via John Chow dot Com by John Chow on 11/3/08

John Chow dot Com started off as a personal blog to talk about whatever was on my mind. The blog was never intended to make any money and for the first eight months of its life it had total income of zero. Because one of the topics I talked about was how to make money from blogging I got many emails and comments asking me to prove that it can be done. That’s when I decided to do a case study on making money by blogging.

The goal of the case study was to make full time income ($3,000 per month) with part time blogging (2 hours per day). In its first month as a monetized blog, John Chow dot Com made $352.94. Four months later, it would hit its full time income goal. Today, the blog makes a bit more than full time income. How much more?

Total Blog Income for October 2008 - $34,350.93

While $34,350.93 is a nice income, it’s down by nearly $4,000 from last month. This is because I didn’t attend any shows last month so my appearance fee earnings went from $4,000 to zero. Here’s the income breakdown.

Affiliate commissions continues to be the blog’s number one money maker. Shoemoney Tools is part of affiliate commissions but I’ve separated it in order to show the residue income power of affiliate marketing. Shoe offers 20% for life on any sales you referred. Shoemoney Tools are sold by monthly subscription so you can make that 20% month after month. My income from Shoemoney Tools has double in one month because of new sign ups and renewals from old sign ups.

This is the beauty of affiliate marketing. I’m still being paid for sales I’ve made years ago and that income will continue to come in even if this blog is no longer around. If I were to shut the blog down today, it would still make five figures every month because of the residue affiliate income.

Blog traffic for October was 321,983 page views from 218,396 visitors, according to Google Analytic. Blog expense for the month was $335.58 for contextual advertising. Hosting for John Chow dot Com is sponsored by BlueFur Webhosting. They provided the quad-core server that powers this blog. Use coupon code JohnChowRocks for 15% off any BlueFur hosting package.

How To Be a Big Money Blogger

The key to making big money by blogging is to drive a lot traffic and then maximize the hell out of that traffic. It doesn’t matter how great your content is if nobody reads it. However, if you have a ton of traffic but only run Google AdSense, then you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. Do not put all you eggs in one basket. You need to run as many revenue options as possible while still preserving the user experience. Check out my recommended money makers to see what systems I used to produce my blog income.

I also recommend you download my free eBook, Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com. The book explains the methods I used to create content, drive traffic and make money online. You can get it for free by signing up for my free newsletter at the top of the page.

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via Core77 on 10/29/08

lightpoem.jpg

Shapeways is an open 3D printer, sponsored by Philips. Upload your design, or customise existing designs. Shapeways then prints it and ships it you.

Here is also a video.

(more...)

via Dark Roasted Blend by Avi Abrams on 6/6/08
"QUANTUM SHOT" #431


The Sultans of Sand

You saw that perfect sandcastle in your dream - it was reaching to heavens, rising from the surf's mist. It was magnificent and yet so eminently perishable. Welcome the Sultans (and wizards) of sand art to make all that a reality - and more, with incredible detail, creativity and imagination.


(Melbourne, Australia - love these skyscrapers in the background - perhaps also "sand castles" of some sort...)

There are many fantastic sand art showcases / competitions around the world: held in China, Spain, Brazil, Canada (the ultimate "Tournament of Champions" in Harrison Hot Springs, British Colombia), Florida, Oregon, Texas, Virginia... featuring such undisputed masters like Amazin Walter, Rich Varano (The Sultan of Sand), William Lloyd, Carl Jarra and Suzzane Altamare compete alongside artists from all over the world.

Perhaps the most sophisticated fairy tale sculpture in recent memory

Too bad they are made out of sand, and so will be impossible to preserve, other than in pictures. The traditional fantasy themes - sand castles, dragons, maidens and other fairy tale details - are brought to life so lovingly and with such abundance of detail that it simply transcends the genre:




(images credit: Amazin Walter)

This is how it's done... slowly and with feeling (imagine sculpting every single scale on that dragon) -


William Lloyd works on the baby dragon

"The Princess Power" by Rich Varano:


(images credit: Amazin Walter)

Get eaten up by the dragon:




(image credit: Amazin Walter)

Psychedelic Swirls:


(sculpture by Carl Jara and Suzzane Altamare, image credit: Amazin Walter)

Time Mirror: on the left is "looking into the past", on the right - "looking into the future"-




A life of the mundane, rendered in sand

Bedroom Scene (a little abrasive relationship... ok, I will stop my puns here)



Get yourself a couch to sleep on in the worst case -



A perfect family to inhabit all this sand real estate -




(image credit: sandwizard)

Sand people need to go to the sand outhouses to do their sand business... "Occupied!" -


(image credit: Amazin Walter)

I hope this sand figure is not nude:



Nostalgia for winter... Blasphemy! -



If he tries to show accurate time, he'll be here sculpting all night:




Pushing the borders into surrealism

"The Church, The Steeple and all the People" by John Gowdy and Michael Velling:


(images credit: Amazin Walter)

This is perhaps a commentary on the urban sprawl:


(image credit: Amazin Walter)

The weirdness never ends... -



The images above & below are from the sand art shows in Japan, and in Durham, NC, USA.




Sand sculptures in Lommel, Belgium:


(image credit: Tine Verheyden)

Something gruesome happened here:


(image credit: Amazin Walter)

"The End of the Knight" tells an equally sad story:


(image credit: Amazin Walter)

Horror is a common theme (work of Dan Doubleday and Meredith Corson) -


(image credit: Dan Doubleday and Meredith Corson)


(image credit: Tine Verheyden)





The Squids! The Squids! Give us the squids -


(image credit: wired)



"The Arms Race" -








(images credit: rense.com)

"Goaaaal!" by Gianni Schimarini - via:



Trust Chinese to make creepy sand sculptures for the sake of propaganda (more info) -



But this one is much better:


(sculpture by Edith Van de Watering "Nederland")

Even if you don't possess sculpting skills you can still impress the beach crowd. There is definitely "more than meets the eye" here -


(sent in by Angeline Stewart)

Who's worshiping what? -



Well, of course, the problem with even the mightiest of sand sculptures... there are going to be blown in the wind... smothered by waves... no trace will be left of them...

"The dust you are, to dust you will return!" -


(image credit: Devrim Gür)

Also Read: Ice Sculptures, Continuous Line Art

Permanent Link......+StumbleUpon ...+Facebook
Category: Art,Weird

Dark Roasted Blend's Photography Gear Picks:

via Core77 on 6/6/08

cablebox_bluelounge.jpg

Until we live in the utopian future of wireless 'everything', the good folks over at BlueLounge are here to help with the latest addition to their family of minimal-looking-cord-concealing-space-organizing home accessories, meet the CableBox. True you could easily make your own but like everything, it's price point puts it in the "my drinking time is more important" category.

...

via Interactive Multimedia Technology by Lynn V. Marentette on 6/4/08








All of Inflation's Little Parts

This interactive data visualization can be found in the on-line version of the New York Times.










This is what you see in the zoom view.













For those of you interested in sports data, here an interactive chart about Tiger Woods:

How Woods Wins a Major







If you look closely, the data that relates from the various years is brushed to a fader shade. By clicking on various years, you can look at patterns and trends in the data, and see how Tiger did in the various areas.












Links via Ranjit S. Mathoda: When will blogs start presenting data using interactive visuals alongside their stories?

Update 6/3/08: Another InfoGraphic from the New York Times, via Randy Krum:



via Mobile Learning by Leonard Low on 5/22/08

I went to check out CeBIT Australia yesterday to spy out the latest innovations in educational mobile technology. There was lots of the usual - IT service providers, the word “solutions,” and booth-babes aplenty - but a few terrific new m-learning gizmos as well.

Having heard lots about their development overseas, I was particularly rapt to check out some pico-projectors in the metal… and what’s even cooler is that these ones are Aussie designed and made, with a release due later this year. The Digismart (from Digislide in South Australia) is a tiny “pocket projector” that displays a fluid, monitor-sized image on a screen a short distance away. The image below does it no justice, as it’s hard to see how small it is - the entire device is smaller than my hand print, and is certainly small enough for the technology to be integrated with mobile devices such as phones or media players in the future:

We had a go with projecting a Pixar short film on a screen, and while the brightly-lit exhibition hall made things challenging, DigiSlide are anticipating that the release model will be over three times brighter than the engineering sample on display.

I anticipate that picoprojectors like the DigiSmart will become very useful tools in the kit of mobile teachers and learners of the future, for sharing information and ideas on the go and for making teaching and learning more mobile and more rich.

Other innovators interested in DigiSlide’s technologies can check out their website at http://www.digislide.com.au

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


Authored by Leonard Low. Hosted by Edublogs.

via RSSmeme by Thomas Ricker on 5/28/08

Shared 24 times Tagged breaking news (623) BreakingNews (538) Dell (274)

Filed under:

Thinking of a new Eee PC or maybe Wind laptop? Hold up, Dell's about to loose this baby on the sub-$500 mini-laptop world. All we've got are these pictures for now but the specs can't be far behind. Even the name "mini-Inspiron" comes from the file name of the Dell-supplied pics. However, if what we've already heard holds up, then we're looking at 8.9-inches dolled up in a sub-$500 price tag with a choice of both Windows XP Home or Ubuntu Linux, 8-in-1 card reader, integrated webcam, direct media playback buttons, and a "host of wireless access options." Expect more next week as the Computex show kicks off.

[Via Gizmodo]
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  • the Baron of Bore said: YESSSS!
  • Zeus said: I'd love to buy Mandy one of these, can't wait to hear the details.
  • Jon said: This looks promising!

via www.smashingmagazine.com on 5/26/08
Successful product design manages to reveal useful functionality beyond its appealing form. No matter how excellent a looks like, most customers aren't likely spend money on something they won't be able use. On the other

via RSSmeme by Michael Arrington on 5/22/08

Shared 24 times Tagged Company & Product Profiles (2068) infectious (3)

New startup Infectious wants to satisfy that urge that we all undoubtedly have to spice up our car a little. Make it unique. Express our personality. Etc. Founder Tim Roberts, who was part of the founding Twitter team, says that your car is the most visible social product you own, but it is also the least expressive.

Infectious sells specially designed vinyl stickers that can survive up to two years through car washes, the desert sun and Canadian winters, no problem. And when you want to take the stickers off because your friends won’t go near your car (or you need to sell it), you just blow a hair dryer on it for a few seconds and start peeling - your paint job won’t be affected. This is the same stuff they use to put advertisments on taxies and busses.

You can purchase one small sticker (see TechCrunch writer Mark Hendrickson applying one to his car in the video below) or get stickers that cover the entire car. All of the designs are done by artists, who are paid for their work in exchange for granting exclusive licensing rights to print on vinyl. The artists retains all other rights. Eventually, Roberts says, users will likely have the ability to upload their own art and turn it into a product that they and/or others can buy.

Infectious stickers don’t really compete with bumper stickers. It’s for people who may hire and artist to design art for a car and then get a custom paint job. These projects can easily run into the thousands of dollars, and aren’t reversible, so few people do it. Infectious wants to broaden that market to people who may do this on a whim, and then remove or change it later.

The company raised a small round of funding last year from True Ventures. They are entering private beta today and plan to open up to all some time this summer. If you’d like to get in now, the first 100 people to email techcrunch@infectious.com will be given beta accounts and a 20% discount on all stickers.

Here are two videos. The first is Roberts showing us his car with Infectious stickers. The second is our Mark Hendrickson bravely applying one of these to his own almost new Mazda (thanks to Loren Feldman for doing the video work).

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

  • Dorn said: Groovy!?