Written on July 14, 2008 – 10:08 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
An iPhone 3G doesn’t come cheap, in fact, most monthly plans are pretty expensive. Yet bloggers are constantly writing about ways to save some money with the shiny object - such as VoIP calling (and not having to buy an iPod or GPS system). This morning I stumbled on a money-saving plan that concerns the most unfairly priced mobile technology of our time: SMS texting. It’s ridiculous how much we have to pay for transferring such a small amount of data. If we had to download a song from iTunes for SMS data costs, we’d pay €3,770 (based on calculations by Sam from a gthing science project).
So I don’t know about you, but I welcome every possibility to take away some money from this billion dollar SMS business. Here’s one:
- Download and install the free AIM client from the App Store.
- In your IM client, create a new contact whose AIM address is a plus sign and the mobile number of the recipient, such as “+31641510902″.
- Start texting away by looking up the new buddy on your AIM software. He or she will receive a SMS text message, yet the reply will end up in your AIM client.
Just so you know, this also works with an iPod Touch.
I hope you like that post!
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Written on March 17, 2008 – 6:12 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Bestselling-author Tim Ferriss from The 4-hour Workweek has interviewed the founding editor of Lifehacker.com, Gina Trapani. The result is an interesting article that contains some useful tips for web workers. Since this is a Web 2.0 blog, I assume quite a lot of guys would call yourself a web worker. So I highlighted some of the best advices, for the other tips I gladly refer to the man we owe this interview to.
Trapani wants us to forget about the ‘2read’ tag:
“One simple but powerful habit is this: To act immediately on things as they come up. (…) If I see a web page that looks like it might be a good Lifehacker post at some point, instead of just bookmarking it for later, creating a draft post in Lifehacker’s publishing system on the spot. This practice requires some discipline to develop, especially when you’re feeling lazy or distracted, but it can make a huge difference.”
Monkey minds swinging from branch to branch
To some degree, I reject the super-structured, old school of time management thought, (..) From 10:45 to 11:15 check email,” etc. As a “web worker,” by nature I embrace serendipity and tangents, and like to keep myself open to working on unexpected things that excite me, even if they’re not in the plan. (..) At the same time, I think a lot of web workers like me can take this to the extreme, and need a dose of structure and limits in their day.
Open/ closed mindsets
Basically I’ve got two modes of work: loose/open, and focused/closed. When I’m in “open” mode, my instant messenger status is set to available, I’m surfing, writing, checking email, coding, listening to music with lyrics—getting things done, but in a multitasking way, open to interruptions and tangents. When I’m in focused/closed mode,I shut down IM, stop checking email, close any windows I’m not using, switch to my ambient music playlist, set a timer, and plow through whatever I’ve got to get done. Typically I go into closed mode when I’m on deadline.
Some other useful lifehacks for Web Workers/ bloggers
By the way, if you think lifehacking is just a superficial buzzword, drop a line in the comments. In a time that everybody seems excited about ‘geek to live’, some critical thoughts about hacking your life.
Written on February 13, 2008 – 4:35 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,
Last week TipJoy, a Y Combinator start-up, launched its tipping service for websites. User can add a “Tip Me” button to their site which allows visitors to donate a small amount of money to sites, blogs and services they like.
In a few hours another tipping service will launch: TipIt.to. The TipJar launch forced the Tipit.to team to quickly finish their work. Although Tipit.to offers a similar service to TipJar their site looks a whole lot better.
Tipjar.com
http://Tipjar.com
The original TipJar service. Not live and according to the site “Transaction service re-launch is tentatively scheduled later this year (2007)”. Obviously the domain-name that all the others services wanted to have in the first place.
TipJoy.com
http://TipJoy.com
Y-Combinator start-up launched last week. Techcrunch still one of the most tipped companies with over $66 received in tips since the launch of TipJoy on February 10 (in three days). If a heavy traffic website with a loyal following like Techcrunch can’t make more than $22 a day (with 670k RSS followers no less) I think it will be hard for other websites to get serious money from tips. The front page looks like it is vulnerable for spammers. Some of the links there look spammy. You can tip as low as 5 cents and as high as $10. People who sign up can’t get cash, yet. Right now you can only donate your tips to charity or purchase an Amazon gift card.
TipIt.To
http://tipit.to
Start-up launching today with similar tipping service as TipJoy.com. Site looks better than TipJoy. They accept money from Paypal (with minimum amounts of 3 EUR / 2 GBP / 4 USD) and are adding more options later. You can get your tips transferred to you as soon as you reach €30 EUR (20 GBP or €40). If you live in Europe they transfer via IBAN money transfer or Paypal. Other parts of the world can only use PayPal. They take 13.33% of the tipped amount (this seems to be incorrect. Unfortunately I can’t explain what would be the correct percentage. Read their FAQ: Fee Recovery System and tell me if YOU understand) when you decide to collect your tips. TipIt.to claims that this is just to cover the expenses of getting this moment through financial institutions back to you. The only way they make money is by collecting interest on money they manage.
Setting up is very easy and a variety of options for displaying a tipping button are available. They also just supply a URL which I can link to. My TipIt.To URLS is https://tipit.to/TheNextWeb and this is my button:
PayPal Donation Buttons
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donate-intro-outside
A service everybody loves to ignore but has been around for a while as maybe the first working Tipjar is Paypal Donate. With a huge user base and trusted brand this might be more interesting than the other options. And you can convert your tips into real money here too. I couldn’t find a minimum amount which you can tip but PayPal takes between 1.9% and 2.9% of each amount transferred through PayPal and a minimum of $0.30.
Conclusion
It is difficult to choose from these options. Paypal is expensive, Tipjoy is ugly and doesn’t pay you real money. TipIt.to takes a large cut but looks good and at least pays you real money. Also Paypal is mainly focused on payments and PayPal Donation Buttons is not their core business.
The real question is whether you NEED to choose or maybe it is smarter to simply ignore these options. If you have a loyal following you probably have some traffic and can make more from ads. If you don’t have a loyal following these tips won’t do you much good. So why bother?
Well, because one can dream. I’m sure most bloggers would be happy with a dollar or two a month. Just enough to pay for hosting and maybe the occasional beer. For precisely that goal I have added a TipIt.To button to this post. Please (please, please!) tip us for our good work so we can get away from our computers and drink a beer.
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
