The Reasons to Get iPhone

What do you think that make you have the thoughts of getting an iPhone? How would you persuade yourself for buying it? A gift, a substitute to the old phone, or like what a father thought of a tech toy to do homework?

Just read an interesting article on nytimes.com, "Dad, I need an iPhone to do my homework". The father indicated that his 4th grade daughter claimed that she wanted an iPhone as almost one third of the students in the same grade have iPhone. Even though the little girl on 4th grade does not really require an iPhone with the homework as the reason, the author mentioned about the new application named "Blackboard" developed on iPhone for school and colleague.

Being a smartphone with touchscreen and Apple brand, iPhone attracts the eyeball of many Mac users. Imagine the future digital world and how quickly the related applications are developed for the latest popular devices. There will be more and more reasons for getting them on hand.

Earth Hour 60 – pay attention to world climate

Yesterday, March 29, 2009, with the advocacy of World Wide Fund for Nature, many cities in the world participate to turn off light in 60 minutes. However, the world is not dark. Some use candles instead of light. It was the way before power was discovered. The earth hour 60 was first promoted in Sydney, Australia on March 31, 2007. It was also hosted globally on March 29, 2008.
I missed the exact time, starting from 8:30. But I did not turn on the lights, as I was away from home. The spirit of the activity is to remind us about our impact of the world climate. We can reduce energy consumption and clean the earth every day from our life.

The above picture is what I get from internet, and I made a picture below with my thoughts on the earth hour 60. The font style is impact.

Flash Video MX Pro vs Sothink Video Encoder for Adobe Flash

Had a general look at the two tools that support getting video as Flash with FLV and SWF. Flash Video MX Pro is more expensive than Sothink Video Encoder for Adobe Flash, but seems to empower more functions.

Both of them support:

• Output with FLV, SWF, HTML, thumbnail
• Playback skins
• Crop & Trim video
• Play Flash video in full-screen
• Skin color customization
• Auto-sizing SWF player
• Zoom mode
• Adjust volume
• Set the URL for clicking on the output video and/or when the video plays to the end
• Preloader to indicate the video is loading

Flash Video MX Pro also supports:
• Support Sorenson H.263, Flash 8, Flash 8 alpha video and H.264 as output video codec
• Batch conversion (import several videos at a time and easy for video customization)
• One click to start conversion of all the files
• Preview video to make sure the video as what you want
• Change video image settings (brightness, contrast, flip video for occasional videos with upside down, deinterlace for some AVI videos with unexpected lines)
• Add logo (image & text) with any timeframe you want
• Offer cuepoint for users with expert actionscript knowledge
• Add more video before and/or after the imported video
• Replace audio with the music or audio you like
• More fantastic players to customize the player
• Further control on the player (e.g. to set the player to hide automatically after the mouse stops, to display a big play button or not)
• Special effects on video (e.g. to add snow falls to the video, stars, etc.)
• Choose the preloader style you like
• Project file (save settings to project file and save time for future changes)

Moyea FLV to Video Converter Pro 2 vs Sothink FLV Converter

I was asked by a client about the difference between two Flash tools to get FLV to general videos: FLV to Video Converter Pro 2 and Sothink FLV Converter. Here I just list about the functions.

Both of them support:

• FLV/F4V/HD FLV as input video
• Preview and trim video
• Output formats for PC and portable devices

FLV to Video Converter Pro 2 supports more functions like:
• Output as music if you only want to get audio
• Output as FLV if you just want to change some settings of the FLV video
• Batch conversion (import several videos at a time and easy for video customization), one click to start conversion of all the files
• Quick button to easily import FLV videos from IE cache temporary folders for online videos, or from intergrated downloader for videos on YouTube, Metacafe, Yahoo, Dailymotion, MySpace, Facebook, etc.
• Crop video to choose the image area you want
• Modify image brightness and contrast
• Add image watermark
• Add Text to video
• Save custom video and audio settings and convenient for future use

Find the Right Products for Your Visitors

Getting the right products that suit your visitors will be a big project. You may test the product to see how it works if you choose only a few products for recommendations. Here I would like to list a few points for you for software.

Search products:
1. You can search the related key words that bring you traffic, or you think your visitors may be interested in, on download.com, softpedia.com, brothersoft.com, tucows.com or other popular download sites, where you can get software developers' sites.
2. If you have already got some products on hand and want to get other related product, you may also google for comparision. e.g. dvd to ipod -moyea -wondershare -cucusoft -xilisoft -imtoo
3. Mark down the software developer site if possible.
4. Get the description and information you would like to offer on your site.

Check the affiliate platform on software developer's site :
1. Visit the software developer's site and find the page about affiliate program introduction (regnow, eSellerate, shareit, element5, avantage, plimus, cj.com, et.c). Generally, the affiliate page is available on the top navigation or the bottom navigation. Some may be included in Company column or Partner column.
2. If you could not find the affiliate page on software developer's site, you may google with the site dowmain, e.g. " affiliate site:blogspot.com" to find the related page. You can also get to the affiliate sites like softpedia.com, brothersoft.com to see the payment platform on the buy now button. If it is RegNow, you can mark down the product ID. Every product on regnow includes its ID, it is available on the purchase link after the string "item=". The general format for a product is xxxxx-x. The former xxxxx is the software developer account ID.
Note: shareit and element5 use the same database as a whole platform.

Test the trial version with the trial download link:
1. If the affiliate platform is RegNow, and the software developer offer free trial on regnow.com, you will get the link with your affiliate ID. Your affiliate ID shall be the 5 or 6 digits after the string "affiliate="
Use the regnow trial download link and then try to click the purchase link on software UI to see if it works as one of the following situation:
1) The purchase link comes out as the regnow link "https://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi..." or "httpss://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi..." with your affiliate ID.
2) If it links to software developer's site, check the purchase link of the product on the site to see if it is via regnow platform and with your affiliate ID.

2. If the affiliate platform is shareit or element5:
There is no direct download link for these platforms. However, you can choose the link for product page, which will includes the download button and buy now button. Open the product page link you generate on the platform and the affiliate ID will be stored in browser cookies. You will get commission, when customers purchase the product via shareit or element5. So what you need to do is download the trial version and check if the purchase link on software UI is shareit or element5.

3. If the affiliate platform is plimus:
1) After clicking the download link, it will offer direct download via browser, and the affiliate ID will be tracked on related browser cookies. You can earn commission when your visitor places an order for the product via plimus.
2) The download link will direct visitors to the software developer's site. If payment platform on the software developer's site is plimus, it will track your affiliate ID then. It is somewhat like the direct download. However, visitors shall click to download again on software developer's site. It may not be a good choice for user experience.

In terms of software developers that only offer cj.com as affiliate platform, there are tracking code, which could not be deleted. e.g.
<a href=""http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3308102-4135291"" target=""_top"">Applian Technologies Inc.</a>
<img src=""http://www.tqlkg.com/image-3308102-4135291"" width=""1"" height=""1"" border=""0""/>
You could not delete "http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3308102-4135291", nor "http://www.tqlkg.com/image-3308102-4135291"

Related articles:
Introduction about affiliate programs
Registration for affiliate programs

Registration for Affiliate Programs

Today, I will talk about the registration and some other information about affiliate programs.

RegNow
Register as an affiliate in RegNow:
1. Open the page for sign-up: http://www.regnow.com/signup/affiliate.

2. Fill in the blanks. If your site is not accessible yet, you may leave it as blank. The email address will receive the email with regnow affiliate ID and password. Choose the country you live in.
3. After clicking the Sign Up button, you will receive and email from regnow.com. Open the link https://www.regnow.com/affiliatepriv and log in with the ID and password. You can then change the password with you preferences.

Search products via RegNow affiliate control panel:
1. As soon as you log in, you will find a search box on the right of the control panel. Enter the software name or the software product ID. Alternatively, you can click "Product Finder" on the left of control panel, click Name Search and enter software name or product ID, or browser according to the Categories.
2. Choose the products according to the theme of your site, or the visitors' interest on your site.
3. Check the commission rate, product ID, and other information, see if there is trial version for the product.
4. Click "Sales Links" tab to get the buy now link of the product and trial download if the vendor provides trial version on regnow. Add string "&ss_short_order=true" to the buy now link, and the visitors will be directed to the order form to enter information while clicking to purchase.
5. On the bottom of the Sales Links page, you may find the link to the vendor's website. Copy the link and open with your IE, FireFox or Safari to check if the vendor offers regnow as payment method on the site.
If yes, use this link.
If not, check the platform he offers to see if there are products available for affiliate settings.

• Platforms with support to affiliate settings: eSellerate, shareit, element5, avangate, plimus


• Platforms without positive support to affiliate settings: SWREG, PayPal

Commission Junction (CJ)
Register as publisher on CJ.com:
1. Open the link https://signup.cj.com/member/publisherSignUp.do.

2. Choose language, country and currency, and click "Next".
3. By default, the checkbox for "I have read and accepted the Commission Junction Access Service Agreement." is gray out. You need to click the Accept button on the end statement of the Service Agreement.
4. Enter the email address, while will be the user name for your login. You will get the password from the email address. Check the required options and enter related information.
5. You will soon get the password, but there is no access to change password so far I know.
Search products on cj.com:
1. Log in and click "Get Links" tab. You can search according to product name, advertiser name, or link.
2. When you decide the product, find the "Advertiser" column and click for the product you choose. Click "Join Program" in the pop-up window.
3. For the "Sale", "Lead" and "Click" columns, you can find the commission rate. For the "Status" column, you can see if you are approved to promote the product.
4. Generally speaking, you shall wait until the advertisers' approval before getting links to promote their products.
5. When an advertiser approves your application, you can find the advertiser name on the bottom of the page after you log in, or after you click the "Home" tab. Select the advertiser and click "Go", there will be description about the affiliate program. Choose Text Links in the pop-up window and search for the product. You may also click "Get Links" after login and search again to get HTML code after clicking "Get HTML".

eSellerate
Register as an affiliate on esellersate:
1. Open https://affiliates.esellerate.net/Affiliates/SignUp.aspx and click "continue".

2. Enter the related information, and you can set the login name with password.

oneNetworkDirect
Register as an affiliate on onenetworkdirect.com:
1. Open the link https://aff.onenetworkdirect.com/affiliate_signup.html.

2. Wait for the email address activation. Prepare a short description about your site.

Shareit
Register as an affiliate on shareit.com:
1. Open the link: https://cp.shareit.com/shareit/affiliates/signup.html?publisherid=37116&md5=362e17f83b3ea9b2bec30848f021ef7f&languageid=1.

2. The registration on shareit requires approval, and the website you enter shall be accessible before you apply for the account. You may have to wait for the approval of the vendor to promote his product before getting the buy url.

Related articles:
Introduction about affiliate programs
Find the Right Products for Your Visitors

Useful Affiliate Programs to Earn Money

For bloggers, forum moderator and administrators, community managers, there are many means to get the community running. Wikipedia shows the power of the popularity with donations. For smaller communities, advertising may be a good choice. There is another option, i.e. to be an affiliate member of some programs, and recommend tools to the community members.

Basic differences between an affiliate and a reseller:
An affiliate does not need to pay for the tools, and would be the middle agent that recommends the product to visitors. Affiliate will get the commission as soon as there is an order driven. The registration info is sent to the buyer. No registration code is transferred to affiliate.
A reseller may pay to the publisher before getting the registration info, or with payment schedule as discussed. A reseller will get the registration info and then send to his client.

Here I would like to introduce some of the affiliate programs that are commonly used by many companies.
RegNow affiliate program:
A platform with a lot of affiliate members for software sales, owned by Digital River. The main commission is sales referral. That means only when there is an order, can the related regnow affiliate gets commission.

eSellerate affiliate program:
A platform for software sales. Somewhat like RegNow, but with different control panel.
Avangate affiliate program:
A platform for software slaes. Somewhat like RegNow, but with different control panel.
CJ affiliate program:
A platform with many kinds of stuff. Software providers (described as advertiser on cj.com) like Adobe, Roxio, Nero and Cyberlink use this platform. There are different types of items, books, hardware, jewelry, shoes, rentals, accessories, etc. The affiliate is described as publisher on cj.com.

oneNetworkDirect affiliate program:
The control panel is somewhat like CJ, offering the impression statistics. However, it is owned by Digital River. It offers software and digital products.

shareit affiliate program:
A platform for software. Element5 and shareit use the same platform, which means if you register on shareit, you do not need to register on element 5 then.
Plimus affiliate program:
A platform for software and digital products. The control panel is easy for checking sales. If there is an order, you will find the record once you log in.

Related articles:
Registration for affiliate programs
Find the Right Products for Your Visitors

Review on Blackberry Slavery

What do you think if your company offer you a Blackberry or iPhone as a gift? Some may be exciting, while some may have different ideas. I just came across an interesting article about BlackBerry on lifehack.org with "Blackberry Slavery" as the title.

I am not sure if "email ping-pong" a new word to you. However, it is impressive to describe about sending email to someone, and then he receives and reply to your email, and you get the reply and send response. Ping-pong is one of the items in Olympics game. However, there are also some other games like Ping-pong. I google "email ping-pong" and "email tennis" separately and get definitions on urbandictionary.com.

email ping-pong
"Email ping-pong" is the act of email correspondence between two people getting out of hand or control.
It usually starts of with a comment, opinion or observation that becomes misunderstood or misinterpreted by the recipient. The recipient then responds with comment, opinion or observation...and so on. It is not uncommon for participants to ping-pong 10, 20 times or more before they realise they haven't got a clue what started it all in the first place!
The act of email ping-pong might start quite innocently!

email tennis
A seemingly endless interchange of emails without any useful outcome.

In terms of blackberry slavery, I think it depends. Smartphone facilitates the work and enables us to work out of office. It is true that there is possibility about phone sensitive. Once for a while, I used my cell phone so much that I would often have the feeling that I got messages on phone. However, I would say it was the time when I relied more on my phone instead of using computer.

It may occupy our spare time, but we still can enjoy the entertainment with Blackberry. When having a face-to-face meeting, we shall concentrate on the topics we are handling and give prompt response, leaving the Blackberry emails. Are you a crackberry user?

Smartphone market share in 2008

Just got the news from CNN, indicating that the sales of iPhone increase 245% in 2008

Currently Nokia dominates the smartphone market share, Research in Motion (RIM, the developer of BlackBerry) run after it, and Apple get the 3 position. Even though Nokia enjoys the large market share, but the sales in 2008 is not positive enough, while RIM, HTC and Samsung grows up in the market. The most obvious improvement counts to Apple.

A new product will be increase sales while the market recognizes your brand. Apple did not publish new product in the 4th quarter in 2008 and the sales is a little bit lower than that in the 3rd quarter. RIM with two new BlackBerry in the 4th quarter and Samsung with the new touchscreen Omnia have a better sales in the 4th quarter.

RIM recently announced that a new online application store, as a counterpart to Apple’s, will be released within a month. Apple iTunes Store enjoy great sales with its users. For RIM, the new store will bring further sales too.

Knowledge about smartphone operating system
Symbian was once owned by Erisson, Panasonic, Siemens and Nokia. After the acquisition of Symbian, Nokia is the final official owner. RIM develops its own operating system for BlackBerry. There are other operating systems like Microsoft Windows Mobile, Apple Mac OS, etc.

Source:
CNN Money: http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/03/12/iphone-sales-grew-245-in-2008-gartner/
Bloomberg.com: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=a9TgD6w9eRKU&refer=canada