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Amazon Christmas on the net
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The Future
December 2012
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Casting the net
Editor’s Message Sola Akinfie
Managing Editor
Great deals online is not just for Christmas, we intend to hunt for the best deals and savings more each month. Our favourite deals for this month is however aimed at filling your Christmas stockings or giving your self a special treat in the festive season, so grab them while they are still there. As always, we thank our readers who have shared with us goodies they have found online. Remember, it’s not just about sharing the good stuff you find online, but also letting us know about rip-offs, terrible service and scams to avoid. Have a merry Christmas!
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Browser News by Sola Akinfie
Anonymous and Syria Syria’s move to censor and shut down the internet within its borders was an action with intent to stiffle support for the rebels and freedom fighters. It’s a move that has proved costly. November ending and Anonymous comes in to show them how the job of a complete internet disconnect should be done. The attacks on Syrian government websites has been a complete wave of disruptive actions. This has extended to Syrian embassies abroad and most of the government interests anywhere on the map. To make matters worse, the attack is not just confined to website overloads with DdoS attacks (denial of service), but harvesting sensitive information and sharing military secrets on their own platform Par: AnoIA and others.
Online dating woes Dawn Bushell, a busty 27-year-old stripper from Romford Essex, had been using one of the niche dating websites designed for sugar daddies to connect with, erh, gold diggers or wanna-be wags. Dawn claimed the latest meet up was a disaster and the website administrators should be made to pay her a compensation for not doing their job vetting its members. Mid-2012, around the period of the Olympics games, Dawn responded to a message from a seemingly wealthy businessman who claimed he would be arriving from Dubai to enjoy the Olympics with her, possibly. The businessman invited her to enjoy the second ticket in his possession and a fantastic weekend of pampering while he got to know her. Dawn took the bait and ended up using her own money to book the 4 star hotel and hire a car including a driver for a week. The wealthy businessman was supposed to pay her double the expenses for her trouble and all would be great. She however ended up being met at Romford station by Mustapha Afid, a kitchen assistant who worked at a nearby kebab shop. She is currently seeking compensation for her expenses.
Online job-seekers targeted The web is awash with unscrupulous organizations looking to use innocent surfers to perpetrate financial scams and money laundering. In the US this has become a major headache for the job listing websites. This practice began way back in 2004 and is on the increase once more. Innocent job seekers come across fictitious well paid jobs where they are expected to assist with the completion of transactions and they find themselves moving funds in and out of the country at their own risk. Disguised as ‘postal forwarding jobs’ or finance administrators, the number of victims are piling up. From Careerbuilders.com to Monsterjobs.com, these shady characters have made it a major activity often using over 10 different bogus company names.
Rivalry starts from the womb A rather interesting video from CBS News shows that rivalry, or more specifically, sibling rivalry starts even before we are conceived. The video which comes from a MRI study at London’s Centre for Fetal Care shows two foetuses nudging and struggling for space in the mother’s womb. The video has been doing the rounds and prompted theories about the human nature regarding survival and selfpreservation. To some it’s seen as scary stuff. We seem to be a species of conflict and rivalry even before we come into the world. When we grow and develop into young adults we still crave the need to be in a better position than others and we often fight and squabble over self interests all through the stages of the human life.
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PayPal loses 3.5m in Anonymous attack Anonymous is now an established threat to any corporation or country that operates with policies derogatory to the hacktivist group. PayPal suffered a combined loss of 3.5million with an attack on the website all because PayPal refused to process payments on behalf of the Wikileaks website. The perpetrators where later arrested and charged. PayPal reported that it had to have over 100 workers in 3 weeks to sort out the disruption and purchase upgraded soft and hardware for future security. The initial intention from the hacktivist group was to go after anyone or any organization that supported anti-piracy and copyright. The attack is reported to have started with posted plans on an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel encouraging an attack on PayPal. The not-so-anonymous group, with all their disruptive power, have not been great covering their tracks. The three suspects are just a few amongst many that have been collared by the law. The trouble with it all is that they keep breeding would-be disciples that are happy to do their bit from anywhere in the world. The organisation has too many splinter groups to police.
The Pope on Twitter Welcome to the 21st century, where internet technology knows no bounds. The Vatican has announced Pope Benedict’s new Twitter handle as @pontifex. Tweeting in earnest would start by December the 12th. We can see it now - tweet requests for prayers to help team performance in the Champions league or ‘bless my lottery numbers’ already, the Pope has 1.2 billion followers within the Vatican’s tweeter set - up. But the launch of the Pope’s own handle would be something else. It may even smash the current record for Tweeter followers. Watch out Justin Bieber or Michelle Obama. There’s a pope in town and he’s bound to be quite active on the social network.
Putin declares war on the internet Vladimir Putin is not the type to watch any opposition dampen his political dominance. The shirt lifting macho man has declared war on the internet. Refusing to accept that the net can’t be policed, he has laid out his warnings: Putin has shoved two bits of legislation into Russian parliament called ‘the thinking place’ - this gives the Kremlin the power to shut down any website that spouts any criticism of the government or the man himself, the other is the power to arrest bloggers who publish derogatory words, and that could mean treason, and finally the 3rd phase would be to remove the critical protection of anonymity so that the publishers of any negative slant could be identified and arrested. The Kremlin has vowed to also control internet content any way it deems most effective, and that’s also applied to servers outside the Russian state.
Gangnam Style goes corporate The world’s most watched YouTube clip, Gangnam Style, has done the rounds with everyday folk uploading their own versions. Corporate giants, not to be left out, have been jumping on the band wagon with their own advertainment clips. Redbull racing, Abercrombie Kids and Vodaphone amongst others have launched their own versions on the social media platform. Never mind International Electronica’s accolades but it’s even a viral competition with the copy cats. The winners are the likes of Intel with their dancing mascot achieving over 500,000 likes and 40,000 shares. Psy is expected to earn just over $7.9m with most of that coming from direct endorsements with companies such as Hyundai and LG.
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Buy | My eBay | Sell | Customer Support |
Basket
Vanessa Feltz Item condition:
Currently passed the sell by date, but still has a few weeks product life left. Requires a large amount of calorific energy. Does not require body toning or weight reduction as there is no hope or need.
Product description:
Only available in King Size. Product runs on ice cream, donuts and cake. Item has a strange service history but otherwise bubbly and full of life. Works best near kitchen appliances.
Starting bid:
£1.50
Current bid:
10p £6.50
Delivery:
Buyer collects 7 seater mini bus or fork lift required.
Payments: Returns:
| See payment information Buyer will foot the bill for return transportation and feeding while in transit, plus £30 admin fee.
Ainsley Harriot Item condition:
Portly and rotund, good work history with years of TV appearances. Undetermined sexual orientation. Close to sell by date but still comes with celebrity status at least by UK standard.
Product description:
Slightly over-animated, but quite jolly most of the time. Use at arm’s length, product tends to be a bit to touchy-feely but otherwise harmless. Skills in the kitchen are questionable, use with caution.
Starting bid:
£50
Current bid:
£8
£60
Delivery:
Will send to buyer in illegal minicab. Insurance not included.
Payments: Returns:
| See payment information No returns offered. Sold as seen.
Chris Evans Item condition:
Close to sell by date but still comes with celebrity status at least by UK standard.
Product description:
Product runs on ego and media arrogance. Product has a full past service history but a concluding shelf life. Does not however work well in the early hours.
Starting bid:
£200
Current bid:
£10
£50
Delivery:
Buyer collects only with super-fast Italian vehicle or rare vintage.
Payments: Returns:
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| See payment information Buyer will foot the bill for return transportation, plus £30 admin fee.
Top-rated seller
Consistently receives highest reader ratings
The Browser Magazine 100% Positive Feedback
Dispatches info quickly Has earned a track record of excellent service
Posh Spice Item condition:
Runs on low food energy and requires prodding to engage any sort of physical activity. Handle with great care, may be subject to complete breakage in windy conditions. Nose can do with a bit of work. Can be resold in the US at 3 times the UK rate.
Product description:
Active reproductive functions despite build and aesthetics. Caution - product may sometimes threaten to sing live, otherwise harmless. Product comes with oversized shades to hide facial defects.
Starting bid:
20p
Current bid:
£1
£5
Delivery:
By express, post in fragile wrapping, with small charge as weighed product.
Payments: Returns:
| See payment information Bubble wrap returns accepted but product needs to be redirected to LA.
Joanna Lumley Item condition:
Rare find. Complete working order and enviable shelf-life. Various product awards for past and present service. A-List product labelling.
Product description:
Aged well like a fine wine. Stands tall and confident when out of packaging. Runs on wit and charm. Holds respect value and bags of common sense. Still has a good number of working years after a lengthy mileage on the clock.
Starting bid:
£5m
Current bid:
£800k
???
Delivery:
Buyer collects within 2 months (we are in no hurry).
Payments: Returns:
| See payment information Will pay 20% of selling price if returned in the same condition.
London Underground Item condition:
Very long service history, with high maintenance needs. Runs best on over-priced commuter tickets and tax payer funds. Suffers predictably from nuisance union strikes and incompetent directorship. Credited for being the first of its kind since the Victorian era. Prone to staggered service due to regular signaling problems.
Product description:
Aged but has had extensive overhaul on various parts. System has a good number of links and is able to stagger along even during high volume usage.
Starting bid:
£5.6b
Current bid:
£100k
???
Delivery: Payments:
| See payment information
Returns:
5
The new
sky wifi smartpen
Save data... James Bond style By Simon Peele
works with
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The Sky WiFi Smart pen is one of the top favourite gadgets of the year. This voicerecording pen input device shows some serious potential to go viral amongst tech lovers, students, journalists or wanna-be James Bond types.
Science behind
The principle of the smart pen technology is based on a ballpoint pen with an embedded computer, infra-red camera and digital audio recorder. All of this stored within a pen-like device that works in conjunction with the Anoto digital paper. This pre-printed type of paper contains dot-patterns visible to the pen’s 70 FPS infra-red camera, allowing it to determine its exact position on the paper. With all the gadgets stored within, Livescribe seems to be a must-have portable gadget, but not everyone’s cup of tea. There has been a lot of polemic on the size of the pen which, comes as a rotund 0.5 x 6.2 x 0.8, making it look like a giant marker, holding it in use after a while can be a tedious exercise, you may consider reverting back to the old-fashioned note-taking style. It is still however, a very useful bit of kit to include to your list of gadgets made for an easier digital life.
Scribble, record and sync Livescribe’s smartpens provides easy access to your files. You can connect it to your PC or Mac and synchronize your written scribbles with the voice-recordings. Think of how useful this device might come during a business meeting, job interview or college lesson? You can boot the recording function by tapping a spot on the paper in front of you, and if you have been making any recordings, it will instantly play in crystal-clear audio separation.
or send messages from your smartpen; it’s a smart ‘pen’ after all and not a do-it-all device. First-time users will take some time to get used to using it effectively. It is recommended you don’t rely on the display and the interface itself to navigate and manage files stored within your pen as it might rip your nerves off - and you wouldn’t want to risk your $200 pen. As for the settings management, cycling through the options, checking on the time or your battery life is a doddle. As for the battery life, it is quiet impressive. The Sky WiFi smartpen can last up to 10 days between recharging while being used on occasional basis for both, scribbling and recording.
Report ticket We have seen plenty of features from tablets and smartphones but what we really need is an effective note-taking device that can record and store huge amounts of data easily, fast and accurately. Livescribe has come up with the perfect solution in the form of a smartpen interlaced with a robust note-catching system. The audio recording is just a perfect asset which gives it that final touch as a must-have gadget. Even though the pricing was and still is slightly higher than expected, Livescribe is an excellent, niche-targeted product that is yet to see the peak of its fame.
The quality of the audio is high, and you should be able to distinguish the speakers by the sound of their individual voices. The Echo and Sky smartpens support Evernote, the popular online note-taking platform. Sky is WiFi enabled and supports cloud-storage file transfer. It’s also compatible on the Android operating systems.
Storage, interface and battery life The first model - Pulse, released back in 2007 - came with 2GB and 4GB flash storage and 2GB, 4GB and 8GB built-in flash memory. The new Sky WiFi comes with the same storage assets of 2GB, 4GB and 8GB, with cloud storage using wireless fidelity to store the content on either Evernote or your smartphone. The OLED display is the interface screen for communication with your pen. Don’t expect to type your e-mails
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the world over By Daniel Booth
It’s Amazon this, and Amazon that. Just when you thought you knew the scope of Amazon’s march towards total branding. There are more Amazon tentacles out there than you thought. Is it a good thing or is it simply commercial greed?
A
couple of years back Richard Branson was accused of trying to stamp everything in sight with the Virgin brand. These days they seem to have slowed down to concentrate on making the divisions work. For the mighty Amazon, it’s just the beginning, we are already hooked in one way or the other and they may be extending their reach beyond the web, so you might want to get used to it. Jeff Bezos started Amazon in July 1994 originally naming it Cadabra. Known today as Amazon it is currently the world’s largest retailer. To think that the business started as an online book store is mind boggling compared to what the company is involved in now. These days founder Jeff Bezos is busy doing a Richard Branson, locating lost booster rockets and looking to travel space. While dealing with the small issue with quenching his thirst for the next big thing, he has seen to it that Amazon continues its business with a major policy on adding much more new business to its sizable trade empire.
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We at the Browser Magazine often take a skeptical view about Amazon’s attempt to get into any kind of market on the internet. We also suggest that Amazon is trying to virtually own the internet by becoming a one-stop-shop, pushing the Amazon brand towards corporate dominance. Don’t be surprised in the next few years when we’d probably get a whole different sort of Amazon services that have nothing to do with selling products or services online. We’d probably see things like Amazon Bank (if PayPal doesn’t get there first), Amazon Mail (taking over Royal Mail) or our favourite, Amazon Mobile. The way they are going right now, it shouldn’t be a surprise if this happens next week. Acquisitions: Too many to mention, but the well-known ones include LoveFilm, Audible, CD Now, Zappos, IMDb and Booksearch. Investments and subsidiaries include LivingSocial and A9.com.
The House Of Amazon Amazon Fresh Though this venture for delivering home fresh foods is only available in Seattle USA. It’s a starter to what would most probably be set up over here. Amazon tends to do a trial run in its own back yard before rolling it out worldwide. From organic produce to ethnic delights, the Amazon people have named it Amazon fresh, to entice the healthy eaters out there, but really we see it as a Tesco or Ocado like, set up.
Amazon Wines
Not content with entry into food and drink, Amazon Wines is a specialist division where connoisseurs of wine can go wild with their credit card. It’s their 3rd attempt in the game, not to be beaten they mean it this time. In its launch stage they have simply made it a portal for third party sales, and it’s only available in some states in the US. The marketplace for wine is designed to cater for those that love wine and not just for drinking. Just like selling books, there is a snooty review area where you can share your expertise with other toffs. From a marketing point of view, it’s a great idea.
Amazon Local
We’ve been getting hoards of Amazon Local deals since we made the mistake of signing up a month ago. Though, it has to be said, the deals are not bad, not very local though. It’s Amazon’s slow and steady attempt to get in to the group deals market. It seems that their major stake in Livingsocial.com just wouldn’t do.
Amazon MP3
Well, why not? They have you on the cloud service, might as well sell downloads. Amazon’s MP3 Store is designed to sell you songs on almost any device you may have in your possession. They wouldn’t want you nipping over to the iTunes store when they can tempt you with member discounts. You are encouraged to use your existing Amazon account to browse and shop for millions of DRM free MP3 albums or tracks. Well spotted.
Amazon KDP Got a book to put together, why not come to Amazon where you can help us flog items for the ever expanding Kindle collection? It’s great business as it also serves the purpose of a steady revenue stream. When you get your book formatted on the Amazon platform, you get the benefit of the 70% royalty program. Your book can be formatted for access on most devices, including of course, the Kindle ranges. Oh! And don’t bother with Lulu.com if you want print on demand, we can do that for you through our other company - Creative Space. The self-publishing service does actually get our vote. It works well and does provide the budding author an instant prep and sell arrangement to get their work available to almost anyone on the internet.
Amazon Kindle When the first, and then the second Kindle eReader reached the market that was when it was all to clear what Amazon really wanted to do. And that is to use their brand identity to sell their own product. Being a market place giant is great but Amazon has seen itself as more than that. The Kindle fire which is the tablet version has worked well. Amazon’s venture into the eReader and the tablet battle ground has to be commended. Their products are very good and have been selling well globally. We’d have to admit, sometimes multi-branding can work well. The Kindle is the most popular eReader in the world and that’s no small achievement. It won’t be a surprise if they get carried away with it all, and the next thing we get would be the Amazon Phone or the Amazon TV.
Amazon Cloud Drive
Cloud storage is a very popular service that caters for the huge amount of work or personal files we tend to accumulate as we use the web much more these days. The likes of Dropbox have proved it can be a huge market with a great growth potential. Enter Amazon Cloud Drive - you get 5GB of storage for free, enough to handle the safe keeping of 2000 photos. The bad, according to CNET’s review, is it doesn’t let you choose a destination folder, or rename photos or albums. It’s not the best at organizing content within your drive either. But it’s an easy set up to get to grips with. For a company that sells a large amount of digital products it only makes sense to introduce a cloud storage service. They definitely got this one right.
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Future Amazon We’ve put together a list of possible Amazon ventures we may see in the near future. Some of which we can predict with a certainty, others, we thought would make sense and may happen. Whatever the case, this just highlights the possible size of the super retailer. Might as well get used to the idea, it may be a good thing.
Amazon World
One of the most probable ventures to bring Amazon into the physical world. The way they are going, cyberspace may become too small for Amazon. Nevermind PC World, how about driving down to your nearest Amazon retail store instead of surfing for Amazon deals online? We are almost sure it would be operated Argos style, with a storage room behind the counter. Customers can view other products on the in-store tablets, while they wait for their numbers to be called.
Amazon Couriers
They’ve already delved into this market with Amazon Prime, which is a free two-day shipping service on all eligible goods for a flat annual fee. Look out for the vans in orange and brown, they may be coming to English street near you. It may also be a sound alternative to their current courier partner’s ‘Yodel’, who got some bad press about their shoddy delivery history, a recent report on BBC’s Watchdog program was all but kind in it’s review of their service. Yes - Amazon Couriers will deliver your goods themselves and while they are at it, they’d be wanting some of The Royal Mail’s business.
Amazon Social
And why not, they’ve already got your details and that of a multitude of others to start with. Might as well do a Mark Zuckerberg. It would be great to have a community of Amazon customers coming together, having a good moan about late deliveries and faulty orders. On a more serious note, the idea of a social network dedicated to great buys and sharing great deals on Amazon and its sub-divisions isn’t a bad idea. Uploaded photos of customers with their newly acquired goods, and a ready-made platform to swap items may not sound crazy after all.
Amazon Credits This one’s even a bit late. You have Facebook currency and the almighty PayPal. Why let them have all the fun when Amazon is doing most of the trade? While at it, they may as well just open a highstreet bank altogether. When we get the bank and the cash machines, insurance services would be sure to follow.
Amazon Holidays
We feel this one is a dead cert. Buy your holidays from one central hub, or sell your holiday packages under one portal. Lastminute.com - watch out!
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by Andy Hargreaves
Smart Finger
The Smart Finger is a brand new invention that turns your fingers into a measuring device. Acting like a ruler or measuring tape, it gives new meaning to the idea of a portable measuring tool. The pioneers behind the design are Choi Hyong and Jung Ji and Yoo-Jin. The device works by measuring the time it takes for the signal beam to reach the end of the measuring tip on the other finger. The beauty of the design lies in the fact that the Silicon material it’s made from can mould to any finger size. The user can wear it on their fingers on the same hand for short distances, or a finger on the each hand for longer distances. It’s the newest way to measure length, breadth, or volume. It might look like a fat Tampax stick when closed, but we love it anyway.
Air Mouse
The Air Mouse is the newest way to control your computer. The device, which is made out of silicone and neoprene material will fit the hand of any user and feel just like a comfortable glove. The left-click/right-click buttons are placed in such a way so that its easier than ever to click them when needed and with an effective wireless range of up to 35 feet you don’t need to worry about losing connectivity. It extremely light which this for quick and easy hand movements as you work. It also works across a wide variety of platforms, not only with Windows and Apple technologies but with Linux and Android.
All-in-one dining table
The All-In-One Dining table looks like the kind of table you’d find in Stanley Kubrick’s dining room. Imagine a circular table that serves as an eating/ writing surface with a transparent fridge beneath and a pop-out cubicle in the middle which is fitted with an OLED display offering internet access. Under the Electrolux brand, this design by Petr Kubik looks great with the integrated seating and various colour themes. It’s a clever way to save space and energy with plenty of room to cater for all three functions. We certainly want one of these as soon as it becomes available on the market.
The Napkin PC
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Designed by Avery Holleman, the Napkin PC won this year’s Microsoft NextGen PC Design Competition and Holleman received a $20,000 prize. A “napkin” holder functions as the base-station for the technology. This holder is filled with e-paper “napkins”, as well as a side holder for some coloured pens. The user can simply pick up a pen and interact with the napkin using the pen. The napkin and pen communicate using short-range RF technology, while both connect with the base-station using long-range RF waves. Holleman has also stated that the napkins can easily be shared through a central network. The pen wirelessly powers the napkin when it comes into close range. The device doesn’t need batteries; it works on a thin layer circuit board with an inductive power circuit. Now that’s space age.
The Four Concept
The Four Concept can only be described as several steps ahead of your average digital picture frame. Designed by Marco Vuckovic, it makes for a great piece of interior decoration with many practical functions to go with it. The 145x235 device has a multi-touch AMOLED screen that functions mainly as a home information centre that can be placed on your wall. Its features include weather forecasts, travel planning, multimedia playback and an easy to use virtual keyboard.
Dual Screen Android Phone
The Kyocera Echo is a dual screen Android smart phone from Sprint and Kyocera. This device is already on the market and has gathered a lot of interest as we have reached a point in our daily lives where multi–tasking is key, most people are generally doing something else while using their smartphones, such as watching television, using a laptop or tablet or communicating with other people. The 4.7 inch viewing area can act as a separate screen to launch a completely different activity to combat the challenges of multi-tasking or one application can fill across both screens at double the size. The opening and closing of the gadget is natural and flawless.
LG’s Headset/handset
This is another hybrid creation - a smart phone that doubles as a headset. The lab coats at LG have been experimenting with dual purpose gadgetry for a while now, but this one stands out amongst the lot for its immaculate design and multi-function. While it’s still in concept stage it’s definitely something to be excited about. The idea here is that you’re essentially wearing your phone as a head set or a wrist watch, it’s all to do with the current theme in technology to create flexible displays that change form into other devices. We predict a hefty price tag should the device go to market. Will it sell? You bet!
The Zipper Spycam
The Zipper Flycam is a flying indoor camera and recording device. It uses the principle of gas balloons combined with propellers driven by a precision electric motor. This allows the Zipper to move very fast and silently in closed rooms without consuming a lot of energy, it is very manoeuvrable. It could be applied in a wide variety of ways including unrestricted camera work in film production, surveillance in public locations, security for sewer, private cameras for babysitting and further options such as sound, heat and radio activity.
One Degree Of Freedom
One Degree of Freedom is the name given to this state-of-the art turn table. Designed by Aleks Bakman, this masterpiece of engineering works on the principle of a no-touch mechanism designed to remove any form of distortion and noise. This beauty comprises of a self-centring platter in non-resonant liquid suspension. To you and me, this music maker is one that attempts to produce sounds you never knew existed. £94,000 is what you would need to explore the attributes of this system. There are further costs for additional bits to get the full experience. More at www.luxatic.com.
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36 Faces of Facebook Fans:
The Bad & the Ugly
Creative The Firsty
The firsty lives and breathes for one thing: getting the inaugural comment in a thread. Endlessly hovering on their news feeds waiting for a fresh post to appear the firsty. Strikes with bewildering speed, leaving a single contribution on conversation. Whether it‘s a simple ‘first‘, or a more boastful ‘LOL FIRST l AM THE BEST’, their thirst for first can never be quenched.
The “Civilised“ Hater
More often than not their complaint will be almost the length of an essay, incredibly the rounds in the mainstream media where it attracts likes by the thousands.
The Mobile User
The Mobile User never received the memo that not all of Facebook’s bells and whistles have made it to smartphones yet. They will complain incessantly that they can’t access your competition, then act offended when you suggest they use a computer. Possibly allergic to keyboards/mice.
The Moral Highgrounder
It only takes a minor slight to set off the Moral Highgrounder, but once they are rolling they’re a nightmare. Not only will they ignore or actively reject all communications from the brand, they will hang around the page pushing their crusade onto anyone who drops by. It’s like being attacked by a swarm of pursed lips and accusing eyes.
Over 100,000 views on this great report from Soap Creative - a creative agency that produces great ad campaigns and very creative viral games... See more of their work on http://bit.ly/Oqr9V7 The First Hunters
People who can’t let the Firsty have their fun. They will contribute heavily at the beginning of a thread to make sure the Firsty is aware of how much they suck, then leave the conversation forever. The Firsty and the First Hunter have formed a symbiotic relationship based on wasted engagement.
The Competitor’s Fan
This user plays on brand opposites to elicit a response from the community. Tends to stick to a script of points about why your product blows and the competitor rules, shifting to outright name calling when the Product Genius or an Obsessed Fan steps in to defend you.
The Expert
The Expert is the social media equivalent of beefcake flexing their biceps in a gym mirror. They’ve got a real grasp on the product and they’re not afraid to kick sand in the face of anyone who makes a minor mistake in a comment thread.
The Charity Case
The Charity Case wants you to help cure the world’s woes by donating your product to their raffle/jumble sale/silent auction/underground PVC pipe fighting championship.
The Hater
Nothing ever meets the exacting standards of this user. No matter if you’ve just announced a cure for cancer that’s chocolate flavoured and delivered by puppies, they’ll find something wrong and write a vitriolic, vulgarity peppered complaint about it on your page.
The Confused
Someone forgot to read the user manual! The Confused aren’t quite sure how Facebook works, so they’re going to blame you for that time they liked your page while operating the Internet under the influence of alcohol. Rather than simply unliking the page, they would much rather create a scene and accuse you of social media deviousness on your public wall.
The Seriously Lost
You know how you can spot a tourist from a mile away? The same is true for the Seriously Lost, as their mangled questions will stand out even amid the usual poor grammar and spelling found in comment threads.
The Clinger
Although anonymity is a necessary condition for successfully running a brand page, the Cringer wants to peek behind the curtain. Through their endless repetition of ‘who is this?’ on the page wall, you get a sense that they want nothing more than to chain the moderator up in their makeshift dungeon and be frieeeeeends foreeeeeeveeer...
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The Drawler
This user...suffers...from...a crippling...addiction to ellipsis.
The Reminiscer
The Reminiscer is exactly like a nostalgic ex; they’ll wax lyrical about all the fun they used to have with a product, but never seem to want to renew the relationship. If they do, it inevitably leads to complaints about how much has changed and a messy break up post on the brand’s wall.
The Distracted Poster
Someone wasn’t focusing on the task at hand /when they pressed ‘pose! These users leave personal messages meant for family members on brand walls, wishing Cousin Doreen all the best with her hysterectomy in the comment thread for a Back To School sale post. Proof that a little bit of attention goes a long way.
The Client Terrifying Advocate
The Client-Terrifying Advocate takes brand love into ‘bunny boiler’ territory. They will flood page walls with videos of themselves taste-testing their preferred deodorant, or photos of their naughty bits barely covered by your brand’s product. A heart attack for any legal team.
The Trickster is the Facebook equivalent of someone with a tricked-out car; it doesn’t matter where they are going, all that matters is how they get there. Do not attempt to question them about how they performed this amazing digital feat unless you are impervious to smugness.
16
The Spammer
This random collection of letters and punctuation posted on your brand page is impossible to decipher and most likely the work of a drunk, a cat, or a drunk cat.
The continuing existence of sharing spam proves that a sucker signs up to Facebook every minute.
The Sticky Keyboard
The Entitled
The Country Folk
These users expect everything to take place in their backyard. Whether your promotion is on the other side of the country or just a few bus stops away, it might as well be the Moon for all the grief they will give you for not catering to them.
Creative
Indignation without justification! These wannabe revolutionaries are more than happy to jump on whatever bandwagon is going around at the time, attacking your brand with regurgitated accusations that came from ‘some guy they talked to’.
The Keyboard Cat
The Sticky Keyboard declares their excitement by repeating letters and punctuation. As you can imagine, its reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaalllllyyyyy annnnnnnnnnooooooooyyyyyinnnnnngggg toooooooooo reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaadddddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Trickster
The Cut N’Protester
This user has forgotten how trade and commerce work. In their opinion, their patronage of your brand, however vague, deserves compensation. It doesn’t matter if the last time they actually bought your product was over two decades ago or whether they just liked the page that second - they got you to where you are today and damn it, they want something in return.
The SPONSOR ME!
The Sponsor Me wants you to reward their mastery of a unprofitable skill. Generally found hanging around youth-oriented brands, these wannabe athletes/performers expect you to hoist them up to the greatness they’ve convinced themselves they so deserve.
The Wannabe Mod
Community managers everywhere rejoice when a Wannabe Mod joins the page. This digital deputy helps tend the flock of fans on a brand page, answering support questions and stamping out trolls for nothing more than personal satisfaction. Don’t worry if they start getting too big for their boots or gunning for your job - you can just ban them!
The Cranky Old L33t
More likely to be found on tech-focused pages, the Cranky Old L33t spends its time grumbling through posts talking about how they ‘used to walk 8 miles through the snow I just to poke someone’.
The Too Lazy To Reader
The Downer
The sun never quite breaks through the clouds for this user; they are Eeyore with a Facebook account. As they surf from page to page on a wave of tears, the Downer sucks the fun out of anything, from a competition entry to a simple comment, with their endless negativity.
Regardless of how plainly worded and informative your post was, the Too Lazy To Reader didn’t read it. No matter how many times you answered similar questions in the comment thread, the Too Lazy To Reader ignored them. All information must be hand-delivered to them on a silver platter.
The Techno-Noob
Face, prepare to meet palm. These users possess limited to nonexistent technical knowledge, meaning that every attempt to get them to engage in anything more difficult than liking a post will be met with ‘It doesn’t work”. Further querying will reveal that they are trying to access Facebook on an Etch-ASketch.
The Penny Pincher
As Snoop Dogg famously rapped, these users have their minds on their money and their money on their minds. Even if your brand is currently slashing prices, you can never go far enough for these skinflints. Curiously, their wallets always seem to slam shut when it comes to your brand but remain incredibly open around the latest smartphone.
The Social Media Expert (In Disguise)
All it takes is one slip up and these ‘gurus will flock to peck at your wounds. Even though they are posting under their personal profiles, these backseat strategists will pepper their complaints with social media buzzwords to make sure you know that they’re professionals.
The Troll
The Troll loves nothing more than shoving a stick in the spokes of whatever conversation it finds. Whether through fabrication, aggressive baiting or just juvenile outbursts, the Troll will stop at nothing to leave anger in their wake. Scourge from the Earth with a cleansing fire... or ban immediately.
The Product Genius
The Product Genius offers the most selfish suggestions on how you can improve whatever it is you’re pushing, trying to tailor it to their own peculiar personal needs.
The Eager Photo Subject
Are you running an event with a photographer on hand? If so, prepare yourself for the Eager Photo Subject. Even before the branded stand has been packed away, they will be hounding your page asking why the photos aren’t up yet, making you long for the days before digital cameras.
The Obsessed Fan
Amid the various negative types, the Obsessed Fan starts out as a breath of fresh air. Their gung-ho brand positivity is a soothing balm against the constant grumbling from other users. However, as their rate of interaction begins to border on manic, the dream turns into a nightmare.
The Freebie Grabber
Whether you sell ice cream, clothing, luxury automobiles or black market organs, these online panhandlers will constantly bombard a page with requests for free product.
Buy the limited edition poster
soapcreative.com/facebookfanposter
17
Daily Future
Get bar-coded now
BIG BROTHER CITY December 10th, 2051
ÂŁ500.00
TO BE TAKEN OFF AIR By Patrick Peek
C
hannel 5’s Big brother 70 in collaboration with Google Watch has been branded a complete intrusion into normal public life. And there have been calls for the series to end all together. The last Big brother series last year achieved the worst viewing figures since the first series was introduced 42 years ago. Only 400 viewers UK wide tuned in and 30% were from complaining viewers. Reformatting the series to enable renewed interest has been a risky venture with Big Brother becoming closer to the real thing. Google Watch cameras are used to home in on everyday people in their local areas. A total of 5000 individuals were simultaneously filmed in the inner cities of England. Public reaction has been negative from the start with viewers complaining that the government real-life citizen surveillance was more than enough to deal with, without the need to televise it to all and sundry.
Continued on page 9
18
GOOGLEBANK OPENS IN RIYAD
Amazon Electric
By Richard Brandit
By George Current
DESPITE WIDESPREAD PROTEST G
oogle bank’s attempt to extend its financial service beyond the internet into a fully functional high street bank has gone ahead over the weekend. Google Bank Riyadh branch in Saudi Arabia opened on Tuesday with huge angry Arabs calling for a Fatwa on the new managers head when 3 citizens attempted to open accounts there. While in western countries there is mixed feelings about the global giant’s continuous entry into other markets with a somewhat monopolistic mandate. The global champion seems to be determined on Google branding everything. It chose to launch a banking service which offered loans and mortgages packaged to by pass Islamic strict laws on Muslim borrowing. David Wordsworth the current CEO defended the actions insisting that there was no place in modern society for non-credit reliance. Stating that Muslims have been deprived of the luxury of lending for too long.
claims 40% of
supplier market Amazon has come a long way from selling knock-off gear and books to become a global retailer that sells anything from homes to energy. The new kid on the block Amazon Electric is hot on the hills Electricity giant EDF. It now claims 40% of UK customers offering significantly cheaper electricity after it was allowed to purchase 3 generating stations off EDF as part of the EU directive on supplier competition. With Amazon, customers are able to buy or sell solar panels as secondary sources of electricity on Amazon. co.uk. They can also benefit from £50 Amazon vouchers when switching suppliers. Group director for Amazon Electric Bob Sparks also confirmed that Amazon Gas will be launched early next year 2052.
iphone 10 suffers lukewarm launch By Olga Sync
O
ver the weekend, iPhone 10 was launched at the Apple Store on Regent Street, but like the launch of the latest smart phone in New York, there where no usual lengthy queues and public fanfare. Staff could be seen handing out discount leaflets to shoppers all over the west end, and outside its flag ship store. Sales figures where not released by the company on request, but one disgruntled member of staff reported that total sales in all UK stores only managed 100 handsets. The iPhone, along with other Apple brands, has been suffering brand fatigue. Customers seemed to have grown tired of paying up to £2000 for the base units, with more people opting for the new market leaders such as Tesco Blue and Amstrad 550 which cost 5 times less than the iPhone.
Sports
Usain Bolt to manage
Manchester United
Call Of Duty now
an Olympic sport
Beckham comes out
of 4th retirement
McLaren Mercedes receives record parking fines at London Grand Prix19
Christmas Goodies Online £1 1
£7
www.firebox.com
Ultra-Portable USB Turntable
Tetris Light Mains adaptor and cable included.
£29.99
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20 classic Marvel characters, each equipped with four unique superpowers. http://bit.ly/YQzpYx
£28.95
off
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For use with iPhone 3GS/4 and iPod Touch 4G. No batteries required.
0
off www.zavvi.com
The Dark Knight Trilogy
Avengers: Battle for Earth Xbox 360
£2
£8 www.zavvi.com
www.zavvi.com
AppToyz AppBlaster
Powered by USB or 4xAA batteries - batteries not included.
off
off
www.firebox.com
www.matalan.co.uk
Benzini Men’s Lendal T-Shirt
Button fastening near neckline. 3/4 length sleeves.
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£4.99
Sporty Wedge Canvas Hi Tops
Match them with leggings and longer length printed tee.
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£22.00
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Double-Breasted Peacoat
This stylish coat is a winter essential featuring six button fastenings and PU.
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£20.00 21
www.matalan.co.uk
www.misco.co.uk
GoBook 8” E-reader
Scrabble Hyper Slam
Consists of a turbo slam unit 55 letter cards and 12 action cards and rules.
£8.99
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www.fossil.co.uk
Presented in a genuine Fossil tin. 2-year limited warranty.
£115
Tablet compartment - fits up to a 10” tablet. Detachable crossbody strap.
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Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2 x 30cm. Weight: 1.1kg.
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£125
Nordicofon Retro Scandinavian phone A flash back to 1950’s design on the outside but full of 21st century technology inside.
www.pcworld.co.uk
Large Scarf with Big Buttons
Amazon Kindle
Material: Woolen yarn. Size: 180 x 50 cm.
£18
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£39.99
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Capable of holding up to 1400 books in your personal library.
£69.00
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off .50 £3
off
retro mini popcorn maker
15 minutes of continuous playtime with 5 drops of salt water.
www.ecrater.com
Vintage Revival Flap Portfolio
£3 www.iwantoneofthose.com
22
£54.99
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www.geniegadgets.com
Salt Water 4x4 Engine Car
4GB Storage. Compatible with Photo Viewer, JPEG, BMP, Audio Player, MP3, Audio books.
www.fossil.co.uk
Georgia Stainless Steel Watch
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hot rocks gift set with candle
A sensual and relaxing therapy that date backs 5000 years.
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£11.49
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Ivory Glitter Women’s Wedges
Durable solid rubber outsole with “One for One” script design.
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£49.88
Sequined Spadeshaped Lace Blouse
Features pointed collar, rear zipper, padded shoulders and buttoned cuffs.
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1 £1 off
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Panasonic 14 Million Pixel Camera
£74.99
www.watchshop.com
WineBuddy 6 Bottle Cabernet Sauvignon
vNote Digital Audio Video Memo Recorder
Includes all the ingredients needed to make 6 bottles wine in just 7 days.
Internal lithium-ion polymer battery (up to 60 days standby time). One touch recording.
24mm Wide angle Leica Lens. Lithium Ion battery (included).
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www.maplin.co.uk
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Armani Exchange Men’s Watch Includes a stainless steel case and black genuine leather strap.
£88.00
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0
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www.wonderlandmodels.com
Binatone ReadMe eBook Reader
E-Flite Blade Radio Control Helicopter
Supports Adobe DRM protected eBooks from leading book retailers.
£49.99
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www.next.co.uk
Wii U Solus Console
100% factoryassembled, test-flown and ready-to-fly right from the box. http://bit.ly/Rj9cyr
£79.99
Includes 6.2” touchscreen controller.
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£50.00
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www.zavvi.com
costa vegan leather tote Handbag Decorative belted hardware with zippered enclosure on main compartment.
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off
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off
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Accurist Ladies’ Exclusive Watch
£3
8
off
iPad Universal Black Leather Case
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Samsung Galaxy Digital Camera
3G and WiFi Compatible. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS.
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£18.70
altec lansing orbit stereo usb speakers Compact stereo USB speakers.
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£9.99 23
Best approach to
cashback websites
BY Pam Alder
Cash back sites are one of the most popular ways to earn money back while you are spending, so much so that more people these days will use them instead of credit cards that offer cashback. If you want to maximise your cashback incentives when buying gifts for Christmas this year follow these easy tips. Cashback deals work by a simple process. Based on volume trade made possible by the website drawing the likes of you and me. They earn a commission on sales. That commission is simply split between you and the website. Simple! To get the best cashback offers it’s a question of signing up to such websites that have been most busy signing up more retailers, especially retailers that are not known nationally. They have more of a reason to role out the incentives as they have a mandate to increase the market share which is usually in the hands of the big name retailers online. Compare cashback sites to get the best deals - the amount you can get back can vary between sites for the same item. So if you have the time, compare them side by side. Two of the top cashback sites are still Quidco.com and Topcashback.co.uk. Both have more than 3,000 retailers to buy from, offering cashback and discount deals, and both have a refer-a-friend scheme to get you even more free money. Topcashback.co.uk offers a £20 cashback on any friend you refer, that makes an eventual purchase. Remember you can join more than one to make your money go even further and joining is free.
24
Where’s my cashback then?
Automated cashback
Don’t rely too much on getting the money from your cashback instantly. The hard and fast rule is this money is only yours once you see it in your bank account. It takes quite a while to see the money. I did this with the LoveFilm cashback deal and received the money 3 months later, by then I had enjoyed some movies with my trial subscription and scarpered before the free-trial was over. While majority of sites will give you the cashback you are entitled to, some smaller companies can, and do go bust without paying out their members.
Look at cashback Apps that will pay you to go into stores. This is a cute idea that will pay you from 5p - £3 for entering one of the many partner stores currently participating. Homebase is one of them, if you use the Quidco App which is for Android or iPhones to check in when you enter the store you get 50p added to your cashback account. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s looking like an idea where competitive promotions can eventually push the reward amount up into the £5 mark.
Go cashback hunting Make a list of the gifts you need to buy and search for them via cashback sites - the Furby on Quidco gets you up to 10%/£5 back - find it here http://bit.ly/XbieKy. To get even more info on cashback sites visit the famous Money Saving Expert site here http://bit.ly/xN9Nd. Features here include information on the top sites, safety rules to follow and how these sites work.
Paidoffers.co.uk
Do withdraw your money when you have reached the threshold for withdrawals. Most sites offering cashback make you reach a certain amount of cash before you can transfer the money into your bank or PayPal account, or any other payment method in use. As soon as you reach this amount transfer it pronto, that way you have a hold of your money. One exception to this is Topcashback.co.uk which doesn’t have this threshold.
Paidoffers.co.uk have an interesting cashback offer they ask you to complete a competition offer for your first £50 and then you have the opportunity to earn £300 plus on going through 26 other offers. You have to go through quite a bit though, with third party memberships being shoved down your throat. With the first initial offer applied for, I could see the £50 promised pop up on the left hand-side of the screen. No doubt, a way to get your attention confirmed. It will take you quite a bit of time to sign up to the 26 offers. My advice - use an alternative email address as your registered email, one that is not used frequently, as it will be seriously swamped with sales mail.
25
Christmas
Goodies Online
Joanne MacRae
27
The Web’s Christmas Tips Healthy Eating When you have spent months shedding pounds to look seriously hot at Christmas, it’s easy to see all your hard work go down the drain when you get to the buffet table at a party. It’s only natural to want to let your hair down at Christmas when the drinks are flowing, and food is on offer practically everywhere you go. If you don’t want to start the New Year with a tighter waistband and the feeling that you’ve really overdone it check out these tips for healthy eating while you party the year off.
epicurious.com
eatingwell.com
thedrinksbusiness.com
On the Epicurious website (which is devoted to all foodies out there) you will find more than just your standard tips for eating well at Christmas. One which really caught my eye and makes sense is eating from the hors d’oeuvres trays compared to eating a mass of food from the buffet table. There are loads of tips on here that you can easily follow to make sure you don’t eat too much of the wrong thing. Check out the list here: http://epi.us/4k7gbq
How about getting detailed instructions to cooking meals with a healthy twist, food that tastes nothing like the usual boring low calorie chow we have to put up with, simply just so the weight can be managed. The website is a great resource for cooks of all abilities. It’s got pages which are easy to use. To find the Christmas recipes, just go to the Recipes and Menus tab and click onto Recipe Collections. From here, scroll down and you will find recipes for Christmas in the Holidays/Occasions section. There are also recipes to follow if you have certain dietary requirements, recipes for a particular main ingredient, cheap recipes and more. All of the recipes on the site have easy to follow instructions, so even if you are a novice you could soon be cooking up meals like Horseradish-Crusted Beef Tenderloin or Rack of Lamb with Warm Apple and Lentil Salad.
Finally, if you’ve had one too many drinks the night before you could certainly do with the best hangover cure tips. At The Drinks Business website there are some old favourites along with a few that you might not have thought of before. The site combines facts with humour so it doesn’t feel as though you are being preached to about not drinking, which is handy around Christmas time.
Be sure to click onto the other articles and recipes for tasty but healthy food for Christmas and beyond. We liked reading about member’s recipe experiments that bring some great results. Be brave this Christmas and add something new to the food range. There’s more out there besides roasts and turkey cuttings.
28
Visit the tips here: http://bit.ly/OuZ8dF
The Web’s Christmas Tips Looking Good We all want to look amazing over the Christmas period, but with office parties, house parties, meals out and over indulgence in general it can be hard to achieve. Once again, there’s lots of help on the web.
We found some websites and tried out the many tips. In the process I discovered to my delight a few secrets so-called friends have been keeping to themselves. All is revealed how some women managed to keep that fresh glow after a week long hectic work schedule, and equal bouts of partying. The tips and products are designed to fit the lifestyle of today’s modern woman with limited time on their hands. So take a look at what we have, and look stunning all through Christmas. So, let’s have fun experimenting with a new style and a great skin overhaul.
beachtomato.com
handbag.com
If you have just woken up and feel terrible but need to get yourself together to go out for another seasonal get together you will need help - real practical help. The Beach Tomato site has loads of information on how you can make your tired eyes, skin, and yourself in general, look and feel much better. One of the main problems with partying too much is that your skin suffers.
You can follow a mini tutorial on how to create sexy, smoky eyes that will get you noticed here: http://bit.ly/UxOHbI
With this tip - http://bit.ly/XP8UkN - on how to deal with breakouts of spots, you can get rid of skin that looks like it belongs on a 14 year old and get back to your sexy self. Click on any of the links on the pages for more tips including - post-party beauty essentials on here is tried and tested and worked for me.
Beauty tips don’t stop there though, I found sections on hair, fashion, food and drink and life on Handbag.com. The website is laid out well. It’s easy to navigate your way through really helpful stuff. It’s got everything from videos on how to create fantastic party hairstyles, the top 10 facemasks, tips on getting skin that glows and much more. The site is broken down into sections including fashion and beauty, homes, diet and wellbeing plus food and in these sections there are tons of articles that provide practical advice. The tone of the site is light hearted and if you see anything that you want to share with friends you can like it on Facebook or Tweet it using the buttons next to each article.
29
Christmas Outfits Online at Bargain Prices We had a look at a number of websites that tend to offer great deals. Some of them have started bringing out outfits for Christmas and dare we say it, the seasonal deals are mouth watering. These outfits are the ones we personally ordered and we were delighted with how well the clothes fit.
Boohoo.com
At Boohoo.com outfits there are perfect outfits for Christmas starting at just £20, like this cute evening dress.
Websites like Omgfashion.co.uk offer good deals - there are party dresses, footwear, accessories and more. What’s really getting people interested in this site is the 99p dress that is back on sale in December.
95 9.
0 .2 £6
4 £3
0 .5
Let your inner animal out with this stunning dress website which boasts unbelievable deals with relatively low prices and party dresses that are certainly not down market. We suspect this is the loss leader designed to encourage more visits to the website.
ASOS.com ASOS is great for their extensive range of styles. Their own branded garments are reasonably priced and there are quite a number of heavily discounted outfits to choose from. We found the Skater dress for £35. Good fabric and great styling.
£7
ChiaraFashion.co.uk has regular priced dresses from an impressive £8.95 and sale dresses starting at £4.95. Check out these trendy collections which would look amazing this Christmas.
£2
0
Tidebuy.com Check out this dress at Tidebuy.com for $12.99 (approx £8.31) plus 4 - 8 day shipping costs of $4.20 (approx £3). We had to add the Korean styled coat, a complete steal for $66.59 (£41.00). The blue single shoulder chiffon also makes the list because of its great pleated styling; it’s yours for just £6.20 with the 60% off sales offer. It’s one of the items in the endless line of bargains to be found on Tideybuy.
ChiaraFashion.co.uk
£1
As we all know, buying outfits online can be hit or miss, the clothes may look great on your computer screen, but in reality when we try some of them on, the fit may just not work for our individual body shape. This is why we did a bit of a trial on some of the party dresses. The results were quite pleasing with only 1 in 10 buys being a mistake. Go and explore these websites we tried, it’s all about getting outfits for Christmas at a fraction of their real value.
95 8.
SodaMix.co.uk SodaMix.co.uk has loads of current items at sale prices such as this one sleeve frill dress for £5!
£5
£5
£5
30
£5
£1
2. 9
5
The low-priced items are not only great but can also be one of the main issues with this website as more than half of the clothes are usually sold out by the time you see them. That’s expected if the prices are that low, but it can be a bit irritating. Regardless, it’s certainly worth taking a peek at from time to time.
£1
If you really want to push for the wow factor and you’re not afraid to wear racy dresses this Christmas, then take a look at the sale items on Humbara.com. When they say everything is £5.00, they mean it. We found these three stunning and adventurous outfits for just £5. We came across the Anna N dress on another website and it was going for £25, so grab this one quick as it’s expected to be sold out any second.
£2 2
Humbara.com
Zoo - By James Patterson
Saved - by Allegra Skye
£9.59
FREE
All over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the impending violence becomes terrifyingly clear.
In Saved (Book #1 of the Shadow Vampires), Keira and Amanda, twins, move with their family to a new town, and start their senior year at a new high school. But though they are twins, the girls have different fates. It’s a mish-mash of personalities and intrigue through out the book. A great attempt at adding spice to the vampire genre, and it’s free.
£14.99
Criminal by Karin Slaughter
£7.64
The Racketeer By John Grisham
Tales from Facebook explores the ways in which people use Facebook in their everyday lives. This book demonstrates that it can be profound; the tales within reveal how Facebook can become the means by which people find and cultivate relationships, but can also be instrumental in breaking up those relationships.
Karin Slaughter’s new novel is an epic tale of love, loyalty and murder that encompasses forty years, two chillingly similar murder cases, and a good man’s deepest secrets. A successful combination of characters from her two crime series, it seamlessly shifts between past and present.
Another John Grisham great. This one’s a tale of twists and turns. Who is the Racketeer? And what does he have to do with the judge’s untimely demise? His name, for the moment, is Malcolm Bannister. Job status? Former attorney. Current residence? The Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg, Maryland.
Tales from Facebook by Daniel Miller
32
£8.00
Radical Contentment By Alan Cohen
Silent Witness By Shirley Wells
The Coldest War By Ian Tregillis
£10.27
£7.69
Alan Cohen offers fresh, unique, and uplifting angles on coming to peace with what is before you. If contentment is radical, then this book may well spur a revolution of wellbeing! The book is a manual for self-discovery and harnessing your potential. Taps in to self-worth and the rebooting of confidence and belief.
Private investigator Dylan Scott finds himself drawn back to dreary Lancashire in a search for justice. The evidence against Kaminski is damning, but having been unjustly jailed himself, Dylan is compelled to pursue the case; if there’s even a small chance the man is innocent, he has to help the deeper Dylan digs, the more secrets he unearths. A book that keeps the reader pondering possible future scenarios.
For decades, Britain’s warlocks have been all that stands between the British Empire and the Soviet Union. Now each wizard’s death is another blow to Britain’s national security. As Marsh, the main character, is once again drawn into the world of Milkweed, he discovers that Britain’s darkest acts didn’t end with the war. And while he strives to protect queen and country, he is forced to confront his own willingness to accept victory at any cost.
A Cast of Caregivers By Sherri Snelling
Wise Children By Angela Carter
Masters of Enterprise By H.W. Brands
It’s a book with celebrity stories to help you deal with future care responsibilities. Written to inspire and empower you, this is your screenplay for health and happiness while caregiving. As Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” What caregiving role will you play? How will you avoid the caregiving cost drain? Are you prepared for the end? How will you overcome stress, burn-out, depression, guilt?
Angela Carter’s Wise Children is a richly comic tale of the tangled fortunes of two theatrical families, the Hazards and the Chances, Angela Carter’s witty and bawdy novel is populated with as many sets of twins, and mistaken identities as any Shakespeare comedy, and celebrates the magic of over a century of show business.
From the early years of fur trading to today’s Silicon Valley empires, America has proved to be an extraordinarily fertile land for the creation of enormous fortunes. Each generation has produced one or two phenomenally successful leaders, often in new industries that caught contemporaries by surprise, and each of these new fortunes reconfirmed the power of fanatically single-minded visionaries.
£7.58
£3.62
£6.29
£8.99
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Console Gaming By Alem Spago
Game developers Treyarch have made a long expected move launching Call of Duty Black Ops 2 on November 13, 2012. Critics and reviewers have been busy trying to pick holes in the 7th instalment, and we look at what would make the game a different experience from its predecessors. The bar is set extra high, especially when COD MW3 grossed over $1bn. Compared to past instalments, this one offers something new or different. And it seems to have worked well. Keeping the visuals and sound system traditional top notch, Treyarch has made real fireworks changing the gaming concept and pushing the limits further by creating a realistic and ground breaking battle ground experience. It’s faster with a roller coaster ride of a game play narrative.
Story
The game story follows two separated timelines, two related life stories of a father and son. The first, takes part during the Cold War period, follows up historical facts throughout the struggle of Sgt. Frank Woods and Alex Mason of hunting down a major league terrorist who goes by the name of Raul Menendez. Alex’s son, David, is the protagonist of the story taking part in the near future - the year 2025. Each character is based on an utterly interesting life story we have not been used to seeing in the earlier COD versions. The rest of the experience could have been an already seen scenario if Treyarch didn’t push the limits of FPS game play we are used to, possibly starting a new gaming era, at least considering first person shooters.
Gameplay Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is a first person shooter that allows you to directly affect the mission epilogue according to your performance and decisions made. Expanded single player campaign is interlaced with side missions whose end depends completely on the way you work it out. Side missions are designed as mixture of RTS and FPS game play where you can take over control of any teammate on the field. Choose your moves wisely as you might suffer or benefit the consequences of your earlier moves - it’s not all about the death/kill ratio in Black Ops 2. The character and equipment profile is really extensive and requires a whole chapter to cover all the information around them. Forget about load up equipment you used to have in previous COD instalments. Think wisely before equipping your character as your weaponry and accessories might determine the battle depending on the moment of certain scenarios. Perks are still divided into the well known three categories it’s just that now extras can be obtained. With a Greed Wild Card, you can choose more than a single perk from the same category.
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Multiplayer
The multiplayer aims to be the king of all multiplayers. The visuals are not compromised and movement is as realistic as they come. You get a bonus multiplayer level where the only thing that stands in the way of Washington’s fall is you and some nasty looking, flesh-eating zombies, and there are hundreds of them. It’s not a case of blasting large numbers of them with a heavy load out; here you have to be tactical with the right guns and the right positioning. Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is on the right way to becoming the best first person shooter of the decade. Nintendo Wii versions are also available - this suggests entry into a bigger market. How that gaming experience pans out, we’d like to see. Watch the surprise trailer, interesting stuff:
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Nintendo Wii U
WILL YOU? By Jenny Ryder
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Nintendo’s newest product - the Wii U - is finally out after such a teasing wait. First hand you’d notice it’s offering a different gaming experience. Is it as good as they say? or is it just a new wii? We gave it a go ourselves.
Hardware
Nintendo Wii U comes as a stand-alone console with the GamePad, which is a fusion between a remote controller and a touch-sensitive tablet which can simultaneously work as a TV remote. It has to be said - the GamePad is a ground-breaking feature; it can work quite well without too much infrared lag as a stand-alone device, as well as in tandem with your TV via the console. When it works independenlty, magic seems to happen. At 10 inches long and 6-2 inches wide, it has a touch-sensitive display. The GamePad is a wireless motion-sensing device that is fairly robust in appearance. It weighs about 500g, so those with smaller hands might have trouble holding onto it for a while - sorry kids! The GamePad is neatly packed with motion-sensing gadgets like a gyroscope, accelerometer and geomagnetic sensors to provide a full gaming experience. It’s handy, chunky and people with mid-sized hands will find it comfortable to grip and fairly easy to reach the most-used buttons. It has a nicely equipped exterior too. Apart from the latest technology packed within, it has a front-facing camera starting from the mid-top of the device, a headphone jack, stereo speakers, right and left analog joysticks, an IR port, NFC chip and a microphone. Despite the slightly over-the-edge robustness of the GamePad itself, it’s good to look back at the WiFi nature of the device. Talking about using it outside the house or in a backyard is pointless unless you plan to carry the console around. It works about 7 meters within the range of the console with reduced efficiency, as obstacles in-between the GamePad and the console interfere with the signal. A stronger router-like device within the console would have been much appreciated as you are fairly limited when it comes to carrying the GamePad around.
As the console supports two GamePads for a complete gaming experience, none of the current packages comes with two, but include only one GamePad. You also can’t buy them separately, so we are yet to see what it looks like to play with your friends sitting next to you as Nintendo Wii U is supposed to support game play with up to five players hooked on to a single console. According to the GamePad creators, the console is robust itself, yet compared to the other consoles from the Nintendo franchise - it just fits the average size. It’s 6.8 inches in length and 1.8 inches tall, weighing
about 3.5 pounds. Being the first HD system we have seen from Nintendo so far, it delivers picture quality well. The HDMI port is capable of handling an output picture quality of up to 1080p. There are four USB ports, two of them settled in the back with the remaining two sitting beneath the sliding cover together with a full-size SD card slot. Three vents in total take care of your $300 pet and keep it from over-heating – a small one on the top with two larger ones on the right-hand side and the back of the console.
Gameplay Nintendo had harped on about the unique gaming experience for far too long, so it would have been egg on their faces if the Wii U came out as a mediocre gaming device, and so far it seems to be ticking off the most important boxes. First thing to scratch your eyes about, literally, is the fact that you can play on two sides at once – your TV and the GamePad in your hands.
That’s right - the action runs in front of your eyes and in your hands, making it quite awkward and confusing to look at two different screens at the same time. Well, they did promise an unusual gaming experience. While some game titles would neatly blend into this double - screen feature, you’d find yourself confused watching two different stories happening on your TV at the same time as your GamePad. It takes considerable gameplay time to get used to this feature. As for the graphics, it’s in the same rank as the PS3 or Xbox 360 with picture quality working well with an 854x480 pixel display resolution. Independent from the console and the high quality of Gamepad’s graphics, it seems like Nintendo tried to drown the need for a TV to enjoy your time playing Wii U – however, not all the games will support your favourite lay-in-the-bed-and-enjoy gaming habit. The GamePad certainly does offer a different way to engage the control of games and the way you view it, but it has one considerable drawback. You can expect the battery’s durability to interfere with your over- exciting game play on a regular basis. The batteries won’t last longer than 4 hours. It takes close to another 3 hours to fully recharge it; thankfully, you can still play while the GamePad is recharging.
Report Ticket Nintendo Wii U has turned some heads since it was released. Being closer to a gaming tablet than a console-oriented machine, it brings something innovative that has not been seen before. Nintendo did well setting up a partnership integration with YouTube, Amazon Instant Video and Hulu, plus some pre-installed Apps and features such as video chat and e -Shop just in case Nintendo figures out something more to flog to users. There is an absence of a Media playback, however, so you won’t be able to play your very own media on the console. However, there is a TVii service coming up this month, for which we believe should make up for the media playback omission with it’s free service connecting streaming devices, live TV and TiVo DVR packages into one compact unit. In our view, that’s a reasonable offer, but it would help if it was set up real quick.
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Skype
vs
Google+
Hangouts
When Google released Google Hangouts, the battle over the VOIP market intensified, taking the most uncertain course ever. Without a worthy competitor, Skype was well known for wearing the crown in internet telephony. Then came along Google Hangouts, a worthy competitor. It is undeniable fact that Skype has been longer on the market and has gained a user base that Google Hangouts is yet to dream about. We are talking about over 115 billion logged calls over the last quarter and 35 million users worldwide. It is simply recognized as the universal standard - at least as long as the line between free and premium usage is not blurred any further. The cost of the service is what Google decided to compete against, and that got our attention. Google aimed to hit the hardest when they joined the race over VoIP service delivery. But did they hit hard enough?
The Stand-alone App against the e-Giant Skype initially started as an exclusive peerto-peer VoIP service to bring some fresh fruits on the table, with features like instant messaging, file transfer, and few others. All of us, free Skype users, are well aware of the
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benefits and drawbacks of not paying to use this popular software. Just to highlight - you can’t make any public network calls without purchasing calling credit and previously, you couldn’t have a Skype call with more than one device at once, while Skype seems to be more of a business tool as it is set up to appeal to business to business communication in the earlier days. With Google Hangouts there seems to be something for our little folks. It’s worth mentioning the fact that, even when purchased, Skype Premium does NOT guarantee you any group video calls due to the call fragility. While audio remains nice and clear - video is still not a perfected service. In fact it let’s the side down with such warped unpredictability. To switch your VoIP activity to Google Hangouts - You would need to set up a Google+ account in order to use it - but oh well; we needed to sign up for our Skype accounts too, didn’t we? But then, having to
sign up for a Gmail account before signing up for Google+ which is big enough hassle itself, becomes a bit too much hassle to get going with the original intended service. While Skype’s interface is clean and pretty much straight-to-the-point, Google Hangouts is a bit of a confused interface. Using Google Hangouts for the first time, you might get lost a little bit before you learn the drill. Google Hangouts provides hangouts in the exact meaning of the term. You can have up to 10 people in a hangout at once - a great advantage over Skype. You didn’t have to be a prophet to foresee Google integrating their most robust services within Google Hangouts, such as Google docs or video sessions and public streaming via YouTube. You sure can’t get these features on Skype, but again, it’s not just about bulking up the platform with additional features, just to seem robust and more useful. Sometimes
simplicity rules the day. Hands down Google+ Hangouts has some nicer features like the multi-person video sessions or YouTube streaming. However, before rushing to have a hangout streaming on your YouTube channel, it would be good idea to know how your streaming is made public, there is a lack of privacy and basically the whole world can see what you are up to it if they hit the right spot in the right moment. Not much privacy
- and you can’t control it. Skype has seen the competition on the horizon and made a move with the launching of Skype video chat for Facebook. With Facebook’s huge membership base it’s a marriage made in heaven for both parties with Google Hangouts left feeling like the jilted ex. Now users will be able to video chat with their friends and family without needing to install the Skype client, we are talking about a simple click of the button.
Convenience is the key to all internet success. Video sessions of multiple people at once are apparently disposed to heavy lagging. Large amount of additional gadgets and ability to share Apps while in a hangout can drastically decrease the quality of the call. Too many features attempting to work at the same time is just too much burden on the system and it responds with a slow and staggered service.
Specs vs. Specs
that you can’t kick out somebody but only block them - you would probably find you’d need to filter only the relevant people when inviting others to your Hangout. If your friends start to exchange content infringing copyrights you could become the one to take the blame as you are the one responsible for the flow of content exchanged. Who needs the hassle?
would continue to be the market leader here, but Google Hangouts may tidy their interface a bit better, and offer something significantly more useful to woo us Skypers to the other side. They would need to come up with something new and innovative as Google+ Hangouts turned out to be more serious competitor than any of us could predict.
To sum it all up, Skype performs faster, has been on the market longer, but there is still the barrier between the free and premium account. For multiple communication Google+ Hangouts is the way to go as it’s free and the quality of service is similar to Skype’s. It seems Skype
In conclusion it now seems Skype usage is mostly for everyone, and Google Hangouts is becoming much more of a geek or the academics preferred communication platform online.
Skype and Google+ Hangouts both offer free one-to-one video sessions. Skype takes the ball here as it performs faster, providing a higher quality service. If you want to have a chat with more people at once, Hangout is the way to go. With Skype you’d need to pay for an upgrade to the Skype Premium account in order to have multi-person video sessions which are still not granted the best quality. If you encounter poor quality while in a multiperson hangout - try having fewer people inside your hangout. It would be good to know
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The International Shopper by Marie Ryder While national sales in a number of countries typically the developed ones have exploded in growth over the past few years, international sales online was slow to grow initially as e-tailers had not really invested in the international customer that much. This is probably due to logistics and delivery issues, or simply a reluctance to stretch their marketing reach overseas. It used to be seen as too much of an extra headache, but the internet these days knows no borders.
I
nformation about great shopping deals and items of high consumer value is being shared all over the world. E-tailers have decided to take this part of their business much more seriously, making a concerted effort to set-up shipping arrangements to locations further away from one continent to the next. There is, however, still a large number of countries goods will not be shipped too, or cards not accepted from. There are countries where card transactions are not possible. The popular favourite - PayPal, does not extend their services to certain countries, and even when they do, the popular online stores will not offer shipping to these countries as delivery cannot be guaranteed and the means to do so takes too long or is not reliable or economical. This is such a shame as there is no shortage of willing customers in these countries who would otherwise be regular shoppers online. Kathrine Higgins from Plymouth set up International Shopper as a gobetween service after returning from a student exchange programme in The Gambia West Africa. She found the country quite fascinating and extended her stay to gain some work experience in the capital Banjul. There she had met professionals on a regular basis during their lunch breaks clicking away on foreign websites from the UK and the US drooling over gadgets and fashion items they would love to buy and clearly could afford but there was no way of making a card purchase or even having them delivered to their country. Kathrine is a 3rd year marketing and IT student and one of her modules was global e-commerce. She had found her first opportunity to put her new found knowledge into practice. She did some ground research and realised that all that was needed was a purchase service and she could probably act as a go-between helping anyone in the small country buy goods from overseas using her PayPal account .She only had two months left before she returned to England, so in the little time left she set up The International Shopper in Gambia and got a friend in the university of Banjul to work out a system whereby goods could be dispatched to buyers once they were sent from the US or UK. She found a partner in Fatima Ojoile a post-graduate student who thought the idea had great commercial prospects. They would simply use their own cards to make volume purchases off popular and well known retail websites in the UK to start. Goods would get to Kathrine’s UK address, and then she would post the individual items to one central point in Banjul and choose three other areas within the country as pick up points for customers. There would also be an optional courier service for those who found the drop off points too far from where they lived. Kathrine returned to England to set up the business at the UK purchase end. International Shopper now makes 82 card transactions and 24 deliveries a day. She charges 10% of the total cost of goods and includes shipping costs for items to get to the drop-off points in Banjul. Customers can make purchases from the links in her website from Asos. com, marks and Spencer.com and a number of other popular internet retailers. Her website designed like a giant showroom of fashion items for customers to choose items from. A brilliant but simple idea that has turned into a lucrative business thanks to the internet.
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Matrimonial Mediator online By Sola Akinfie Joan Ashford from Glasgow is person you can describe as a proactive business woman who likes to find a need and turn it into a business. One of her successful tries was to set up a mediator service. Joan works part time in a legal firm that specializes in divorce cases. She had been doing administrative case work for 8 years and had come across an alarming number of matrimonial endings.
O
ne radio advert stuck in her mind for weeks. It was a service that offered a cost cutting divorce settlement arrangement designed to benefit both parties. Disputes on property and child maintenance and all things that married couples shared before the end of their marriage. The light bulb idea came as a sad thought reflecting on why there were so many separations in the first place. Wouldn’t it be great to help couples manage their disagreements or disputes before marriages suffer and eventually break down? Doing this effectively can even justify a charging fee as supposed to making money from the inevitable aches of painful separation? Sort of like a preventive measure against marriage breakdowns.
irritation with each another. She charged £1.50 a minute and received all proceeds minus the 20% charge to the premium rate line provider. Extending this to the mobile phone worked well as she was able to get a marketing company provide her with mobile numbers on their list. She avoided cold calling directly and simply sent text ads to the list. That list produced a conversion of 5 % which was quite encouraging. The Matrimonial Mediator is now doing an average of 40 calls a day the website has been in need of a overhaul to handle the traffic and should be up and running once again early 2013.
Stealing a bit of an idea from the Judge Judy program and The Jeremy Kyle Show Joan drafted a plan to offer a joint mediation service to help couples settle the smallest of arguments to the more complex ones. She called her venture The Matrimonial Mediator Online (MMO). With thoughtful research and organization she identified the potential scale of the service and the means to find a market. The test run was done by setting up the website and doing some online marketing through pay-per-click, adverts on Google and Facebook. The Facebook fan page worked well as she gradually developed an advice forum and a connected Skype service to connect an advice or dispute settlement session with one or both man and wife, or partners. The idea behind the service access would be for customers to buy time slots in batches of 30minutes or by the hour. They would view available time slots and make payments through PayPal pretty much how you usually buy an outfit or product on any popular internet retail website. She started at her local Citizen Advice Bureau posting flyers with a discount code at the base. Potential customers could then redeem a free 20 minute session on her website. The banner ads online worked well as humorous images and interesting copy suggesting domestic squabbles could be sorted out by the Mediator Judge. Joan was effectively offering a service that almost all married couples would want compared to couples whose marriage was already in crises. Silly arguments like the husband not taking the trash out or the missus not giving her spouse enough wifely time since the kids where born. All could now be addressed by a neutral professional remotely thanks to the internet. Joan’s Matrimonial Mediator Service got some good PR and internet kudos which landed her an article in the local papers and a radio interview. She set up banner adverts that were displayed in family centred blogs and other related web destinations. She spent about £800 on her first promotional campaign with voucher offers of 30% off the total charges. This also helped gain customer traction. It worked like a dream. The App developed for her was designed for easy use and initial enquiries, where customers could text her the details of their individual problems, and she would respond with her recommendations by email after a payment was made. The calls to her premium line started coming in and it was surprising how many couples liked the idea even when both spouses were in a state of
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