September 2007

Biker Planet is one of those sites that makes you wonder…. what will they think of next?

One of the big pushes of the internet in recent years has been a concept known as ‘niche marketing.’ Niche marketing is about creating websites or products for very select demographics. So in the place of massive dating websites, we have seen Republican dating websites, AIDS dating websites, and now….

biker dating websites.

I guess bikers get lonely too.

A quick browse through random profiles is interesting. Most of the candidates for romance are middle aged, which is no surprise. Most are male and look like rednecks, which is also no surprise. The females - on the whole - are also unattractive, which is also not much of a surprise.

The problem with going after this sort of niche is it so massively skewed to one gender. Things like Republican websites are gender neutral, although undoubtedly that would also attract more guys. But a biker website? Not so sure. They would have to do a hell of a lot of marketing to get women to find out about and join. Otherwise the product will be no good.

Well, we’re back to the good ol’ days of Grand Final drubbings again!

It’s a curious fact of life that these matches are often - too often - not very interesting or exciting. As AFL fans, for the last two years we have been completely blessed by the games between West Coast and Sydney. Both were classics… both a joy to watch because of the intensity of both the teams.

There was only one side this year that was top class (as opposed to 5 last year) and they smashed up Port Adelaide in the only way they knew how.

Can’t really believe the comments that were going around about Port’s previous win against Geelong.

Geelong won how they did because of their loss to Port. They knew exactly what strategies would be employed against them. They had the advantage going into this game because it was a case of “your move next, boys.” It was Geelong’s chance to respond to the tactics with new ones of their own… and didn’t it work a treat.

As a finals series with three 100 point blow-outs, it wasn’t so great. Two good games - Hawthorn’s last gasp win and Collingwood’s over West Coast.

A lot of my old friends know this story.

But none of my new friends and definitely none of my readers!

At the end of 2004 my parents sat our family down and said “kids, noone will let us refinance - either we move to Frankston (which is a TERRIBLE suburb) or you move out. Within a second all of us had said “Ok, we’ll move out!

They sold up the place and bought a little townhouse in a not-as-bad suburb called Carrum Downs. At the time I was working as a KFC assistant manager and was doing ok… But I had to wait until my 90 day evaluation was up before my mortgage loan was approved.

I didn’t pass my 90 day evaluation because I was a really crappy fast food manager. I was way too nice. And not motivated at all…. I was shattered, not to lose the crappy job but because I felt I had let my brothers down. I wanted to put them up in my place but was not going to be able to.

Since then I have shot up my credit rating (stupid decision by a 19 year old) and can’t even get a personal loan. Whoops.