I’ve often wondered how I could document my experiences with my iPhone. They are often very small discoveries, that can be explained or described in a few short lines. So dedicating an entire blog post to telling you that the Vodacom APN is ‘vlive’ is just pointless and annoying.
So that’s what this post will be. I’ll update it as I discover things and make headway on my iPhone.
I was asked by Guy McLaren for some tips and thoughts on raising money for his Pedals campaign. My dad has been involved in Non-Profit organizations most of his life, and I’ve seen first hand the challenges faced with raising money for a cause.
Here are 5 ways to raise money, regardless of your cause:
You’re not being selfish or greedy. So ask people. You’ll be surprised with how much success you have by simply asking individuals and companies for a donation. However, before you go and ask anyone for anything, make sure you can explain your cause with some conviction in 90 seconds or less.
If you confuse people about what you’re trying to raise money for then you’re likely to not get a donation. So keep it simple, keep it short and keep it to the point.
Getting people to do anything is hard enough, let alone getting them to give some money for your cause. So when you’re asking for donations you need to make it really easy.
Setup a blog for your cause, just as Guy has with Pedals.co.za and then in the side bar, prominent and easy to find add a donate button. You can create these in less than 5 min with PayPal. This is the aim of your casue, to raise money and see it happen. So make sure that the Button is clearly labeled, and explain what it is.
You also need to make it clear to people that a donation as little as $1 is appreciated. Every dollar counts.
When people donate via Paypal make sure you send them an email and thank them. It doesn’t have to be a long and involved email, just a simple one line email saying thank you is sufficient.
You don’t want to limit your donors to any one form of donation. Using a technology like SMS can be very very effective. Setting up a premium number that charges the SMS sender a set fee can be a great way to raise money. This also allows people to donate a small amount on a more regular basis. This often encourages people to donate more in the long term.
You have your blog already, now use some of the space on your blog to put up ads. You can use Adsense or sell private ads. Use the money this generates towards your campaign. You’ll just need to be careful, encouraging people to click Adsense ads is against the Adsense TOC and could get you kicked out of the Adsense program. You really don’t want that to happen.
Send out regular SMS or email updates. Tell them about the progress you are making, and any impact your project is having on other people. Remember to tell stories. People love to hear stories. Stories touch us in an emotional place that can move us to be generous. Never forget to say thank you. Make sure that everyone who donates knows that it’s appreciated not expected.
Wordpress has become the most popular independent blogging platform. It’s simple to use, yet very very powerful. Wordpress allows you to do a few things other than just blogging.
Here are some really cool things you can do with Wordpress:
Wordpress allows you to build a really stunning online gallery. Using Lighbox or a few of the lightbox plugins like this one or this one, you can create a stunning visual effect with images in Wordpress. There are also a few gallery plugins here and here.
Turning a simple Wordpress installation into a decent online shop is easy to do with the right plugins. You can use WP e-Commerce to get it up and running.
Membership sites are not as popular as they once were, but there is still a use and a market for them. WP Membership is a great plugin that allows you to turn Wordpress into a decent membership site. The plugin isn’t free, but worth the small price.
While I’m not exactly sure if this is a WP Plugin or some custom code, it show’s what is very very possible with Wordpress. TheThunderbird is a brilliant example of what a little bit of creativity can get you.
If you’re a fan of Craig’s list, then you can build your own. Have a look at the Classifieds Plugin.
Wordpress is an extremely powerful platform that allows you to do just about anything.
Further Reading:
Social Media is a still very much a growing technology. Much like the Internet was in the early 90’s, it hasn’t matured enough yet to be nailed down as ‘This’ or ‘That’.
But it’s getting there fast and we are seeing many larger organizations embrace social media, and use it to not only their benefit, but the benefit of the social community.
So the last few weeks I’ve been looking around at how everyday businesses can use social media to interact with their clients, deliver a better service, and improve the relationship with their clients. It’s amazing what kind of ideas you come up with when you look at just about every enterprise and wonder how they could benefit from Social Media. Do they need a blog? Could they communicate on Twitter? Why don’t they put those pictures on Flickr?
I’m currently project managing an E-commerce application for a client, and have found myself very lost in the world of custom software development. However, this isn’t something that every business can afford. So, often the effective use of technology gets thrown to the wind, simply because it costs too much.
But here is what I envision for a real word scenario.
Last week I went to the dentist. Not the most pleasant experience, but it got me thinking about how we communicate with our customers.
The first thing that came to mind was that they should build an app that allows them to send SMS’s to their customers a few days before, and the day of the appointment. This would be a nifty reminder and a useful service. They could also schedule an SMS to go to the client 6 months after their last appointment. Reminding them that they need a checkup.
Thinking this was a great idea, I began thinking in terms of development. I wouldn’t take much, I could get a developer to put something together in a week or two. Then some testing etc. Worst case scenario is a months worth of development.
Then it hit me. How many small businesses can afford a months development? Think in terms of Dentists and Doctors. Yes they make a lot of money and so on, but is it worth them investing a months worth of development and all the hidden future support costs to simply SMS their patients? I think not.
So that means you either chuck the idea out, or you find an alternative. I found an alternative.
I’ve been using Sendible for a while now. It’s great for email reminders, SMS’s and status updates. But why can’t small / micro business use a site like Sendible to communicate with their customers?
Sendible allows you to arrange event’s and meetings, send SMS’s now, or in the future. Lets you send emails, MMS, and so much more.
So here is how I see it working; When I go to the dentist next time, he will ask me if I have a twitter account. I say yes, and we follow each other on Twitter. Then using sendible, when I make my appointment they do a few things.
They schedule an Email reminder 5 days before the appointment (sometimes they are made months in advance). Then the day before the appointment I get an SMS reminding me, and on the day of the appointment I get a DM in twitter.
Chances of me forgetting my appointment is close to 0. All of this can be done almost for free. If you really don’t want to spend any money then just do Social Media Updates and Email.
How would this change the face of business? For one, I know that if I had my dentist on Twitter I would have tweeted him when I chipped my tooth on the Biltong. He may have replied and said that it’s ok, it can wait till Monday. But I would have better overall communication with him. And many small businesses could communicate more effectively with their customers this way.
I would also be reminded in 6 months, via email / SMS that I need to go in for a checkup. I seem to forget these things.
This is just one small example of how a micro business, could use social media to promote their product. Sendible is one of many many sites that would allow you to do things like this. Most of these are yet to be discovered or developed, but as we see Social Media evolve and mature we’ll see more and more people benefiting from it.
Wordpress has become so much more than a simple blogging platform. We’re seeing more and more creative ways that people are using Wordpress. It’s becoming a fairly powerful CMS, and with all the hacking available for Wordpress there is nothing you can’t do with Wordpress.
Lee Munroe has a great post on some nifty Wordpress Hacks which include the following:
This post is well worth reading and book marking for the future.
I’m wondering if bloggers still use business cards. Infact, I wonder how many people anywhere still use business cards.
I’m sure there are very very good arguments for both sides of the coin.
This however is an interesting post,
50 Awesome And Creative Business Cards
Two of my favorites:
What do Mac’s and Project management have in common?
The Gantt Project. Create simple Gantt charts, and export them to HTML or PDF.
The Gantt Project is simple easy to use software that allows you to focus on what you need to get done, rather than worrying about when it’ll get done and by who.
It’s free, so have a look. You can download it here.
Wordpress 2.7 Beta 2 is available. I’m going to install it on this site and see what’s what.
There is some more info on the Wordpress blog here.
This is a bit of a personal story. I’m not big on personal details, and rarely share them online, but this proves an interesting point so it’s worth telling.
Yum Yum Choc Chip peanut butter. I got my wife to buy me some. She asked me this morning “What made you want choc chip peanut butter?” I said to her “The guys on twitter were talking about it and it made me want some”.
That’s when I realized what had happened. About a week ago some of the guys I follow on Twitter were talking about choc chip peanut butter. And their conversation influenced my buying decision. It was not a conscious influence, it was subconscious.
And that’s the thing about social media. You cannot control the control the conversation. You can join it, and you can follow it, but you cannot control it. Large companies today don’t realize this. They will still spend Thousands on huge bill boards pushing products, trying to control what people know about the products.
This is where social media becomes very very interesting. How do you take part in the conversation, and promote your product at the same time?
The Asus EeePC was the forerunner to the micro laptop market. Was a killer app, had huge adoption and forced other manufacturers to pay attention to the small and cheap market.
But the EeePC lacked many many things, and for ever pro there was a con (I eventually got rid of mine).
There has been an influx into the market of these small machines. Dell, HP, MSI, Toshiba, have all joined the party.
But I’ve always felt something is missing, and until someone adds the one piece of the puzzle that ‘really’ makes a small machine mobile, we’ll always be left wanting.
The piece of the puzzle I’m referring to is connectivity. The reality of living in South Africa is that we don’t have free WiFi on every corner. So we’re left having to find alternatives. 3G, despite all it’s problems is probably the best way to fix the connectivity issue. But for most of us that means carrying around a little USB modem.
Acer are introducing a new line of their Acer Aspire One machines, and they will have an integrated 3G modem. This is nothing new, Dell and HP have been doing it for ages, but it’s the fist of the Ultra Mobile machines that will have it integrated.
So you simply slot in your SIM card, and you have a small, always connected machine you can take just about anywhere.
I’m looking forward to this new range of machines, as they pack quite a punch when it comes to the hardware they carry.
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