When it comes to selling my first flip I'm going to need a good sales pitch, but I can't put a good one together without first of all having the features in place. A desirable site is one that's getting hits and making money. So over the last couple of days I've been doing some Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). There are a ton of ways to go about this, but here are some easy tips.

1. http://www.orangesubmit.com/ - Get your site spidered quickly by Yahoo, Google etc. It's free, and you only have to fill out one form. I'm not sure of how successful it is, but the Google bot visited my site two days after purchase.

2. Wordpress plugins - If you're using wordpress then you absolutely need to install some plug-ins. I reccomend the all-in-one SEO pack and sociable.

3. Social networking sites - Submit your contents and articles to sites such as Digg and Stumble upon to increase traffic.

4. Entrecard - Another excellent free resource for bloggers to advertise their sites.

5. Google Adwords - This ones going to cost you, but it's worth it for the potential traffic it generates. I got a free $50.00 coupon through bluehost so look out for offers.

It's important to continue building links to the site. So far I've seen a slow increase in traffic, from 4 unique visits a day up to around 30. Give me two more weeks and this site will be saleable. Check out how the site is shaping up at www.moneysaverpro.com. Once again, a big thanks to Kane Pickerill for offering me some free advertising space on his image hosting site.

The design is a really important factor in a successful flip. If you choose a poor design or an inappropriate one, then you're profits can suffer. Even worse you might not get a sale at all. I think I know a bit about good design, so I spent around half an hour searching for a wordpress template. There are loads of sites out there which offer them for free, but these ones have been seen a million times before. Still, if it's a good design you're still going to get interest. Luckily I found a premium theme which has recently become a freebie. Awesome, a $45 theme for free.

Installing wordpress and the template was a breeze. Customising the theme so that my logo could be incorporated was a little more difficult. I'd like to take the time now to thank Kane Pickerill (check out his portfolio and blog, they're awesome). He sorted out the CSS and PHP problems I was having. I didn't want to skimp on the design, so getting it right has been really important. To see the whole package in action check out http://www.moneysaverpro.com

I've been keeping track of how long this project has taken me, so upon sale I can see if was worth the time invested. So far, I've totted up roughly 4 hours of work. It's more if you include my constant research in to web flipping through forums and dedicated sites, but I like to think of that as background reading. The majority of that time spent was getting the logo right and finding an ebook. For anyone interested in how to implement ebooks, I'll write an article on that soon.

Useful links:
http://wordpress.org/
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
http://cssace.com/

Maybe I'm jumping in to this too fast? Who knows? This is an experiment, if it fails miserably I don't care, because I can say I tried. After reading about the money to be made through these kind of ventures I figured that it's worth a shot. I've read about all kinds of money making, get rich schemes, but this one has many credited sources and lucky old me has knowledge with the web. So then, part 1 is upon us.

What domain name should I choose? I remember reading an article which explained that a good domain name is one you should be able to tell a friend over the phone, without them asking how it's spelt. I've been researching a fair bit in to which websites sell, so I think I've made a well informed decision here to buy the domain name www.moneysaverpro.com. Let me explain what influenced my decision.

Firstly, it's a '.com' address, which from what I've read will sell for £10-£20 more than the alternatives (e.g. co.uk or .org). It makes sense to me, after all it's the most commonly used suffix and therefore the most desirable. It's also pretty catchy, suits a niche audience and it's short enough to remember. Maybe even more importantly it contains keywords! I began to think about what kind of things are hot in the media right now, what's on everyones minds and what are the attractive niche markets. You can't get away from the fact that we're heading in to a recession, and the credit crunch is upon us. This applies in the U.S as well, where a lot of the buyers of domains are located (thanks to sites such as sitepoint). We'll all be cutting back on costs, and I've noticed a trend in people looking online for advice on saving money. In comes money saver pro!

I won't be money saver pro of course, I'll just lay down the foundations for a budding young business person to create their money saving blog. Wish me luck! Back to the day job for now though.

Useful links:
http://www.bluehost.com - A cheap domain name seller
http://www.123-reg.co.uk - Has a brilliant way of suggesting domain names
http://www.dnscoop.com - Can approximate the value of a domain name

I read a really interesting article in The Guardian recently, about a relatively new web phenomenon. The idea is similar to buying real estate, improving it, and selling it at a profit. The difference here is you're working with domain names. So how does it work?

1. Buy a domain name (find a good one, that's expired recently). Minimal cost.
2. Get some webspace and install WordPress (with a professional looking theme) and get it all up and running.
3. Create a logo for the blog and get the whole site set up so it's desirable for people to buy.
4. Add articles to the blog (5-15), features and selling points. Maybe even offer free hosting to the buyer.
5. Get your site set up to work with google adsense, and get it tracked by the googlebot.
6. Sell the site.

Sounds far too easy doesn't it? That's what I thought, but then I saw how much money people are making. A domain name costs as little as £10, you spend a couple of hours improving the site, then sell it on ebay for £50 upwards. Imagine how many you could buy and sell a day! Big bucks to be made...I feel an experiment forming!

Useful links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/11/netrich.internet
http://siteflipu.com/
http://www.thenetfool.com/making-money-online-by-flipping-websites/

Imagine if Martin Scorsese came across an old, unmade Hitchcock script. Then imagine if Scorsese actually made that script in to a film, and stayed truer than you could imagine to Hitchcock's filming style. Well...there's no need to imagine. It's been done, and it's brilliant. This will only take ten minutes of your time so pay attention and marvel.



http://www.scorsesefilmfreixenet.com/video_eng.htm

This is simply beautiful. Before I say anymore, just watch the video.


A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

Created by Carlos Lascano, using various animation techniques this is a brilliant piece of work. Please have a look at his website to see how it was done. It's a work in progress and I can't wait to see the final thing.

I remember this video from right back at the start of University. It was pretty cool to see it today on a Carphone Warehouse advert. I couldn't find that version, but I'm sure someone will upload it soon enough. In the mean time, here's the original.

As some of you may know, I'm a huge fan of The Wire. I was doing a bit of reading on the net about Ed Burns (creator of The Wire) and was pleased to find out he's got a new project. Generation Kill is a 7 part series, each episode an hour long. Based on the American invasion of Iraq it makes for some absolutely unmissable viewing. Unfortunately it's not being aired in the U.K from what I gather, so you're going to have to be a bit imaginative about how you get to see it. At the time of writing, 4 episodes have been shown in the states. If you enjoyed Band of Brothers or war films in general then watch it!

Lastly, I can't stress to people just how good The Wire is. There's 5 seasons of that beauty for you all to check out.

HBO Generation Kill Website (it's actually a pretty cool flash site to check out)

Imagine what Homer or Mario might look like in real life...

This guy can actually show you what they'd look like. With some immense Photoshop skills, a lot of time and a lot of photos to work with he 'Untoons' cartoon characters. Have a look at his blog. Some of them are pretty creepy.

Look at how bad ass Niko looks.

I discovered PicLens a couple of weeks ago, and without a doubt its the coolest way of viewing photos. You install it on your browser, and it integrates itself very subtly to the interface. You then have the possibility to browse photos on facebook, picasa, google images etc at full screen and in 3D. It works with video too, and even better, it's free.

The BBC have a story in their technology section discussing the current lack of well skilled graduates leaving university, who are looking to work in the gaming industry. I feel what I've learned so far has me on the right path to where I want to go, but without a doubt I have a very long way to go. I'm not looking to become a games engineer or programmer, and instead I want to concentrate on the artistic aspects of games. If you want to read the article it's here.

There's a nice video here too http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7460359.stm

I was reading an article in the Guardian today, which was discussing the growth of CGI. I'm personally a big fan, but it seems many directors aren't too pleased with current trends in movies. I'll admit CGI has pro's and con's, and the con's are becoming more evident. Films like Beowulf, in my opinion are completely unnecessary and only work as a technical showcase. On the other hand you have the mind boggling effects of Transformers. So why do some of the big names in cinema (Speilberg, Abrams, Nolan) have it in for the increasing use of CGI? They see it being used, just for the sake of using it. I agree, having impressive special effects doesn't make a good film. Using it effectively is more important. There are clearly good and bad examples of computer effects, but it's an interesting read still.

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2281466,00.html

P.S Someone should tell the Guardian to take a look at the BBC website, that's how a news website should be done.

I won't say much about this, because I don't know much about it. What I will say is that it's awesome.


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

I read some worrying news today regarding a U.K ISP. I wrote an article last month about the proposal of a 'three strikes and you're out' system regarding illegal file sharing in the U.K. I pointed out the pit falls of such a system, and I also flat out stated that it wouldn't be happening. It seems however that one U.K company has bowed down to the pressure of the rich and powerful record companies. The company involved, surprisingly is Virgin Media. It's surprising because they currently offer the fastest broadband in the U.K with no limitations. Why would people need a 40MB connection to read emails? On the other hand they're in some major debt so they probably don't want any legal proceedings. Surely they'll loose the vast majority of their users? Well no, funnily enough it's still good to be with Virgin. It seems that while they might ATTEMPT to single out illegal P2P traffic, they are also going to offer free access to UseNet. This suits me as I've been looking to use UseNet for some time, due to the high speeds as well as the better protection offered to users. Whether or not this will actually occur remains to be seen, but it's certainly something I never expected.

Read more

Finally, a company is starting to get it. We want to be able to download music without having to download some software to play it, we don't want any DRM, we want it in high quality, and we want it at a better price than iTunes offers. So, when I went on play today I was surprised to find this.

It seems that for 65p-70p you can download a 320kbps MP3, without DRM, directly through your Internet browser. That's 9p-14p cheaper than iTunes currently offers, and it's at almost twice the bit rate. More importantly, as it doesn't have DRM there aren't any restrictions on what you can do with the tracks. At the moment the library of tracks isn't quite up to the competition, but hopefully this will make apple get their act together.

I just stumbled across this image from Pirates Of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest. I was amazed by the effects when I saw this film, but I didn't know how they created these characters. As it turns out, every single frame was drawn and rendered in CGI. Quite an amazing computer performance really.

Click to see the animated GIF

I heard and read some pretty scary news yesterday which the BBC and the Times published. According to them, we now have a 3 strike policy in the U.K regarding illegal downloading. The fact is, we don't, and here's numerous reasons why.

1. No law has been passed to enforce this. It was a draft proposal only. Even worse it was a green paper, so it's about as useful to the government as a piece of bog roll with a hole in it. Makes you wonder why the story was ever published doesn't it? If this isn't reason enough for you, then I'll continue.

2. It's impossible to enforce, if it were actually being enforced...which it's not. ISP's can't possibly monitor every packet going through their servers, and why would they want to start banning their customers? Are you trying to tell me that people need a 20MB connection to read their emails? No, they don't, so don't ever think your ISP will ban you for using the service they provide to you.

3. It's impossible to tell the difference between legal and illegal downloads. Simple as. P2P and BitTorrent can be used for legal and illegal sharing. What about online gaming VoIP etc etc.

4. It would break EU laws for the ISP to do this.

5. Unsecured wi-fi connections aren't a rarity. How does the ISP prove it was you who downloaded something? They can't.

6. Encrypted packets are being used more and more. People can browse and download anonymously. There's no way of knowing who's downloading what. Plus, if the ISP's were to go ahead and enforce this policy, then all the downloaders would move to encrypted services, putting them back at square one.

7. How can you create an e-enabled society if your ISP is banning the very people who use it?

Basically, the music and film industry should stop shoving their weight around and they should stop using their power and money to force governments to make laws which suit them. For now, continue as you are!

Update: 16/2/08
Nice to see the BBC agreeing with me

http://imagemoversdigital.com/

From what I can gather, Image Movers Digital are a company who create computer generated environments for film. They have experience in many big films, such as Beowulf. Their portfolio, which I found through FWA is really effective in displaying their work.

The site fills your browser window, making effective use of the space on everyones screen. In the background are some detailed renders, and pieces of art from their projects which are darkened slightly by a black layer over the top. This helps to distinguish them as the background, so the menus and information are in the foreground. The menu's and information within the foreground make use of bright colours, creating a contrast between the two areas.

Along the bottom, you have a pop up menu which I've seen used on many sites. The benefit of this is that when it's not needed it can be hidden away so as not to clutter the screen. What I liked most of all was the way images could be navigated. When choosing a project, the background darkens, and new centered window appears. Within this window are a series of thumbnails which when clicked fill that window. A nice added interface feature is a next and previous button which appear from the left and right hand side of the browser.

I've been asked to make a prediction on the future of a technology. I took a look at the 'movable projected display', but if I'm being honest, I have absolutely no clue how that hardware works, and so I have no idea of it's possible applications. One thing I can predict the future of, primarily because I actually understand it, is media distribution.

The latest battle for our expendable income comes from two rival companies, with very similar products. It's blu ray vs HD DVD. This isn't the first time consumers have been confused by rival products. Back in the day there was beta max vs VHS, and just about everyone knows how that turned out. Beta max was a Sony product, a tape very similar to VHS which failed for numerous reasons. Now they're back with blu ray (after some other failed attempts e.g. UMD and A Track) and this time they mean business.

Now, HD DVD and Blu ray have their pro's and con's. HD DVD is a cheaper and more efficient format to produce, whereas Blu ray is still having trouble reducing it's production costs. This leads to higher prices for the consumer both for films and the hardware. HD DVD however has less storage space currently per disc, meaning that they can't store as much content. When it boils down to it however, both have identical HD picture quality, as there's more than enough space on both formats. Where this war is won and lost is with the films, and as it turns out Blu ray is winning.

Blu ray recently acquired Warner Brothers pictures, which carries with it many other studios (including Fox). This was seen as a massive blow to the HD DVD camp, who are now short of many exclusive films. When you couple this with the fact that every PS3 sold is also a blu ray player, then you can't see HD DVD competing. This war is still in it's infancy however, so a lot can change. I personally believe that in 5 years time, many of us will be watching our films on a Blu Ray player.

I saw the hype build around Qtrax when it was announced a few days, and to be honest, I thought the whole thing was too good to be true. The concept was a legal P2P programme, boasting a ridiculous library of songs to download for free. The music industry would make their money through advertising on the site, therefore making everyone happy. What a brilliant idea, possibly the future of music distribution! Well, not quite.

It seems that Qtrax doesn't actually have any major record labels signed up yet, and it doesn't look like they're going to either. There's an article on BBC news about this which you might want to look at. This comes as a major disappointment for me, as I thought the record labels were beginning to see the light. Obviously not.