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We need to help…

May 17th, 2008 | 8 Comments | Posted in BlogMunch

Heaven is a crowded place these two weeks. First Cyclone Nargis ripped through Myanmar, killing an estimate of 43,000 people, then a Earthquake on a Richter scale of 7.8 hit Sichuan, China. That killed 20,000 people (mostly children) at the moment with an estimated death toll to reach 50,000.

To appreciate the power of a 7.8 quake; in wikipedia,  it is rated at 600 megaton TNT. From the same source, we know the most powerful nuclear bomb in USA arsenal is 1.2 megaton. So it’s as if 500 nuclear bomb hit Sichuan at the same time. That’s how horrifying it is.

Nothing much can be done for Myanmar, as its Government is refusing outside help to enter its country. Though if you want to donate here are some of the websites you can go to:

chinaquakeThe quake in Sichuan happen at a bad time (though nowhen is a good time) where all the schools is in session. So when it hit, all the school buildings collapsed, killing and trapping the school children and teachers inside. Now, most of the roads to the area are damaged, so a lot of the relief efforts have to go through the air route. Army troops are mobilized to bring in food, clean water and medical supplies. Paratroopers dropping into inaccessible areas. This is almost like fighting a battle. A battle to retrieve the dead and help the survivors.

You can help in the relief aid In Sichuan, China by going to these website and donate:

I blog about this in hope you will read more about these two disasters and know the magnitude of the destruction that is currently in China and Myanmar. Go on, spread the word, blog about it, podcast it, stream it and no matter what media you are on, get the word out. And Help…

Incredible stop-motion animation – MUTO

May 14th, 2008 | 8 Comments | Posted in BlogMunch, Links, Videos, flash

Of all the things I am amazed by creative people on the web, stop motion animation is one of them. These animations takes sooo much time to make and the results are always inspiring. Here’s one I found today. From what I can see the creators just use white paint and markers to draw each sets. All their drawings are surreal art a la Salvador Dalí. The full website is http://www.blublu.org/sito/video/muto.htm. I embed it here so that I can watch it anytime I want.


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Wow, incredible stuff…

Take a photograph and win a DSLR camera…

May 12th, 2008 | 4 Comments | Posted in BlogMunch, Contest, Design

This is strange…to win a camera, you need to take a photograph and to take a photograph you need a camera. Hmm, a chicken and egg story???

Well, it is not that weird actually. Most of you have a compact camera. You phone should have a camera. Your laptop have a camera. So no excuse to not participate in the Smashing Magazine – Smashing Texture Contest.

All you need to do is take a picture of interesting textures (more examples here)

Brick Wall

…And then zip it with all the relevant information. Finally send it to sven@xxsmashingmagazinexx.com. Remember to remove the “xx” in the email before you send.

…And you can win a Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 Lens. The winner will be determined randomly.

The dateline is 21st May 2008.

A New Way To Make Money With eBay

May 10th, 2008 | 9 Comments | Posted in BANS, Build a Niche Store, eBay, review

When you hear “eBay” and “money” in the same sentence you’re probably think of becoming an eBay seller.

You place product listings in the eBay marketplace, buyers bid, you pay your eBay seller fees and what you have left is your profit margin.

There is, however, another way to build a business which still revolves around eBay but which doesn’t involve you selling a single thing in the eBay marketplace.

This “other way” opportunity is based on the eBay affiliate program and a great tool which makes entry into this opportunity not only possible but also super easy. This tool is called Build A Niche Store” (BANS).

BANS if you don’t know – is an affiliate program which enables you as an individual internet entrepreneur to promote the products of a company in exchange for a commission on all sales that you refer.

You are basically operating as an internet middleman and connecting internet browsers to particular products and companies through you own network of websites and marketing methods.

If we return to the eBay affiliate program, eBay actually invites you to promote all of the product listings in the eBay marketplace and in exchange for your efforts will pay you up to 75% of the revenue they make from each sale you refer plus up to $35 for each new active eBay member you refer.

You can have a read about the eBay.com affiliate program here

What this means is that you can earn up to three quarters of eBay’s revenue simply for connecting people to the products listed in the eBay marketplace.

Not only do you get to partner with the best branded marketplace in the world, you also get access to and control over ALL of the products listed in this marketplace. The eBay product inventory becomes YOUR product inventory and yet you do NOT have to stock items, deal with customers, organize shipping or process refunds.

You are no longer limited to selling only those products which you can buy and sell for a profit margin. You can choose ANY niche market and promote those eBay products relevant to your chosen niche outside of the eBay marketplace, funnelling targeted traffic through to eBay and into your own affiliate commissions.

Golf clubs, sewing kits, laptops, dog collars, diamond rings, Florida real estate…

If you know eBay you know how BIG it is – there are NO limits.

At this point you might be thinking – well this sounds interesting but in reality is there any money in it? Well, here’s the shocker – eBay’s top affiliates make over 1 million dollars a month. That’s right – 8 figures a year without stocking, selling or shipping a single thing!

Now eBay does provide some basic free tools to help you succeed as an eBay affiliate and build an affiliate business BUT it has been the development of a tool outside of eBay that has really opened this up as a legitimate business opportunity.

The tool, as I mentioned earlier, is called Build A Niche Store and what it enables you to do is build eBay affiliate websites targeted to any eBay niche you want. These act as the medium through which you funnel targeted visitors to eBay.

Here are a couple of examples, one targeting Color Books and the other Programming Books:

Color Books eBay Affiliate Website
Programming eBay Affiliate Website

As you can see, these are professional looking websites that contain all of those eBay products related to their target niche inside a searchable store format, each of which automatically contains your eBay affiliate id.

These stores then automatically update as new products are listed for sale and old listing expire from the eBay marketplace and the software has built in development features which enable you to create new store pages, add content to these pages, create content pages, modify your template etc etc.

Basically, in the space of about 10 minutes (once you are familiar with how the software works) you can create a fully functional eBay affiliate website targeted to the niche market of your choice.

Your store content is all search engine friendly which will provide the foundation for attracting targeted traffic from the search engines and you can then use the development features to attract more targeted visitors which will in turn mean more eBay affiliate commissions.

It really is a brilliant concept and I’ve been hearing great things about the guys behind the project and the member forum which you get lifetime access to when you purchase the product.

Build A Niche Store comes with a step by step user manual which will walk even the most technically inexperienced through setting up their eBay affiliate website, 9 professional template layouts which can be customized (from inside your admin panel) to match your target niche, lifetime member forum access, comprehensive product support and possibly most importantly – an UNLIMITED domain license which means you can build as many of these niche websites as you want for the small one time fee.

Think about how many niches eBay caters to!

How big could your eBay affiliate business be?!

This product gets my full recommendation – check it out today…

Click Here To Read More About Build A Niche Store

Upgrade my Photo Equipment…Part 2

May 10th, 2008 | Comments Off | Posted in BlogMunch, photography

a200_itshow

Well, the last picture from my previous post is a bit misleading. Obviously it is a Sony DSLR. But from this DSLR body, there are 3 Sony models. Namely, the A200, A300 and the A350. The difference between them is the megapixels and Live View.

During the IT Show in March, I got very interested in the in the Sony A series. I got a feel of it and the shutter really click with me (pun intended).  I test out the Live view that is getting rave reviews on the web. It works great. It is almost like using a compact camera. For those who don’t know, it is quite difficult to get live view on DSLR because of the mirror. So Sony solved this by adding an additional sensor for the live view.

But since only the A350 and A200 is out then (I would really like the A300, best of both worlds), I decide to get the A200. First, I would like to train myself to use the view finder. Second, I don’t need the 14 MP on the A350. Lastly, with the extra money saved, I am able to buy the A200 with the 2 lens kit. The 18-70mm and 70-300mm.minolta5017

As this is not a technical review, I will leave out all the other tech stuff for other professional reviewers. Just a few thoughts after using it for a couple of months.

As Sony have eaten up Minolta, now all Sony DSLR are compatible with all the previous Minolta lens. The BBB (buy, buy, buy) virus has infected me to buy a third lens. It’s the 50/1.7 prime lens.My favourite lens now. It’s a bit slow focusing and at wide angle, its soft, but at 2.8 above, I got great portraits of my kids.

The in-body image stabilization (Super Steady Shot) works so well that I never off it while shooting. It allows me to take sharp pictures at 1/30 shutter speed. Another feature that I use often especially during the middle of the day where shadows are cast is the D-Range Optimizer (DRO). It helps to open up the shadows while keeping the highlights. Just take note not to use it in high ISO range, the noise is really bad. Speaking of high ISO, I am able to get good pictures for printing at ISO1600. Below are 2 pictures I took while bringing my kids to the Zoo.

DSC00565 DSC00571

Overall, I am glad to upgrade to the A200. My F30 is not able to keep up with my kids and now the A200 can. But with them speeding up day by day, I am sure within the next 2 years, I will need to upgrade my equipment again.

See you then…