The most hyped mobile phone in history went on sale in Australia today.
I’d hate to be a phone manufacturer that was competing with it.
You can buy it from Telstra, Optus, or Vodaphone.

If you got it from Telstra, you’d be able to take full advantage of the speed of their Next G network for checking your email, watching movies or YouTube, or visiting websites.
You’d also be paying through the nose if you actually wanted to do these things.

Because Telstra’s iPhone plan only gives you 5 (thats FIVE) megabytes of data per month. (And each extra megabyte will cost you $2)

Which is totally bloody useless for anyone using the internet.

Of course, a range of data plans are available. For an extra $59 per month, you get another 200 megabytes of data. Still not a lot. Add this to around $60 for the phone plan, and it’s a very expensive status symbol

Vodafone offers the phone on a $69 per month plan, which gives you $310 worth of calls and text, plus 250 megabytes of data. (You also have to pay $189 up front for the phone)

Optus is probably the best deal, with $79  per month for a plan that gives you $550 worth of talk and text, and 700 megabytes of data.

It’s important to remember to check out the contracts associated with these deals to make sure that you know EXACTLY what you are signing up for.

Tags: iphone, broadband, browser, bandwidth,

Do you want to learn about all the new methods of using the internet?
Then I strongly suggest that you go over to www.ThirtyDayChallenge.com and sign up for this free training course.

This is the third (or is it the fourth?) year that Ed Dale and Dan Raine have run this free internet tutorial - and I recommend that you sign up if possible. Continue Reading…

I had a surprise in my email last week.
Jason Carter thought that my header graphic could do with some improving, and made up a new one for me.
Well, it’s better than the old one, and you can see it above.

Thanks Jason,
Eric G.

(P.S. You can check out more of Jason’s work at www.pod.com.au )

I subscribe to lots of newsletters, and just skim through most of them.
However, I always read through these 3 newsletters as soon as I receive them.
Continue Reading…

If you’re bogged down with all the hassles involved in setting up a traditional website, give WordPress a try.
This website was completely set up in less that 2 hours - And I’m not a Wordpress expert.

Wordpress is an application that is used by countless people all over the world to quickly build reliable, easy to update websites.

Starting from scratch, someone with a bit of technical knowledge could have you up and running in less than an hour.

WordPress was developed for blogging, but can also be used to quickly and easily build a normal website.
After it has been set up, you can maintain your site very easily from any computer that is connected to the internet. Continue Reading…

I’d like to know about your main goal in using the internet.
Or the biggest stumbling block that prevents you from accomplishing something you want to do.

This will help me fine tune the results from the survey, and produce blog posts that are interesting for you.

Thanks,
Eric G.

P.S. To make a comment, just click on the “Comments” link

LO,
Pretty well anything can be promoted successfully on the internet if you are creative about it.

Even if it’s unsexy and boring.

Exhibit 1: Blendtec
Consider the problem faced by Tom Dickson, founder of Blendtec.
He makes home blenders. Hardly an exciting item.
Here’s what he did to promote blender sales for his ailing company.
Continue Reading…

Most people’s idea of using their website to make money doesn’t go much beyond creating a some sort of website, and then hoping that somehow this will translate into some sort of increased income.

Perhaps they’ll also pay hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to someone who sends them an email promising to “get them to the top of hundreds of search engines”. They can’t tell if this is effective, because this is a totally meaningless and ineffective statement.

EBay is also held up as a model of how to make money on the internet, and it certainly can be if done right. However, for most people it is a labour intensive process, with very little return. Of course, there are very effective ways of making a consistent income from EBay. But it’s not by selling second hand stuff you find in the house - although this is an ideal way to learn how EBay works.

OK, these are some of the best ways that you can earn a good, consistent income on the internet. Continue Reading…

In my recent survey, one of the most common responses was that people wanted to use their websites to make more money.

OK, Great. I can certainly show you ways of doing that.

However due to endless amounts of internet sales crap, many people are under the impression that you can make a gazillion dollars a year doing no work while sitting around in your underwear.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is a myth.
However if you have built up a solid reputation with a group of people who trust you, then you can certainly make quite a decent income by doing little more than sending them an email.
Continue Reading…

Welcome.
I’ve recovered from my accident, and am raring to go with this blog and unload the contents of my head in your direction so that you can make plans for the improvement of your business websites.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be mainly addressing the things that survey respondents regarded as important.

Thanks to everyone who participated. If you’d like to make your thoughts known as well, here’s the link to the survey. I’ll leave it there for the next week or so, so please take a few minutes to respond so that I can make this site better for you.

Selected results of the survey shows that my clients have the following characteristics:
- All use some form of broadband (a few use mobile and satellite connections)
- 95% rely heavily on the internet to run their businesses
- 60% maintain their site themselves
- 54% get their information virtually by hearsay and “osmosis” (this is definitely a worry!)
- 80% have a “brochure” type of website, with no attempt to interact with their clients
- 90% want to improve their websites, but 50% of them don’t know what to do, or have the time to research what to do.
- 75% want to use their websites to make more money.
- 52% want to improve their writing and copywriting skills
- 48% want to find out more about the use of Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Myspace, etc.
- 60% want to improve their productivity and effectiveness.
- 62% want to find out more about using E-Commerce and selling thigs from their websites.
- 71% want information on technical topics
- 54% want my opinions and reviews on products, services, and internet issues.

OK, that’s a pretty daunting list, but I’m confident that I can address all these things for you.

You see, during the months that I was unable to function normally I didn’t just watch daytime TV.

I was able to spend a lot of time on the internet researching, establishing relationships with authors and programmers, and buying and trying lots of programs, E-books, Scripts, and other assorted things. I also purchased the rights to many of the items that I regarded as good enough to offer to my clients.

(If my wife ever finds out how much money I spent on all of this, she’d kill me! Or even worse, spend an equivalent amount of money on clothes!)

This time and money has been invested because I believe that this site can become one of the best Internet resources for small businesses who want to use the internet.

I asked my clients to do the survey so that this site can be relevant to the needs of small business owners like yourself. So stick around and see what happens. I’ve had almost 10 years of providing internet services and advice, and have encountered and dealt with pretty well every internet issue you’ll face.

One of the primary things I want to do on this blog is to earn your trust. And have you feel confident that you can rely on what you read here. Honesty and ethical behaviour is something that’s sadly lacking on many internet sites. I’ll be doing my best to provide it here.

This site and domain name has been started from scratch. To build it up I’ll be using the methods, techniques and resources that will be discussed on this blog. Let’s see how far it can go in 2008!

So please visit often, make comments, and take advantage of what you find here.

All the Best,
Eric Graudins.

P.S. - 83% of people feel that 2008 will be a better year than 2007.
It’s good to be working with such a positive group of people.

P.P.S. The survey responses to a paid members forum with additional services and benefits were not encouraging. Therefore, I will not be providing it at this stage.
Instead of providing forum members with free access to the products I own and produce, I will be offering a discount at the soon to be opened TasEric shop for people on the TasEric mailing list. Please sign up using the form at the top right of this page.

LO,

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog - due to several momentous events including another house move, closely followed by a motorcycle accident where I received multiple breaks and fractures to ribs, sternum, and vertebrae. Now I know what the inside of an ambulance and a hospital is like - both new experiences for me.
Fortunately I will make a total recovery, but I still have to take it easy for a few months.

The new focus of this site will be to serve the needs of those who are like most of my clients - smart, confident business people who have become totally overwhelmed and confused with the bewildering array of technology solutions that marketers try to ram down their throats.
There are many ideas, products and services that can make some people a great deal of money - but be a total disaster for others.

And some services - like Google Adwords - need to be implemented properly, or you could lose thousands of dollars literally overnight.

In future blog postings I’ll write about many topics that are new to you, and may inspire you to do wonderful, new things with your business. (Or not!)

But If you get just one good idea that you can use, it could mean many thousands of dollars in additional income for your business.

Many free reports and guides will also be added here soon. There will also be an online shop where you can purchase ebooks, software, and other items to build your website.

Warmest Regards,

Eric Graudins.

P.S. You won’t get bogged down in techo talk here. I’ll be writing in plain English, for non technically minded people.

At last count, my office contained 26 things that need connection to the AC power supply.

And when something needs to be unplugged, it used to take me ages to find the right cord, and I often would unplug the wrong thing and the computer or some other item would die.

I tried labelling the cords with bits of tape, but that was too fiddly. Colour coding was also a pain to maintain. So I invented a simple, elegant solution that really works.

Continue Reading…