Profile: Who is Alibaba?

Who is Alibaba? Alladins sidekick? A terrorist from some middle eastern country? Alibaba is actually the worlds largest online business to business marketplace. With global expansion going the way it is today, alibaba.com has emerged as the answer to connecting the business world.

From agriculture to transportation, alibaba.com is a website that allows businesses from any country in the world to share their products at very competitive prices. With China on the rise as a global business powerhouse, it is easy to do transactions with this country without even stepping foot outside your door.

Alibaba.com is very simple, ill give you the basic rundown of how it works. You go to the main page at www.alibaba.com. There, you can sign in or open a new account, this allows you to have an identity and gives you contact with sellers all over the world. You can then search for any product you like. When you find what you are looking for you generally have to send a message to the seller and ask specific questions such as: what are the prices, what is the minimum quantity shipment, how is payment sent and received etc. (while doing this you also need to verify the sellers authenticity as a trader because there are scams out there. The seller usually gets back to you within 48 hours. They will usually allow you to chat with them or even call by telephone.

Alibaba.com allows young people to find a niche market and invest in it. We can bring market specific goods here from other countries for high profit gains. I have worked with alibaba.com for about a year now. In no way am I an expert, but I would encourage anybody to give it a try, or at least find out more about this amazing online market.

Where do I start dude!?

There are many different ways to invest and make money depending upon the amount of time you have and the capital you start with. As college students many times we are limited in both of these resources. But this doesn't mean that we can't get started on small investments and work our way up.

I have found that a simple way to gain a quick return on your money is through Ebay. Ebay is an online market place for virtually anything. It is easy to start an account with Ebay, and you can find a lot of information about the selling of goods in any market you can think of. Ebay is a good place to start and definetely worth looking into for anybody. I personally do a little bit of Ebaying by just buying things on sale at local stores and I usually make no less than $500 a month for maybe three hours of work. Go to www.ebay.com for more information.


Another quick way to get started is with an E-trade account. This allows you quick access to the stock market with little to no brokerage fees. The market is perfect for young people right now. You can get into stocks cheap and fast. Just make sure to do plenty of research before dumping a ton of money into stock. The stock market historically yields an 11% average return on investment. By visiting www.etrade.com you can see just how easy it is to start investing in the stock market.


The third option I invite you to explore is the real estate market. This is probably the most complicated to get into, but it generally yields the highest return on investment. There are many different programs and schools that teach real estate investing. Be cautious and choose carefully, unfortunately this is not the easiest thing to learn on your own.

How does the future look?

With an upbringing in the age of amazing technological advances and booms in the economy, we as college age students look to the future to gain our "place" in society. Since childhood, our parents have taught us, "go to school, get good grades, get into a good college, get good grades, get a good job with benefits, support your family, etc."

While these ideals were prominent in the days of yore (the 80's and 90's), they recently have become outdated. Going to college and getting good grades no longer secures a place for you in today's working society. We must find other sources of income than a steady salary with good benefits.

We are all aware of the current economic situation; this causes us to be increasingly skeptical about the stock market, real estate, and a return on any sort of investment. Talk concerning another depression lingers on the lips of today’s society. How does any of this affect us as college age citizens?

This is our time! More people came out of the depression of the early 1900's as millionaires than at any other time in history. This is the best time for us to get into the stock market and real estate. Stock prices are at an all time low, old people are selling because of fear and young people should be buying because of possibilities. The real estate market is terrible for selling, but buying couldn't get any cheaper. As college age students, we are the future. It is my opinion that we should be exploring our investment opportunities and we will prosper.

Our Next Investment Project

Okay. We are not really going to invest in Taco Town, this restaurant doesn't even exist. I had two reasons for posting this. The first is because I was hungry and I enjoy all of the ecclectic flavors shown in the ad. The second is because a big part of entrepreneurship and investing is thinking originally, or "outside the box." I am going to try and relate investing to this ad for Taco Town.

In Taco Town's ad they take a different approach to the conventional fast food market. Instead of focusing on a pizza, or a taco, or a hamburger; they decide to take a huge risk with the release of the pizza crepe taco pancake chili bag. Taco Town creates its own market, automatically drawing in all of the pizzacrepetacopancake lovers. While it may or may not be a success among the fast food industry, Taco Town is a hit in the young, entrepreneurial business world.

In investing, if you invest in the same thing as everyone else, you can't expect a very good return on your investment. You have to think of something different, maybe even unorthodox. Automatically, by investing in something different, you are taking a risk, because you cannot be sure of the results you will receive. If you get a high return on your investment, you have found your niche. I am not suggesting that you go out and make something like the pizza crepe taco pancake chili bag, but that you think before you invest. Remember to be original, take a risk, and find your niche.

Up and Running

Welcome to the Danli Investments blog. This blog is designed and updated to inform other start-up investors of the changes in todays world and how it affects us as entrepreneurs. We will also be posting several of our upcoming investment ideas.

We are a small company out of Southeast Idaho, and we are all college age, entrepreneur hopefuls. We created this company to explore the realm of investing; from small transactions with local suppliers to large business deals with Chinese companies.

Due to the current shift in the economy, coupled with the everpresent boom of the technology generation, it is in our best interest as entrepreneurs to investigate our options in "the business world."