract them to prove that your product is something they need in their daily life and make the customer purchase your product over other competitors/factors. It is a difficult process when you just start out but it will slowly become easier as your company gains customer trust.

You can either just go on to a pre-existing website dedicated to their service assisting you to build a website on your own such as squarespace, ebay, amazon etc or you can build your own website. There are pros and cons to both options. By going to pre-existing websites, you save yourself a lot of time to get your product exposure but there will be a lot more competitors. There are also limited customization options. Whereas if you create your own website, you have more control over the website but also more responsibility to maintain your website.

You must go through thorough research to ensure that the product you are selling is profitable and you must be able to handle the demand when you are releasing the product to reach customer satisfaction. If there are too many competitors and the price of the product is already close to the production cost. It is best to avoid such a product as an extra competitor just means that the price of the product further decreases and eventually becomes a loss in profit.

Thu. Jul. 28, 2022

07/28/2022, T-Shirt production

There are many ways to experiment the design of the shirt before going into mass production, one of the ways is using “bleach drawing” which allows you to experiment with the design of the t-shirt. Then once you feel like you are ready, you can start to do on-demand service to print T-shirts on a more mass production scale with machines assisting you instead of human painting them. However, this requires a lot of effort and financial, business management skills on top of your creativity. So there is a lot of caution/knowledge you need to understand before going down this career path.

Wed. Jul. 27, 2022

07/27/2022, Retrofitting electronics, graphic designing, Clothing design

There are many means to recover electronics, either by repairing, restoring or salvaging parts from the electronics that are worth the money. However, this requires extensive knowledge of electronics and much experience to do such things as you will be walking with soldering and desoldering old electronics for a long time. The fumes from soldering are also not the best for your health so it is best to not inhale them while you are soldering. The goal is to extend the time the electronics can be used and if not what is inside the electronics that can be salvaged for a new life. Things like buttons, segment displays, etc.

There are many different software aimed at different purposes. However, in terms of dominance. It got to be photoshop and illustrator. Even though they are paid software, they are the industry standard on creating art and editing photos. There are also other free options such as GIMP and inkscape. However, they are not as comprehensive as the paid counterpart and it is hard to communicate with other graphic designers that do use the counterpart. You can sell your art in many different ways such as Esty, your own website or even square space.

While this is not the most common way to enter the industry, fashion requires extensive research and understanding of the current trend and mode. It is crucial to get the basics right if you are interested in being a fashion designer. You must accommodate the needs of the current society and the uniqueness of your design is crucial when it comes to fashion. You can also produce something simple like t-shirts that have a variety of print in them. You can experiment with them if you are interested with basic items you can purchase off of home depot or amazon. However, it must be crucial that you do not copy/plagiarize someone else's work as it is a disrespect to the other designers.

Tue. Jul. 26, 2022

07/26/2022, Robotic creation, beginner electronic, Arduino, raspberry pi

There are many platform/project ideas to create your own robotic creation, this could be a robot that walks around or a robot that does simple tasks in the physical realm. Most of this requires a motherboard as a controller and instruction via reading the code from the hardware implemented.

This is one of the motherboards for a simple robot. It is purposely created for beginner and simple and repetitive tasks for robot/components to perform certain tasks and actions which could take longer if a human was performing it. It is more about binary and sending out high/low electricity pulses to define the status of the hardware.

This is more connected to the software side of things as raspberry pi is a very powerful computer for its size. It can handle many basic tasks and be programmed to perform tasks on its own effectively and efficiently. It is also open source which allows greater flexibility and freedom of the project you are creating.

As the name suggests, this is about learning how electricity works. What is watts, voltage, resistance, current etc. The type of circuit there is such as parallel and series. The components to be used such as resistor, LED, diode etc. When we put all these components together, we will be able to create hardware for a specific purpose and task such as a timer/clock etc. Once you think you are prepared you can incorporate arduino and raspberry pi into the equation to create something far more complex and useful. Will finish the series tomorrow hopefully.

Mon. Jul. 25, 2022

07/25/2022, Adobe Illustrator, AutoCad, InkSpace, LibreCad

The most common and industry used software, it is by adobe and with adobe it comes subscription and more expensive software then other on this list beside autocad. The comprehensive tutorial goes over how Illustrator stored graphics into vectors for scaling purposes and the different commands it provides and how versatile the software is. Creating 2D graphics in no time.

Similar to making a 3D model, autocad is quite difficult to learn and it is purpose for precise simulation prototyping the product you are making to be laser cut. You can also select the material and test the product before it is even laser cutted.

The free for all version of illustrator. It provides a similar feature with Illustrator but one thing being free. It is not as comprehensive as illustrator but it provides many good features from photoshop and illustrator for creators running on a tight budget to use.

A free software to create 2D Cad objects, it is more about the technical drawing or creating item in a blueprint setting rather than modeling the actual item in a 3D space.

Thu. Jul. 21, 2022

07/21/2022, More in depth into Solidworks

I’ve learned more input/command to help me improve model making such as extruding and engraving. This command will further assist your way into making creative 3D models and better detail overall. However, I think that Solidworks is too advanced for my own knowledge and I much prefer blender.

Wed. Jul. 20, 2022

07/20/2022, Blender, Autodesk Meshmixer, AutoCad by Autodesk, Solidworks

This software is free and allows basically anyone to learn how to create 3D items, animation and rendering at no time. It is user friendly and the GUI and HUI are easy to understand. This software provides a virtual space for the user to create 3D item into the shape they like by using various commands.

This software is also free and allows anyone to create 3D items on the platform itself. It shares many similarities between blenders but it is more heavily focused on 3D items. It allows users to do 3D printing and scanning whereas blender is not specific toward 3D printing.

This software is a paid subscription and it follows more industry specific commands and allows people such as civil engineer, architecture engineer to create their product in the virtual space for testing. It is meant to pair with other programs by autodesk to fully utilize all its features. It is more challenging to learn than the other however.

By far the most difficult 3D software, this software is also a paid subscription and it is even more in depth into the industry standard. Creating a small 3D printing product on this program seems a bit too powerful as this software is meant for much bigger projects and the learning curve for this program is a slow process.

Tue. Jul. 19, 2022

07/19/2022, Business management, 3D product production

As a business owner, you must understand how to get investors, how to manage your employers and how to maintain a healthy working environment for everyone within to reach the maximum efficiency and profit. Skill such as pitching, transparency is best when it comes to managing a business because it gives a clear picture of how the company and business is going without having the investor guessing and risking more than the situation actually is.

3D production requires creativity and creating products people need. Currently I am only starting to learn about tinkercad, however I am somewhat familiar with blender and autocad so tinkercad is basically an adaptation learning. What I didn’t know is that there was a huge market for 3D printed item production on various websites. Those products are helpful and useful toward a more niche market however so you must aim your target market and audience correctly.

Mon. Jul. 18, 2022

07/14/2022 (Forgot to submit on the 07/14/2022), Continue Learning Entrepreneurship, 07/18/2022, Entrepreneurship, Branding, Operation method

07/14/2022

There are many business models, a business model is basically how your corporation/company will operate for profit. What product you are selling, how much you are producing, what is your target market, etc. This model will help you earn the most profit according to your market.

A profit model focuses on how the company will be able to profit and create revenue, and how much revenue you should get from which market and how many products/services you produce to fulfill the need from your customers. The company must have a rigid system in order to succeed and have the resistance to low points when some part of the company doesn’t work.

Customer and market is where your profit will come from, you must produce a product/service that interests your customers and fulfill their demand. Do not exceed the breaking point however as that doesn’t maximize your profit.

07/18/2022

There are many ways to operate a business, open it to the market to gain investment, and have co-founder. Having investors etc. Either method provided their pros and cons but operating as a corporation is overall better for large size companies as you can gain investors and earn more than a sole proprietorship. There are also many legal papers you have to complete when you start your own business. The fee is free but you can’t copy/violate any copyright against other corporations.

There are many ways to make your brand stick out from your competitors. Your logo, your slogans, your mission statement etc. There are many websites to assist you with designing those such as WIX or you can hire a professional designer to assist you with that. But if the designer did not create the original logo, you could be in trouble. You should also keep most of these things simple and easy to understand. So that as many people can understand and remember your company. The creation process of your company logo should be considered and alright with your slogan and mission statement.

Renting an office, hiring employees and preparing your service and product at the beginning is the most difficult part of entrepreneurship. As you will need to gain customer attraction and it is not a place where you will earn many often. Most of the time you will be spending money.

Wed. Jul. 13, 2022

07/13/2022, Diving into Entrepreneurship and Leadership

This is by far the most risky strategy but if it pays off. It will make you a million/billion. This role requires courage, timing, chances and a lot of critical thinking. You need to know the market very well and understand how the market works. How will you create services/products that people will be interested in? How to manage a company from a startup. In addition, you need to make a lot of connections with other companies in order for you to succeed.

When we talk about Entrepreneurship, leadership skill is a fundamental skill required as you will be leading your company as a massive team to either improve in your service or products. The truth to the matter is that you must be ahead of your competition and understand what your team needs at the right time. Making judgment calls and important decisions.

Tue. Jul. 12, 2022

07/12/2022, Diving into financial/health/stress/time management

Set up goals and objectives for yourself to reach. Make sure you have emergency funds and prepare if things don't go your way. Learn what to expect for every month and predict the amount of money you will need. Do not do excessive shopping and spend money irrationally and irresponsibly.

Set up goals/objectives as well here. You want to make sure that your body is active and workout regularly. In order for something to become a habit, spend around 2-3 months so your body and yourself get used to it and prepare yourself. Do any sports/gym/fitness that fit you as that would improve your health and emotion.

Set up goals/objectives that are reachable and don’t be afraid of failure. As that is the most common thing to block someone from proceeding and achieving something great. Vent to people that you are comfortable with. Entertain yourself when you feel stress. Do sports etc. There are many things that can regulate and relieve stress from yourself.

Set up a schedule/calendar that you will follow. Have a routine and spend time to complete it in order for you to adapt to it. Make sure your time is spend on stuff you feel you are having fun/ being productive. Many apps such as Trello and etc could help you to keep track of your progress.

Mon. Jul. 11, 2022

07/11/2022, Diving into scam/networking people/ intro the life quality

If something is too good to be true, it probably is a scam. Avoid them. Go for companies that have reliable reputation and jobs that match the standard of the industry.

Many apps, Quora, LinkedIn, Facebook and etc are built for you to connect with people that share the same interests/goals or looking for jobs. Use them to your advantage and connect with more people to get more opportunities.

Do jobs/focus on stuff that interests you and make you a better person. Focus on what you like to do and learn from those rather than working on something that is not interesting to you. In addition, managing your time and money is also a key part to success by understanding taxes, W-2, bank account, etc.

Fri. Jul. 8, 2022

07/08/2022, Diving into Virtual working environment and behavior

You must prepare yourself and prevent any distraction from getting in your way as you are not being monitored. Getting the work done should be your main focus and responsibility as an employer if you are working virtually. Second of all, you should have an organized workspace and schedule when working virtually in order to keep things organized and not rushing/having irregular schedules that will interfere with the quality of your work. You should also have a regular meeting with your team virtually through zoom in a regular schedule so everyone of the team members can understand their task and progress check one another. When things are not working out with the team, you should talk to one another to sort out the issue and prevent any misunderstanding from growing as they could ruin the productivity of the team. Again, communication is key in a virtual working environment and it is the thing demonstrating your passion/ambition with this team in a company. Therefore you must talk to one another. Finally, make sure that you are in a state that you can zoom with the camera on instead of thinking oh since I am at home, I can dress up whatever I want. It shows professionalism and proper work etiquettes.

Thu. Jul. 7, 2022

07/07/2022, Diving into writing resume/cover letter and what to do on interviews

Should be only about one to two pages of content. Must demonstrate your skills, talents, experiences and education to the best of your ability. Demonstrating the level of skills you possess and don’t forget about the contact information on the top.

Should be related to the resume but should be written in a tone where you are describing your journey and why you are interested in this specific position in this specific company. Must demonstrate the passion and eagerness to be employed. Focus on telling more about yourself without using the word “I” a lot of time. Make sure your letter is about 1-2 pages long only. Should display your person and experiences fully.

There are various types of interview questions and interviews. Even though they are somewhat similar. There are some things such as how you dress and how you should respond. For example, you need to be well dressed and demonstrate a good listener and speaker in both scenarios. However, because of the lack of screen real estate on zoom, you must clearly demonstrate that you are paying attention by either gesture that is visible to the camera or something that is easily noticeable. You must research to see if the job position fits you and time yourself accordingly during the interview to make sure you are on track. Don’t go to an interview without practice.

Wed. Jul. 6, 2022

07/06/2022, diving into creating a proper work profile and Social media

A superapp from China. Making every day life in China much easier and entertaining by having mini apps and app payment and even linking to your bank account. Very profitable if your account/corporation embraces this standard inside china. However the lack of security is a drawback.

A once popular app in the world, the software itself has some accusations that make people not return to the website. Nonetheless, it is still a great website to form groups and etc to create a more related community. Product promotion in groups is probably your best way to make money.

An app that is more about short format tweets. Allowing users to post whenever they want whatever they want wherever they are. Many people are verified and promoting products, affiliate links and twitter business and twitter blue for monetization.

A website/app that more focuses on design aspects and more blogging style compared to the other software. Allowing users to create pin and boards to organize their images and style together to a target audience.

A bank account is required and many software that helps you pay/transfer money you got from your checks from the company you work for. Such as paypal which allows you to link up your bank account to your paypal account for payment etc.

A website allowing workers to promote themselves and help companies to look for the right candidate for their jobs. Creating an appropriate profile is a must here in order to attract company eyes.

Tue. Jul. 5, 2022

07/05/2022, the introduction to Techie Youth and Social media

Techie Youth Day 1

Techie youth provides structured blog posts for the various topics of interest for users like me to learn and review. The overall process is exciting and it helped me discover many things I didn't know I could do before. Being able to do this independently and being able to earn a payment are additional bonuses.

As mentioned in the blog, you should focus on getting available jobs for you to do on the spot, focusing on the thing that makes you happy, and pursuing a career that fits your personality. Spend time to make.

Instagram is a great way to earn income, first of all, you need to grow a population of followers which is probably the most challenging step. You have to understand the niche and trends of Instagram in order to create the right post at the right time to get more followers which eventually you can apply for sponsorship and promotion from corporations that can earn you money. In addition, you must actively participate in the software to understand how, where, and in what direction the platform is heading. Maybe even create a new trend by editing photos/videos etc.

Tiktok is also a great way to earn income. However, since your content will be much more compact. It requires more content in order to make your audience satisfied. In order to get your post more exposure, you will have to use hashtags effectively and have your partner and etc join your adventure. It is not an easy process as you also have to be on the website/app actively. You must make your audience interested in your content in a short few seconds which requires mastering the video editing in the TikTok style. In addition, completing trends and challenges to gain more followers to reach your success on TikTok.