Inverted Reality

Amazon Affiliate

A few years ago I set up a couple of web sites to try out the Amazon Associates program. http://www.buyeyefi.com/ http://www.fireflyhelicopter.com/ I used a mashup script that I'd found on the internet which 'mashed together' content from youtube, amazon and ebay. Pretty neat stuff, except everyone decided to change their API's so my sites stopped working.

Recently I re-vamped the sites, not only making them look nicer, but also updating the products, and ditching the scripts that no longer work. I've thrown together static sites in basic HTML, with nested amazon product links and youtube videos. Search engine placing is pretty good, so that's not a problem, traffic is the secret.

In the entire time I've had the sites running, I've made $92. Of course I haven't seen a cent, I've not hit the min figure for pay out. I'm quite interested to see how the sites go now with the new layouts and content. I've also added Google Analytics to the sites so I can monitor traffic, keywords, etc. Some people have great success with the Amazon Associates program, generating tens of thousands of dollars a year, or more! It all comes down to traffic, and a niche product or topic. EG. You might have a blog or web site about digital cameras

. If you signed up with Amazon and embedded product links in your site, you might sell some camera's or accessories through your web site and make some money. Little extra effort really. It's not difficult to make money online. It just requires research and patience.

If one of your sites is making $50/day, then how about making ten sites? Make $500/day. Quit your day job! Lots of up front work for an eventual passive income. Some tips from me (and I'm certainly no pro at this):

• Register easy to remember and relevant domain names
• Use a free web template or script to generate your site
• Find a niche subject or product to sell
• Make the site interesting (add video's, people love them)
• Don't cover the site in adverts if you are trying to sell a product, you might end up loosing visitors to competitors when the click on the banner ad
• Load up your HTML with relevant keywords and description so search engines can crawl and index your site
• Be patient, you won't make money over night. If you do, let me know, I want your secrets!

Shortening URLs

Do you use Twitter? Facebook? Other apps that make use of short URL services? If you haven't checked out bit.ly you should. bit.ly is a URL shortening service. It's free. Big deal right? If you sign up, you can use some of their cool tools to analyse traffic and get stats on your short URL's. Very handy. For example, I've just posted a video link (shortened by bit.ly) to Twitter using TweetDeck I can log in to bit.ly and check out the stats on that link, the clicks, traffic, geographic info, etc. If you need a solid URL shortener service, try bit.ly!

Domain Name

Yesterday I managed to score a domain name that I was watching. thebeaningoflife.com It was already registered, for some time, it expired in January this year, and only yesterday became available to re-register after passing through the redemptionPERIOD and pendingDELETE period. What does this mean? If you have a domain name, and you do not renew it, it expires. However, before someone else can snap it up and take it for themselves, it goes through several "phases". It takes around 75-days after expiry before it's available for someone else to register. During the redemptionPERIOD the original registrant has the ability to recover the domain (I think for a fee). This phase is no doubt the longest, and goes on for months. After this it becomes pendingDELETE and during this period (about 5 days), nothing can be done to recover the domain. If you really want a domain name, and it's going through these phases, it's probably a good idea to 'back order' the domain name through your favourite registrar. This means you have a higher chance of acquiring the domain name should it become available again. I decided not to back order (the domain isn't THAT important to me), but just watch it like a hawk for it to become available again for registration. Boy was I surprised when I attempted to register it (again) yesterday, and the registration process worked. Anyway, enough techno babble. What are my plans for this domain name? To be honest, I'm not sure. I have a few ideas! One could be a new blog, coffee related. It could be the future site of my future espresso bar? (hah), somewhere to aggregate popular coffee news from around the world. Start an online coffee shop by re-selling roasted beans from a local roaster? Who knows. I'll think of something. For the time being, the domain is parked. It's set up with some ads. This means if you go to the site, all you get is a pile of ads that you can click on (feel free, it helps pay for coffee, heh). Google offer a service as part of their 'adsense' package to do domain advertising. So any dormant domains you have that aren't doing much can be put to use and possibly generate some income. Especially useful if the domain already has some incoming traffic or link in's. thebeaningoflife.com has three sites linking to it, looks like they are all forums. Want to know who/what is hitting your site? Try: alexa.com analytics.google.com

Barcamp Perth 2010

Today I attended Barcamp Perth 2010 It was good. Lots of people, great talks, good topics! Some of the topics included web security, fixing forms, cloud computing, foursquare chat, geotagging, and more. I figured it would be a great idea to stream the talks to uStream with my trusty HDV camera and Macbook Pro. Epic Fail. Here's what went wrong, for those that are wondering:

• My mac hates FLASH. Safari, Firefox, and Chrome all crashed out because of FLASH.
• The dedicated uStream Producer app (for mac or PC) hated the proxy server provided and wouldn't stream vid
• I booted in to windows *vomit* and streamed it via the uStream web UI. Windows doesn't know that my HDV camera hosts an audio interface, so the two recordings I did basically recorded audio with my Mac's built in mic, URGH.
• The provided wi-fi became saturated
• The proxy server failed several times (overload, or just junk?)

It's funny, I attended AMTC (Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Centre) which is now Central Tafe back in 1995, fresh out of school. It was the year it commenced operation, and was freshly built. Nothing really worked properly, including the proxy server. And that was fifteen years ago. hah. You can read up on the event by checking out #bcperth4 and #barcampperth in twitter, maybe also check youtube and vimeo. I'm encoding a couple of HD sessions now for upload and will notify all when the uploads are done.

New Apple iPad Blog

I've set up a new site. http://www.ipadicle.com/ (it rhymes with Radical, but is spelt completely different) I plan to add all iPad tips, tricks and news on the site, as well as hopefully gain some discussion. The idea is to make it a one-stop-shop for everything iPad. From Developers to regular users, hopefully it will become a useful resource!

BarCamp Perth

Is fast approaching. April 10th to be exact. While I've not been in the past (I was busy last year), I'd like to attend this year, and perhaps even contribute something. I'm just trying to think of some topic's that I could maybe discuss at BarCamp. Here's a list of things I've thought of so far... (I'll pick one): Webmin - A web systems administration package for servers (mainly Linux) Virtualmin - A web hosting administration package for servers Sysadmin on the road - Consultancy and systems administration whilst mobile. Apple iPad demonstration and practical uses in industry (health / medical uses) Social Networking as a business tool Or maybe I will just go and suck down all the Five Senses Coffee? Taken from their site:

BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment

If you've never been to a BarCamp before, the idea is simple. BarCamp Perth is a free, single day event held at Central Institute of Technology. It's kind of like a conference in that most of the day is filled with talks (both formal and informal) but anyone and everyone is welcome to speak (hence, an unconference). If you have a topic you're passionate about or you just want to help spread the knowledge, you're invited to submit your talk topic (once that part of the site is up) and people attending on the day will get to choose which talks go when. In past years, we've had talks on everything from Ruby on Rails to Hardware Hacking to Second Life. If you have something to contribute or just want to learn, BarCamp Perth is for you. The motto of BarCamp is simple: No spectators, only participants.

Fanboy

I was reading some of Chris Pirillo's tweets.. he's a tech nerd that does a live video tech show, runs some sites, runs a convention, does all kinds of stuff.... recently he's been tweeting about being a 'fanboy' or should I say, NOT being a fanboy. It's got me thinking, am I fanboy? I'm a pretty die-hard Apple fan... I love Apple products! I stalk the rumor and official sites for updates, new products, gossip etc... I could be a fanboy. I've not always been an Apple fanboy. Sure my first experience with a computer was an Apple IIc which my mother bought me when I was nine years old. I must have been the only kid in my entire school who was handing in homework that was done in a word processor and printed on a dot matrix printer. HAH. When Apple announced they were moving to Intel processors, and I had my first experience with a Mac running OS X. I dropped my cash on the bench and forked out for two brand new 15" Macbook Pro's. Revision A, pre-ordered. That was an easy $9k.

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World's Largest Macbook Pro

lol!

Blogging and iPad

So I'm looking to get myself an iPad, if it's a great device, I'll get two (one for the wife, she loves books, mags, etc). I was thinking about what it will be like to blog using an iPad. A little different I would imagine. I've blogged using my iPhone from time to time, but rarely, it's not so easy with the tiny keyboard and screen. OK for small posts, or processing comments, etc. The iPad has a stunning screen and should be adequate for blogging on the go. Still with the software/virtual keyboard, which may or may not prove odd to type lengthy posts on, but we will see. The beauty of the iPad is obviously the form factor, battery life, display, and the completely awesome multi-touch interface. These things are appealing to me as someone who primarily uses the internet to carry out my tasks. I even write my doc's using google docs. I do not have MS office installed (or any other office suite) Would the iPad replace my Macbook Pro? No. I use my Macbook Pro for things the iPad just can't do (yet). Like coding web pages using coda, editing images in pixelmator, editing HDV movies of the kids in iMovie, etc. Who's to say that some of these apps couldn't run on an iPad? I reckon coda could, if it was designed for iPad. I can see the iPad being a fantastic bloggers tool. A great way to read your favourite blogs, administer and write on your own blogs, heck even blog about the iPad! I'll leave you with a couple of cool iPad things I've come across lately: iPad Safari (web browser) walk through: Wired Magazine on iPad:

Web Hosting, Blogs, and more

So I run a small home business. I.T Consultancy, but more 'online' orientated. I specialise in web hosting, domain names, email hosting, blog set up, search engine optimisation (SEO), e-commerce, and more. I even build small web sites. If you, or someone you know could do with some help in these areas, feel free to let me know. Even if it's just a blog. I can organise "yourname.com" AND set up the blog software for you, offer advice on themes/styles, indexing in search engines, plugin's, etc. I take care of the entire process. My hosting packages start at $10/m and offer very generous disk and bandwidth quota's. I'm also keen to negotiate a cheaper option for non-profit and charity organisations.