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| Is Facebook Your "Permanent Record?" |
 When Dawn and Bart Beye's 15-year-old daughter began showing signs of an eating disorder, they immediately took action. The Beyes enrolled the girl in a treatment program they thought was covered by insurance. Three weeks later, their insurance provider, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, informed the couple they would no longer pay for the child's treatment. Horizon claimed the disorder is not biologically-based, but emotionally-based, and therefore, not their responsibility to cover. The Beyes sued. And in what could have been a dangerous precedent-setting lawsuit, Horizon subpoenaed the daughter's online writings from MySpace and Facebook to prove it.
If It's on Super Wall, It May As Well Be Public RecordIn December of 2007, a judge, U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz, ordered the plaintiffs in two cases (Beye v. Horizon, 06-Civ.-5337 & Foley v. Horizon, 06-Civ.-6219 were consolidated for discovery) to turn over their children's online emails, diaries, and other writings to the court. They had until January 15th to comply. The plaintiffs fought the order, saying the online writings were therapy tools and not meant to be shown to others. However, Shwartz was not swayed. Horizon believed that the children's writings on their social networking sites and emails could show that their eating disorders are wrapped up in emotional causes, and therefore not the insurer's responsibility (since N.J. law says only biological mental illness must be covered). On Jan. 24th, Horizon claimed that the Jan. 15th set by Shwartz come and gone with no disclosure on the plaintiffs' parts, even though Beye's parents had turned over the child's Yahoo emails. But the Foleys had yet to disclose their daughter's emails. Horizon insisted the plaintiffs turn over not only the children's emails, but also the corresponding emails and the email accounts of the girls' families. They also requested a mirror-image copy of the hard drive for each computer in the plaintiffs' family. When it came to disclosing the writings on both Facebook and MySpace, David Mazie, the Beye's lawyer, stated that they have produced what documents they can and they have no Facebook or MySpace pages to turn over. The Foley's lawyer, Bruce Nagel, says "he believes his clients have no Facebook or MySpace pages." However, anyone who knows a 15-year-old girl, knows that that these statements were likely false, and the lawyers were just trying to buy some time. As it turned out, Horizon moved to dismiss Beye and Foley cases on the ground that the court should abstain from ruling due to pending state legislation would resolve the issue for good. While the new legislation may provide respite in these particular cases, those who are interested in internet privacy laws and protection are now feeling a knot in their stomach over what may have been.
What You Say Online is Not PrivateThe internet is not like a diary, although many people use online journals, blogs, and social networking sites to share their innermost thoughts, feelings, and secrets with the world. With a hardbound diary, you only had to be afraid of your little brother finding it under your mattress; but with the web, the words you write are etched in stone for the entire world to read. And even when you remove your accounts and disable your profiles, you may not really be gone. With Google's caching, the Way Back Machine, and even the websites themselves, your data is retained for a lot longer than you may have realized. Take for example, the U.K. user who realized that he was unable to fully delete his Facebook profile. It seems users wishing to remove their Facebook profiles are only given the option to deactivate their accounts. These accounts become inaccessible, but still remain in Facebook's database. To really wipe out all information, Facebook advises users log in and manually remove all data from their profile before deactivating their account. This greatly concerned Dave Evans, the senior data protection practice manager at the U.K.'s Information Commissioner's Office: "One of the things that we're concerned about is that if the onus is entirely on the individual to delete their own data," he told BBC Radio 4."An individual who has deactivated their account might not find themselves motivated enough to delete information that's about them, maybe on their wall or other people's site." Only months earlier, the ICO had been warning social networker of possibly jeopardizing future careers by posting explicit photos or pictures of them "partying." So What's a Social Networker To Do?Reputation management companies have stepped in to fill the void in defending users' online reputations. A site like ReputationDefender, for example, will search all information about you (or your child) on the internet, provide you with a report, and then destroy whatever information you deem inappropriate or slanderous. Through non-legal means, the company works with the site owners where your data resides to get it removed. Claiming a thorough process that can remove data from almost anywhere online, ReputationDefender, and those like it, are poised to be the next major companies of the Internet Age. As the GenY and the YouTube Generation enters the workforce, a place still dominated by many Baby Boomers and others who grew up sans internet, the potential damage those MySpace photos could cause will then become much greater. In the end, the best you can do is think carefully before you post photos, before you blog, and even before you send an email because the internet is more of a permanent record than anything your teachers ever threatened you with back in school. In the digital age we must all be aware that the illusion of privacy is just that: an illusion. And you may never know went it could come back to haunt you. (Sources: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2008/01/21/dlface121.xml and http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1201779829458) |
| The Industry Standard Returns - Will It Stick? |
The Industry Standard will relaunch today in public beta as a strictly online publication coupled with a futures market. We got a chance to check it out early and speak with Derek Butcher, the magazine's General Manager. According to Butcher, the magazine's brand still had so much equity left in it, that publisher IDG (who was an investor in the original magazine and bought out the publication's assets) couldn't resist trying it again. Now that Silicon Valley is hot once more, and ad dollars are flowing on the web, it seemed like a good time to try relaunching the business mag. There's just one problem: blogs have this space covered to death. So rather than focus on breaking news, the Standard is opting to focus instead of analysis of the business and technology news. Content will be short editorials (300-400 words) that break down business news written by outside contributors (that is, bloggers, analysts, and industry pundits will submit content to the Standard for publication). It's an editorial approach that Butcher seemed to describe as one part ReadWriteWeb and one part Huffington Post -- though unlike HuffPo, the Standard will pay its contributors, and unlike RWW, the focus will be on business over tech analysis. "No single voice will dominate the discussion, which is why we decided to forgo the somewhat print-centric idea of an editor in chief, despite talking to some great people for the position," said managing editor Ian Lamont in a press release. "We want readers to get viewpoints from the widest range of contributors possible, with the common theme being that these contributors are all people who believe that the Web is a major paradigm shift in business."
However, the editorial isn't the most intriguing part of the relaunch. What really sticks out about the new Industry Standard is the prediction market. A prediction market is something like a stock exchange where the cash value of assets is tied to predictions. People invest in predictions they think will come true with the idea being that the more people who predict something, the more likely it should be to actually happen in real life. Most prediction markets in the US use play money because of gambling restrictions, and the Industry Standard's is no different. Users start out with $100,000 in play funds and invest in time sensitive predictions like, "Apple will ship 10 million iPhones in 2008," or "Yahoo! will accept Microsoft's takeover bid by February 8." Users can also suggest predictions, which are in turn voted up or down by other users. Prediction markets have shown a remarkable tendency to accurately predict the future, and the Industry Standard's market can theoretically be used to keep writers honest. Any writer who is constantly throwing out wild predictions can have his ideas tested on the open market. Butcher hopes that the prediction market will have a reciprocative effect on the editorial, with writers playing off the things people are betting on in the market, and the market reacting to the things people are writing about. The market is very well designed and rather easy to use, but will it, coupled with the out sourced editorial content, be enough to recapture the late-90s magic that made the Industry Standard a household name? The other quintessential Silicon Valley magazine of the dot-com boom was RedHerring, which relaunched in August as a web-based publication (including a video site and social network) to little fanfare. RedHerring's traffic has actually declined since then, according to Compete, and even articles on big stories like the Microsoft bid for Yahoo! only attract a handful of comments -- compared to, say over 800 on Digg -- and thousands if you count how many times the story made the main page. It's possible that the media market has shifted so much since the late-90s that magazines will never be able to reinvent themselves on the web in the face of competition from a now established and well-connected blogosphere and user-powered aggregation of sources (like Digg and Reddit). But the Standard is probably smart to eschew the traditional editorial structure and follow the example set by successful blogs communities like the Huffington Post and Seeking Alpha, by bringing together a group of outside contributors who may already have a readership elsewhere. Try out the Standard web site and prediction market and tell us what you think. Can the Industry Standard return to glory or will they flame out again? Let us know in the comments below. |
In 2000, the Industry Standard was one of the hottest magazines on the planet. It was flush with VC dollars and sold 
| Weekly Wrapup, 28 Jan - 1 Feb 2008 |
Here is a summary of the week in Web technology on ReadWriteWeb. Reminder to PR people and startups: If you would like ReadWriteWeb to consider covering your product, you should email us at tips@readwriteweb.com. This address is monitored daily by all our main bloggers. Pitch emails sent to my personal email address almost always get forwarded to the tips address, so skip the middleman by emailing tips! Due to volume, we cannot respond to every email - but be assured that they are being read and considered by our writing team. Web NewsThe top story this week came right at the end: Microsoft's $44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo!. It's a huge story and Marshall Kirkpatrick had RWW's analysis:
DEMO CoverageThis week the venerable DEMO conference was held and Marshall Kirkpatrick was at the show for ReadWriteWeb. Here is his coverage during the week:
Web TrendsWhy the Music Industry is Lying to You
MTV Election Coverage is a Coup for Citizen Journalism
How YOU Can Make the Web More Structured
SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY Web ProductsThe Rise of Twitter as a Platform for Serious Discourse
Have Facebook Apps Peaked in Popularity?
The New Browser War: Mobile Firefox vs. Opera Mini
SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone. |
In other news, this week Google 
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) last week released their latest report, summing up the digital music landscape at the start of 2008. The IFPI claims in the report that for every legal music download, there are 20 illegal downloads taking place. Or in other words, illegal downloading is happening at a rate that is 20 times that of legal downloading. This, says the IFPI, lead to US$3.7 billion in industry losses. But there are some big holes in that claim.
As part of MTV's coverage of the 2008 presidential elections in the US, the media network assembled a "street team" of 51 amateur journalists -- one in each state and the District of Columbia -- to file blog reports, photos, videos, and audio podcasts about election issues during the course of the campaign season. The videos are being syndicated to MTV's mobile web site, social network, and to the Associate Press Online Video Network. Members of the street team have been outfitted with laptops, video phones, and other popular tools of the citizen journalist via funding from a $700,000 grant from the John L. and James S. Knight Foundation's Knight News Challenge.
We have written a lot here about the the vision of building a 
For 2007, our 
There appears to be evidence that Facebook users are beginning to suffer from app fatigue, and there is growing discontent about how applications are being distributed and about the amount of noise that the application platform has introduced into the Facebook ecosystem. As 
Last October, Mozilla | Microhoo! What Does it Mean for Users? |
If its business analysis you're looking for, go read Paul Kedrosky. Here at ReadWriteWeb we focus more on the cultural impact of innovation in technology. On that front, I think this acquisition could be very good news. It's going to validate a lot of innovation at Yahoo! Many people, including Microsoft on the conference call early this morning about the news, are focusing on what this means for advertising and for search. Since when is Yahoo! particularly good at either of those things, though? Yahoo! has created a web presence with more traffic than almost anyone else on earth. That's what they are good at and the issue is that they haven't been able to make money off of it. Yahoo! is great at content and online innovation, though. That's what Microsoft needs right now. Google is posing a threat to Microsoft not just because it is winning in advertising, where Microsoft is a relative beginner, but because Google is shifting the software world to online. Microsoft is serious about innovation, they just haven't been doing much of it in house for awhile. The Live.com work and the Microsoft acquisitions in the health space indicate to me the company really is trying to do more than just catch up in search and advertising. I think that this acquisition is going to mean a whole lot more energy put behind services like Flickr and Del.icio.us and innovative content sites like Yahoo! Sports and Finance. All of that will be good for Microsoft and it will be good for those of us who find those sites and services inspiring. It's hard to know what the impact of layoffs will be, or if the Death Star culture of Microsoft will quash a lot of the Yahoo! spirit, but it's going to be a huge company and I'm hoping we will see some very cool things come out of it. |
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| Andrey Golub :: Tips for Pursuing a New Career Outside IT |
Seven Tips for Pursuing a New Career Outside ITFebruary 13, 2008 — CIO — Let's face it: Life in IT can be thankless. Your work often goes unnoticed, unless you do something wrong. You put in long hours, working evenings and weekends. Expectations are high. Users are seldom happy with results. Believe me, I understand. I spent more than 25 years in IT, having started as a systems developer and ending as director of career development in a high-tech consulting company. As my career in IT evolved, I realized I enjoyed management and staff development more than technical work. After the IT downturn of 2001, I decided to begin a new career as a professional coach. It's easy to tire of a career in IT. I've talked with dozens of technical professionals who say they are burned out or who no longer feel challenged by their jobs. Many more senior professionals are forced to consider a job outside the field after being laid off and finding it difficult to land a new job, either because their skills aren't in demand or employers don't want to pay for their experience. You don't have to suffer in IT. If you've ever considered a career outside the profession, the following seven steps will help you make your move. They worked for me and many others, as you'll see. 1. Identify your interests: What do you like to do? Tom Prince knew he wanted to do something besides sell CRM software when he was Siebel's vice president of sales, but he had no idea what. After he left Siebel in 2002, he and his wife Mary decided to investigate the possibility of opening a restaurant. They loved good food, dined out often and understood their local, Boston-area market well. They partnered with Lorenzo Savona, a former general manager of two chic restaurants in Boston, who had been planning to build a restaurant similar to the one Tom and Mary Prince envisioned. In 2004, they opened Tomasso Trattoria in Southborough, Mass. Today, they also run Panzano Provviste e Vino, a market and wine shop next door to the restaurant. "There's so much disillusionment in high-tech. You rarely get the feeling that you're selling people something they really want," says Tom Prince. "Here, we're providing something that people actually know and care about—something that people really want. Food affects their sight, their smell, their taste, their touch, all of their senses." If you don't have a clear idea of what you want to do, start by evaluating your existing position. Make a list of everything you love and hate about your current job. Use those likes and dislikes to form criteria for a new career. Look for opportunities that feature the things you love but not the things you hate. For instance, if you love your job because of your relationship with your clients, look for jobs that focus on customer service. Or, if you love being the expert and sharing your knowledge, teaching is a possibility. Also think about what you do in your spare time. What do you enjoy doing most? What is it about these activities that makes them enjoyable? If you love dogs, consider starting a boarding, grooming or training business. If you practice yoga, find out what it would take to become an instructor. Brainstorm ways you can make a career out of your passions the way that the Princes did with food. 2. Leverage your strengths: What do you do well? For 24 years, Norman Daoust worked in corporate IT roles, except during a sabbatical when he focused on his music. Daoust plays fretted instruments—the guitar, electric bass, banjo and mandolin. After three years of trying to make a living as a musician he decided to return to corporate IT, only to remember exactly why he left before: the inability of large, bureaucratic organizations to embrace and manage change. He had to get out, but instead of going back to music, he opted for consulting in his area of expertise, information modeling and systems integration. He prepared for that transition by participating in several consulting workshops. When he was laid off from his corporate job in 2001, he took the leap. Seven years later he has built a successful consulting practice with many clients and the freedom to make his own schedule, including time for his music. A great tool you can use to identify your strengths is the book StrengthsFinder 2.0. When you buy it, you get a code to take the StrengthsFinder assessment online at no additional cost. 3. Assess your options: What could you do that reflects your interests and leverages your strengths? Tom McGoldrick performed many roles during his 30 years in IT: systems programmer, project manager, department manager and senior vice president. He left IT in 2002 during a downsizing. When he stepped back to look at his life, he realized how much his career had taken him away from his family. He and his wife Sue Ann decided to look into running their own business. They considered more than 1,200 different businesses and eventually narrowed the list down to six. One option was inspired by their beloved pet Labrador retriever, Apollo, who had a champion bloodline. They considered breeding dogs, but further research showed they couldn't make a living at it. When Apollo unexpectedly died, they looked for a burial/cremation facility that would provide Apollo with the honor and respect the McGoldricks felt he deserved. They discovered Paws in Heaven and were very pleased with the care and attention Apollo received there. In 2003, the owners of Paws in Heaven decided to retire, and the McGoldricks bought the business. Tom McGoldrick recognized that the business savvy, technical knowledge and relationship-building skills he had honed over the course of his career in IT would lend themselves well to running and growing their new business. Paws in Heaven perfectly combines McGoldrick's love for animals with his business and technical acumen. Focusing on your interests and strengths the way McGoldrick did will help you more easily recognize opportunities as they come along and determine whether they're a good fit for you.4. Try your possibilities on for size: What would this new career really be like? Technical graphic designer Marissa Rosenfield Smajlaj was shopping at a bookstore in downtown Boston when she came upon a copy of the book Colette's Birthday Cakes by world-renowned specialty cake artist Collette Peters. As she flipped through the pages and admired each cake, she had an epiphany: "I could do this!" she thought. Smajlaj got a part-time job in a bakery to see if she'd enjoy the work. She loved it, decided to go to culinary school and was accepted at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu in London. She completed the Le Cordon Bleu Diplome de Patisserie. The following year, she became a pastry chef at a New York City restaurant. She hasn't looked back since. 5. Be open to opportunities: What's out there? Bill Sobbing didn't start out as an IT professional. In college, he majored in English. When he graduated, he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. He looked at many different possibilities, but none of them excited him. Eventually, a relative got him a job where the relative was working. When the IT department at Sobbing's company posted an entry-level position, he applied for it and was accepted. Sobbing found a career that interested him and spent the next 20 years working in various IT roles. He enjoyed the work but, like many IT managers, he tired of corporate politics. He decided to become an independent consultant and began working primarily from his home. One morning, he picked up a newspaper and read about a local school, The San Diego Golf Academy, which offers a program in golf course management. He had played golf casually since high school but never considered making it his career. Yet something in the story about the Golf Academy compelled him to check it out. Three years later, Sobbing is general manager of a nine-hole golf course in Phoenix, Ariz. He could never have done it if he hadn't indulged his curiosity. 6. Select the right opportunities: Which are viable? In 2002, Alan Klug was a senior consultant with KPMG. He enjoyed working with clients, but the consulting industry was suffering from the post-9/11 economic recession at that time. Klug knew future consulting opportunities would be limited and decided to pursue something entrepreneurial. He considered opening a custom closets business, a car wash, and franchising a quick-service restaurant. He developed business plans for each idea, but none of them really grabbed him. Then he came across a small ad in Fortune for 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Intrigued by a company that got paid for taking people's junk off their hands, he says he "researched the heck out of it." He learned that it was a lucrative and fast-growing business with a solid strategy and good management team heading it up.In 2003, he became a 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchisee with four territories. He has since expanded to eight territories. He is on track to become a $2 million business in 2008 and is already thinking about what he might do next. "If an opportunity comes along, don't count it out immediately because it seems too good to be true. Just research it and find all the downsides," he says. "There are plenty of opportunities out there to be exploited." If you have a couple of options and can't decide between them, take out a sheet of paper and divide it into columns—one for each possibility in question. Write the title of each option at the top of each column. List the pros and cons of each possibility side by side. If neither choice stands out, answer the following questions: What will happen if I pursue this career? What won't happen if I pursue this career? What will happen if I don't pursue this career? What won't happen if I don't pursue this career? Those four questions sound similar, but they're all slightly different and designed to help you explore the nuances of each possibility. Use your answers to those questions to decide which option is the best for you. 7. Create a career action plan. Once you have decided on a career, you can put together a career action plan. This is a simple project plan with tasks, deliverables and target dates. It includes a long-term career objective (from six months to three years) with short-term tasks and deliverables for the next three months. If your career objective is, for example, to launch your own consulting business next year, one short-term task to perform might be to talk with several consultants to learn more about what it's like. Other tasks might include investigating what areas of specialization are in greatest demand and what it would take for you to build your expertise in those areas. A deliverable might be to draft a preliminary business plan with a list of potential clients and the financial resources you have available to launch your business. At the end of three months, add new tasks and deliverables for the following three months. This simple approach works well for planning and tracking your progress. As you begin building your career action plan, answer the following questions:
Remember, no one succeeds alone. There's nothing wrong with asking for help. There is something wrong with not asking for help when you need it. In most cases, people are more than willing to lend a hand. These seven tips come from my own experience as well as the experiences of others. I leveraged my own interests and strengths in training and professional development to move from IT into my coaching business. In my corporate role as director of career development, I coached many IT professionals, from systems developers to executives. In that role, I had the opportunity to try out what would become my new career as a professional coach. Since I wasn't ready to leave my corporate job at the time, I worked with a mentor/coach to develop and implement a business plan that enabled me to remain with my company while I earned my credentials and began to build my coaching and consulting practice. I have been on my own since 2006. I have found great joy and success in my new career, and I wish you the same in your "Life Beyond IT," wherever it may take you. Joanne Dustin is a certified professional coach and the author of Life Beyond IT: Open the Door...Your Future is Waiting. |
Life in IT can be thankless, but you don't have to suffer. A 25-year IT veteran turned professional coach offers advice on how she and many other technical professionals found fulfillment and fortune outside IT.| Andrey Golub :: Voice Mobility Introduces Google Apps: the same change that Salesforce.com once brought to the CRM market |
Voice Mobility Introduces Google Apps™UCN Vmerge is the first UC solution for Google Apps in the Workplace and Campus MarketsVancouver, BC, CANADA – February 14, 2008 – Voice Mobility International, Inc. (TSX: VMY, OTCBB: VMII and FWB: VMY), a Vancouver-based developer and provider of carrier and enterprise enhanced messaging solutions, today announced its new Google Apps™ functionality, a first in the enterprise market. Voice Mobility’s UCN Vmerge is now integrated with the Google Apps solution suite to provide workplace and campus customers full collaboration functionality. The Google Apps suite includes Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Contacts, Mobile apps and other collaboration tools all using the workplace or campus domain. UCN Vmerge adds unified communications to complete messaging, collaboration, calendaring and presence functionality. Enterprise clients want the ability to enable their enterprise voice and fax communications to work seamlessly with Gmail. UCN Vmerge allows full on-premise or hosted enterprise PBX integration with a hosted personalized Gmail service. Industry analysts have calculated that the average IT manager spends 75% of their budget on infrastructure maintenance, leaving a small amount for new technology. With Google Apps, free or premium service combined with the cost-effective UCN Vmerge solutions, IT managers can roll out new technology to keep pace with consumer technology. “By integrating UCN Vmerge with Google Apps, workplace and campus customers have price-effective options for collaboration functionality,” said Mike Seeley, Voice Mobility’s VP of Global Sales. “This is like deploying a full Microsoft® Exchange® server, Active Directory® and Office Communication Server® at a fraction of the cost. No longer are customers forced to utilize expensive on-premise solutions from providers like Microsoft for collaboration functionality." "The market has asked for this type of solution and Voice Mobility is proud to be the first to bring it to the market. This new functionality will bring the same change to the workplace and campus markets that Salesforce.com® brought to the CRM market. Combine this functionality with our mobile applications and we can deliver unified communications on all Symbian™, Windows Mobile® or Blackberry® devices.” UCN Vmerge enables users to access voice, fax and email messages directly from their Gmail account and synchronize all messages across all their devices — in essence, gluing the Google Apps to the enterprise telephony infrastructure. For example, if an email is heard via the user’s mobile device, it will be show as ‘read’ in their Gmail account. Other functionality enables users to:
As is standard with all Voice Mobility’s UCN solutions, included are message waiting indication and message notifications, mobile workforce integration and offline access to the user’s inbox. Our next UCN Vmerge release will offer PBX presence integration with Google Talk and other exciting features. The combined collaboration suite is easy to set up and manage: Google Apps is installed in six easy steps, and UCN Vmerge is compatible with the majority of PBX and Centrex solutions in the market. n most cases, one day is all it takes for a certified Voice Mobility technician to install the UCN Vmerge product with flexible training and support options available. Workplace or campus customers also have the choice between purchasing the UCN Vmerge solution outright or selecting managed or hosted solutions from Voice Mobility and its certified partners. For more information about Voice Mobility’s product line or how to purchase Voice Mobility solutions, please contact one of our sales representatives. For Immediate Release |
| Microsoft Buys Sidekick-Maker, Danger Inc. |
| Microsoft today announced will acquire Danger Inc., the makers of the popular Sidekick phones, for an undisclosed sum. The Palo Alto-based company provides services keep people in touch, stay organized and informed while on the go through real-time mobile messaging, social networking services and other applications. Applications on Danger-powered handsets include HTML Web browsing, instant messaging, games, multimedia, social networking, Web email and personal information management applications... |
Microsoft today announced will acquire Danger Inc., the makers of the popular Sidekick phones, for an undisclosed sum. The Palo Alto-based company provides services keep people in touch, stay organized and informed while on the go through real-time mobile messaging, social networking services and other applications. Applications on Danger-powered handsets include HTML Web browsing, instant messaging, games, multimedia, social networking, Web email and personal information management applications. Combining these services with Microsoft technologies, including MSN, Xbox, Zune, Windows Live and Windows Mobile, will provide the software giant with tools to accelerate work against Google's Android mobile platform. Danger was co-founded by Andy Rubin, who is now running Google's mobile phone project, Android. Google has assembled a community of carriers, cellphone makers, software developers and chipmakers to develop a mobile software platform. Related News Articles
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| Iraq agrees $5 bln Boeing, Bombardier plane deal |
| BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said it had agreed to buy aircraft from planemaker Boeing and Canada's Bombardier in a deal worth up to $5 billion.
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| Palm Centro now official on AT&T |
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds 
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| RIM and Motorola suing each other for patent infringement |
Filed under: Cellphones  Disclaimer: Nilay's a lawyer, but he's not your lawyer, and this post isn't meant to be legal advice or analysis.
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| JPMorgan to buy Bear as Fed opens lending to Wall St |
| NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co set a deal to buy stricken rival Bear Stearns for a rock-bottom price, while the U.S. Federal Reserve expanded lending to securities firms for the first time since the Great Depression to prop up the financial system.
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| JPMorgan to buy Bear Stearns for $2 a share |
| NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Sunday it would buy stricken rival Bear Stearns for just $2 a share in an all-stock deal that values the U.S. investment bank at the centre of the credit crisis at about $236 million.
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| INSTANT VIEW: JP Morgan to buy Bear as Fed cuts discount rate |
| NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Sunday it would buy stricken rival Bear Stearns for just $2 a share in an all-stock deal valuing the fifth largest investment bank at about $236 million.
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| Hold Off on Big Bets |
| Until the market comes down and spurs some panic, the buy side is likely to remain uncomfortable. |
| Now I GOTTA blog - dammit - there are too many stupid things going on! |
| Look - I’m trying to get work done. Could all the idiotic, stupid deals - just stop for a while so I can stay head down? Why don’t these people get on the Clueship! Well - in addition to AOL creating one of its greatest blunders ever (I can see Ted Leonsis rolling his eyes [...] |
Look - I’m trying to get work done. Could all the idiotic, stupid deals - just stop for a while so I can stay head down? Why don’t these people get on the Clueship! Well - in addition to AOL creating one of its greatest blunders ever (I can see Ted Leonsis rolling his eyes now) lets see what else is going on in the blundersphere today. Young whippersnappers are being given more money - after not making any money before. This time its the MyBlogLog guy. What was/is MyBlogLog’s business model? Ads? Then there’s FriendFeed - the current darling du jour. Now what’s it’s business model? Duncan Riley gets it right - the functionality is sexy, but REAL aggregation is yet to come. Susan Mernit has a great name for FriendFeed pill poppers - Stalkerati. I don’t agree with Loic that International startups have to MOVE to Silicon Valley or take money from worldclass VCs (or insiders like Loic did.) But many of his other advice is correct. What everyone needs to do is NOT spend money on overpriced execs who are lazy and don’t work hard (which there seems to be plenty of in Silicon Valley) or listen to these stupid Angel Investors (who Loic seems to have collected a bunch of.) Common sense rules. But oh yah - having a business model - helps. danah boyd has to study and come up with a name for this. It seems that once Spitzer’s ‘girl’ dumped her MySpace page - there’s been all this fighting over who can pick it up! Doesn’t she know how to monetize page hits? Its the new form of prostitution! iPhone apps only run “one app at a time”. Its as if the Finder went back to 1985! I can just see Steve Jobs saying “fuck them - who cares about running more than one app at a time! They should be HAPPY we even let them run anything!” When in doubt - go rdf and semantic web - NOT There’s a battle brewing around open source ad servers. Coolio! Congrats to MySpace on going live with their Apps gallery. Now lets see how well their ‘open social graph’ stuff works out. We haven’t had the time to kick those tires - but we’ll get there - soon. One day I will bring my sons to SXSW - as well. Then I’ll bring my daughters - 10 years later. SXSW is where Mimi learned the term SWAG. Is Mozilla the platform? Is Flock the web? I was wondering when someone would mention Zimbra Speaking of platforms - need another one? Try Xcerion and their iCloud. Oh yah - and the Adobe exec who engineered the Macromedia ‘merging of the dying dinosaurs‘ is leaving Adobe. Wow - that’s a surprise. Once you’ve kicked out Ed Anuff - where else do you go - but to the VCs. Final note - if Jim Bankoff’s AIMpages had been done right - maybe AOL wouldn’t have needed to buy Bebo? Just think about - that. |
| What’s more stupid than buying Bebo for $850M? Buying KickApps! |
| Randy Falco has got to go down in history as one of the stupidest execs around. he should have stayed in TV. Not only did he just blow $850M on Bebo - but he’s about to buy KickApps. Mamma Mia. I guess Broadband Mechanics is worth more now - right? I wonder when someone is gonna wake up [...] |
Randy Falco has got to go down in history as one of the stupidest execs around. he should have stayed in TV. Not only did he just blow $850M on Bebo - but he’s about to buy KickApps. I guess Broadband Mechanics is worth more now - right? I wonder when someone is gonna wake up and realize that these new bubble scams are gonna burst - faster than a sub-prime mortage holder defaults on his loan. Didn’t they notice Rupert Murdoch trying to dump MySpace at a high price? Didn’t they notice KickApps failure with a model that demanded revenue sharing? I mean - what media company would want KickApps hands in their pockets - forever? And hasn’t anybody told Randy Falco of Google’s disappointing ad revs from MySpace? |
| 03/20/08, 22:45:15 Gibson Guitar sues six major retailers for selling Guitar Hero |
 We've seen a volley of lawsuits and countersuits, statements and counter-statements in the current patent argument between Gibson Guitar and Guitar Hero publisher, Activision. Now, the guitar makers have taken the fight to the retail level, filing suit against six major retailers including Wal-Mart, Amazon, Kmart, GameStop, Target, and Toys "R" Us for selling the video games.In case you missed our previous reports, it all started when Gibson filed suit against Activision, claiming that the Guitar Hero franchise infringed its 1999 patent for "System and Method for Generating and Controlling a Simulated Musical Concert Experience." The receiving end of the flak, Activision, answered with a countersuit and a statement. This time, Gibson has filed a suit against the retailers for selling Guitar Hero. According to reports, Gibson's lawsuit says that the company "has been damaged and will continue to be damaged by the aforesaid infringement unless defendants are enjoined, preliminarily and permanently, from selling and offering for sale infringing products ..." We'll keep you posted on more news regarding this legal battle, stay tuned. Buy: [ Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360), (Wii) ] Buy: [ Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS3), (PC) ] |
| 03/20/08, 13:22:46 Activision: Gibson's claims are 'disingenuous and lack any justification' |
 Activision has recently received heavy flak from musical instrument manufacturer Gibson Guitar Corporation due to the patent violation lawsuit filed by the latter against the video game company.If you've read our previous coverage on the issue, you'll know that the nature of the complaint was tied to Activision's supposed infringement of Gibson's patent for a guitar shaped controller used to play in time with notes on a TV screen. Sounds rather familiar doesn't it? Activision was rather cool about the situation and gave its own statement regarding the matter: Gibson s lawsuit is a transparent end run around an impartial court that Activision asked on March 11 to rule on patent assertions that Gibson knows have no merit. Our Guitar Hero retailing partners have done nothing wrong. We will confront this and any other efforts by Gibson to wrongfully interfere with Activision's relationship with its customers and its consumers. A licensing agreement was filed prior to the lawsuit regarding the replication of Gibson's guitar designs for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3, PC, and PS2). However, Gibson retaliated by alleging that Activision violated one of its patents which governs "technology used to simulate a musical performance". Due to this, Activision filed its own lawsuit to counter Gibson's claims for damages. Activision concluded its statement by saying that Gibson's claims are "disingenuous and lack any justification". It was also mentioned that Activision is no longer interested in pursuing any future marketing and support agreements with Gibson. Buy: [Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360), (Wii) ] Buy: [Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS3), (PC) ] |
| 03/20/08, 12:54:55 BBFC in danger due to Manhunt 2 controversy? |
 It looks like the whole Manhunt 2 fiasco has put the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) in a spot of bother. After being forced to give Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2 (Sony PSP and Nintendo Wii) the green light, doubts have risen about the viability of the BBFC as a games classification body.According to MCVUK, BBC News' technology index editor Darren Waters has said that the "grudging nature of the BBFC s statement [regarding Manhunt 2] ... coupled with the fact the body went to the High Court, twice rejected the game itself and tried to overturn the original judgment of the VAC leaves the organisation with its credibility bruised." Waters also added that Dr. Tanya Byron, who is set to give a report on video game classification later this month, is expected to favour handing the games classification job over to the Pan European Game Information (PEGI). There has been confusion among consumers as to why there are often two certificates on UK games, from the BBFC and European body PEGI," said Waters. The BBFC s dogged fight to ban Manhunt 2, even though industry figures lined up to defend the title, might come back to haunt it. Buy: [Manhunt 2 (PSP)] Buy: [Manhunt 2 (Wii)] |
| Separating Web Spam from Quality Content - What are the Metrics? |
Posted by randfish Let's try a little excercise... Common features of spam domains include:
For high quality content domains, the opposite is true (at least, for a good percentage of these). Now think about the sites you're building - which features apply to them? What could you do differently to be more like the "high quality" category and less like the "spam"? BTW - Love to hear your take on features you think are common to spam, or to high quality sites. |
| So Many Ways to Pursue Links and So Little Time |
Posted by Eric Enge One great way to get lots of links is to launch a massive media campaign. This works particularly well if you are a large brand. What if you aren't? Well then, you are at a disadvantage. Massive media campaigns are great ways to get lots of links, and major brands launch these things without even blinking an eye. Assuming that this is not an option for you, let's explore the kinds of things that you can do instead and win, anyway. It's one of the great things about the web today. While having a massive marketing budget is a significant advantage, if you are smart and fast, success can still be yours. In fact, you can create a brand in all types of novel new ways on the Internet. This post will focus on deciding what methods you should consider for developing high value, authoritative links. Successful execution of high value link strategies almost always requires compelling content or tools, so know that going in. If you are not willing to make that kind of investment, move onto the next post, because this one is not for you. You can't afford to waste a lot of time on strategies that are not going to pan out for you. In fact, if you start on a strategy that is not the right one, the best you thing you can do is fail fast. Why? Because then you can move onto the next strategy without a long delay. It is critical that you analyze the best strategies to use with your business up front. There are many, many types of marketing opportunities that you can pursue, and each business has unique aspects to it. Let's start by exploring some of the major methodologies for link building (buying links will not be included in this list; for more information on that, see my recent post, I Don't Buy Links). Link Building Opportunities 1. Social News Sites: Digg, Reddit, Propeller, and other sites like them. Success on these sites can produce hundreds, or even thousands of links. The big things to consider when examining this strategy are:
2. Online Media Sites: These start with high value sites like the New York Times, Boston.com, and About.com. However, these are very difficult to get on, and most will need to aim a bit lower. The key question to ask here is what media sites provide coverage relevant to your business? If you offer a product related to diabetes, you might want to appear in Diabetes Health, Diabetes Digest, or Diabetes News. The key question here is what can you do to earn a place in these magazines? One great thing to try and do is to write an article that they would be interested in publishing. Be aware though, the content needs to be really good, and it needs to contain something new. Rehashes of old topics have a much lower success rate. Are there online media sites like these for your business? Can you produce content of a high enough quality to get into them? If yes to both of those questions, you may want to consider this type of strategy for your biz. 3. Widgets
4. Good Old Fashioned PR: OK, so you can't afford a multi-million dollar campaign, but you can still do this. You can find PR firms that will do pretty good work for a few thousand dollars per month. Using these types of resources is a way of accelerating your online media strategy, and can be quite effective. Nearly all PR firms will start off their work for you with a whole host of ideas regarding how to promote their business. They also have the tools, the contacts, and the experience to do some things more effectively then you can do those things yourself. Just be careful to stay engaged with your PR firm. The more active you are in setting direction, the more value you will get. Have some ideas at the beginning of the engagement, and continue to feed them ideas throughout your engagement with them. You know your business better than they do, and they know media better than you do. Focus on leveraging both of those strengths together. 5. University Sites: This is an oldie but goodie. I am not talking about spamming forums on university sites and stuffing them with links. There are lots of places on university sites where it is possible to get an honest to goodness endorsement for your quality web site, provided that there is a reason for them to link to it. For example, job sites can approach the career center department of schools and seek to get listed there. There are sites that have accumulated hundreds of such links. If this is a match for you, then this is a great strategy to pursue. Note that there is no automatic match with getting a link from an ".edu" domain. EDU links end up being good for two major reasons:
6. Government Sites: Another oldie but goodie. The story here is very similar to that of university sites. Determine if you have a match in terms of content to the audience that the government site is trying to reach with a particular web page. Then figure out who to contact. Note that many government web sites have a published Linking Policy. Make sure you read the policy for the given web site before contacting any one at the site. Otherwise, you might accidentally commit a faux pas, and put the opportunity with that site at risk. As an example of this, one of our clients, VisualDXHealth was able to get a number of links from the National Library of Medicine. This was part of a larger web site marketing campaign that has moved traffic from about 1600 per day in May 2007 to nearly 20,000 as of March 2008. 7. The Blogosphere: This really is a sub-segment of the online media campaign. However, I like to talk about it separately, because it has a lot of different dynamics. With a traditional online media person, you want to solve a problem for them. With bloggers, you want to start a conversation. Here you start by identifying the influential bloggers in your space. There are lots of ways to go about doing this. I know the folks at SEO-PR like to use a tool called Buzz Logic, and that this has worked very well for them. One way to do that is to get your PR firm to do this for you. The other way to do it is to do some research using tools like Dane Carlson's How Much is My Blog Worth widget (another example of a great widget success story!). You can also use your feedreader (e.g., Bloglines or Google Reader, etc.), to tell you how many people subscribe to that blog with that reader. Better still, use more than one reader so you can get multiple data points. Focus on the more influential bloggers, because you will get far more mileage there. Other bloggers will follow their lead. Just remember, this starts by building a relationship, and you don't start a relationship by asking them to give you a link, or stuffing comments filled with links back to your stuff on their posts. Matching Business to Opportunity Above I outlined 8 methods to use in hunting for really high value links. These are the types of links you just can't buy. But there are more strategies than one company can reasonably pursue at one time. Even if you could pursue them all at once, they don't all fit any given business. For example, some businesses may be reluctant to develop the type of content necessary to score well on Digg. So, you must choose. The way to go about this is to review all of your opportunities and brainstorm them. You actually start by doing the research on all the different approaches up front. For example, when you are looking at the blogosphere, you would make sure you knew who the most influential bloggers are in your space (you should know who they are, anyway), and assess whether or not you could develop a relationship with them, and assess the impact. Very similarly, when you look at online media, you go find the major media that covers your space on the web, and determine whether or not you have a shot at earning a link from them. With universities, you might want to look at the universities and colleges that offer education on topics directly related to your space. Put all of this research together and determine your chances of success with a link marketing strategy, the amount of effort required to succeed, and the scope of the benefit when you succeed. Then pick the one, or a few, that offer you the best chances of success. Set Your Sights High - Think About Getting Links Automatically Let's face it. Any form of link building is hard work. The good stuff is not cheap or easy. For many people, it pays to set your sights high. Not so high that you can't be successful, but push yourself to get the highest quality links you can reasonably expect to be successful in obtaining. Then, once you get your first win, use that one as a reference in pursuing your next few links. Then, push closer and closer to the top, as quickly as you can. Extremely high value links beget more links. When you get cited by leaders in your space, others notice. Get cited by enough leaders, and more people notice. Some of the people who go to that authoritative site may be linkers themselves. Now you can start to get links without any manual effort on your part. Man oh man, that's linking nirvana, because you'll be off to the races at that point. Summary Ultimately, you want to consider all available strategies that you can reasonably execute. Then you want to choose a small number of strategies (possibly one) to focus on, and then be very focused in your execution of that strategy (or those strategies). Remember to push hard enough that you fail fast if you are going to fail with one particular strategy, so you can go onto the next strategy quickly. Match your content to the target and you will have a much greater chance of success. Then start knocking down those power links and watch your traffic soar. |
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| Mpowerplayer Users Reach 12 Million Mobile Games Played |
 Mpowerplayer, the leading provider of online mobile game trial and merchandising for the wireless industry, announced that it has surpassed a milestone of 12 million mobile game demos played by over one million consumers. This rapidly expanding audience of worldwide mobile gamers has emphatically embraced Mpowerplayer?s PC-based try and buy storefront solution. ?We?ve brought the iTunes approach to mobile gaming,? said CEO Michael Powers. ?Now everyone can easily find and try mobile games right from the comfort of their PC.? Most mobile consumers? exposure to mobile games is limited by short text descriptions, occasional screen shots, and slow browsing on their cell phones. Analysts agree that poor discovery and hassle-prone consumer experiences continue to hamper industry growth. With Mpowerplayer, consumers browse and play mobile games on their PC prior to purchase. Users can share their favorite content with friends via email and the web. ?With unsurpassed ease of discovery and hands-on consumer interactivity, we remove the biggest obstacle to growing the industry,? Powers said. ?We unleash the market for mobile games.? |
| u say earnings. i say revenue. |
 x : "so the market lumps all these digital assets together. we're valued at 3.5 times earnings."y : "facebook was valued by microsoft at 100 times revenue, but that's an outlier. the average is 10 times revenue, with recent sales in the space at 7.5 times." x : "we will buy assets with earnings at 6 times." y : "we've valued our company at 1.5 times revenue for this deal." x : "your best chance is high net worths and a convertible note. i know a family that would be interested..." (story to continue, caffeination_time...) |
| FCC delays consideration of free Internet plan |
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. communications regulator on Thursday postponed consideration of a plan to auction a piece of wireless airwaves to buyers willing to provide free broadband Internet service without pornography.
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| Getting started with Ebay marketing by Dottye Blake |
If you have ever read an article on eBay, you'll have discovered the type of income people earn - it isn't strange to find out about people earning thousands of dollars per month on eBay. Next time you are surfing the eBay site, check out how many PowerSellers there are: you'll find quite a few. Now think about the fact every single one of one of them must be making at least $1,000 per month, as that's eBay's requirement for becoming a PowerSeller. Silver PowerSellers make at least $3,000 monthly, while Gold PowerSellers make more than $10,000, and the Platinum level is $25,000. The top level is Titanium PowerSeller, and to measure up you must make at least $150,000 in sales each month! It's hard to believe that Ebay has been around for ten years. eBay started in September 1995, by a man named Pierre Omidyar, who was residing in San Jose, California. He envisioned his site - formerly known as 'AuctionWeb' - to be an internet mart, and composed the first code for it in one weekend. It was one of the first sites of its type on the planet. The name 'eBay' follows from the domain Omidyar applied to his internet site His company's name was Echo Bay, and the 'eBay AuctionWeb' was formerly just one part of Echo Bay's website at ebay.com. The first product ever traded on the site was Omidyar's defective laser pointer, which sold for $14 . The web site rapidly became hugely popular, as vendors arrived to auction off all sorts of strange things and buyers actually purchased them. Relying on faith appeared to work out outstandingly well, and implied that the web site could just about be left alone to run itself. The internet site had been configured from the beginning to take in a small fee on every sale, and it was this revenue that Omidyar applied to finance AuctionWeb's expansion. The fees speedily totaled up to more than his salary at the time, so he resolved to quit his job and devote attention to the site full-time. It was at this point in time, in 1996, that he added the feedback capability, to let buyers and sellers rate one another and make purchasing and trading safer. In 1997, Omidyar modified AuctionWeb's - and his company's - name to 'eBay', which is what people had been using to refer to the site for awhile. He started to spend a great deal of money on promotion, and had the eBay logo created. A milestone was reached in this year - the one-millionth item was sold (it was a miniature version of Big Bird from Sesame Street). Then, in 1998 - the peak of the dot com company boom - eBay became big business, and the investment in Internet businesses at the time allowed it to bring in senior managers and business strategists, who took in public on the stock market. It began to encourage people to trade more than only collectibles, and rapidly morphed into a huge site on which you could trade anything, big or little. Different from the other websites, though, eBay endured the final stage of the bonanza, and is still going strong nowadays. 1999 saw eBay go worldwide, unveiling sites in the UK, Australia and Germany. eBay purchased half.com, an Amazon-like internet retailer, in the year 2000 - the same year it inaugurated Buy it Now - and bought PayPal, an internet payment service, in 2002. Pierre Omidyar has now cleared an estimated $3 billion from eBay, and still serves as Chairman of the Board.There are now literally millions of items bought and sold every day on eBay, all over the world. For every $100 spent online worldwide, it is estimated that $14 is spent on eBay - that's a lot of laser pointers. The fact that these PowerSellers are around gives you some idea of the money possibilities on Ebay. Most of the power sellers never intended to even launch a commercial enterprise on eBay - they merely began trading a couple of items, and then continued. There are quite a lot of people whose full-time job is merchandising items on eBay, and some of them have been working at it for years now. Can you believe that? Once they've purchased the merchandise, everything else is basically pure profit for these people - they don't need to spend money on any business premises, employees, or anything else. There are multi-million dollar commercial enterprises earning less in genuine net income than eBay PowerSellers do. Even if you do not want to resign from your line of work and really try for it, you can use all the same eBay to make a substantial supplemental income. You can package customer purchases during the week and bring them to the local post office for shipping each Saturday. There are few other things you could be doing with your free time that have anywhere close to that kind of money-making potential. What's more, eBay could care less about who you are, where you reside, or if you are good-looking. Some PowerSellers are very old, or very young. Some live out in very rural areas where selling on eBay is one of the few options to agriculture or being very impoverished. eBay levels the playing field and removes the roadblocks to earning that the real world constantly erects. There's no job interview and no traveling back and forth involved - if you can post items on the site, you can make it happen! Put it this way: if you know where to acquire something fairly inexpensively that you could sell, then you can sell it on eBay - and because you can always get discount rates for mass purchases at wholesale, that's not hard. Purchase a job lot of something in-demand inexpensively, sell it on eBay, and you are earning cash already, with no set-up expenses. If you wish to try it out before you commit to really purchasing anything, then you can just sell unwanted objects that you've got sitting around in the home. Explore that closet full of items that you never use, and you'll in all likelihood find you've got a couple of hundred bucks' worth of stuff lying around in there! This is the beauty of eBay: there is always someone who wants what you're selling, whatever it might be, and because they have come searching you out, you don't even need to do anything to get them to buy it. Please visit http://homebizhelper.com and http://www.computingninternet.com/ About the AuthorDottye is an Educational Consultant. Please visit http://homebizhelper.com and http://www.computingninternet.com/ |
| Purchasing a New Vehicle: Lease Vs. Buy by Brad |
Essentially, Leasing is just an alternative way to finance a new vehicle. We know that when purchasing a new vehicle the down payment, sales tax and license fees are required to be paid up front. However when leasing a new vehicle you are required to pay only the first monthly payment, a security deposit (usually same as monthly payment), and the license fees. The sales tax (which is based on the capitalized value of the vehicle) is actually amortized over the term of the lease in most states. In other words, the taxes are included in the monthly payments. Capitalized Cost
Essentially the capitalized cost of a new vehicle is the actual price you have agreed to pay for the vehicle. Gross Capitalized Cost
The gross capitalized cost of a new vehicle includes the selling price of the vehicle (which is the capitalized cost plus acquisition fees, extended warranty, accident & health insurance, dealer title fee, payoff on your trade-in, credit life insurance, gap insurance and any other fees the dealer decides to charge you). Buyer beware; that most people really don't ever know what their capitalized cost is because it is buried within the gross capitalized cost and the dealer doesn't actually reveal this number unless he has to. Most car deals made at auto dealerships are negotiated on the basis of payment rather than price. This applies to both leasing and purchasing. Don't get caught in this trap! Make the dealer reveal the selling price for every payment offer he makes you! Adjusted Capitalized Cost
The adjusted capitalized cost of a new vehicle is the gross capitalized cost minus (-) your down payment, net trade-in amount, rebates, license fees and taxes along with any other deductions given. Depreciation/Residual
When purchasing a new vehicle your payments are based on the full value or selling price, plus extended warranty, tax & license, minus (-) rebate, down payment and net trade-in value. However, when you lease a vehicle your payments are based only on the "depreciation or your use" of the vehicle during the entire term of the lease. The depreciation is actually only a portion of the capitalized cost of the vehicle and is determined by the term of the lease, number of miles driven and condition of the vehicle at the end of the lease. The payments on a lease are based on the deprecation money factor (which is a form of interest rate) and the amortized taxes. Therefore, you can actually drive a more expensive vehicle with a lower payment if you lease. Please note that the depreciation is actually estimated and set at the inception of the lease.
The residual is the portion or balance of the adjusted capitalized cost after the deprecation has been deducted. The residual is just put aside in limbo until the end of the lease. The higher the residual - the lower your monthly payment. At the end of the lease you have two options. You can either turn the vehicle back into the bank or leasing company, or you can buy the vehicle outright for the residual balance. You can even refinance the residual. But keep in mind if you turn in the vehicle with more mileage than allowed on your contract, you will be charged any where from .12¢ to .25¢ for each extra mile. In an auto lease you are limited to a specific number of miles in your lease contact. The average would be from 12,000 to 15,000 miles per year. You may drive any number of miles in any given year but you cannot exceed the number of allotted miles or you will be penalized. If you purchase the vehicle the charge for the extra mileage will normally be waved. Most banks and finance companies will allow you to add an extra 15,000 to 20,000 miles to your lease contract depending on the term of the lease. However, the cost of the extra miles will be added to your gross capitalization cost and your monthly payment will be increased accordingly. Ownership
When you have entered into a lease contract you cannot terminate the lease or turn-in your vehicle prior to the ending date of the contract. If you do this the bank will report this as a voluntary repossession on your credit record. On an auto lease the vehicle is actually registered and titled to the bank or leasing company. Therefore you do not own the vehicle, the bank does. You get to use the vehicle and are legally responsible for the upkeep and maintenance. Please note, if you don't maintain the vehicle during the lease you will be penalized for all excessive wear-and-tear when you turn it in. Also, if you really needed to get out of your lease you can buy out of the lease if you can get the financing or you can get someone to take over your lease. Of course, they will have to qualify. Vehicle Warranties
The average new car warranty is 36 months or 36000 miles, which ever comes first. It is not recommended that you enter into a 4, 5 or 6 year lease contract because they are not economical. Even with a four-year lease it is common for the residual to be higher than the actual value of the vehicle at the end of the lease which makes it very hard to refinance. If you are like a lot of people you can lease a new vehicle every 2 to 3 years and never have to buy an extended warranty. The only time it would be beneficial to buy an extended warranty is if you knew you were going to buy the vehicle outright at the end of the lease. Gap Insurance
Gap Insurance is basically insurance coverage on the difference between the actual value of your vehicle and the balance you owe on the lease including the residual. This kind of protection is needed in case your vehicle is involved in an accident and is declared a total loss. Gap Insurance is important especially for people who lease vehicles. The lease on a vehicle is actually designed for the balance owed to be upside-down in relation to the actual value of the vehicle until approximately the end date of the lease term. At this time the residual should fall in line or be equal to the vehicle's actual value. Gap Insurance is good for purchase financing as well. The gap is not as large as in leasing, but you still stand the chance of having to put out a great deal of money. Final Advice
Remember, there are two main factors you must consider when you are thinking about leasing an automobile. The first is how long you intend to keep the vehicle and the second is how many miles you travel annually. If you intend to keep the vehicle a maximum of three years and you only average 15,000 miles a year, then you should definitely consider leasing. If you want to keep the new vehicle for more than three years, you should consider purchasing.
When you lease a vehicle, you very rarely have to put any money down, so lease a new vehicle every two to three years and you won't owe any money on the old vehicle, plus you'll never have to buy an extended warranty. Also, you will have spent a ton of money less for each vehicle than if you had purchased them. If you want to keep a vehicle longer just buy it at the end of the lease.
Remember, don't let the dealer try to sell you on the basis of payments. Negotiate on the price only and when you have agreed on the price then tell them you have a trade-in. When you have agreed to your trade-in value then tell them you want to lease the new vehicle. Now you know what to do from here. Also, dealerships have a tendency to quote lease payments without the monthly tax. This makes a big difference in the monthly payments. If you don't control this you will be sadly surprised when you go into the finance manager to sign the paperwork. One more thing - when you are signing the lease contract, be sure to verify that the trade-in value you have agreed upon is actually deducted from the capitalized cost. Otherwise the dealer could wind up purchasing your trade for pennies and you would never know.
Visit My site http://www.autopurchasesecrets.com for more free information on the secrets the dealerships don't want you to know. About the AuthorBrad spent thirteen years in the Automobile business, specifically auto sales and worked for several Dealerships. He held positions from Retail Salesman up through New Car Manager and Fleet Manager. During this period Brad received an excellent education on what goes on inside the Automobile Dealerships. You can visit and communicate with Brad at his website http://www.autopurchasese |
| Car loan deals by Sean Horton |
When it comes to getting the best car loan deals then a lot of it will depend on your credit history. If you have a good credit past then this will go in your favour when it comes to getting the best rate of interest. However, all is not lost if you have had problems with credit in the past, although you still can get credit when it comes to getting a loan for a car you wont get the best interest rates, but by shopping around you can get a good car loan deal. If you have an excellent credit rating then it might be in your best interest to go for a personal loan, by going for a personal loan you are able to shop around online and secure the cheapest loan and rate of interest. It also works another way in your best interests because as you already have the cash in your pocket by going for a personal loan you can go along to the dealer and offer cash. The majority of time if you pay cash for your car then you can get extras; the dealer could knock something off the price you pay if you pay cash there and then or offer you bonuses such as money off your insurance. Another benefit is that you will drive away from the showroom knowing that the dealer isn't in a position to repossess the car should you miss a repayment. One possibility when it comes to financing your car is to take the finance through the dealer where you choose to buy your car from. However the majority of times the rate of interest will be a lot higher than if you had shopped around for a personal loan, one of the biggest benefits of taking this type of finance is that it is easier to get but you of course will pay for this privilege. If you do have bad credit history and have been turned down time and time again for credit, then it still might be possible for you to get a loan to buy a car. If you look online then there many places which now offer loans to those with bad credit ratings, however by doing so you can expect of course to have to pay a high rate of interest on the loan. Whichever way you decide to go for your car loan deal the best place to start is to go online, the internet holds a vast amount of information about the different types of car loan deals that are available and also the best rates of interest or best offers at car dealerships. About the AuthorLouis Rix is a Director of NetCars, one of the UK's leading motoring websites. First established in January 2000, its mission is to become the number one site for used car searches and motoring information. NetCars also provide Used Cars, loans and insurance. |
| buy a car by jay pleas |
Buy a car anytime you want, but I would tell anybody today that applying for a car offline is one of the worst and tiresome things I have done in my whole entire life. There was a man trying to explain the rates to me in a rushing manner. He even tried to force a particular car on me that I didnt even want, and the finance company that they deal with tried to push my rates close as 13 percent which is outrageous. I felt like I was being suckered into a deal so I turned towards the internet to get some information which is the best way to be successful in buying a car in todays world in my opinion. I searched for days online looking for some great resources. There were many websites that showed you how to buy a car, but I needed to know the important points when I buy a car. Finally, I came upon some great websites that shows you everything that you need to know in order for you to apply yourself to buy a car successfully. I learned a ton of things, such as, the great loan company that I talk about on my website that you can easily apply for to buy a car anytime you want. What I liked about that loan is the rates and the time it takes for you to get a loan. It takes up to 24 hours for you to get a loan from them and the rates is the best on the net. The rates are very low. You would pay 7 percent at the most. Take out a loan because if you financed through a car dealership you probably would have to pay 9 or 10 percent interest rates to buy a car through a dealer. When I was searching for a car, I also tried the car quote websites that, and they are great. I simply filled out the form and got quotes back to back in no time. There is four different websites for you to choose from or compare together. First I used edmunds, which is a pretty coo carl quote website, but personally, I like the other free car quote websites because it's easier to operate and quickerto obtain. You will get back some car quotes back in the same day. I used this for myself because you can make an educated decision of what price you can afford, and make or model of the cars. You can have local dealerships calling you to buy a car that fits your budget. You can buy a car cash if you want. After I bought my car, I discovered some great auction services that allows me to buy a car from my own state and area. This is my main source when I buy a car now. The great news about buying auctioned cars is that you can get some really nice updated, running cars really cheap in your own local are. The bad news is that you have to react on these deals quickly in the process. I have posted some great car auction websites for people who want to buy a car cash instead of paying monthly rent. These are my jewels that I use here on out. I no longer have car bills to pay. I use most of my time buying 3 cars a month and selling them for a little more. Alot of the cars that are offered on the sites are in tip top shape. Many of the cars are under $1000. It's really easy to navigate your area. All you do is type in your area code and it shows you all the auctions going on in your area, contact info, etc. ***Remember before you buy a car to check and make sure mileages and price matches correctly. Check out my website and see how I calculated this for myself and do it for yourself too.*** About the AuthorMy name is Jay Pleas. I'm an auto mechanic and interior designer that spends most of my time buying autos and detailing them for many customers. At this time I make $100,000 a year maintaining my own car interior buisness. I live in Florida. I'm 28 years of age |
| Best Buy to Sell iPhones - AT&T Franchisees Cannot |
| Best Buy will begin selling Apple iPhones September 7, making it the first retailer other than Apple or AT&T corporate stores to offer the device. Some AT&T franchisees are none too happy about this latest deal, since they are not allowed to sell the device themselves. One franchisee I spoke with shared his frustration over the [...] |
Best Buy will begin selling Apple iPhones September 7, making it the first retailer other than Apple or AT&T corporate stores to offer the device.
Some AT&T franchisees are none too happy about this latest deal, since they are not allowed to sell the device themselves. One franchisee I spoke with shared his frustration over the false traffic that the iPhone causes. He stated that customers come in looking for the iPhone and we can’t sell it. Speculation over why franchisees are not allowed to sell the device seem to go back to Apple’s determination to prevent price cuts. Apparently, getting franchisees to sign a document promising not to discount the phone is not good enough for Apple, which is reaching out to other stores rather than expand on their carrier of choice. Currently Best Buy sells Apple desktop and laptop computers in more than 600 locations, and the addition of the iPhone at back-to-school time may well give the big box retailer a leg up on their competition. |
| Lenovo P960 comes with Finger-print Scanner |
| Being an upstart in the competitive mobile phone industry, Lenovo is trying to separate itself from the rest of the bunch by offering something new to entice would-be buyers. The P960 is the world’s first mobile phone that comes with an integrated finger-print scanner. Atrua Technologies is the developer of the mobile biometric system that [...] |
Being an upstart in the competitive mobile phone industry, Lenovo is trying to separate itself from the rest of the bunch by offering something new to entice would-be buyers. The P960 is the world’s first mobile phone that comes with an integrated finger-print scanner.
The P960 will also come with VIP recording. Another new feature which will allow you to automatically record conversations of designated contacts. I don’t exactly know how useful and practical this application will be especially for ordinary folk, but secret agents and paranoid individuals will surely love this unique capability. [via] |
Atrua Technologies is the developer of the mobile biometric system that Lenovo will employ in their latest handset, and hopefully, if everything they said holds true, it will provide consumers with an effective way of securing their mobile phone without consuming too much battery life. This is definitely taking mobile phone security to a whole new level. | AT&T now hawking iPhone 3Gs online to biz customers |
Filed under: Handsets, ATT, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS, Apple  [Thanks, Vasudev R.] Update: We touched base with AT&T, and it looks like the real news here is that Premier account holders who pay their own bills now have access to the iPhone 3G online, whereas before, only those whose bills were covered by their companies had access. The more, the merrier!Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| Motorola ZN200 goes global |
| After a month long exclusive premier in Brazil, the MOTO ZN200 has made its way to Motorola’s global site. Know what that means? Motorola will be releasing the ZN200 …somewhere else! Hurray! We’ll have to wait to see exactly where it pops up, but it oughtta hit someone’s shelves in the next month and a half [...] |
After a month long exclusive premier in Brazil, the MOTO ZN200 has made its way to Motorola’s global site. Know what that means? Motorola will be releasing the ZN200 …somewhere else! Hurray! We’ll have to wait to see exactly where it pops up, but it oughtta hit someone’s shelves in the next month and a half or so. It’s like an easter egg hunt, where first person to find out where it’s going wins the ability to buy the ZN200. It’s not exactly the most heavily anticipated or most feature-packed handset, so expect it somewhere in the low/low-mid price range. The Specs:
Hah - and you all thought today would be a slow news day! |
| Round 12 ShoeMoney Answers |
| Storm asks: Aside from great content, and if you had to pick one, what would you choose to concentrate more on in an effort to build traffic. Similar site backlinks Core SEO (page descriptions, tags etc) Social Networking (Digg, Stumble,Twitter) Cheers, Storm ShoeMoney: I would probably say the next priority would be getting people in front of the site. I [...] |
Aside from great content, and if you had to pick one, what would you choose to concentrate more on in an effort to build traffic.
Similar site backlinks Cheers, Storm ShoeMoney: I would probably say the next priority would be getting people in front of the site. I would say social media.
Dom asks: hey Jeremy,
If you bought a site from someone, would you think it more beneficial to: a) have a homepage with a high pagerank, and very low/0 for other pages b) have a homepage with a lower pagerank but other pages with a decent pagerank and why? Thanks ShoeMoney: Site links to all the pages, then I would hope the page rank would flow to those. If they aren’t doing interlinking, then I would hope the main page would have high pagerank.
Joe asks: What are some good verticals that have your attention right now?
ShoeMoney: UFC mixed martial arts, mobile, and international mobile. Dating, etc.
Bulbboy asks: How many pairs of shoes or footwear do you own?
I have about 10. ShoeMoney: 2
Allen asks: If you simultaneously became bankrupt and where then told by the doctor that you can only work for 2 hours per week or you will die, what would you do?
ShoeMoney: I would basically call up any company in the space and tell them I would do consulting for two hours a week. But if I went bankrupt, then what I’m doing isn’t really working, and I’m not worth anything. I would just do consulting or just blog.
My Awesome Blog asks: If you had to start an online business completely from scratch with a maximum $5,000 budget, do you think you could get the business up to $100 a day (I know, the magic number)?
If so, what would you recommend for others to do the same? ShoeMoney: Yea of course.
Jeff asks: Are you a Husker fan? I’ll assume you said yes…. Do you have a sky box or do you sit with the rest of us? I’ll assume you said yes again. Can I hang out in your sky box for the West Virginia game?
ShoeMoney: No. I have actually had tickets one time, but never made it. I like to tailgate, and that’s it. I used to be into sports in my early 20s, but not anymore.
Keyword Anchor and Do-Follow Blog asks: In your opinion, is it still possible to make a lot of money online?
Thanks Shoe! ShoeMoney: Yes.
Michael D asks: What methods do you engage to keep yourself and your crew focused on achieving goals and not getting burnt out on the dayd to day activities of your sites?
ShoeMoney: 1. We choose to do things we are excited about, and feel we would use ourselves. Like fighters.com site, we are huge fans of the sport. 2. We feel it’s a service that is badly needed. We are creating what we want, as fans. Basically we are building our own house, and selling it to everyone else. With shoemoney tools, we have used and are using now, and building it for other people. You can avoid a lot of those pitfalls, by hiring people that aren’t in it for the money so much, but more in it because its what they want to do. Its what they are interested in.
Giles asks: - From starting an unknown site to one that pays for itself, how long would it take you (without publicising it on SM)
- What do you spend your money on? ShoeMoney: We do a lot of things with no budget, that I never talk about or wouldn’t talk about on shoemoney.com. From way back when I first started, it took me 3 years. Now with the experience, I think with in a couple months I would be able to create a pretty profitable site. There are many opportunities now, like with wordpress you get free hosting.
Greg asks: Shoemoney, you said in a previous post that one of the keys to your success was creating great content — and making it easy to share.
What are the best ways to make it easy to share, and how do you encourage people to share? ShoeMoney: Give them an easy way to refer it to friends. And also with news readers and twitters, stumble this, dig this. Create those buttons and make it easy for people to share.
JBagley asks: Hey Shoe,
Ever been to South Africa? Yes or No, what do you think of it? ShoeMoney: No
Nick Throlson asks: Hey shoe what is your opinion on Market Leverage where do your see them in 5 years?
ShoeMoney: As far as personalities go, they seem very aggressive. They seem to understand how to get their name out there. From talking to some of the people behind the scenes, they are working on some really revolutionary things in the space. They got their name out there which is key, now they just need to back up everything they have been talking about. Which they are doing a great job at. They seem to be dominating the buzz throughout the blogosphere.
JumboCasher.com asks: looks like… from the quality of posts comming around!
ShoeMoney: Pass
Joe asks: Which fighting discipline do you think is the best to take and why.
ShoeMoney: I’m a big fan of jujitsu or judo. They are kind of closed combat styles. Odds are most fights if somebody would attack you, it will end up on the ground. Some form of advanced wrestling would be the most helpful.
Paulo Faustino asks: Hello Shoe,
I would like to ask you what is your favorite sport of the Olympic Games, and if you think that China could beat the USA in the medals board, this year? Bye ShoeMoney: I don’t think China will place in the top 50%. I don’t know, but I love watching basketball. The USA team is the most incredible allstar team assembled. Watching Lebron and Kobe is like watching the Harlem Globetrotters playing around with their opponents.
Andrew asks: I was reading your post about the robot.txt file and I notice with your robot.txt you have User-Agent: Googlebot listed twice, along with several identical disallows like /page/ , /feed/ and /category/ listed twice, is that how it should be?
ShoeMoney: Probably just a mistake.
Ricker asks: I hope I can squeeze TWO easy/shorties in here:
1) What are your best methods you use to get a user to share your site with someone else ? 2) How many active websites (making money) do you own ? Thanks. ShoeMoney: I think you need to have something worthwhile to share in the first place. Great content to start with. And a method to share.
More than I can count. A lot of them don’t make much, and some don’t make anything. This is more of a question for a one person operation, which I used to be. But now I just look at monthly reports.
Dexter | Tech At Hand Dot Net asks: With reference with your experience as an Affiliate MArketer, What kind of product would you believe that there are lots of opportunity of earning online.. Ie, Computers, Camera, Service, E-bok etc..
ShoeMoney: I would say all of them. There is opportunity in all of those areas. The ebook thing is probably less than any of them, but its pretty saturated.
Paul U asks: I want to buy a website but I don’t know a thing about it.
What is a BIN? How does it works? ShoeMoney: BIN in an auction setting, is Buy It Now. You just stop the auction now for a set price.
zxj asks: I want to know more about how to make advertiment. I am a new learner here.
ShoeMoney: Pass
Ganesh asks: What is the biggest disadvantage of being a teen entrepreneur?
ShoeMoney: I was never a teen entrepreneur. I was busy sleeping in and playing video games. I would imagine most of them have trouble dealing with companies because they aren’t 18. If you are a teen, go play, don’t be an affiliate marketer.
netmeg asks: Pardon me if this has been asked before, but who created your avatar? I’ve admired it for some time.
ShoeMoney: Dave Naylor. He’s an artist and really good friend of mine.
JumboCasher.com asks: I would think it is more because of the content and the daily blog readership, rather than just the RSS count. BTW the RSS count can be jacked up anyways…
ShoeMoney: Pass
Ari asks: where do you go to fix bugs in your wordpress blog? sometimes I get SQL errors or plugins that I want are acting up and conflicting and I don’t want to remove them, I just want them fixed!!
ShoeMoney: Most of the plugins I have written myself, or hacked. We have modified all the plugins we run, to do what we want. Between us, we squash all the bugs.
Dave asks: GSP or Penn? And are you the webmaster for matt hughes? I read you guys were working with him, then Dellanave said he lost him as a fan, then hughes gives you two a shoutout on his blog.
ShoeMoney: GSP wins that fight.
We’re not his webmaster. He has a guy named Nathan Rosario. We just host his site, provide the bandwith. Matt Hughes is an interesting guy, and recently gave us a shoutout on his blog. Which was cool.
nkog asks: I’d like to know what was the fastest you ever gotten a page to #1 search position in google? and how much work did it take you to get there. whats the first thing you should do to market a new site.
ShoeMoney: Its probably happened a lot faster than I’ve noticed it. Especially since Google has their minty fresh indexing. I’ve written things on my blog that have ranked number 1 for a pretty competitive phrase. As far as a new site, with our McLovin ID generator, it was ranking top 1 to 3 for McLovin and still does.
Shanker Bakshi asks: Hi Shoe,
In his recent post John told his readers that how you surpass his RSS readers counts in a contest held in October 2007. Is that true, did you really use “that” evil way to cross his RSS mark by creating fake number of 4000 RSS subscribers in a single day. I guess you haven’t told anything about that yet. Would you like to answer it now? ShoeMoney: Even John doesn’t know exactly how it happened. I waited till the last day and exploited a small thing in feedburner. I did email feedburner, and told them what I was going to do, and got a reply from the vice president that said it was ok. It was a small hole in the way they verify emails. And they asked me not to talk about it, until they had fixed it. And last I checked, it still wasn’t fixed. There are quite a bit of holes in feedburner that are being exploited now.
ShoeMoney Suport Line. haha asks: Wanting to add a blog to my existing e-commerce site. A. is it better to put a blog on it’s own domain or does it matter. can I put it as a sub domain off my e-commerce site? which is better as we get a lot of traffic to our main domain, but not sure what is best for adding a blog. adding a navigation tab for the blog off the main site, or starting with a new domain that the main site points too.
ShoeMoney: I would yield to Matt Cutts on the subject. You should always do it as a subfolder of the website. Like http://www.mattcutts.com/blog. For an SEO purpose many people will link to your main url and your blog url. From a navigational perspective, you should only use sub domains, if its clearly a separate part of the site.
JC asks: Shoe, have you ever flipped a house to make money?
ShoeMoney: No
Jonathan Villiard asks: Mr. Showmaker,
for the very first time, I will meet a big client (a bank) for a SEO proposal. I am very excited and stressed about all this. Would you be so kind as to wish me good luck? Thanks Jonathan ShoeMoney: Good Luck.
Israel asks: How often to you workout, and what do you do specifically during those workouts…cardio, lift, etc.
Eating wise, are you a stickler for what you eat or do you eat anything (limited due to the surgery you had)? ShoeMoney: I haven’t worked out for over a month. But I am going to get back into the routine starting today. Partially due to my new kid being born. Mondays I do chest, benchpress, overhead press and a few other exercises. Wednesdays we do legs, mostly walking lunges, squats, and straight leg deadlifts. On Fridays we do back, which is pullups, and seated rows, etc. Cardio is kind of hit or miss, try to run twice a week.
I don’t really have a restrictive diet. But I try to keep away from the fat, because with the surgery I had my body doesn’t absorb fat.
wesley asks: Name a niche you are wanting to get into.
ShoeMoney: We pretty much do anything we want, so…
Jerry asks: Shoe,
How would you advise new bloggers on gaining back links? What are some of the techniques you would recommend? ShoeMoney: Write passionately. The more you can write honestly and from the heart, people will want to link to your content. For one it will be original, because its your own thoughts. For the most part, be you. If you are just trying to write for money, you probably won’t get anywhere. I wrote on shoemoney.com for a year and half without ever thinking I could make any money off of it.
Melvin asks: Jeremy when do you consider nofollowing or dofollwing a link on a blog post? any explanantion?
ShoeMoney: Its almost like an endorsement, so sometimes when I want you to easily get to the site but I don’t want to be associated with them I will use a nofollow. It tells the search engine that hey I’ve met this dude, but I’m not vouching for him.
Johny B asks: Adwords question - if some of my keywords become inactive due to google required minimum bid becoming higher than my maximum bid - what should I do with them?
Delete, pause or something else? ShoeMoney: If you aren’t going to change anything else, I would delete it. If you are going to change the ad copy to get a better click through ratio, you’re going to have to pay more for a while. But eventually it will come back down. If you can pay more, then do it. The only thing that is going to bring down the quality score is spending more money to get that click through ratio to get your price down, or improving the user experience to get the quality score up.
Myron McDaniel asks: We are launching a new site and need some sponsors. The site is hbcuighlights.com we links open for podcast, blogs, partners section. Would you like sponsor our site with fighters.com or another one your properties?
ShoeMoney: Possibly. Demonstrate what is in it for us and we’ll talk.
River Girl asks: When and where is the next elite retreeat?
ShoeMoney: I don’t think it makes sense to have it anywhere other than San Francisco. Unless somebody wants to put up the money to do it. We sold out the last one in San Fran, but we don’t have any plans to do another one. But I get asked once a week when the next one will be. I think it will sell out in 48 hours. It would probably be next Feb – March, in San Fran. Unless somebody wants to put up some money and have it somewhere else. We could try it in Vegas, but you want people actually at the event. We’ll have more on that at the end of this year. I know there is a big demand for it. I don’t know that we can top the last one, but we could definitely still do it.
Jim asks: besides craigslist, what job listings boards have you found to PERSONALLY work for you for recruiting employees? Please do not answer with monster.com, hotjobs, etc where the fees are in the hundreds. These cannot be virtual people, like elance etc, but professional (i need teachers) in the US?
ShoeMoney: Husker Hire Link
zxj asks: why can not I see my comment?
ShoeMoney: Read my post on comment spam and the comment system. If you have never commented before, it will be in the comment moderation cue.
David G. asks: Shoe,
Your recommendations 1. Wordpress or Blooger or Other. 2. The Best Web Hosting Companies. 3. Any Recommendation for Auction Software for web based auction. 4. Did you check out PicLens? Thanks ShoeMoney: Wordpress
We haven’t used a web hosting company for years No No idea what piclense is
SalutaryBlog asks: Would you recommend stealing videos and branding them as your own?
ShoeMoney: Obviously no. But I think on the other hand, you see a lot of people stealing my content and branding it as their own. You want to always respect copyrights of everyone.
Robert asks: What did you think of how TAC (top affiliate challenge) came out?
ShoeMoney: I think based on the fact that they had absolutely no money to spend on it, the producers. Thor didn’t have a very extensive marketing background, and a company that produced wedding videos. It has gotten more buzz than anything that I can remember. There are a number of things that need to be improved. People always bring it up. I know they were happy with the amount of revenue that the producers got out of it, and the winner got out of it. I don’t know that I’ll be apart of it again, time wise, it was just taking up a lot of time. I’ve been approached about it, but I’m kind of saying no for now. It was pretty successful. I haven’t seen past the third episode, but people will ask me about it, and tell me that it gets so much better. It received a lot of negative press, but they had a lot of how they would do it differently. So I don’t know that it was that negative. They have kind of volunteered to help out with the next one. I agree there was a lot of room for improvement, but at the same time it was one of the biggest success stories we’ve had in a long time.
Ted asks: Shoe say you have a website selling a physical product. What do you think a manufacturer/wholesaler of said product wants to hear in order to give you the best discount (and thus a greater re-sale margin for you)?
ShoeMoney: I think the representation of the product is a big thing. If you can show you have a budget for advertising, they will give you a better margin. If you have a reputation in the space for sales with similar products, and showing you are not just going to waste their time. Will all result in a better payout.
browie asks: if you had the name browie, what would you call your new company when you started to bring in enough revenue?
ShoeMoney: Something else, I would call it something else.
George @ Micro Marketing asks: If you can start all over again… would you still build a blog or go for the static webpages…
here’s another question… which utility o software you will not be able be without or lose its application… which is the most important to you? ShoeMoney: I would start my blog again.
Terminal, without terminal I would be in deep trouble. With no access to command lines, it would be a real issue. I use skitch a ton as well.
James asks: Do you have a dog? If so whats the dogs name and male or female…..
ShoeMoney: Baxter, male
Victor asks: Can a blogger starting now possibly have the same kind of success you and John Chow have had, with all the competition today?
ShoeMoney: Yes. I think it depends on what you determine as success. As far as the blogosphere, John Chow and I are both in the top 100 Technorati. We are just regular guys. I think anyone can do it. I graduated with a 1. Something GPA, anyone can do it. I write anything from how I used to be fat, meeting paris Hilton, and people find that interesting. So you can do it too.
mr K asks: What are the 3 biggest mistakes you’ve made in your online marketing journey?
ShoeMoney: 1. I had an oral contract with a company, and they broke the agreement and there was nothing we could do about it.
2. I’m a horrible manager, so I should have hired a CEO a while ago. I’m a marketer and some what of a programmer. For me to be a CEO and run all of these different sites and do marketing, but I think I still should hire a CEO to run all of these companies. 3. Newsletter. I should have started a newsletter years ago. And people tried to tell me, but I never listened.
Justin asks: How is Below A Buck doing? Traffic? How many successful bids/ACRU is it doing in per a month?
ShoeMoney: Belowabuck is a site that we created in less than 24 hours. We did it on less than $500 budget. In the first month it did a couple thousand dollars. But we haven’t even changed the links to the new CJ links, so it does absolutely nothing. Its actually blacklisted in google, because another site was causing a duplicate content issue. We’re actually trying to get that cleared up.
Mike asks: How do you usually start driving traffic with new projects or affiliates and how much money do you usually take in the hand?
ShoeMoney: Organically is nice. Usually I use low hanging fruit. So if I know someone in that space. Say we have a baby product, I would ping a lot of the mommy bloggers. Just go after low hanging fruit.
Glenn S. asks: What do you consider the best pay-per-lead affiliate programs?
ShoeMoney: The poker industry, if its legal for you to do so, still has incredible payouts per lead. Mortgages pay really really well if you have quality stuff. Financial industry. It depends on your quality of leads, and how you build the leads.
Ryan asks: Sometimes I find myself in a “mental block” when trying to think “outside the box” to come up with new keywords. What tips can you provide us with, to allow our minds to break free from the block?
ShoeMoney: I did a post one time on harvesting your own internal data. For instance on nextpimp, which is our mobile community site. People will type in artist names, and typos. And then bid on that in our keyword set. We have our own keyword generation tool, and keep them fresh all the time. You can subscribe to shoemoney tools, for $100 per month right now in the beta. The only thing you can do unique, is your own data.
JumboCasher.com asks: how would it feel to ask john ths question?
ShoeMoney: Pass
Dave asks: If you had a full-time job (that you don’t hate) and your online income was about 1.5x what your job makes, would you quit or stick with it? On the one hand, I could probably grow it quite a bit since I’m only spending about 8 hours a week on it now. On the other hand, when I don’t rely on the online income as much I outsource more (less work for me), save more, and spend more on fun stuff. Think if you didn’t get fired you would’ve kept your job?
ShoeMoney: If they are happy, just do what makes them happy. There is a certain level of security with working for someone. And having benefits. Most people want to know at one point should you quit your day job and pursue. I think it just depends on how much you believe in what you are doing.
Reid asks: Shoemoney-
Did you ever have a time in your life where you wanted to give up on your internet ideas, or what gave you the push to become a successful internet entrepreneur? ShoeMoney: I never wanted to give up. Its like a hobby to me, to try different things. Like playing the game of life. Being that it doesn’t cost anything to do it. The push really to do it, was a position of opportunity meets preparation. I basically got fired from a job, and my girlfriend at the time had decent enough income to support us as I tried this.
JumboCasher.com asks: How would a search engine rate a single landing page against a small say 10 page website?
ShoeMoney: If all the links are going to the primary page and isn’t linking to the internal pages then it doesn’t matter. If all the links are going to an interior page, than that main page isn’t going to rank as well. I’m not an SEO.
terminator69 asks: What is the coolest thing you have with the shoemoney logo on it? (excluding the swimming pool).
ShoeMoney: When I was 12 years old, I took a fluorescent plastic that goes over light fixtures. I did that logo in duct tape, and then spray-painted it. So when the light was on, it would shine through the logo.
Craig asks: If timing was different how do you think you would have done on the TAC, it would have been really interesting to see all 3 gurus battle it out.
ShoeMoney: It wasn’t a battle between the gurus. We were there as just a resource for the contestants. It would have been interesting to see if we had a competition between us 3 gurus.
Geiger asks: What’s it take to get to the top of the Free T-Shirt Friday Queue?
ShoeMoney: I don’t really see the shirts, till Tigh hands them to me. So maybe a $20 to Tigh and Susan.
Bryn Youngblut asks: Are you less motivated with your blog lately?
ShoeMoney: The thing with my blog , is its my blog. So if I want to write, I can. If not, then I don’t have to. I’m more excited about the blog than ever. But unfortunately the blog has always taken a back seat to our other company stuff. The company is definitely low on the priority list. We do have a new design that will be rolled out this week.
JumboCasher.com asks: Shoe, what are the 3 biggest mistakes that you have made on this blog!
ShoeMoney: 1. The newsletter, not having one.
2. Redone the URL structure. But I like the way it is now, and by the URL structure you and tell by what dates the post was made. 3. I wish I would have implemented some of things I do now earlier. The behind the scenes thing, those are fricken awesome. Absolutely love doing those. Wish I would have done that earlier, and we have quite a waiting list of companies that we’re doing. I think I just took too long doing something things.
Mitchell Blatt asks: How does it feel to have a Wikipedia page about yourself while John Chow doesn’t?
ShoeMoney: I actually have a huge list of all the things I’ve done that John Chow hasn’t. I actually didn’t even know that he didn’t have one. And my page lists me 2 years older than what I actually am. I’m not going to lie, it is cool to have a wikipedia page. But I still have to work tomorrow.
Martin Muehl asks: You once mentioned that you track your website traffic with your own analytics tool. Do you track any key metrics other than the usual?
ShoeMoney: Depending on the site and the goal. For instance on our webmasters tools stuff. We track what tool people use, and devoting the most amount of time on what people are using.
samn asks: How do you get a “Great” quality score on a single page landing page.
ShoeMoney: Click through ratio has to be very good. The user experience is very vital, and so the user doesn’t immediately click back right away. As much as you can answer the keyword, and your ad copy has a lot to do with it. Read some of my old posts on paperclick.
Mitch asks: Whenever I try using an image ad (CJ, Common Connect, etc) on the side panel of my Wordpress blog (my server, but their software), that entire side is suddenly at the bottom of the screen on the browser instead of on the right side. What could the issue be?
ShoeMoney: Sounds like you have a fixed width issue. Your website is a fixed width, and that image is too big.
Coaster asks: I am new to this site.
Where should I start reading on your site? It seems to be a bit all over the place to me and I don’t know what to read first! ShoeMoney: At the bottom is a previous questions and answers, there are over 1,200 Q&A’s. I would start there.
Chris Edwards asks: Can I become a rep of yours someway over here in California (Los Angeles)?
ShoeMoney: Absolutely.
team ray asks: auctions ads how long did it take you to put it together and in what programming language did you use?
ShoeMoney: Dave Dellanave wrote it in a couple days, for the core of it. Maybe less than a day. It was derived from a product called Shoemoney Ads.
PHP
mcQ asks: Do you think Bruce Ivin’s is the anthrax guy? or he is being used as a scapegoat?
ShoeMoney: Not familiar. Sure.
Geiger asks: Choose one…
Rock, Paper or Scissors? ShoeMoney: Rock. Because I’m built like a rock.
JumboCasher.com asks: nice question!. I have about 14 and counting…
ShoeMoney: Pass
elsewhen asks: i presume that you are well connected to people who have successful internet businesses. can you disclose the annual profits (not revenues) the top tier are making in different internet business categories… like people who specialize in running adsense sites, affiliate marketers, people selling digital goods, i am not asking you to disclose names, just something like, i know three guys making approx 1.5million/year with adsense or whatever. thanks!
ShoeMoney: I know 3.5 million guys making a dollar a day. If they just want to be inspired, I saw a guy log into his CJ account, and he was doing 2 million a month. That is pretty impressive. The adsense question is interesting, because most of the people making money from adsense, don’t know any better yet. This excludes digg, myspace, etc. Adsense is a great starting point, but it leads you to other things. It lead me to affiliate marketing. We were doing 100k’s per month, and led us to affiliate marketing years and years ago. I don’t know a lot making much with adsense, because it’s a little embarrassing that they are making much. I don’t know anybody making over $5 a month on adsense.
JumboCasher.com asks: making a little money is one thing… what about sustaining that income over a long period of time.
ShoeMoney: That would be good. I agree. That’s how I started with adsense and paperclick stuff. You are rich, and you’re poor. We have grown the staff and entered more stable markets.
Lawrence asks: I have a number, it’s in the range of 1-10….make a guess:
I want to check if we see eye-to-eye ShoeMoney:5
Mark - The Niche Store Builder asks: If you had a stellar idea for a new website… what are the first 5 things you would do? AND, if you were somewhat new… where would you turn for guidance?
ShoeMoney: Turning for guidance, go to my site. We have 3 core things we look at: 1. Business model, is there a way to make money. 2. A needed service, is it something you would want to use, and going to use 3. Is there a viral component, will it grow without spending money. If they aren’t there for your stellar idea, you should probably can it.
Kacper asks: What is your biggest online success so far in this year?
ShoeMoney: The Elite Retreat was big. We launched Fighters.com. I guess it depends on what is “success”. We are hitting all of our goals with fighters.com, but we’re just not profiting. I would say fighters.com is our biggest. Or the tools system, I’m really impressed by how many people have signed up already. We have a great feedback thing now, where people can submit suggestions. And we let members vote on it, and if everybody wants it, then we’ll build it. Its still too early in the year, we usually do the best in the 4th quarter. The 1st and 2nd quarter we suck. 3rd and 4th look very promising.
Dan Schawbel asks: How do you charge advertisers on your blog? Is it by the number of RSS subscribers you have?
ShoeMoney: No. We charge, because we’re capitalist pig, we basically let the market set itself. The advertisers are locked in at that price, but when they stop advertising we charge more for the next advertiser. We increase the price 5% each time, until nobody wants to advertise then we’ll bring the price down.
BigPappa asks: Can I buy you a beer next time I am in Lincoln?
ShoeMoney: Probably not. Only because between work and family, I can’t remember the last time I went out to a bar in Lincoln. Except for one night with the TAC. I can’t even name a bar in Lincoln.
JumboCasher.com asks: what according to you is going to be the next big thing about the internet?
ShoeMoney: The internationalization of the internet will be the next frontier. When you look at the market, and many people use the internet in other countries. If affiliate marketing is there, then adsense will be there. There are just so many people that aren’t on the internet yet, and the mobile, international stuff. Most people in other countries use their phones more than their computer to access the internet.
Charlie asks: Would me buying at a great hibachi grill here in Vegas be a fair trade for some time to discuss a couple projects I have been working on? And when are you going to be in Las Vegas again? (pubcon I assume)
ShoeMoney: I’ll be in Vegas for the DMA, in October. Taking me out for dinner, I just don’t have time for that. I appreciate the offer, but I just don’t plan lunches and dinners. I usually just go with the posse. Unless you want to buy dinner for 20 people. Usually Neil Patel buys for everyone. I’m free to talk, just tag along with.
Joe Hall asks: Best online business: subscription based service, or for sale product? And i also want to know what your thoughts are on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but if i have to choose, I want to know about the online business first.
ShoeMoney: Subscription is the win. Ongoing subscription is timeless. Blockbuster and netflix monthly subscription models, they absolutely kill it. With some of our sites , we have subscribers going back 5, 6 years. That’s awesome revenue. Even with our shirts, we lose money on the shirts. The shirts cost us $7, and $5 to ship. So we lose money on them. We have people call about wrong sizes, or shipped to wrong address. I’ve never cared to actually have a physical product.
I think they’re cool. They don’t have to dress up, they just have their shell. Each has their own specialty.
Allen asks: If you had very limited time and resources, what would you do to make money in the least amount of time?
So let’s say you wanted to make $50/day and had 8 hours to set it up what would you do? ShoeMoney: I would probably put $10,000 and 5% interest on that. Whatever would give me $50 in interest, I would put that much money in the bank. By the time you get all the paperwork done, it would take less than 8 hours.
meethere asks: why dont you post a monthly income report similar to johnchow
 ?ShoeMoney: Honestly, because I would just be guessing. I actually run several other companies and projects. I’m not that guy sitting at home in his underwear anymore. I have one person does all accounting, Tigh does all the operations, and Dave does all the programming. And I do the marketing. I know we do good revenues. The blog should bring in about $300k, $400k this year. Probably 90% is profit. Most of the advertisers don’t want to share, and some have a good rate, some don’t. We have to make $1,400 just so we’re in the green, because we have employees. And in some projects we have investors, which would not want us disclosing the financial info.
TEKFIRM asks: - Content is king
- Viral - Service ShoeMoney: Pass
TEGS asks: Hey Shoe,
I sent you a picture of me and a affiliate check but you never posted it! Either way, love the site! Thanks! ShoeMoney: Send in a pic of yourself with a check. And people started sending in pics with their dog and a check, car and a check. And it might have just got tagged a spam. Send it again.
Geiger asks: How does one start their own ringtone site?
ShoeMoney: A lot of affiliate companies have API’s that you can start right away. Years and years ago, people could generate their own ringtones upload and share them. That would be hard for you now though. I’m assuming you don’t have a very good marketing team, programming team.
corey asks: the website that is the most enjoyable for me to run and create content for is in a niche that is not a huge affiliate arena. only a few of the online stores have affiliate programs. have you ever motivated a company to start a program? is it a lot of trouble for a seller to get setup with one of these networks?
ShoeMoney: We have motivated and written affiliate programs for companies. If this company has something you believe in, have them contact us and we can implement one for them. They can go with CJ, they charge like $5k off the top, and hold $5k. We custom write them, and the way we do it is pretty slick for SEO value. It has better tracking than most affiliate companies. And its more hands on. When people are blocking CJ cookies, and links. You won’t be affected by that.
Andrew asks: Do you have a college degree? Is it valuable these days for someone who aims to live off the internet or is it a waste of precious time ?
ShoeMoney: Like Tigh, he has a 4 year degree in Mathematics. But he is also from a very small town. When people are from small farming communities are usually very hard workers, and good work ethic. That combined with his education was hard for me to ignore. I don’t have a degree, I just don’t learn very well in an educational setting. I learn better from experience. If you are already doing this, and learning, and getting experience from it. I don’t know what school is going to do for you. But if you want to be an accountant, or marketing wise you can learn a lot from school. I benefited greatly from classes I took like business law and marketing. More key classes, and less degrees. I’m not a degree person.
Melvin asks: when you started out putting ads on this site, whats the average price of an adspot?
ShoeMoney: I think around $200 a month.
|
| Laptop Bag Recommendations? |
Dear Lazyweb, I'm in need of a new laptop bag, something on the smallish side. It needs to fit my Macbook Air and its power adapter, my Kindle and its power adapter, my Bose headphones, possibly a small mouse, and a couple of cords. So, not much. Any recommendations? I'd like to see it in person before I buy it, and I'd like to get it this weekend, so that eliminates mail-order places like WaterField. |
| Ask a Geek: Places to buy tights in Toronto |
| I want - I got reader Valerie commented on the post Fashion Trends 2009: i liked the link about tights. can you recommend places to buy them? (not online) The link Valerie is referring to is Tightsplease Autumn/Winter Hosiery Trends for 2008/09. In Toronto/GTA your best bets are: H&M - Eaton Center is the only H&M I’ve seen [...] |
I want - I got reader Valerie commented on the post Fashion Trends 2009:
The link Valerie is referring to is Tightsplease Autumn/Winter Hosiery Trends for 2008/09. In Toronto/GTA your best bets are: H&M - Eaton Center is the only H&M I’ve seen with hosiery. I tend to troll Winner’s also, sometimes you can find some good deals. Finding cool tights in Toronto unfortunately takes time. EDIT: A note about H&M, if you see tights you like, buy in bulk. They are cheap and don’t last very long and their colours and styles rotate a lot, so a favourite colour and style might not be there the next time you go in.
|
| i want… |
| Amy Kovach Jewellery There are a ton of great jewellery designers in Toronto. I like these pieces by Amy Kovach You can buy Amy’s merch in Toronto at Made You Look and online at Sugardaddyshop.ca images: amykovach.com a2a_linkname="i want…"; a2a_linkurl="http://iwantigot.geekigirl.com/2008/08/12/i-want-amy-kovach-jewellery/"; a2a_show_title=1; |
|
There are a ton of great jewellery designers in Toronto. I like these pieces by Amy Kovach
You can buy Amy’s merch in Toronto at Made You Look and online at Sugardaddyshop.ca images: amykovach.com
|
| Forget Paper and Sign Contracts Online With Tractis |
| Tractis, which recently came out of private beta, allows you to negotiate and execute worldwide legally binding contracts online. Tractis’ focus is making e-commerce more safe by providing not only digital signing of contracts, but conflict resolution and micro-insurance services. Today, they officially open their doors for Spain and plan to eventually make their service [...] |
Aside from signing contracts, Tractis also provides a database of contract templates which anyone can save to their account and use for free. Right now you’ll find non-disclosure agreements, design service agreements, and contracts for the selling of goods. (Goodbye lawyers!) But where do these contacts come from? The answer is other Tractis users. In your account, you can create contract templates and make them publicly available for others to use. This is a great idea and I definitely see the value in it, however, I can’t help but feel uneasy knowing they are from users that are likely not lawyers. (Lawyers, come back!) On the plus side, templates are open for all to edit, rate, and comment on. Also, Tractis plans to roll out a reputation system in the next few months that would allow users to rank other Tractis users, according to Business 2.0 Magazine.
Additionally, Tractis is a collaborative environment for your contracts. Invite your whole team and the people you are sending contacts to. Start a contract from scratch or from a template, make changes, revert to older versions, and add comments. When you’re done preparing the contract, invite your client to review and digitally sign. If the client isn’t in agreement, you can discuss and edit the contract right then and there with them. One thing to keep in mind is the person signing the contract will need a Tractis account. This is said to be for identity protection reasons, but I’d personally prefer sending a contract to anyone, whether they have an account or not. Also, as of now, each digital signature will cost you 1 Euro, so be sure to increase your balance before sending off a contract to a client. What’s more important, are contracts sent using Tractis legally binding? Even now I have clients questioning the legality of signing a document over EchoSign, even though E-Signatures were legalized in the year 2000 (see, E-Signature Act). I will admit the concept does seem questionable, but Tractis does guarantee that contracts are not only legally binding, but valid worldwide. At the same time, it’s hard to trust a guarantee when pages like contact, about, and terms of use are missing from the website. (I believe the content did exist during the private beta, but seem to have disappeared at public launch - oops!) Let’s hope they get that fixed quick! (Update: I’ve spoken with David Blanco, founder of Tractis, and have been told that they are working on new content and translated versions for the website.)
Working with Tractis is much like typing a document in a web-based word processor, or a contract focused Writeboard with basic contact management. You create and edit contracts in a WYSIWYG editor, invite users to collaborate, and eventually save for signing. And this works great, except my biggest complaint is that you cannot upload existing contracts that you might have, something that EchoSign does very well. Tractis also lets you create groups of people, find new people on Tractis, download vCards, and add people to your team. And what would a collaborative application be without being able to customize your interface to match your company? Nothing too fancy - you can change colors and replace the Tractis logo with your company logo. As I brought up earlier, Tractis also allows you to create templates which can be used to start off new contracts. You can browse the public database of templates, edit as needed, and add them to your account for easy access. Very helpful, but they are no more than basic documents of legal agreement containing filler spaces and strings like “(Your Company Name).” They work fairly well, but one slight annoyance is having to replace thirty or so “(Your Company Name)” tags in a template by hand. The templates would be much more useful if there was a way to somehow mass replace a string with a new value, or perhaps create a custom markup or generate a form that fills in the information for you. Either way, the templates do save a lot of time, not to mention possible lawyer fees.
Once you get passed having a digital certificate and Java 1.6 on your machine, you can finally sign a contract. It’s all simple from here on and you just have to check the box stating that you agree and click sign. It verifies the form and submits your signature and lets contract participants know. I feel the whole process of signing a contract may be a bit much for the average person, but it certainly does add a sense of trust and security to the signing, which is exactly what Tractis was aiming to do in making e-commerce more safe. Although, I’m not sure I’d want a client of mine to go through all of that. Fortunately, I’ve been told that there are plans for additional methods of authentication and signing, including “Accept/Clickwrap” agreements, but will strongly recommend the use of digital certificates. Even though Tractis is out of private beta and officially launched for Spain today, they still have a ton of work ahead of them. I expect it will be a while until Tractis is available for U.S. users, but I definitely look forward to using Tractis when it becomes available. What I like most is the public database of templates and the ability to collaboratively edit a contract before making an agreement, features Tractis’ competitors do not have. I don’t necessarily trust the public templates just yet, but they are nice to have around as reference and to act as a starting point. I also found the signing process to be a bit much for my line of work (creative services), although my opinion on that would change if “Accept/Clickwrap” agreements are implemented. I just wouldn’t want to have my clients create an account on Tractis just to sign a contract and then have to deal with providing a digital certificate. I do, however, see the value in requiring digital certificates when handling large transactions, such as buying a car from a random user on eBay. In all, I feel Tractis is building an impressive service and I hope to use it when it’s ready worldwide. Until then, I’ll stick with EchoSign and the old-fashioned way of signing contracts (pen and paper). |
| Tags: tractis, contracts, digital, signature, esignature, |
| L8r is Future Mail with a Business Model |
| L8r is a new service that lets users create an email and have it delivered at a specific time in the future. It’s similar to the popular site FutureMe where anyone can write a simple letter to themselves or a friend and have that letter sent by email sometime in the future, for you know, [...] |
Signing up with L8r will allow you to have three pending emails at any time for free, but if you need to send any more than that, it will cost you. You can purchase 10 emails for $1.99, 200 emails for $9.99, and 1,000 emails for $24.99. When you run out, you’ll be switched back to the free plan. Now, you may be wondering, why pay for L8r when you can send emails in the future with a service like FutureMe for free? Paid users of L8r get more features like file attachments, the ability to send HTML email, unlimited pending emails, and SSL security. L8r will also get rid of that annoying “sent later with l8r” message at the bottom of your messages.
What I like about L8r is that you can create email drafts and view pending and sent email in the messages area just like you would a normal email client. The benefit of this is that you can keep record of sent mail and fix any mistakes you have made in a pending email before it gets sent out. L8r will also send you an email when a message cannot be delivered and put it in the “undelivered” tab. This way, if you sent a message to an email address that doesn’t exist or if someone’s mail server is down, you can find out what email didn’t make it and send again. Another feature is the ability to send an email to more than one person. You just separate multiple email addresses with a comma in the “to” field and L8r will send to each recipient.
Even though L8r isn’t anything all that new when compared to email reminders (except that it sends up to five years in the future), I think it’s a pretty neat service. I can see it being helpful for people that use reminders in their daily workflow and need more than basic text messages. You can have three pending emails at any time for free and get extras like HTML mail, attachments, and SSL when you pay for more. Something L8r may also want to consider is allowing users to send recurring messages to themselves for repeating tasks and personal goals. I also ran into a couple minor problems. First, when editing an email, the time did not offset properly from its original set time. Also, when trying to buy more email credits, L8r directed me to a PayPal checkout for Netherlands users and I couldn’t make a purchase. (Maybe not such a minor problem) Otherwise, everything ran well and future emails that I sent out arrived on average 2-3 minutes after my set time. As a last note, another service similar to L8r and FutureMe is FutureMail which allows you to send email in the future as a note or reminder to yourself. FutureMail also has this neat concept of a “FutureMail Blog” where you get a public stream of your future messages and an RSS feed to share with friends. |
| Tags: l8r, future, mail, email, reminders, gtd, |
| 'Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood' |
|
In "Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood" proud new parents, Tori Spelling and actor husband Dean McDermott, are checking out of the bed & breakfast business and moving back to Hollywood. This season features Spelling and McDermott as they buy their first home, celebrate son Liam's first birthday, publish Tori's first book---and get ready for the birth of their first daughter! Season premieres Tuesday, June 17th at 10/9C only on Oxygen. |
| The Pharmaceutical Monopoly in Italy |
| A week after I first arrived in Italy I developed a headache. I walked to my local Supermarket to buy aspirin, but alas, I could not find them anywhere in the store. When Buzzurro came home from work I told him that I looked all over for aspirin in the supermarket, and could not find them. He asked me if I had gone to a pharmacy. "No," I answered. "Of course not. I went to the supermarket." He replied that in Italy, ALL medicines, those requiring a prescription as well as those who don't, by Italian law can only be sold in a pharmacy. The next day I went to a pharmacy and saw a box of aspirin on sale. There were 10 in a box and the price was 3 euros and 80 cent. "What !" I thought to myself "3 euros and 80 cent. For 10 aspirin? Are they crazy here?" (but bought them anyway because I still did have a headache). This was my first experience with the miseries brought upon the Italian nation by the monopoly of pharmacies, Federfarma. Federfarma is opposed to the selling of over the counter OTC medications in any place other than a pharmacy. Of course this keeps the prices of the non-prescription medicines such as aspirin extremely high. They set the prices. Competition is not a factor at all. Their reasoning being that selling non-prescription medicines in a store other than a pharmacy is dangerous and will create grave risks for diseases caused by misuse or overmedication. They want the public to buy all medicines in a pharmacy because the pharmacist explains the doses of medicine needed and how to correctly use them. I for one have never had a pharmacist explain to me how to take an aspirin. I buy them at their extremely high price, go home, and read the instruction booklet for the medicines which is included in the box of them. I assume that other people in Italy can read and do this too. Non-prescription medicine is the costliest in Italy than in all of Europe, the US and for all I know, the rest of the world. I read somewhere that there is a small group of Italian consumers that they have a petition requesting the sale of non-prescription medications in stores other than pharmacies. I don't know who they are, I've never seen a petition, but sign me up ! It's a worthy cause. |
| Trump to buy McMahon's home, let him live there |
| Donald Trump to buy Ed McMahon's home before bank forecloses and become his landlord |
| Mobile Marketing : Apple’s iPhone Rocks the Cell Phone Industry |
| Paul Carton (ChangeWave Alliance) submits: It’s not often that we say “it rocks” when analyzing a consumer device trend. But the findings of our latest ChangeWave cell phone survey invite extremes to describe the startling impact the Apple (AAPL) iPhone is having on the cellular industry. Our survey of 3,489 Alliance members – conducted April 4-10 [...] |
Paul Carton (ChangeWave Alliance) submits: It’s not often that we say “it rocks” when analyzing a consumer device trend. But the findings of our latest ChangeWave cell phone survey invite extremes to describe the startling impact the Apple (AAPL) iPhone is having on the cellular industry. Another 7% say they are likely to buy the iPhone as a gift for someone else. These are big numbers, especially when you consider the worldwide market for cell phones is around 1 billion and Apple’s goal is to get to 1% of that market in year one – which would mean selling about 10 million phones. Clearly the current results, while similar to our January survey findings, provide strong evidence that Apple should exceed its iPhone sales goals for 2008 – providing the device lives up to consumer expectations. The iPhone’s overall integration of iPod, Phone, Camera and Email/Internet capability (28%) remains the top selling point among likely buyers. Importantly, the survey has also uncovered an additional surge in demand if the iPhone’s proposed price point is lowered. To find out how far the price has to drop to attract additional customers, we asked the rest of our respondents who aren’t yet considering the iPhone the following question: For those not considering buying an Apple iPhone, at what price point would you consider buying an iPhone?
A total of 10% say they’d consider buying a 4GB iPhone if the price falls to the $200-$299 range, while a total of 20% said they’d consider the 8GB model in this price range. The Explosive Impact on Cell Phone Manufacturers To gain a full sense of the iPhone’s looming impact on manufacturers, we compared their current market share in our survey with planned consumer purchases for the next six months. Currently, Motorola (MOT) (33%) remains the leading manufacturer among Alliance cell phone owners, with LG (LPL) (15%) second and Nokia (NOK) (14%) third. But when you look at planned future buying the iPhone’s impact becomes clear. For the second-consecutive survey, Motorola’s future share among consumers has seen a dramatic decline – falling from 33% last October to just 17% currently. Nokia has also fallen from 11% to 9% during this period.
“As more and more consumers switch to the iPhone, we are going to see a huge migration from cell phone manufacturers like Motorola to the hipper, cooler iPhone,” says Tobin Smith, founder of ChangeWave Research and editor of ChangeWave Investing. The Effect on Cellular Service Providers We see the same pattern among service providers. Currently, Verizon (VZ) (30%) holds the market share lead among our respondents while AT&T’s (T) Cingular (27%) – which is Apple’s exclusive service provider for the United States – is in second. We note that third place Sprint/Nextel (S) (12%) has fallen 1-point to a new low. But going forward we find a dramatic turn of events. Cingular (28%; up 6 points) has surged ahead of Verizon in terms of future planned buying among consumers, and is now the top choice among those likely to switch service providers.
Verizon (22%; down 3 points) has continued to trend downward among this critically important group – falling to second place for the first time since we began asking this question in a ChangeWave survey. Thanks to our early adopters of the ChangeWave Alliance we are able to see with stark clarity how the Apple iPhone is set to rock the cell phone industry. Ultimately the real issue for Apple isn’t meeting its first year iPhone sales goals. The survey shows that’s very doable. The real issue is whether they can keep up with consumer demand – including having enough parts to fulfill orders – while maintaining product integrity. Its competitors had better hope the iPhone can’t get a dial tone – because if it does, the rest of the industry’s in for a big shakeup. Jim Woods co-wrote this article. Apple’s iPhone Rocks the Cell Phone Industry - Seeking Alpha technorati tags: mobile, mobile alley, mobile news, mobilemarketing, mobile marketing, marketing mobile, interactive marketing, marketing interactif, marketing, digital marketing, digital advertising, Mobile advertising, Mobile Internet, Apple, Apple iPhone, Cell Phone Industry         |
| Tags: mobile, mobile alley, mobile news, mobilemarketing, mobile marketing, marketing mobile, interactive marketing, marketing interactif, marketing, digital marketing, digital advertising, Mobile advertising, Mobile Internet, Apple, Apple iPhone, Cell Phone Industry, |
| Perhaps Pandora Must Be Our Sacrificial Lamb |
| Pandora made a bold political statement today, saying they’d likely shut down rather than continue to pay exorbitant fees to play music to listeners of its massively popular service. Radio stations pay different rates depending on how they broadcast music. Terrestrial stations (normal FM/AM stations) pay nothing, a tribute to their powerful corporate parents with limitless [...] |
Radio stations pay different rates depending on how they broadcast music. Terrestrial stations (normal FM/AM stations) pay nothing, a tribute to their powerful corporate parents with limitless lobbying budgets. Satellite stations pay approximately 1.6 cents per hour per listener. By 2010, Pandora and other Internet radio stations, which have few lobbying resources, must pay 2.91 cents. Pandora says they’re alread paying 70% of their $25 million in yearly revenues in royalty fees, and it is driving them out of business. Other Internet radio stations are even worse off. For their part, the music industry says Internet radio stations have no one but themselves to blame, and suggest they find more innovative revenue models. The blatant discrimination between terrestrial, satellite and Internet radio stations is ridiculous. But little is likely to change - large scale protests last year over royalty increases were mostly ignored. Pandora, Our Sacrificial Lamb Perhaps Pandora, one of the first companies I profiled on TechCrunch, needs to be sacrificed before artists and labels to realize just how absurd their position is. In a free market it’s been proven that labels will actually pay to have their music played on radio stations, and payola almost certainly continues to occur in some form. The fact is that Pandora and other Internet radio stations provide a valuable marketing service to artists and labels. As I wrote in March when Billy Bragg argued that Bebo should pay musicians a portion of their $850 million AOL payday, they are particularly valuable for unknown artists who just want more people to hear their music:
For now the labels want to squeeze more revenue out of Pandora and others. But when these companies start to go under and the bird in the hand disappears, they may regret their overly aggressive negotiating stance. It’s time for the labels to die, and anything that cuts off another revenue stream is at least partially good. I’m reluctantly willing to sacrifice Pandora if it quickens the inevitable march of recorded music towards free. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. |
| August 22 for second batch of iPhone 3G releases |
| NOTE: USD $1.00 = Philippine Pesos PHP 44.00 The second batch of releases for the iPhone 3G is happening this August 22. Complete information here. Gee. I don’t know about you but the hype is really starting to die out on me. I was very interested (like 80% convinced) to reserve an iPhone 3G but was so [...] |
NOTE: USD $1.00 = Philippine Pesos PHP 44.00 The second batch of releases for the iPhone 3G is happening this August 22. Complete information here. Gee. I don’t know about you but the hype is really starting to die out on me. I was very interested (like 80% convinced) to reserve an iPhone 3G but was so turned off by the pricing. I had once told folks that the iPhone isn’t exactly the real product telcos should sell - but rather, kick ass pricing. So taking a look at Globe Telecom’s price scheme (in partnerships with SingTel in Singapore), I’m left with sad realizations as well:
Still no unlimited roaming Internet. A maximum of 100 hours? Still too low. What’s to stop me from buying a refurbished first generation iPhone for around $150.00 (yeah that’s the price here) and insert a SIM card that has unlimited roaming Internet minutes? I spend so much less. As for the features I’m left out of — GPS is honestly overrated. Come to think of it, I really wonder why August 22 was chosen as the launch date when, at least in most of Asia, 08.08.08 is supposedly the luckiest day. Tags: Globe, iPhone 3G Rates, Plans, Post Paid, Prepaid |
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| The Online Music Ripoff |
"Why is DRM so contentious? Surely it's designed to protect the rights of artists and record companies in a climate where, as one international music industry body claims, illegal downloads swamp legitimate music store downloads by a ratio of 20 to 1? The problem is DRM doesn't affect the pirates, who upload and download DRM-free files often ripped directly from CD. Instead, it affects legitimate buyers in a range of deeply irritating ways. The first roadblock comes down to Gates' talk of "simplicity" and "interoperability", or rather the lack of both"
I think most people who know anything about DRM hate it. They hate dealing with the limitations of the technology, both intentionally built-in or as a direct result of poor technical planning/implementation. Unlike a good protection scheme which is invisible to the end user, DRM is too limiting to the average customer, and does nothing to stop hardcore music pirates. Plus, when a store goes down and its licenses stop renewing, the customer is the real loser. Sure you can burn your songs to a CD and re-rip them (or do it virtually), but the process is time-consuming and you lose audio fidelity. Another option is to free your purchased music using tools like FairUse4WM (above) or Hymn, or just buy DRM-free in the first place. Check out the article if you need yet another reason to hate DRM. |
| Media Talk: ‘Gossip Girl’ DVD Extra Tries to Steer Buyers to the Books |
The DVD set “Gossip Girl: The Complete First Season” includes a free electronic version of the original novel on which the show is based. But — OMG! — it’s an audio book.
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