Then today I see that Apple has sent authorities to seize property from the home of Jason Chen, a blogger on Gizmodo. I have been following the “lost iPhone prototype” ordeal since it first began when an Apple employee left his iPhone prototype behind in a bar after a night of drinking.

Apple has tried to turn this into a “stolen property” case but the thing is, they have already received the iphone prototype back according to what Gizmodo’s side of the story has claimed.

I understand Apple wanting to protect their property and not let the cat out of the bag too soon, but why does it seem like, more and more, they are acting like the very industrial powerhouse that they used to stand against?

Honestly, if this keeps up, I will have no problem whatsoever turning my back on them. Sure their products are technological breakthroughs but their recent practices need to be stopped and we can all vote with our wallets!

For the story about Jason Chen, go here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=10480702

Inevitably I ask him why he hesitates to get started and honestly one of his biggest fears is dealing with the legal aspects of owning a business. What if Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had allowed something as small as a legal document stop them from forming Apple Computer?

OK so what if you aren’t necessarily worried about the legal process but feel that it requires a lawyer and that expense alone is keeping you from making that first big step? I understand completely. While I didn’t use a lawyer myself, I was a bit concerned at first when I opened up my first LLC and the fact is, it was so easy I could hardly believe it. It was even easier to get a tax ID assigned to it once it was formed.

Now I don’t necessarily recommend that everyone just go out on their own and open up a business without the help of an attorney, but there are some great and affordable options if you want the peace of mind that comes with having an experienced attorney assist you in forming your llc, etc.

The other thing you’ll definitely want to consider, especially as you and your business start to build assets, is creating a will or living trust. I won’t tell you which one is best for you, you’ll have to read up a bit and decide that for yourself and your family, but I can recommend a great place to go to take care of all of your legal needs at a very affordable price.

It’s called LegalZoom.com and it really is the next best thing to having a team of lawyers on your side. But it doesn’t cost anywhere near that. And if you’re wondering just what pedigree of legal talent is on hand, check out their About us management page - especially the part about Robert Shapiro being a co-founder. You’ve heard of him right?

OK now for the icing on the cake. Once you set up your LLC with them and get your blog or website up and running - check out their Affiliate program. What better way to make some of your initial investment back then by telling some of your readers about this great way to get started on their dreams? Come to think of it, I know a certain someone who I need to have lunch with and get them started on this today.  Do you?

FORM AN LLC

Here’s the link to the top 100 list. John Chow, I’m coming for you, ha ha!

http://ironblogger.com/100-bloggers-that-will-help-you-make-more-money-online/

Only this time, Best Buy was actually selling pre-orders for it. I figured what the heck, I’ll order it. I was a big fan of the original Guns N Roses and despite the fact that it’s basically just Axl Rose and a plethora of guitarists, drummers, etc who’ve joined and quit the band over the last 17 years, I was really in the mood for some new music. The album actually releases on Monday but it arrived in my mailbox today and I set aside some time to listen to it start to finish. So here’s my take so far:

When I buy a new album and first listen to it, I usually scan through the first few seconds of each song to see if that initial hook is there to catch my ear. I told myself I wouldn’t do that this time. After 17 years, why not listen to it all the way through, right?.

I also told myself that I wasn’t going to judge the music based on whether or not I agree with the way Axl Rose has handled things over the years. Just listen to the music and let it speak for itself. My hope was that I would come away with at least a few songs that I would know right away would be future favorites. I can honestly say that I definitely have. So let me share some of my initial feelings about the album with you.

The first track, Chinese Democracy, has already made it across the airwaves for over a month now. I’ve heard it several times on the radio and it has grown on me. It has the signature GNR feel to it. I am fairly sure that Buckethead did the lead guitars on this track and he did an excellent job - of sounding like Slash. I have no idea, but I would guess that this song was written and recorded in the 90’s because it is the only track on this album that, in my opinion, could fit right in with the Use Your Illusion albums, albeit slightly progressed. 

After that, the album takes you places that certainly no GNR album has gone before.  I recall a quote from Axl from a couple years ago in which he said:

 ”I’m trying to do something different. Some of the arrangements are kind of like Queen. Some people are going to say, ‘It doesn’t sound like Axl Rose, it doesn’t sound like Guns N’ Roses.’ But you’ll like at least a few songs on there”

After listening to the entire album, I completely agree with what he said. And I have to say that I like it. It’s definitely no “Appetite for Destruction”. Nor would it compare to the Use Your Illusion albums really. It’s just too different for that.

If you take the album for what it is then I think you will find it to be enjoyable. You’ll really have to let go of some of the expectations. Yes the album took 17 years to finish. And I will be honest, there are still some filler tracks on there. An album that took that long probably shouldn’t have filler, but who am I to say? Regardless, I really like a few of the tracks even after just 1 listen. So let me share them with you:

My favorite track so far is named “If the World”. It’s nothing like any GNR song before it, with the exception of Axl’s vocals, but I love it. Next favorite track is “This I Love”. This is the rock ballad we’ve not had for many many years - I predict that rock ballads could make a comeback once this one really takes off. “Better” is another track that is definitely growing on me. I’m quite surprised because none of these songs, except maybe “This I Love” is anything like the GNR of old - and that’s okay.

Axl does take his vocals to some places he’s not taken them before. This pays off in a couple of tracks, but I will admit that there are also some tracks in which this just doesn’t work -”Street of Dreams” comes to mind, even though I like the song overall. But kudos to him for taking a chance. I mean, the guy couldn’t have asked for more pressure on his shoulders than he has now, releasing this album after all the hype and broken promises over the years.

So if you’re a bit unsure as to whether or not you should give this album, and Axl, a chance, don’t fret. Just go to http://www.myspace.com/gunsnroses and you can actually listen to the entire album. All you’ll be out is some time. And whether you like what you hear or not, make sure you go to Dr Pepper’s website on Sunday November 23rd to get your FREE Dr Pepper! They promised that everyone would get a free Dr Pepper if Chinese Democracy was released in 2008. I guess they didn’t believe it would ever come out either.

Fixya.com is a community where people who need help with just about anything can float a question and “experts” on various subjects, who are also members, can answer them. It’s the mother of all forums in a lot of ways, but there is a nice little “make money” hook to it all which is what makes it so compelling.

From the standpoint of the basic user needing help, you have the option of posting your request for assistance on just about any product you can come up with-even cars! You can also add yours if it’s not already listed. The beauty of this is that even though you might need help in one area, you might find that someone else needs help with another product and you could potentially help them. One for one support, so to speak. This works fine for problems that you are okay with solving in a casual manner, but what if you need or want your support NOW?

Well that is where the premium services come in. The account is always free, but if you want an answer a bit sooner than you can pay a premium to get Fixya “experts” to work the issue. For example, as a consumer who has no idea how to get their kids Playstation 3 or Nintendo Wii online, they can go and ask their question on the premium service, and pay for the support. This is where the money making opportunity of Fixya.com comes into play.

Any new member of Fixya.com is able to both ask for help and help others. However, if you really want to make some money on the site it is possible to do this by becoming a Fixya.com expert. To do so, you must first help others with their issues on the free service. Fixya.com has a rating system that also comes into play here. Everyone you help has the ability to rate you and your ability to solve their problem. This rating must reach and be maintained at a minimum level of 70% in order for you to keep your expert status.

So how much can you make? Once you reach expert status in your area of expertise you have the ability to start taking on the premium issues that users post. For every premium issue you solve, you get $6.00 and for every Live Chat issue you work, you get $10.00. If you work a lot of issues you could really make a decent living, right?

Well, maybe. I actually work in technology, as a network engineer in fact. I already get paid to solve issues of a technical nature so I felt like I was a good candidate to give this service a try and, who knows, maybe replace my income with it. However, in a very short time I realized that I was not going to quit my day job anytime soon. Here’s my take:

My biggest problem so far with the site is some of the users make it impossible to work with them. Unfortunately I have to start at the bottom so I can’t yet work any premium issues. And the users requests for assistance are usually very vague. It’s hard to help someone when they barely give you any information to work with. Example: How do I set up my 4 computers on a wireless network? While that seems like a valid question, there are just way too many variables for anyone to answer that easily, so I asked a lot of those questions and posted it up. The original person never wrote back and then some other guy wrote a very simple sentence about the most basic wireless network setup (that wouldn’t have even worked for this person) and they basically took my rating potential away. I wasted my time. I figured that was just a fluke, but then I started reading the forum where the experts post their pet peeves and concerns about the site. While they obviously do make money, it seems that a lot of them are frustrated by other “experts” who have very poor ratings and essentially steal their premium issues out from under them. I have to admit that I don’t fully understand how their payment system works yet since I am not an expert on their site and cannot work premium issues myself yet, however I can say that just working 50 free issues to get to the point where I can be an expert may be tough. So think about that for a second. If I can’t even get 50 in one week then how much earning potential do I really have? Well, for me to quit my day job I would have to work 65 problems per day or about 40 Live Chats per day. Ugh, no thanks, I think I’ll stick to my day job after all.

One more thing. I thought I would find Fixya.com to be a nice distraction for those times where I am a little bored in my own job. IT has a lot of downtime sometimes so I thought working some issues on Fixya.com would help me pass the time. Instead, I resented “working” the issues on there because it felt too much like real work, only I wasn’t getting any benefit from it, only Fixya.com is. It was less than a day of joining the site that I started to feel like it was real work. This is no way for a beach bum to spend his free time, let me tell ya!

So, can you make money on Fixya.com? Yes and it is one of the more legitimate sites if you ask me. I think they do provide a great service to both the consumer who needs help as well as the person willing to help others and get a little extra money in their pockets. But I honestly don’t think it’s for everyone. Even if you’re not in IT. Let’s say you’re an expert mechanic, would you prefer to live chat a complete novice through replacing an alternator? Oh, and would you accept $10 for the trouble?

Unfortunately I received a notice from my bank on Saturday which informed me that the check bounced. All kinds of thoughts run through my head when something like this happens. There really is nothing worse than having money you’ve earned yanked back from you, but I did have to give them the benefit of the doubt. We all make mistakes, after all.

So I sent an email to customer service and got the following response back:

“I apologize for this inconvenience.  Our internet service provider has been down the past few days, and this is causing issues with publishers who have tried to cash their checks during this time.  We are working on a resolution, and I will contact you as soon as this is resolved.  Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience and we appreciate your patience in this matter.”

I have never heard of an Internet Service Provider outage causing checks to bounce. I must say that is a first. But what can you do? I have no choice but to wait for them to reissue a check or string me along.

Has anyone else out there run into this problem with Text Link Ads? Is this happening to everyone right now or is this just a fluke?

As soon as I find out more I will update this post.

UPDATE (from Text Link Ads):

“We apologize for the inconvenience that you have experienced with your June TLA check.  Our internet service provider was down towards the end of last week, an issue that affected a large part of the New York area, and was completely out of our hands.  The way this affected the cashing of checks, is when a bank receives a check from TLA, they contact us and request a positive pay file.  These files are sent in automated emails,
and because of the internet outage were never sent, resulting in the checks to bounce.  All checks that bounced are going to be re-sent by Wednesday of this week.  If your bank charged you some sort of processing fee, please let me know the amount and we will reimburse you for the fee on your next TLA check (If you previously mentioned the
amount it has been noted and there is no need to reply).  Once again, we apologize for this inconvenience and if you have any questions, please let me know.”

7/5/08 Update:

I was just recently given a new check and so far that has not bounced. Still curious if anyone else ran into this problem in the past month so feel free to comment.

Well there is an even more-powerful service being offered now that you may be interested in if you’ve given up on your dream of selling online because of the somewhat overwhelming notion that entrepreneurs are faced with in this arena - inventory tracking, payment processing and web development. Does that sound familiar to you?

Amazon webstore is a great way to limit your own exposure to the nightmares of getting a fully integrated product inventory and payment processing system online by letting the proven Amazon engine work for you. You can use your own domain name and build your site using a variety of fully customizable templates and set up your site inventory completely from a user friendly web interface. What’s more is that you can add some powerful tools to your site such as reviews, top selling items, etc - all powered by the familiar Amazon backend. And if you want to fill in your inventory offerings with products that you don’t sell, you can do that to - and get commissions for it by simply adding in Amazon products where you see fit. That is a great feature for anyone who wants a complete inventory but who doesn’t necessarily have all the products on their own.

By now you’re probably wondering what the cost is. Well it’s not as bad as you might think. It’s $59.99 monthly plus 7% commission on your sales. I think you’ll find that it is actually quite cost effective if you look at what it would take you to set up a fully integrated site with payment processing and inventory tracking built in. And you’d be surprised by some of the big name companies out there who are taking advantage of this: Soloflex, Jelly Belly and more.
Of course, if you have the skills to do this yourself, then by all means, have at it. But if you’ve been holding back on getting your web store opened due to being overwhelmed by all the work, and expense, involved then this is a great way to just go ahead and get it going today!

Here’s a link to get you started (http://webstore.amazon.com). Good Luck and be sure to drop us a line so we can all visit your new store!

6)  ALWAYS do your preliminary shopping online to see what rebates the dealerships and the manufacturer are offering.  Many places will let you shop online and you can get an idea of what they’re charging but be prepared that the car you like may be sold when you get there as the site isn’t always updated right away. 

7)  Do your test driving on a Saturday when tons of people are there or on bad weather days.  You’ll have a better chance of getting away and be able to cross ones off that don’t feel right.  Take that opportunity to collect business cards of sales people.  When you lie to them about having gone out all day and been beaten up by other sales people, you tell them the deal you want and say “another guy was able to offer me that.”  Be prepared, they may ask you who and they’ll be surprised when you have a name they can (and will) verify.

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS shop on the LAST DAY OF THE MONTH!!!  They are desperate to make a sale to meet their quota for the month.  Shop the last hour and you’ll get it so cheap THEY’LL be the ones needing the Vaseline.

I hope that you’ve found this series helpful. I highly recommend that you follow them closely and be sure to tell friends and family because everyone should save some money.

The biggest thing to remember about these tips is that you are not screwing the dealer over here. You are giving them just enough profit to still make it worth their while but not at your expense. They may not like to sell all of their cars like this but ultimately they still make money and will make even more on your trade-in, etc. So there is no reason to feel bad for them. This is more of a win-win situation because you are getting the payment you want (and deserve) and they are getting a sale.

Good luck and be sure to tell me how these tips worked for you on your next car purchase!