johnmryan dot com » Business

Buy & Sell FOR FREE- Beat the recession

John — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:10:04 +0000

Buy and Sell

With everyone feeling blue, here is a shameless plug for a new website I am working on. It’s a buy and sell website, currently for free you can place your own advert and sell some of your stuff, in exchange for some dosh (or do a trade) to buy nice Christmas presents for yourself or your loved ones. Or go shopping if you fancy some of the stuff on there!

I suggest using it to sell all those unwanted Christmas “gifts”.

How to place an ad

1. Click on the ‘Place an Ad’ button and complete the form. Remembering to include as much information as possible.

Choose a category for your ad.

Choose a title for your ad.

Insert price.

Location where the item is, it is important to note that this will create a google map for your ad which will pin point the location of the item on the map.

Description of your item

Complete your contact details, include phone number if your want this published on the ad.

Add an image – Including an image can increase the possibility of selling the item.

If your would like to make your ad stand out select ‘Featured Listing’, this costs an extra 2 euro.

2. Once you have completed the form, click on submit ad.
3. You will then be prompted to click on the paypal button to submit payment, all our ads only cost 1 euro and will stay active on our website for 90 days!
4. If you have made a mistake, you can edit the ad by clicking on the ‘Manage my Ad’ link.
5. If you are unsure send an email to hello@chest.ie

Be BeBo Careful what you put on the net

John — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:11:30 +0000

A new feature on the social networking website Bebo, is the ability to give the Bebo website access your Address Book on various e-mail systems, it then does a comparison check with your address book against its database of millions of users, and tells you which of your e-mail contacts are using BeBo. While this is a very â€˜coolâ€™ feature of the site, it also increases the risk factor of non-friends finding your profile. So what, you might say, but take this example, I was recently working on a professional basis with one particular company, and noticed my contact there had a profile (through the e-mail comparison tool) this girl seemed very professional in my dealings with her, however her BeBo profile told a different story, pictures of nights out rude comments and so on. While all this is of course in good fun, and â€˜no harmâ€™ was done, it does bring up the question of being careful on the net.

Do you really want your customers to know this side of you? And I suppose it also begs the question, have I nothing better to do than be on bebo myself?

Just be BeBo careful on the internet!

Roam 4 Free

John — Fri, 11 May 2007 11:09:01 +0000

Just spotted that Pat is in the Times today

Ostensibly this is the blog of Phelan’s Roam4Free business, which is not waiting around for the EU to tackle mobile phone roaming costs. Instead Roam4Free is working ‘ to provide international travellers with a sim card for their phone which would significantly reduce their roaming charges

Google Adsense Referrals Beta launches

John — Tue, 08 May 2007 15:54:41 +0000

Google has now launched Adsense Referrals which means webmasters can now refer products and services for various companies. How you get paid is not per click but based on a sale or sign up. This is in beta, and you need to request access

â€œWith referrals, you’ll be paid when your visitors click through to an advertiser’s site and complete an action defined by your advertisers, such as a sale or sign up. Because these actions are often more involved than a simple click or impression, advertisers pay more for these referrals, which can translate into higher earnings for your site. Further, you’ll see the expected earnings and advertiser performance ahead of time, so you can make the best decisions about what to refer. You can also choose to target the keywords that will ensure you get the highest-paying referrals for your ad spaceâ€

IrishMobilePhone.com launched

John — Tue, 08 May 2007 11:55:22 +0000

Sick of your Mobile Phone network? â€“ Then have your say

Based on articles I have previously written, I have received a lot of feedback from people on their Mobile Phone networks, and issues they have with them. So its payback time, I am launching (still a work in progress) a website called IrishMobilePhone.com ,which is basically a blog on Irish Mobile Phone Networks, but more interestingly I have a section on it where you can â€˜Rate My Networkâ€™ so get cracking and rate yours!

Also there is discussion forums dedicated to the Irish Mobile Phone Market!

LinkListing Tuesday

John — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:46:22 +0000

If you had to choose 5 blogging tools that were the only ones you could use for the next 12 months what would they be and why?

What would be your top 5?
Mine are:
Google Reader
Wordpress
Firefox (spellchecker)
Flickr
Akismet

The Blog Herald discusses 29 Traffic Generating Tips From 29 Bloggers.

Entertainment giant Viacom Media has announced that it is going to sue web search engine Google and video sharing website YouTube for $1bn (Â£517m).

Oh! Paramount â€“ do us all a favour LEAVE STAR TREK ALONE ,your wrecking it! x

And for you Twits out there â€“ Twitter users ,that is, Alex King has been busyâ€¦

Second Phase of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) Pilot

John — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:29:13 +0000

It looks like Digital terrestrial television has begun, lets hope is as good as the UK version, to date, it looks promising, and has an interesting channel line up (see below).

This second phase of the pilot will involve a trial with an initial panel of 500 public participants, who have been drawn from the Dublin and Louth areas. This will rise to 1,000 participants over the lifetime of the trial.

TV Channels include RTÃ‰ 1, RTÃ‰2, TV3, TG4, Channel 6, BBC3, BBC4, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC News 24, Sky News, Sky Sports 1, Extreme Sports and UKTV History and radio channels RTÃ‰ Radio 1, RTÃ‰ 2 FM, RTÃ‰ Lyric FM, RTÃ‰ RaidiÃ³ na Gaeltachta and Today FM. Source

Related Resources
In the market for new tvs? Read customer reviews on both LCD and plasma screens with a complete price comparison as well. Check out this educational report on the
invention of plasma television and what they offer. Just make sure to shop around and use the TV buying guide before making such a large purchase.

RTE website – Hit or Miss?

John — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:22:59 +0000

The Irish Indo is reporting today that the new RTE website is a massive hit. And I have to admit, that yes, I do like it, I now find myself checking it daily for News and Business News, as well as the new TV Guide, and of course the Entertainment section (goes without saying). Impressively their list of online videos, including RTE News broadcasts, is becoming more extensive. I reported (well had a screen shot) of the site shortly after its launch here. Some people mailed me to say that theyÂ still don’t like it, but if the below figures are anything to go by, RTE are going something right.

THE redesign of RTE’s website has contributed to a massive 78pc increase in traffic, the station claimed yesterday. vFigures show 29 million page impressions registered for the month of February. This represents a lOpc rise on the previous month, and a 78pc increase year-onyear. Over 1.2 million “unique users’ are now accessing the site.

70-290 students prefer to prepare for 70-291 from the material provided by test king. This helps them in 640-802 as well.

Meteor 3G?

John — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:41:44 +0000

Â 3G has a long way to go â€“ when it comes to proving its worth. Vodafone was the first to offer 3G services, now including mobile television, but are consumers convinced? Well apparently not, but maybe in time they will beâ€¦ Finally it looks like Irelands last 3G licence has been sold to Eircom, whom we are told will use it for its Meteor mobile network. Irish Daily Mail reports today:

EIRCOM announced yesterday that it would finally take the plunge into the world of 3G.It has decided to buy the country’s last 3G mobile licence for its fast growing Meteor unit.

The licence comes with a price tag of EUR114m and had initially been offered to troubled Smart Telecom.

3G, the third generation of wireless technology, has enhanced video and voice capabilities and led to better roaming, among other innovations.

LinkListing Tuesday

John — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:28:38 +0000

Abrams Confirmed To Direct ‘Star Trek XI’
After months of rumours and speculation, J.J. Abrams has committed to directing Star Trek XI.
I wish I cared â€“ I really do â€“ but Star Trek finished with Voyager for me

More equality?
A gay couple who were covered with a blanket by an airline stewardess because they were hugging have received an apology.

Virgin is shaking things up a bit for SKY â€“ about time they had some real competition, be nice to see the same in Ireland?
Sky and Virgin remained defiant today as the dispute over the carriage of the former’s channels on cable rumbled on.

Apple TV to be ‘a few weeks’ late
Initially the company said the Â£199 ($299) device would ship in February, but now expects it to go in mid-March.

Move on Jade!
Big Brother contestant Jade Goody has apologised to the Indian community and Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty during a visit to the Indian capital Delhi.

Yahoo Mail Beta Review

John — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 11:45:43 +0000

When Gmail launched there was much hype and excitement, about this revolutionary mail service, that would change the way web based e-mail was handled. Much of this hype stemmed from the fact that you needed an invite to use the service, and being human everyone wanted what seemed like something they may have to wait for. Indeed Gmail has changed the web mail market, and forced many providers out of the dark ages, and even left some mail services in the shadows. Such as Hotmail which is well overdue a makeover and the proposed name change doing the rounds on the net is that it is now to be called Windows Live Hotmail (eh?). All this aside however, the most recent web mail provider to update its service is Yahoo Mail; this update seems to be designed to wake up Yahoo Mail and keep it in the game.

First of all the New Yahoo Mail, does not force you to use the new version (just yet anyway), presumably this is because itâ€™s still in Beta. I just recently selected the option to use the new version (something â€“ until now, I was avoiding) and it is a familiar interface I have to say. It almost seems as if someone has taken a mail program and stuffed it into your browser! It is simple to do the usual tasks, such as drag and drop into folders. The Compose screen boasts the usual rich text features, and loads with ease, unlike other web mail applications that try to use these features, they usually end up crashing. Additional features in Yahoo Mail is the preview pane, which allows you to preview mail before opening (much like Outlook and Apple Mail). The other cool feature is tabbed windows, when you open a new mail it opens in a tab (not a browser tab), meaning you can switch between your inbox and mail messages.

To date I have had Zero spam with Yahoo Mail, unlike my gmail account which seemed to have been plagued with Spam messages, however, the coolest feature of Yahoo Mail Beta, is the ability to talk to your Yahoo Messenger contacts, much like Gmails facility to talk to your contacts in real time. I have yet to use this feature, as to be honest, I do not use Yahoo Messenger, and it currently does not allow a connection to Microsoftâ€™s Live Messenger, still though â€“ a very cool feature.

Channel 6 Bites the Bullet

John — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:43:32 +0000

And about time, Channel 6 originally was in a little old dispute with SKY, because they wanted to be on the Sky Digital platform on one of the low numbers (on the EPG), near RTE1/2/TV3/TG4, which I suppose is fair enough, it is an â€˜Irishâ€™ channel, however SKY only offered them one of the high (and less watched) numbers in its channel line-up meaning that it was at the end of the entertainment package, also meaning less viewers for Channel 6. So CH6 decided not to go on SKY at all, but rather use NTL and Chorus, a mad move by all accounts, as this adds to their problems, leaving aside the fact that all their shows are years out of date, not being on SKY means the channel looses out on a percentage (be it small for them â€“ based on the schedule) of SKYS 465,000 customers.

But now they have U turned on the decision and are launching on SKY (according to Billboards this morning, not sure if they have actually launched there yet, Iâ€™ve not seen anything on their website), on one of the high channels somewhere about the 223 mark!

This is great news on the other hand for SKY, who can now offer Irish Customers their favourite Channels, including Channel4 and the full Irish Channel line-up (RTE/TV3/TG4/CH6), meaning that the competition from other operators will be crushed in time. Sky also has some secrets up its sleeve I have been told, including a Special Offer for customers!

TV 3 Ireland, is also getting busy for its spring line-up, and have announced a new program which will compete with RTEâ€™s Six One program, (big BIG mistake), this it seems (based on the Irish Times) is an entertainment type show, and will be an in-house production, although I am very unsure how they are going to pull this one off, it is nice to see in house productions on Irish TV stations, as the tendency is to buy in UK and US shows, not that those are not some good shows, but we need some good Irish original programming.

LinkListing Wednesday

John — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:19:35 +0000

So, there seems to have been lots happening online when it comes to the blog world. And I missed most of them due to work committments

One of the first interesting piece of news is that Google Reader has what they call a small update, this is something interesting though, you can new view imbedded Youtube videos (as well as other video sites) in your Google Feed Reader, currently this crashes my browser window a bit, but thatâ€™s on an old windows PC, Iâ€™m sure it works well on my Mac at home.

â€œWe have another small update to Reader regarding video. Reader should now show videos from YouTube and Google Video (and a few other sites) that you have embedded in your blog posts and articlesâ€.

Some people are a little worried about the compatibility of their plugins, and it is a very good idea to check out this list before upgrading to wordpress 2.1.

Gravator â€“ I have noticed stopped working for me for some time (the service that allows you to show commenterâ€™s image beside their comment on your blog) and the reason is simple really, the site/server has been down, but the site says they will be back to full strength soon.

â€œIn addition to the new server architecture, development on Gravatar 2.0 is progressing rapidly and in the coming weeks you’ll see screenshots and news on this site. It’s a very exciting time ahead, once again, thanks for your continuing support!â€

In other relatively interesting news, and I say relative, because I am a Mac user (donâ€™t want to have a conflict of interest here – but Apple rules). But I have noticed that Bill Gates has been saying that Vista (just release in Ireland) has stated that it is the most secure version of windows yet, he would say that of course, but I also noticed that some experts challenge this view â€œSecurity experts have thrown doubt on Bill Gates’ claim that Vista is “more secure” than other operating systems.â€ BBC have it here.

Roam4Free Website Review

John — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 19:21:15 +0000

Pat Phelan is looking for reviews for his new website, selling his new roam 4 free Sim Card, so here is mineâ€¦.

Roam4free.ie is designed by Dragnet, this is my first time hearing of this design company, so I have no idea as to their reputation for designing websites, however if this design is anything to go by, I say well done to them, and to Roam4Free for selecting them. The design is very sleek and modern with very stylish icons, which really are the making of the website. The clean cut look makes the site easy on the eyes, with a very basic, but easy to use navigation bar for access to most of the sites pages. Itâ€™s clear from the websites various sections what the company is offering is from the first look.

However, there are one or two issues I do have a problem with on this site, so I will start from the top down. To begin with, I love the â€˜mobile phoneâ€™ Roam4free icon, it is very snazzy, but unfortunately the login bar beside it, spanning the top of the screen, is dull and distracting and seems somewhat out of sync with the rest of the websites design. The text of the site, is well written and gives you a simplistic read of what the product is, however, although the background is really cool on this, particularly on the â€˜moreâ€™ link from the homepage, it is somewhat hard to read, because of the colour of the text (this could be just me however â€“ I am colour blind â€“ so I cant be sure on this). One thing I would like to see on the website, is print this page feature, such as the ones you see on sites, that strip out all the colours and allows you to print a black and white version of the text â€“ very convent for those who see the site â€“ but would prefer to just print out the sections are read later (just an idea?). Finally the affiliate page, I have a problem with this page for one basic reason, there is absolutely no information on what this program is about, I donâ€™t imagine too many people will fill out the form when they donâ€™t know whatâ€™s on offer, also the title of this page displays ‘Untitled Document’.

Overall, the site is great, and I know I do go on a bit of a rant above, however, the site does have a nice modern look, and is extremely easy to use, but feedback is feedback I guess.

The product sounds like a great idea, so the best of luck with it guys!

Apple iPhone -The future for Apple?

John — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 22:30:43 +0000

I just watched Steve Jobs Macworld Conference & Expo 2007 keynote address from San Francisco, and although like any Apple fan, I ran for apple.com when I heard that it included the iPhone, I was shocked at how great this piece of technology actually is. This is an Apple iPod, Phone and Internet Browser all in one. And I have to say if I were any other phone right now I would be worried.

To be released in June 2007 in the USA and the fourth quarter for Europe and 2008 in Asia, the phone will take the world by storm, I do however wonder, how many changes mobile phone networks will have to make to accommodate it (there seems to be a few features that are network dependant), the only network in Ireland I can see doing this would probably be Vodafone, although I know that O2 have an apple thing going on (they sell iPods). But apple is breaking into a huge market here, their target is 1% of the market (meaning 10 million units sold) to begin with.

Apple seems to have every confidence in this phone, they have all the big wigs on board with this phone, Google and Yahoo, with Cingular (a mobile network in the US) all standing firm behind them. Apple have decided to remove the "Computer" part from Apple Computer Inc. It is a good move since their claim to fame has moved on heaps and bounds since the 1984 Mac computer. So you can check out all about this phone yourself from apple.com and watch all the keynote address here, and rather than go on about it, here is my take on what features the iPhone will have.

-Windscreen Video iPod
- Mobile Phone
- Google Maps
- SMS
- Camera Phone
- Mobile e-mail
- Wi-Fi
- 4GB and 8GB models
- Speakerphone
- Internet
- Works on OSX

The price is 499USD, not sure what it will be in Ireland, or if it will be subsised by the networks over here!

Three Mobile: The way to roam?

John — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 10:18:11 +0000

Three seems to be making headway with abolishing roaming charges for Irish roaming customers. Hearld AM reports

Under the terms of the scheme, Three customers visiting Britain Italy, Austria, Australia, Hong Kong, Sweden and Denmark will no longer be charged for receiving calls and texts. Customers can also use existing minutes, text and data bundles to make voice and video calls, send texts, picture and video messages, and even surf the internet.

Update:
This shocked me, Meteor is Irelands biggest network when did that happen, i though it was Vodafone? (source again Hearld AM):

Three has 14 million customers worldwide, but refuses to release numbers for its Irish operation, where it is believed to have fewer than 50,000 subscribers, compared with 750,000 for the next biggest network in Ireland, which is Meteor.

LinkListing Special: Blogging tools and information

John — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:37:12 +0000

Stop spammers from using your contact form, I have had a huge problem with this lately, I have yet to install this but as far as I can tell it challenges the person to answer a simple question 2+2=4 before they can use the form. When I get a chance to install this Iâ€™ll update here to let you know what I think, looks good though.

If you have not used a feed reader before check out Google Reader, itâ€™s simple to use and you get all your blog and news fixes in one swoop, if your not sure what to add, check out my UK Newspaper Feeds page ( see sidebar).

How do you market your blog? It would be cool if someone (yes someone â€“ meaning not me) set up a system of Irish Bloggers interviewing other Irish bloggers, they donâ€™t have to be high profile bloggers or anything, just a bit of interesting fun really, Darren mentions this (interviewing)in the ProBlogger link above.

I noticed a lot of bloggers writing about the new Apple iPhone, but there may be a trademark issue problem. I have to say though this is the coolest phone I have ever seen, although we (Ireland) will probably have a long wait for it!

If you donâ€™t know what Google PR (Page Rank) is then this wont interest you, but it seems that Google have updated the system, pushing some older websites off the internet (as far as google is concerned anyway).

The December stats for wordpress.com (hosted wordpress accounts) and they seem impressiveâ€¦

What do you want to see in the next wordpress update (2.2 not 2.1) have your say!

Irish Broadband mess up (again)

John — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:47:45 +0000

â€˜The only way we learn from our mistakes is to make themâ€™, and then gain knowledge from that experience to try and avoid making that same mistake again. This is important, you need to make mistakes to make success, otherwise how would you measure and maintain your success (aside from financial of course).

However, it really gets up my nose when some companies are making so much money, that they do not invest any time or funds into reviewing their mistakes, or even simple things like problems with various systems, or policies.

One such company which seems to neglect to learn from its mistakes is Irish Broadband. I ordered broadband from them months ago, but they decided to deliver it to the billing address instead of the delivery address, so I cancelled it and went with another company. Now I decided on Monday to give them another chance, filled out the form, and low and behold, yes they did the exact same thing. Had a call from their dispatcher company this morning, we are trying to deliver the modem but there is no one at home. How maddening is that!

I feel like cancelling it again, but as I can only use wireless broadband in my flat, I have no choice but to wait for them to correct the error (well over a week). There is obviously either a. a problem with their website that does not give them the delivery address, or b. the person on the data end is not reading the information correctly. I double checked all the information I submitted to make sure.

What I am sure of is though, like the last time, they will deduct the money from my bank account before I even see the modem.

Update 1
Spoke to a really helpful lady in sales, she apologised, but I will have to wait 5 days again.

Update 2
They called me again today (Friday), and wanted to deliver it to my home address AGAIN, it seems now that they have scheduled two modems for me, one for my home and one for my work, and strangely enough, they have also arranged for the pickup of my modem, which I still have not actually received.

LinkListing Monday

John — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:14:41 +0000

Important security fix for wordpress users, however remember to do a full backup before the upgrade, I have read that this fix is not the â€˜end allâ€™ fix

Darren has 5 prerequisites for blogging success

Taiwanese firm plans to sue Apple

Amy Winehouse leaves stage after one song

Kylie is named world’s best dressed

LIMERICKâ€™S private sector has contributed almost EUR200,000 to promoting and regenerating the city

London Celebrates Star Trek at 40 This Weekend

Tesco Mobile Ireland: A New Mobile Phone network in Ireland

John — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:51:44 +0000

Â It was years and years ago, when no body even heard of a mobile phone, and if they did visions of a millionaire playboy with a brick phone came to mind, well a total exaggeration there, it was only a few years ago, that if your mobile phone went off in a shop, everyone turned to see who the hot-shot was. Eircell was the only player with the 088 network, which was owned by Telecom Eireann, and was a terrible network by all accounts, which dropped calls frequently, and had no security elements to prevent people from â€˜listening inâ€™.

Some things have changed; all for the better, competition has increased, quality of services have increased. For example 3 Mobile Ireland announced their new broadband service, which offers fast download speeds through their mobile network. And now in 2007 Tesco will launch their Mobile network in Ireland. The network will use O2 Mobileâ€™s infrastructure but will be independent from the O2, so it will be in itself the fifth mobile network in Ireland, and thus add to the competition.

If competition is so great, why are standard calls so expensive still? These figures – below – (courtesy of RTE News) speak for themselves. The services being offered are becoming top of the range, however the cost of basic mobile phone calls is still something that needs a lot of work.

O2 last month reported an average revenue per user of â‚¬545 a year at its Irish business, compared with â‚¬299 in Germany and Â£272 in Britain

Do these figures mean that Ireland spends more, or costs are higher for calls?