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  F8 Facebook Announcement – Adam Kidron and Mark Mulligan discuss Facebook music and Boinc 

  

  Today at the F8 Facebook conference Facebook will announce their plans for Facebook music sharing, and how they will aggregate users activity across multiple streaming music services.

  Adam Kidron CEO of Boinc, a new device based social music service launching in the coming months discusses his views on the F8 Facebook sharing announcement with industry analyst Mark Mulligan. See the views in the video below:

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  My Kind of Superhero – The New Age Milkman 

  Forget superman, the modern superhero is called ‘Milkman’.  He’s been around for a while and has of course been joined by ‘Milk woman’.  Both varieties of this particular superhero have several features that make them more attractive to modern women – and the occasional house husband.  Firstly they know how to put their clothes on correctly – impressive considering the early starts they have to make; none of your pants over trousers for these under-sung heroes.  Also they have a lot more practical uses than your more flashy type of super-hero.  I rarely find myself stuck on a parapet thirty floors up wearing a little black cocktail dress and screaming ‘He-elp’  in a Penelope Pitstop-esque manner; but I do find myself frequently bleary eyed in an old dressing gown wondering how we can possibly have run out of coffee, again.

  Daily dilemmas

  In the past that particular dilemma would lead to yet another trip to the corner shop.  Not that I didn’t make at least one the day before – either during lunch or on the way home.  But now, with a pint sized super-hero to hand that is all a forgotten nightmare of the past.  But surely milkman and woman only deliver milk?  Not anymore, they’ve been busy while we sleep and have started to stock a really amazing little range of daily essentials.  Basically faced with extinction thanks to the supermarkets some local dairies have decided to fight back.  These days they offer seriously competitive delivery services for just about anything you could possibly run out of- and even some things you probably didn’t even think of in the first place, from your usual milk and dairy products to bin bags and even the option to order your pet food online.

  Small orders and big savings

  When it comes to saving time and money on the household shopping I am constantly on the lookout for a good deal.  I was dubious about online shopping from the supermarkets – quality being the main concern – but have found it makes a lot of sense and saves a lot of time.  It’s certainly a good way to deal with the ‘Big Shop’.  The fraught Saturday trip to the heaving and disorientating aisles of the out of town shopping centre is now a thing of the past (and of the occasional nightmare).  Online shopping for the big stuff is great.  However, it doesn’t really solve the small shop dilemma.  Most women have an in-built stock control feature in the back of their brains.  They just know when something is running out, so work those little shopping trips into lunch hours and pre or post work trips.  After all, it’s hardly worth ordering a packet of tea from the supermarket; even the new people’s princess knows that.

  Suburban Superhero

  This is where my super-hero comes in.  Not only can I order late in the day – nine pm at the moment – but the goods are delivered before I’m technically awake.  The really nice bit is there’s no delivery charge.  Being on an established round means that the milkman doesn’t have to charge – so even if I’ve ordered a couple of tins of cat food and a bag of spuds, they’re waiting for me first thing and I only pay the same as if I’d nipped to the shops.  There’s even a feel good factor to this type of grocery shopping.  Somehow I like the fact that I can have a chat with my suburban super-hero, that I’m helping a local business – none of which was true when I shopped in supermarkets.  It may be unromantic of me, but I can quite honestly say that given a choice between the man from milk tray abseiling in through the window in the middle of the night and my trusty milkman trundling up the road in the early hours I’ll take ‘Milk Man’ every time!

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  Starting an online business on a tight budget 

  Most people think that to be able to strike out on your own path as an entrepreneur, you need a bottomless pocket and perhaps the local bank on your side. In fact, this is not necessarily true. A lot of home-based start-ups don’t really cost a hefty sum because you actually invest more time and effort than money when you’re just beginning to do business.

  It’s not impossible for you to build a business that has the potential to turn into a stable, large enterprise that can bring you lots of profits in the long run. You can actually start a business with nothing more than a couple hundred dollars, a brilliant selling point, a laptop and stable Internet connection. Web-based businesses are among the most effective and the most lucrative ways for you to earn extra income or to completely remake yourself as an entrepreneur.
  So how do you start an online business today, even with your purse strings tied tight? Check out these simple steps:

  1. Formulate your company name and register your business. Even in the online world, you need certain legal and commercial requirements you have to comply with before you can start offering your products and services. Registering with your county or state will also help you find out if someone else is operating under the same firm name or logo, saving you the trouble of paying for new calling cards, official memo and product packages.
  2. Purchase and register your domain name. Stay away from free websites because you can end up with an unimaginative, long, ugly or generic domain name that will not reel your readers in and let them know you mean business. This will adversely affect the traffic to your site and prevent you from getting your return on investment in the soonest time possible. Your own domain name will probably cost you $10 tops, so there’s no reason for you not to afford it.
  3. Pay for a decent web hosting service. Just as a free domain is a no-no, a free hosting service is also something that you should avoid because it tells your readers that you’re too cheap not to invest in your own website. Taken together, your domain name and web hosting service is the brand that powers your company and helps your readers remember you. Some hosting services also come with built-in design templates and add-ons that can help you put together the best look and feel for your website. If you can handle the web design on your own, you can delay calling in a professional until you’re ready to introduce complex technical tricks and layout techniques. And of course, getting a professional to do the job for you means spending money, so if you can take care of this aspect of your website for a while, do it.
  4. Use SEO to help you drive site traffic. If you want a successful online business, you need to work with the right keywords that will help your website rank higher in search engines and bring more people in. It’s all about making sure that when your site turns up first when a user makes a keyword search for a particular product or item. Then again, search engine optimization will never be a good substitute for quality content, so you have to make sure that your posts are really relevant and informative for your readers. Upload fresh content regularly so search engines will keep pointing people to your site for specific keyword phrases.
  5. Engage in aggressive online marketing. What’s the use of having a website if people are not reading it? Your website will not advertise itself—you have to do it. Post in different forums, blogs, social media accounts and article directories to create back-links to your site and open more doors for people to come and see what you have to offer.

  As you plan for your home-based business, you have to remember that cutting corners can only do so much for you. You can be frugal and you can bootstrap all you want, but not at the cost of sacrificing quality. There may come a point in time when you will need to shell out a sizable sum if you don’t want your business to look cheap and shoddy. For instance, at some point you may need a web designer to fix up your site and make it look even more professional.
  Don’t fall into the trap of get-quick-rich schemes because they rarely ever give you the results they promise. Succeeding in an online business requires time and a lot of hard work so you have to be ready to put in long hours of planning and effort as you build your business.

  Sources:
  http://frugalentrepreneur.com/2011/02/starting-an-online-business-on-a-shoe-string-budget-avoid-these-5-pitfalls/
  http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/blog/entrepreneur-university/starting-an-online-business-on-a-shoestring-budget-entrepreneur-university/
  http://www.striveguide.com/starting-an-online-business-on-a-tight-budget/

  About the Author:
  Sarah Grace V. Villaflor is part of the team that manages and maintains Australian Credit Cards, a personal finance blog with complimentary small business credit cards comparison service based in Sydney, Australia. Before she joined ACC, she was an assistant editor-in-chief of Sandigan.

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  Inventors and Entrepreneurs – Google Apps 

  It’s estimated that there are now over 100 million smart phone users around the world. This figure is set to grow to over 1 billion by 2014. Recently Google announced a new online free service which allows developers to create applications for Google’s android operating system.

  Google app inventor is still at its infancy stage, but its implications are massive for the android phone market for developers (More …)

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  How to Blog and Make Money Online 

  

   

   

  With increase in internet access, citizens in today’s world have an inherent desire to communicate and express themselves in the easiest ways possible. Blogging is one ofthe main ways used. The term blog originates from weblog. This refers to the act ofmaintaining a chronicle of information on a website. A blog may therefore be termed asan online diary posted to the public on the internet. The content posted on the websitediffers depending on the individual’s aims and goals. The nature, context and evenappeal may be different.

  As one blogs, it is possible to make money online. Blogging can be a hobby for somepeople and if used well, an individual may know how to blog and make moneyonline. For instance, the range of posts created and posted to a weblog may be veryinformative. As such, one may decide to develop content, which markets his or herproducts, services or skills on the weblog. As the readers go through the weblog,capturing of their interest is possible by creation of quality topics that solve or addressissues they go through. These issues are opportunities for the creator of the blog to sellout his or her skills and products through follow up.

  As one blogs, the nature of links or feeds linked to the blog may be of much interest.One needs to indentify the needs of the readers of their blog. For instance, somereaders may comment on issues such as digital requirements, post technical difficultiesencountered among others. This is a great opportunity since the creator of the blog mayredirect them to other sites offering the solution. Registering with such sites is normallyfree and in most cases, they pay individuals who perform online sales and redirects. Thisimplies that one can use a blog spot to make money online.

  With basic internet knowledge, one can answer the question of how to blog and makemoney online by use of content management systems in creating their blogs. Suchsoftware helps in focusing content in the most precise and presentable way to attractattention. Selling of online products requires convincing of possible client. Theseproducts are mainly digital therefore concepts need to be explained accurately andprecisely especially when a blog is used. Content management software would guide theblogger in doing so.

  The feedback given and comments provided to a post in a blog can be a way oflearning how to blog and make money online. These comments, also known astrackbacks or pingbacks can lead to an increase in the network of readers. Therecommending feature is a powerful tool, which would benefit the blog creator. Whenone feedback is negative, improvements made to products or services can be passed onto the readers and in the process improve reliability. With commitment and patience, itis possible for one to blog as they make money online.

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  This  article  has  been  contributed  by  David  Ritchie.  David  is  a  software  developer  and technical writer with over 10 years of professional experience. He is currently interested in disk cleaner solutions.

   

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  Amazon Cloud Player Launches 

  

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  Amazon’s latest big business concept is here, introducing the Amazon cloud player, Amazon’s entry into the music streaming business.

  Cloud player allows users to upload their music files to Amazon’s servers and then access them anywhere through the internet via computer or mobile device (at the moment only android, but we are sure Iphone wont be too far behind).  Amazon Cloud Player will search your computer for all audio files to upload, upload your itunes playlists or simply give you the option of automatically uploading any mp3 files you buy through Amazon.

   

  At present new users are given 5GB of free storage, which can be upped to 20GB if the user purchases an album through Amazon and from then on each extra GB of space on the cloud drive can be purchased at $1.

   

  Rumour has it that both Apple and Google have been working on their own versions of a cloud player that would allow users to access stored music from anywhere via the web but it seems like Amazon beat them to it.  Keep posted for progress and reports as the services grows.

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  Just-Eat closes financing round with $48 million 

  The UK based online take away ordering service Just-Eat has closed its most recent round of financing of $48million which will go towards a international roll-out of the service.  The recent round of financing was which was predominantly led by two leading venture Capitalists, Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures.

  You may recognise Just-Eat from BBC’s Dragons Den where they were pitching their Business Start-up for investment although you may have used them yourself as they now serve 15,000 restaurants in 10 countries and they claim they will generate over $500 million of revenue for local businesses in 2011.

  This round of funding will go towards supporting the international roll0ut of the service.

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  Facebook places check-in deals launched 

  Facebook has announced that today they will be launching their new ‘places deals’ in the United Kingdom and across Europe. Facebook users will be able to take advantage of special deals and discounts in venues including shops and restaurants by checking in on their smartphones using Facebook places.

  Facebook’s check-in places deals launched in the US in Nov 2010 and offered discounts and deals for venues like Starbucks and Gap.

  The UK and European partners will include Starbucks, Argos, Yo Sushi, O2, Debenhams and Alton Towers.
  Check out footage live from the press conference below:

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  Rel8tion Hyperlocal Mobile Advertising Service acquired by Facebook 

  Facebook has announced and now confirmed that they have recently acquired Rel8tion, an online business start-up from Seattle providing services for hyperlocal mobile advertising.

  Facebook today confirmed to tech, Internet and media news and opinion website All Things digital in a statement

  “We’re excited to confirm that we recently completed a talent acquisition of Rel8tion, a stealth-mode startup in Seattle. The engineering team will join our growing Seattle office, and we’re looking forward to having them on board.”

  Rel8tion was started by Peter Wilson, previously an engineering director an Google and entrepreneur from Seattle, looking at Rel8tion there isn’t a whole lot of information on exactly what it is they do, hence the term ‘under the radar’ but according to sources it was trying to create a system for syncing up a person’s location and demographics with the most relevant ad-inventory.

  More details as they come in.

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  Grapic.ly the Digital Comic Start-up Draws Up $3 Million 

  Many print publications have of late seen a shift of their readership from the print medium to online and it seems inevitable that comic books will (if they haven’t already) see a similar shift of its readership to online formats, especially with the increasing popularity of smart phones and tablets that are perfect for digitally viewing the medium.

  This is exactly what new business start-up Graphic.ly has been aiming to do. Originally started in 2009 Grapic.ly received funding of around $1.2 million from investors and has today announced that they will be receiving a further £3 million.  Within just 5 months Grapic.ly have experienced 600,000 downloads of their various applications and they will be using the further investment to progress the company into more of an online digital comic store.

  CEO Micah Baldwin commented, “It’s about mixing the artwork and story lines with the interactivity and social aspects that the web can provide.”

  Graphic.ly already has relationships with companies like Marvel and over 150 publishers and creators that they plan on expanding throughout 2011

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