Aussie startup carnival
February 28, 2008
VS Consulting Group is running a carnival of startups in Australia. I think the internet offers a huge opportunity for Australians to start a web based business. We speak the same language (of sorts) as the biggest internet user base in the world, the United States and have pretty good ties with the other markets in Asia which will soon take over the US - namely China, Japan and South Korea.
Australia has a solid economy and a number of successful entrepreneurs but nothing like an Amazon, Google or Facebook. With so much money being made in property and the mining industry, it is not much of surprise that internet companies receive little attention in the media.
I have entered my Australia Forum in the carnival. I don’t think I will win any points for originality, but I think the forum is starting to a useful resource for people wanting to live or travel to Australia. They are currently looking for sponsors of the event.
One website or many
February 25, 2008
I am sometimes envious of people who have just one big website which they focus on. I can see the advantages of having just one thing to concentrate on. The problem I have is that I am always thinking of new ideas and always thinking the next site I develop is going to be “the one” that makes it big.
What I then end up with a hodge-podge of different websites. As long as I don’t have to spend much time maintaining them and they are able to grow by themselves with user generated content, I can’t seeing it being much of a problem. Adsense always seems to be up and down but every now and again I am approached by companies wanting to either advertise on my site or run an affiliate program.
Joblet approached me today to place a job widget on my Japan job site. You get paid for the referrals you bring in and looks like an excellent match for my site.
If you only had the one site you will be limited by these different opportunities.
The nicest cup of tea I have ever had
February 23, 2008
I am in Thailand now and this weekend some elections are being held. I took a quick look at the online edition of the Bangkok Post and couldn’t find anything about it. And why would this bother a foreigner holidaying in Thailand? Perhaps to give Thai people a chance to spend some time thinking about their votes, the government has banned the sale of alcohol.
Most of the bars are closed and it is unusually quiet. 7-11 which generally sells alcohol 24 hours have stopped selling, but smaller stores get around it by wrapping your drinks in newspaper.
Some bars stay open, but are keeping the music down. The ones that continue to sell alcohol serve it in coffee mugs.
A guy next to me earlier today downed his Heineken and said, “That was the nicest cup of tea I ever had”.
The coolest internet cafe I have seen
February 14, 2008
I had a look around the Paragon shopping center today in Bangkok and came across True Urbanpark. The design is pretty impressive. It is an internet cafe, coffee shop and they sell computers, gadgets and mobile phones.
It is the perfect place for trendy nerds to hangout.
Always read the fine print
February 12, 2008
I am back in Bangkok now and I spent my first day locating the Canon service center. I bought a new Digital Canon SLR just before I left and I just now discovered a small problem with it.
When I was in the store in Australia, the sales guy confirmed that the warranty was in fact international. I explained to him that this was important as I was going traveling. Only now looking at the warranty card it says it is valid only for Australia and New Zealand. Either the sales person didn’t know and just made up an answer, or he straight out lied to me to make the sale.
I have emailed the store, asking for an explanation. I intentionally bought the camera in Australia as I thought I would be dealing with a more honest retailer. I could probably could have gotten a better deal in Thailand or China where I am heading next.
Perhaps I was in the wrong for not checking the warranty in the store, but since I had already checked with the salesperson I thought I was well covered. The repair fee shouldn’t be much, but I am pissed off with that sales guy.
He did the hard sell to an extend the warranty for three years. I have dealt with a lot of electronic gear over the years and have generally found stuff to break within the first year, so I don’t bother with extended warranties. The only exception is laptops. Laptops only have a life of three years, so getting a 3-year warranty with them is a good investment.
So, I only took the year warranty which now looks only valid in Australia. I am going to wait to hear what they say before actually naming them here.
On the move again
February 8, 2008
I am going to Thailand this weekend for the start of a new trip. I am planning to travel north up through Thailand, to Laos and China before arriving in Beijing where I will be staying until after the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
I bought a new Canon EOS 400D which I have been learning how to use today, so hopefully I will be able to add a bit more colour to the site.
Joomla Day in Melbourne
February 6, 2008
Last Sunday I went to Joomla Day in Melbourne. I have been using Joomla for a while now, even back when it was known as Mambo. My New Zealand property site and Japan Job site both run on Joomla. There were 130 people there packed into a lecture theater at Melbourne University.
I can’t remember ever actually having a conversation about Joomla, so it was great to speak to other people who use it to run their websites. The event was well organized and a bargain at just Au$25 for the day. I learnt more at this than at the World Internet Summit I went to last year.
Some big sites in Australia run on Joomla, including Jetstar and ITwire.
Damian Hickey gave a presentation on his Freeway product - “the most advanced Open Source eCommerce platform and includes an array of features not found in extremely expensive commercial systems.” They are integrating their application into Joomla. It is great to see Australian companies creating innovative technologies.
New theme from Revolution
February 4, 2008
I bought and implemented a new theme from Revolution themes today. Magazine type themes for blogs have become popular recently further creating a blur between websites and blogs.
Your old content on blogs tends to get lost in the archives and using a theme like the ones from Revolution give you the ability to keep some of your better articles on display. I think this is important if someone comes across your site for the first time. You want them to see some of your best work, rather than some rant or off topic post that might be your latest item.
The top menu by default displays your wordpress pages. The menu below displays your categories. If you have a lot of different categories, the menu doesn’t display properly. Sub-categories are automatically display as pull down menus. The categories on my blog have started to get a bit messy, so it made me try to organize them a bit better.
To display the categories in the left area and down the center is as simple as choosing the category ID. There is also a nice bit of space to display videos and some advertisements. The RSS links and email subscription form are also displayed prominently.
Revolution also have a sports, magazine and technology themes. Well worth the money in my opinion.
Make money with affiliate income
February 4, 2008
I make several hundred dollars a month from affiliate programs. Just to show you how lucrative it can be, I was just checking my affiliate statistics at Amazon and saw that someone had just bought over US$200 in camping gear through an Amazon third party. None of my sites have anything to do with camping! Read more
Updating the theme
February 4, 2008
I am currently updating the theme, so please bear with me as I implement it live. It should be done by the end of today.
