A little while ago I wrote an article about how New Zealanders should take advantage of the strong dollar and shop on overseas websites (here). DHL recently released some figures that show a 26.6% growth in deliveries to New Zealand between March and September. The main reason for the rise is the buying power the New Zealand dollar offers. Kiwi consumers who are becoming more aware of the fact that they can get a variety of items overseas for a lot cheaper are taking to the internet for their shopping needs.

The top 5 sites where Kiwi’s are shopping:

1. Amazon

Probably the largest e-commerce website that has a strong presence around the world. They offer a variety of items which include books, electronics and beauty products just to name a few. It is popular with Kiwis as a place to buy books, music, clothing and jewellery – Click here to visit Amazon.com

2. Shoebuy

As the name suggests, it is a site that has one of the largest selection of women’s, men’s and kids’ shoes. They stock over 1,200 brands and have everything from casual shoes to dress shoes and athletic shoes – Click here to visit Shoebuy.com

3. Shopbop

They are an online retailer of women’s apparel and accessories from a range of designers being offered at a very good price. Besides getting a fashion fix at for a bargain, if you spend over $100 your items are delivered for free – Click here to visit Shopbop.com

4. iHerb

A one-stop shop for your entire herbal health product needs. They stock natural products from over 600 brands at very competitive prices – Click here to visit iHerb.com

5. Wiggle

The UK’s number one online cycle shop offering deals on mountain bikes, road bikes, cycle clothing and cycle accessories from the worlds top cycle brands. This is sure to be a hit with Kiwi’s with their sport nature and love for the outdoors – Click here to visit wiggle.co.uk

All of the sites mentioned above not only offer great deals, they cater to a worldwide audience meaning you could take advantage of them wherever you are.

Are there any other sites that you would recommend for online bargains?

There a quite a number of videos that have been uploaded to YouTube which for one reason or another have gone viral in a big way. The people who uploaded these videos probably didn’t expect such a response to them or any sort of compensation for them. Some people have been lucky enough to sign on to all sorts of endorsement deals. On the other hand, Google makes money by running ads at the start of some videos, during videos and/or along the side of the player. In a lot of instances, the person who uploaded the video is not be compensated for their creation.

A little while back, YouTube started a partner program through which a select few could earn a share of the revenue generated from ads displayed with the content they uploaded. This wasn’t the easiest to get into but now it looks like if your video goes viral, Google will get in touch with you about becoming a partner. If take up the offer, you are effectively entering into a revenue share agreement with them where you get paid a certain percentage (with you taking the lions share) of the generated ad revenue.

How Does YouTube Work Out Video Virality?

There are a few reports out there stating that YouTube has developed an algorithm that works out what videos are likely to become a hit. All videos uploaded to the site are monitored so every single video uploaded has an equal chance of becoming a moneymaker if it goes viral.

Some YouTube users earn thousands of dollars a year and for others this figure runs into the hundreds of thousands. Examples of the high earning videos include; Talking Twin Babies, Charlie bit my finger – again and Double Rainbow all of which you can search for on YouTube.

The Secret To Making A Viral Video

From what I have seen, there is no secret to making a viral video. A lot of the videos that have gone viral were uploaded with the intent of simply sharing them with friends and family with some of them having been recorded with mobile phones! Some have had a boost by celebrities which have accelerated the rate at which they have been shared.

Make More Money Selling Merchandise

If you are lucky enough to have a video go viral, another avenue through which users can earn money is through merchandising. The Double Rainbow Guy sells an assortment of merchandise such a t-shirts, hoodies and mugs on his Zazzle Double Rainbow Store. If you don’t like what Zazzle has to offer, another option is CafePress.com. If you are going to sell merchandise, one important thing to do is to put a link to your site at the start of the description of the video. People viewing the video will be able to easily see it without having to scroll down and they will hopefully click on it, head over to the site and if they like what they see, make a purchase.

Do you know any other ways of making money via YouTube?

Last week, the shell for our Toyota Corolla key fell apart. Since all the internal bits and pieces were working just fine I saw it as a cheap, quick and easy fix. My first port of call for getting the shell replaced was Toyota but when I spoke to them, the notion of it being a CHEAP fix quickly vanished! The response I got was that it was impossible to replace the shell and that I would need to get a new key at a cost of $400 to $500!

As you can imagine, I took me a little while to get over the shock or trying to understand how something that should be a simple fix could cost so much. After I came to my senses, I listed out alternatives to getting the shell replaced.

One of the alternatives was to look for a replacement shell online and change it myself. This was the alternative I decided to explore first and the one that proved to be the best and cheapest solution. After a quick Google search I found that shells were available for purchase. This led me to TradeMe where to my delight shells were being sold and where I bought one for about $20 (they are also available on eBay – Toyota Key Shell. The shell just arrived and after replacing the broken half of the shell with the broken one, my problem has been solved. And, I managed to save myself $400+ if I had gone with the Toyota option.

Depending on what kind of damage has been done to the shell, it may cost a bit more. The replacement shell comes along with a blank key so if the internal bits of the key with the damaged shell are still working, they can be transferred into the new shell. This would mean you having to go to a locksmith to get the key cut which in itself would not be an expensive exercise and will still see you saving hundreds.

Morale of the story; don’t just accept quotes that you given. Have a think about other options and explore them. You may come up with something that is a lot cheaper and does the job you want it to do.

The iPhone 4S along with its technological advancements went on sale in New Zealand yesterday. Its new features include a faster processor, 8MP camera, iCloud and of course iOS 5 that Apple touts as the most advanced mobile operating system. iOS 5 in itself adds over 200 new features to the iPhone which may make the millions of people who love it, love it even more!

The phone’s hardware and software advancements open a window of opportunity for the development of apps that once couldn’t be developed being developed. A good example of this in action is from the folks over at 1000memories.com. The site amongst other things allows its users to share old photos with family and friends. With the photos being old, more often than not there is a need to digitise them. The sharpness of the 8 megapixel camera on the iPhone 4S can effectively turn it into a high end scanner. 1000memories jumped on this and developed Shoebox, an app that turns the iPhone into a pocket scanner. The app gives its users a faster way of scanning and sharing old paper photos.

Shoebox took advantage of one of the many iPhone enhancements and created something that their users will value. There will be a number of people out there who have creative minds and may have already thought of iOS apps they would like to develop.

The main stumbling block for a lot of people who want to make their idea into a reality is where to begin? This is even more the case if they don’t have any programming skills. Just looking at the associated programming terminology and jargon is enough to put people off the thought forever.

If you have an idea for an app (or game), there are a number of avenues you can take to making your idea a reality. One easy way could be to turn to an app designer to do the work for you. If you have budget constraints, the next option would be to build the app yourself.

After taking a look around at the “do-it-yourself” application development options, the best that I have come across is iPhoneDevSecrets.

Why iPhoneDevSecrets?

Over the course of a few short weeks, the course takes you through a simple step-by-step process that will in no time see you idea become a reality. And remember, this is all done without any programming skills.

Another iPhoneDevSecrets draw card is that it isn’t only about building the app. It also covers topics such as ad network integration, marketing and selling which are just as important if not more important than building the application for the following reasons:

Ad Network Integration – not everyone likes to spend money on apps and people may be more inclined to download free ones. Offering an app free of charge doesn’t mean that you can’t earn money from it. Ad network integration creates your revenue stream

Marketing – To be able to make your development efforts and your app a success, you need to market it well. The course runs through how to successfully market and sell your application and hopefully make it a hit on the App Store

With the ever-evolving world that we live in, there is always something new that makes life just a little easier. An added advantage of iPhoneDevSecrets is that it can be easily updated (and is updated when need be) meaning you have access to current and relevant resources on app development. The course is a lot cheaper than what you may think it would cost and to get you going, you can start off with a $1 30 Day Trial of iPhoneDevSecrets to see if it is worth your while.

If you are like me and a lot of other people I know, then you will more than likely be in a situation where you want to keep as much of the hard earned money in your pocket. One way that I try to keep as much of my money on me and not throw it in the direction of retailers is by keeping an eye out for bargains on the things I need (note: things I need, NOT WANT!).

One easy way to get things at a bargain is the through the use of coupons. A lot of us spend a fair amount of money on our weekly groceries, which makes grocery shopping one of the areas where you can maximise on the use of coupons and shave a few dollars off the bill. That there sums up the benefits of clipping coupons, you get to SAVE money and in some cases you save a lot!! A couple of days ago I was reading an article online that mentioned how Kate Gosselin (of Kate Plus Eight) has become an avid coupon clipper and on occasion has managed to save more than 50% off a grocery bill. Something else she also mentioned was that she has never shopped at some stores without coupons.

Where To Find Coupons?

• Flyers, newspapers, store entrances – your local supermarket or retailers may chose to distribute their coupons via these methods
• Coupon sites – there are a number of online coupon sites such as Coupons.com where you can find coupons for all sorts of products and services
• Twitter – and example of how I use the social network: from time to time I might buy a domain name or need to renew my domains with GoDaddy. At these points I always turn to Twitter and do a coupon search. The reason I turn to the social network is because it provides real time information. I never fail to find a coupon code that is worth my while
• Google – the search engine is also a good place to search for coupons. The only issue I have with it is that now and then the results point me towards expired coupons and it gets annoying trying to find valid ones in all the ‘noise’
• – yes, you can buy coupons on the auction site starting at under $1. Simply search for “” or narrow down your search using terms based on the type of coupons you are looking for

How Not To Use Coupons

One thing that coupons can do is to entice you to buy something that you don’t need. As I’ve already mentioned above it’s about making savings on things that you need, not want. From time to time it may take some will power to not be swayed into buying something you don’t need simply because you can make a saving on it.

If you haven’t tried coupon clipping, give it a go and see if the savings are worth your while.

A couple of year ago, I was in need of someone to design a logo for one of my sites. There are a number of avenues that I could have chosen to meet my design needs but for various reasons I settled on a small logo design company. What I got in the end wasn’t quite what I was looking and the whole process was pretty much a waste of time and money. One thing that I put it down to was that the designer could not quite visualise my vision.

When I came across 99designs, my mind went back to my failed attempt at getting a logo designed. After reflecting on that attempt, one thing I thought would have been good was having pool of designers working on my project. If I had known about 99designs back then, it would have been the obvious choice for my design needs. The main reason for this is the crowdsourcing nature of their service. It would have given me access to a different designers all submitting concepts for me to chose from.

In a nutshell, 99designs is a creative design marketplace where designers submit concepts based on client needs. The client then chose’s the concept that best fits their needs and the winning designer gets paid.

• client posts a design contest that includes specifics of what they are looking for and how much they are willing to pay for the design
• designers start working on the project and send concepts through to the client
• client provides feedback on the concepts and designers make necessary tweaks to get the design just right
• after a few days the client chose’s a winning design from a large pool of concepts and the winning designer gets paid
• client receives the final design and the copyright to the work

Their services are not limited to just logo designs. They have designers that can cater to all of the following design needs:

The fact that you get to select the best design from concepts submitted by multi designers increases the chances of you getting what you want. Since there are number of people working on your project, the chances are much higher that there will be someone who can visualise exactly what you want and design it for you. An added bonus with 99designs is that if you aren’t happy with what you get, they have a 100% money back guarantee. You’ve got nothing to lose and a great design to gain.

Over the past few weeks the number of emails I have been getting from my affiliate networks of choice has increased. With the holiday season fast approaching, a number of vendors are stepping up their campaigns so that they can get as much of the money that will be spent by online consumers in the next few weeks.

As part of this drive, a number of them are coming up with all sorts of offerings to entice people to spend their money with them. These offerings may include percentage off discounts, free shipping, daily deals, a dollar amount discount after a certain amount spent and so on and so forth. In order to take advantage of a number of these promotions, consumers will probably need to use or apply a coupon code.

How Marketers Lose Out on Coupon Commissions

For affiliate marketers, the task of promoting an advertiser offering with a coupon code may seem as easy as placing the code up on a page. Doing this could lead to a loss in revenue if a site visitor can simply copy and paste the coupon code. This is how:

• visitor lands on your site via Google search etc.
• visitor highlights and copies coupon of interest
• visitor opens a new tab in their browser and goes to the advertiser site without clicking on an affiliate link on your site
• visitor completes a transaction on advertiser site using a coupon code that they found on your site

As you can see, if they use the coupon code in this manner, you will have lost out on a commission. Depending on how good you are at driving traffic to your site, this could mean a loss of 2,3,7…16…. who knows commissions a day. Depending on what the item is and how much the vendor pays out, you could be losing out on a substantial amount of money.

How Coupon Code Plugin Increases Click Through Rate

A way off getting around this problem is to have a system in place where visitors have to take an action such as them clicking on your affiliate link in order to copy the coupon code. Coupon Code Plugin for WordPress allows you to do just that by letting you add stylised coupon codes to posts and/or pages that visitors cannot just highlight and copy.

It comes with a range of various button options (as well as custom options) with which to display your coupons. Other features include being able to mask affiliate links, opening of the target site in a new window, a custom call to action and various button icon options such as an arrow, scissors or a + sign (just to name a few).

The stylised button also acts to draw the attention of visitors and this with an effective call to action will lead to an increase in click though rate because you are making life easy for them. With the coupon code button also taking them to the target site you the affiliate should realise an increase in commissions.

The holiday season bring with it November. November brings with it “Black Friday”, the most profitable day of the year for online sales. The following Monday, “Cyber Monday” is also a very lucrative day for online retailers. There will be all sorts of coupons on all sorts of deals that consumers want to take advantage off. All that you as an affiliate marketer needs to do is position yourself for maximum profitability. Consumers spend BILLIONS of dollars a year via coupons and if you are an affiliate marketer who is serious and wants as share of the pie, there is no better way to do this than with the use of Coupon Code Plugin.

Last month, I came across Steve Stoute being interviewed by Piers on Piers Morgan Tonight that touched on some of his successes in life, his new book; The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy and how he would brand Obama. That short interview was insightful and I just came across this short video that might provide a bit of food for thought for marketers. In it he talks about building a brand and what brands need to do in order to connect with consumers the right way. He has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world and helped position them for success. What he has to say goes to show how marketing campaigns can easily get lost in translation.

Before the start of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, Adidas started selling the 2011 All Blacks Rugby Jersey that the New Zealand public was eager to get their hands on. One thing that the public was not so eager about was the price tag of $220! That is a lot of money to pay for a jersey and what was even more frustrating for rugby fans who wanted to get their hands on it was that it was being sold by overseas retailers for about half the price.

Anyone faced with this situation and wanting to get their hands on the jersey would have more than likely opted to purchase it online and get it shipped to New Zealand. The icing on the cake about this little story was when online retailers such as WorldRugbyShop suddenly unlisted New Zealand as an international shipping destination. My guess and that of others was that Adidas somehow found a way to stop them from shipping to New Zealand for a certain period of time. Both Adidas and major e-tailers refused to comment on the situation. At the time, Adidas executives faced the media but stood firm on their ‘fair’ pricing. But, retailers such as Rebel Sport did come to the rescue and did the best they could by lowering the price to keep consumers happy. As far as Adidas goes, this could be another one of the many worldwide examples of corporate greed?

Anyway, the World Cup has come and gone with the New Zealand All Black’s crowned the victors. A couple of days ago I went to the WorldRugbyShop’s site and wasn’t too surprised to see that they are once again shipping to New Zealand. At the moment, their homepage features the All Blacks RWC 2011 Winners SS Jersey and all sorts of other bits and pieces to do with the 2011 RWC. The other bits and pieces include 2011 Rugby World Cup Balls, Team Jerseys for all the nations that took part and the NZ 2011 Champions Range.

The good thing is that you can get all of this gear and more shipped to New Zealand for less than it would cost at a sporting goods outlet. If you are looking to get your hands on rugby gear for yourself or as a Christmas gift for an All Blacks fan who doesn’t have but really wants the 2011 strip, head on over to WorldRugbyShop now and place your orders before the holiday rush starts.

The Holiday Season is fast approaching and with it comes the period when consumers let lose of their hard earned cash and send it in the direction of online and offline retailers. For affiliate marketers, this brings along a time when you can earn a lot more money compared to other periods of the year.

The other day I was reading through Search Engine Watch and came across an article, 3 Steps to Happy Holidays SEM Returns. One of the things that stuck out the most was the Retail Demand Curve For Holidays (2007-2010).

As you can see from the graph, there is a steady increase in impressions, clicks and revenue throughout October. As it moves into November, there is a marked increased and as it heads towards the tail end of the month, revenue shots up over 200%. According to ComScore, 2010 online retail sales for the 2010 holiday season reached $32.6 billion. This was a 12% increase on the previous year and some analysts are predicting that retails sales will increase by 12-14% this year. Whether or not it does increase, $32.6 billion is a lot of money that affiliate marketers can get a share of. Keep in mind that these figures as only for the U.S.

Some things that come to mind to get you thinking more about working on the holiday season include:

Marketing Plan – Put together a plan that covers the next 2-3 months and make sure that all of the important dates are on it. Upcoming dates of importance include Halloween, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and of course Christmas, just to name a few. You need to know what you are going to promote, how you are going to promote and when you are going to promote.

Pages – If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to get pages ready. Besides the usual to-do’s of content and keywords, one big thing that comes to mind is mobile optimised landing pages. More and more people are accessing the internet via mobile devices and if your pages aren’t mobile optimised, you could miss out on commissions.

Email Lists – If you have an email list, get holiday emails ready now so that you aren’t rushed to do so when the time comes to send them. VerticalResponse is good email marketing service that comes with a wealth of free resources to help you get the most out of your email marketing efforts.

Testing – A/B testing of different variations of your pages and email templates is a good idea as this will allow you to determine which one will produce the best results.

This is not a definitive list of things you can do to work on maximising affiliate commissions during the Holiday Season. The purpose of this post is to get you thinking more about what you need (if you haven’t already done so) to do to work towards a profitable season.

It is all over the media that the man behind Apple, Steven P. Jobs has passed away. His passing was inevitable due to his condition but it actually happening was not easy news to take and brought about a range of emotions from around the world. It even generated a crazy online reaction with the news being tweeted 10,000 times per second.

I could go on and write a whole lot about this visionary leader (whose creations I use and love) but I wont. One of the news channels showed snippets of his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address which was very inspirational. He covers 3 stories from his life which were, “Connecting the Dots”, “Love and Loss” and “Death”. One of the messages that struck me the most was in his story about death where he said the following:

That message struck a chord with me because of personal circumstances that are making me re-evaluate my path in life. The address is well worth your time and I’m sure it will make you want to get up and aim for the stars!

Just in case you are interested > The Whole Earth Catalog by Stewart Brand

Over the last few weeks I’ve been slowly reading through The Millionaire Maker: Act, Think, and Make Money the Way the Wealthy Do by Loral Langemeier (Amazon Link). In a nutshell, she outlines practical steps that people can take to create a wealth building system by using the skills they already have. She uses real life examples of people she has worked with to help them build wealth.

One of the things that I thought of as I read through it was people in debt. Bad debt can take control of people in a bad way and make them feel as if there is nothing they can do to create wealth and pay-off the debt at the same time. But, this was covered in the “Debt Management” chapter of the book and she went on to show that it is possible.

She outlined techniques that can be implemented to get rid of bad debt quicker but before you start down this road, you have to take stock of your debt situation. One of the major forms of debt that people have is credit card debt and this simple calculator may help you in seeing where you stand and how long it will take to pay it off.

I will be writing a review of The Millionaire Maker but if Financial Freedom is a goal you want to reach, take action, get a copy today and make it happen!

Apple is set to announce its eagerly awaited iPhone 5 (or maybe iPhone 4S) on October 4 at the “Lets Talk iPhone” event. Surveys show that anticipation for the next generation iPhone is high and Gazelle (a recommerce site) has noticed a marked increase in the number of iPhones being traded in over the last few days. All of this points towards a successful launch for whatever it is Apple will announce on Tuesday and with that will more than likely lead to a significant increase in revenue for them.

They won’t be the only people who will make a financial gain from the iPhone. Affiliate marketers out there may want to think about; in fact, forget thinking about, SHOULD start promoting iPhone related offers. These can include promoting various iPhone accessories such as cases, docking stations, speakers (and the list goes on) from e-tailers such as Cellular Factory and Cellphone Shop. A fact that may be of interest about Cellphone Shop is that they provide a dropshipping service so you could sell accessories on marketplaces such as eBay without having to stock up on inventory.

Something else to take into consideration as a way of making money is app development. With the release of a new iPhone, there is bound to be a new range of functionality. This may lay the foundation to new and never-before-seen apps being able to be developed. There may be people out there who have ideas for new applications but wont have a clue as to how to create them. How to Create iPhone Apps with Zero Programming Skills is a good start for people in this position.

There you have it. As far as the iPhone goes, there is no time better than the present to get yourself ready to cash in on it!!

Over the weekend, I drove into a Shell service station to fill up on what I thought was going to be a good deal on fuel. I paid for a predetermined amount of fuel and just when I started to fill up, I noticed that the price at the pump was a little higher than what I thought I was meant to be paying. It read 209.9 instead of 205.9!

What happened?
As I was driving along I looked at the fuel prices on their price board and saw 205.9 and below that 209.9 (see photo below). I automatically assumed that they were selling 91 Octane for 205.9 with 95 Octane being 4 cents more.

How it happened?
One of the things I put it down to is conditioning! I think what went wrong was that my brain had been conditioned to seeing prices being listed in a particular manner which in most cases is 91 Octane at the top, 95 Octane in the middle and diesel at the bottom. That being said, all other details around the price list have become non-existent as I am focused on the numbers being presented to me.

That there is how I think I managed to miss out on the detail to the left of the numbers which read “Ultra Discount Voucher”.

(The flip-side of the coin is that the marketers over at Shell are aware of this and use it to their advantage to pull in more customers)

Lessons Learnt?
The lesson I learnt from this was, I need to pay more attention to detail because it could be costly!

When you look at the short-term gains in dollars and cents, it may not seem like a big deal. But, if you look at it long-term (over a one year period for example), those dollars and cents add up and that money could be put away in a high interest bearing account or some other investment and become worth your while.

Photo taken with an HTC Desire S Smartphone

With the imminent release of Apple’s iPhone 5, there is a bound to be a flood of people getting rid of their iPhone 4’s and 3GS’s. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that some retailers reduced the price of an unlocked 8GB 3GS from NZ$919 to $599 in what I suspect is a move to get rid of stock and make space for the iPhone 5.

That said, reCommerce giant Gazelle seems to have readied themselves for this flood and have released an iOS app (Gazelle – Gadget Trader) to make selling iPhones that much easier. To sell an iPhone from an iPhone, all that someone has to do is answer 3 questions about the smartphones physical condition. If you are happy with the how much they offer you for the device and the sale has been confirmed, a shipping label is emailed out to you. Once you have shipped off the device, it takes about 5-7 days to receive payment. That easy!

The only thing I would say sucks about this is that Gazelle’s services are only available in the United States. Maybe someone in the Australia/New Zealand region should take the initiative and start up a similar service?

Take a look at the video below to see the app in action and for other details I didn’t include in the post.

There are a number of ways through which bloggers and site administrators choose to monetize their sites. Not all methods suit the one-size fits all model as what works for one site may not work for another and this can be due to varying number of reasons.

Some sites such as photo blogs are image based and if you have been looking around for a way of monetising them, in-image ads may be the way forward. I just came across GumGum, an in-image ad network that opens up a new revenue stream for publishers. Their service overlays ads on web images and publishers earn revenue on a CPM basis.

Signing up to and getting started with them is a quick and easy process. All it takes to get the ad overlays up and running is a simple HTML code install. They have a Wordress.org plugin and Blogger.com widget to make the process easy if you are concerned about tinkering with HTML.

Publisher payments are paid out via PayPal when earnings reach at least $50. I am using them on a couple of my other sites one of which is My Pictorial World (screenshot below).

I have only been running GumGum for a few days so at the moment I can’t really comment much on how well it works. I must admit that I was a little concerned that the ads could be a little intrusive. I haven’t had any complaints from readers yet so I will continue to run their ads for a little while longer to see just how effective they are as a revenue stream. If you want me to write up an update on earnings in a few weeks, leave a comment and let me know.

A couple of weeks ago, someone got in touch with me about a photo I took and posted on My Pictorial World, a small photo blog of mine.  His firm is working on a project so that they can cash in on the 2011 Rugby World Cup, which starts October 9.

As part of the project, they need photos of various items to do with the world cup and one of those items happened to be the RWC Countdown Clock, which is located in central Auckland. They did a Google image search and stumbled upon the photo I took which they seemed to like.

They got in touch with me about the photo and made me an offer (which was in the hundreds) for a copy for them to use on their publication. Unfortunately, the photo did not meet their requirements because they wanted one that was at least 300 dpi. I took the shot at 72 dpi, which is well below their requirements. They did ask for a copy of it to see if they could tweak it and make it work for them but they could only get it to 200 dpi.

This experience served as a lesson to take images at the best possible resolution. In the case of the countdown clock, I was limited because of the camera I had on me at the time (an old and simple point & shot).

From this and other experiences I have been through there are 3 tips that come to mind that may come in handy for people who take photos and upload them onto blogs/websites for the world to see. They are:

Take High Resolution Photos – make sure to take photos at the best possible resolution for the reasons above.

Watermark Images – besides branding your photos, a watermark protects your images from theft. If someone wants to use your photo, they would need to get in touch with you to make an arrangement for an ‘un-watermarked’ version. I use Adobe Photoshop for photo editing and watermarking.

Optimise For Search Engines – this is easy to do and could help photos rank well in for example Google Image Search. Search Engine Optimization: Your visual blueprint for effective Internet marketing by Kris Jones has a section on how to do just that.

You may end up in a situation similar to the one that I did and if it does happen, I hope you are in a position where you actually earn some money for your photos.

The current economic situation in the U.S. is kind of scary on a number of levels because of what could happen to not just the U.S. economy but the global economy if a resolution is not reached soon. Seeing the world sink into another recession so soon after last one (if it really ever ended) could cause more stress to a world that is already trying to deal with a lot.

All of that said, there are people (including myself) living outside the United States who are looking to the U.S. to snap up bargains. The US Dollars (USD) to 1 New Zealand Dollar (NZD) has shot up from about 0.76 at the beginning of the year to almost 0.88 today (31 July 2011), which is it post float high.

With that exchange rate, it only makes sense for New Zealand consumers to look around and maybe even shop online for all sorts from books to electronics to cosmetics to clothing and so on and so forth. The reason being, you will more than likely find whatever it is for a lot cheaper than the recommended New Zealand retail price. For example, my wife has been thinking about getting her hands on an Apple MacBook Air. If she were to get it in the U.S. she could save herself up to NZ $459 as follows:

Apple New Zealand NZ $1,549
Apple USA US $999 (approx. NZ $1,146) (NZ $406 saving)
Amazon $950 (approx. NZ $1,090) (NZ $459 saving)
In this case though, she would need to find someone travelling from the US to get the notebook over because of Amazon’s shipping restrictions on electronics. This however isn’t a problem for her because she has a friend visiting soon who offered to bring it over for her. If this is not an option for you, there is a work around for online retailers who do not ship internationally. I will write about this in the near future.

There are a number of retailers who do ship internationally and even with shipping fees included, turn out to be cheaper than New Zealand retailers. I picked a couple of random items available from NZ retailers to compared their prices against online retailers to find out how much could be saved. The results were:

Book: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [Paperback] by Stieg Larsson
Amazon.com – US $12.99 (approx. NZ $14.90) [shipping included]
Whitcoulls – $24.95
Saving of NZ $10.05

Make-up: Wonder Volume Mascara – #01 7ml/0.25oz
Life Pharmacy – NZ $55.00
StrawberryNET.com – NZ $29.50 [free shipping]
Saving of NZ $25.50

These were just an example of a couple of things that people may want to get their hands on and how much could be saved by buying them online. The main point that I want to get across is that with the current USD/NZD exchange there are plenty of savings to be made for New Zealand consumers. All it takes is knowing what you want to get, it’s retails price so that when you do your online search you will be able to calculate what kind of a saving you will make and whether it will me worth your while.

One thing that comes with the purchase of a device such as an iPhone is the need for a good data package. Getting the most out of your phone’s functionality as well as using a lot of the apps that you will eventually download will chew through your data plan. Some mobile operators provide data services at a premium and being the data addicted consumers we are, we pay for it even though we wish it was cheaper.

That said, there is an app out there that will help you save on mobile data charges. Onavo developed a system that compresses data before it reaches your phone. They claim that their technology can shrink data by as much as 80% which for you could mean big saving.

How it works:

How it all works can be summed up in the image below:

Features:

In addition to shrinking data, the application also provides iPhone user with insights into which apps are consuming the most data. This serves to help you get a better understating of and manage your data usage better.

The application also gives you control over what data gets compressed, such as image quality or not having emails data being compressed at all.

The Onavo is free at the moment but will come at a cost in the future. So, if you plan on giving it a go, download it now and see if it is worth it. Android users will also be able to enjoy the benefits of saving on their data as Onavo plans to release an Android version soon.

A very common sight when driving through the suburbs of Auckland are signs stapled to lamp post advertising garage sales that will be taking place over in the area. On the odd occasion I will drive past a garage sale in progress and a lot of the time, it doesn’t look like it would be worth my while to stop and see what they have on offer. People hold garage sales for various reasons, which could include de-cluttering and selling off items or selling because of a need for quick cash. Whatever the reasons may be for holding the sale, it is always nice to do it in such a way that you get the most revenue from your efforts.

Here are a few quick pointers that may come in handy if you are planning a garage sale in the near future:

1. Plan: just like anything else in life, it is good to plan for the sale. Set a date for when you are going to have the sale, what you are going to sell and make sure you have enough stuff to offer to actually warrant having the sale.
2. Price: set a price for EVERYTHING you plan to sell and don’t price it too low, keeping in mind that you want to make the sale worthwhile to you. Set reasonable prices and allow for negotiation and with that said, have a minimum price at which you are willing to let go of items for.
3. Advertise: it goes without saying that you need to let people know about the sale. It is probably best to start advertising a week or so before the sale. Put clear signs up around your neighbourhood and drive by them to make sure they are readable. If you have a few dollars to spare, a good place to advertise would be your local newspaper.
4. Presentation: lay out your items in the area where you are having the sale in such a way that your “big ticket” items are what your customers will see first. Also make sure that there is enough space for people to comfortably walk through and take a look at what you have on offer.
5. Payment: Make sure you have plenty of change on hand from different denomination coins to bills. You want to make the payment process nice and easy. It can be frustrating for a customer when they experience a problem of trying to pay for something because you don’t have change. If your customers don’t have cash, you could offer other payment solutions such as Pago (New Zealand), PayPal Mobile (Worldwide) or Square (U.S.) as options.

2 Extras Tips:

• Keep cash on your person: can you imagine it drawing to the end of a successful sale and someone comes along and walks away with your cash box?
• Consider a group sale: if you are friends with your neighbours, consider having a group sale and make it even more worthwhile for everyone.

Do you have any other tips to make a garage sale successful?

“Garage Sale” Photo by enfocar1200