What Tablet is best for me?

Being a college student and having to carry around a ton of materials for school began to take a toll on my back.

My backpacks were always extremely heavy due to my school books and my laptop put together in one bag. I needed to change that ASAP.

So I decided to start looking for a tablet that fit my budget and did everything I wanted it to.

I finally decided on the new Kindle Fire HD. Newly released this year, the Amazon Kindle Fire not only holds hundreds of books, but it also music, movies, pictures and also has apps for Games such as Angry Birds and Temple Run. The other cool part about it is that it has the Pandora and Netflix apps so I can listen to music and watch my favorite movies.

It has Wi-Fi connection, amazing speakers and I can check my mail and search the web all on one device. Making my life easier and my book bag lighter!


Definitely would recommend it for other college students out there. It is very affordable! Only $199!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000750701&tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=13951521261&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18015860551648125523&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&ref=pd_sl_9r586kml72_e

Almost Time for a New Smartphone

My two year contract with my current cell phone provider ends on Oct. 24. Just 10 days! If I stay with my current provider I'll get a discounted phone and if I switch I'll still get a discount for signing a new contract with a new carrier. Win, win! And now is the perfect time to get a new smartphone because of the new mobile Operating Systems that have recently been released (or will be soon). Android released its new OS 4.1, Jelly Bean, in July, Apple just released its OS 6 and Windows will release Windows Mobile 8 soon (I hope).

But, I just read a Forbes article saying Windows Mobile 8 won’t be anything special because Microsoft hasn’t been promoting it very much. The company isn’t giving details about what it can do better than Windows Mobile 7 or why it will be competitive with Android and Apple. Which is a bummer, because I’m excited to see how well the new Nokia Lumina 920 performs.

As far as my decision for a new phone goes I’ll wait… until I get a chance to compare the three mobile Operating Systems and find what works best for me.

Cashback Programs and Affiliate Marketing

Our guest speaker on affiliate marketing mentioned 3rd party sites like Ebates.com as an outlet for deals.

He also suggested that everyone who purchases products online should check out these programs. In his words "if you don't sign up for a program like Ebates.com, you're just leaving money on the table"

These programs have been around for a while and the concept is simple - visit their site first and search for the online retailer you plan to purchase from.  Click the link for that retailer and when you make a purchase you get cash back.

Here are some links to such programs -

Phil mentioned Ebates.com and it is a program I use.

There is also FatWallet.com and a few others to choose from.

Why pass this up if these sites will give you cash for online purchases?

Mobile Apps vs Mobile Websites and our Presenter Damir

Check out a recent blog post from our in-class guest tonight - Damir Saracevic.

In the post he presents some interesting stats on the mobile web and mobile apps and addresses the critical question of whether a company should build a native mobile app or a mobile web friendly site.

Having been through the process myself, I agree with his final reaction - "it depends"

My thoughts on the benefits of a mobile app:
1. They can be very engaging and fast with most of the logic residing right on the device
2. They include "built-in" promotion via the native "app-stores"
3. They can be very expensive to build and maintain. Also, you have to create a native app for each platform you want to support

My thoughts on the benefits of a mobile web site:
1. Ubiquity - build it once and run it on many devices
2. Less expensive to create and maintain
3. Slower and less engaging

Here's his full post
http://blog.catalystinc.com/mobile-website-or-mobile-app/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mobile-website-or-mobile-app

Rock the Vote and Presidential Candidates

The 2012 presidential elections are coming soon. Next month!

If you’re not already registered to vote you can go to rockthevote.com. Once you enter the site click on “register to vote.” Fill out the form, print it, and then mail it. No need to go anywhere or wait in lines. All your work is done until November 6; when it’s time to vote.

Also… there are not only two parties running for president! Yes. All the media is focused around the Democrats and Republicans. But there are other candidates from other parties as well:

Libertarians

The Green Party

Justice Party

These are just a few but there are other independent parties running for president.

Please research and don’t only vote for who is getting the most attention.

A wasted vote is voting for someone who you don’t believe in.

How to Sell Online: Made Easy

When starting an online store what do you do first? What should your concerns be, your target consumers, how will you drive traffic to your site?

How do you start a business & how the heck do you figure out how to sell online? Everyone makes it sound super easy or rather intangible. Here are two articles that have helped me immensely in figuring out these topics.

Don't follow your Passion this article explains why it is important to not only sell products that you are passionate about. Rather smarter ways to find products to sell.

Research, research, research this article made researching your competition way to easy. In layman terms after reading this and going over the advice I just sat at my desk thinking that this is so easy anyone can do it!

The step-by-step instructions offered by these articles was way more than I bargained for and hopefully you find them interesting too!

and Bieber pukes on stage...

In case you missed it, Justin Bieber had a concert last night in Glendale, Arizona. Who cares right? Well what makes this worth blogging is that he threw up on stage mid-song. He then runs off of stage.
Pretty nasty...

what I like about Justin is how smoothly he handled it via Social Media.

After the show he Tweeted, "And .... Milk was a bad choice! Lol"

Just goes to show how Twitter can be used properly. Bieber needed a way of cleaning up the mess, not literally, that would be ensue when the media got hold of this footage. Using n Anchorman reference is always a good way to play things off. 

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