Extremely Poor Service from OpenNet and Singtel

Quick update: OpenNet is finally up on 24th December. Case Closed.

This is a rant on my utterly disappointing service by Singtel and OpenNet on their fibre optic, specifically OpenNet, the company laying the fibre optic cables and doing such a bad job on it.

The story goes...
Earlier in November, my girlfriend signed up for a fibre optic package (fibre optic internet, phone line, mio TV) from Singtel. It was installed on the last week of November. Everything was well, the internet was fast, my girlfriend's mum was very happy with the mio TV channels. Finally she have interesting channels to watch while at home.

Google AdSense Account Disabled‏

I received the email from google that all adsense supporters dreaded:

This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does not
accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.
---------------------------------------------------------------

Hello,

After reviewing our records, we've determined that your AdSense account
poses a risk of generating invalid activity. Because we have a
responsibility to protect our AdWords advertisers from inflated costs due
to invalid activity, we've found it necessary to disable your AdSense
account. Your outstanding balance and Google's share of the revenue will
both be fully refunded back to the affected advertisers.

Please understand that we need to take such steps to maintain the
effectiveness of Google's advertising system, particularly the
advertiser-publisher relationship. We understand the inconvenience that
this may cause you, and we thank you in advance for your understanding and
cooperation.

If you have any questions or concerns about the actions we've taken, how
you can appeal this decision, or invalid activity in general, you can find
more information by visiting
http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team 

I'm seriously demoralised, upset and I have no mood to write anything else. I have no idea why there are invalid clicks, and I have sent an appeal. I don't track any IP addresses on this blog, so I can't check anything at all. That's USD100 down the drain as I have just painstakingly reached it again this month after about 5 months. It's really rather moronic as my adsense earnings aren't even a lot to begin with.

That said, I have lost all motivation to continue building on any adsense sites or income, nor blog about anything any more. This is the last post. Any updates to this blog will be discontinued with effect from today.

But because of AK, cookieguy from LP's cbox, I will continue with this blog. Meanwhile, I will start to look for ways to replace adsense here, and replace the ads in ExamWorld as well. I will restart and replace and revamp my sites, probably for Yahoo Publisher Network and Adbrite. I still want my coffee pocket money :x

Since Google doesn't want to give me my pocket money, I will replace it eventually. Let me find some time for it.... I will do it.

I forgo my HDB at Buangkok Vale

I mentioned earlier that I had applied under the BTO scheme with my girlfriend for HDB at Buangkok Vale. Well, we forgo our choice because we was given a rather poor queue number, and all of our choice units (about 85+% of the development were ok for us actually) were taken.

Basically, to us, to take the remaining 40 units is akin to scraping the bottom of the barrel. If we had wanted the HDB, we are left with no choice but to fork out $240k for a place where we wouldn't like ==> we don't really see the point.

True, it's cheap relative to resale prices nowadays, but we don't really see the point as said.

Google Adsense Monetization

For the month of May till now, my adsense click through rate (CTR) for WealthBuch is at 0.21% while the click through rate for timeless info site ExamWorld is at 1.54%. However, the page view for WealthBuch is nearly 7 times of ExamWorld and the Pay Per Click (PPC) is higher.

Somehow, for WealthBuch, this drop in CTR came on the backdrop of me changing the blogskin. My main reason for changing this blogskin was because of the template designer accessible from http://draft.blogger.com, and pointed out to me by La Papillion, which makes it much easier to customize this blog as and when I wanted.

Yet another trading loss

Long Ying Li 0.63, cut loss at 0.62...
Wrong trade, wrong everything. Argh....

Down with another $153.40 again.... Ouch!


Seems like I can't trade pennies well... A different strategy and mentality is required... And this wrong trade is affecting me in my work a little.... Cut loss saves my mind and soul, especially when I'm expecting STI to reach interim top.... I'm just not cool enough...

All in all, mistakes all over my itchy fingers... Serve me right... Chased to buy because indicators were very oversold...

But as usual, Murphy's Law will dictate that Ying Li will rise up the ashes tomorrow because I sold at a loss. Good luck to those still holding...



*Meditates*

Peace....

Trading Loss

I was wrong with yesterday's count.... dead wrong :(

When STI was at 2660, I bought into STI Call Warrant for a quick intra-day trade. How wrong I was... With 21 lots at 0.19 and 4 lots at 0.185, I sold all at 0.18 because I did not want to keep it overnight for fear of the unknown and time decay. Inclusive of brokerage, I incurred a loss of S$290, my first realised loss. Leverage is indeed a double edged sword; it aids you when you are on the right path, but it kills you faster than anything else when you stepped on the wrong path.

It seems to me that I have made the right choice to cut loss when STI was around 2655 as the closing was 2648. If I hadn't, my paper loss would have been an extra $250. Perhaps it was fortunate I stuck to my original target stop loss and timeframe. A lesson learned.

Guess I should stick to what I'm more used to at the moment: buying (and probably trading) of high yielding dividend counters.

Credit Card Applications Rejected.... Huh?

Wow. First, Maybank, then now HSBC. Both rejected my applications for their credit cards. Only POSB accepted me for the Everyday Card.

Is my credit really that bad? Let's see. I have worked 1 year 2 months.

My debt:
19k SGD of CPF education loan

My current assets as of today:
20k SGD in Phillips Money Market Fund
63k SGD in equities
5.5k SGD in unit trusts
4k in bank

My income, excluding ang bao money from tuition, easily exceeds their 30k SGD p.a. requirements.

Yet a fellow graduate from the same year, earning the same amount, working in the same company as me, was accepted for the credit card. Like huh? No reasons given, nothing.

Sometimes I wonder. Could it be that the workers in the bank just grab a few of the applications and declare as unsuccessful without checking with the Credit Bureau? Why the need to spend effort to check when one can simply just declare an application successful without giving any reasons? For HSBC, I sent the application on the late morning of 30th July via online form + fax. And I receive the rejection letter dated 30th July! Like wow! Their speed of processing is sooooooooooo fast.

I guess I will not be looking at applying for credit cards with HSBC or Maybank anytime soon. Not that such banks will mind a small fish like me.

Networth

The recent rally helped move some of my equities to green. That's very fortunate for me.
Then comes another major news.

CPF Education Loan: The total for repayment sums up to nearly SGD$25k! There's an interest of 2.6% p.a.

It's thus time to execute my plan of paying this debt.

Currently, my sources of income include
1) full-time job
2) tuition
3) stock dividends

After deducting expenses and home allowance, I have around $3k to spare. Some, I will want to use for investments. Others for this debt. Will have to consider slowly how I'm going to allocate this.

In addition, I have a small amount locked in fixed deposit. I will be taking it out soon to use a bit to repay my education loan. The remaining will be reserved as opportunity funds. However, for the amounts I have already in stocks like SPH and capitaland, I will be leaving them inside to capitulate on the higher dividend percentage.

I will continue to build on my cashflow and use all the dividends to repay my education loan.