HAVING spent three days in the company of an Apple iPad, I thought it might be helpful to give a more considered verdict on the gadget everyone is talking about.
The Good...
The minimalist, industrial-sleek design makes iPad hugely desirable - guests at the Auchrannie Hotel on Arran, where I was staying at the weekend, were eyeing it covetously.
The screen display is beautiful: Fonts display better than on any other device; full-frame photographs look stunning; apps look superb; ebooks look far, far better than on a Kindle and have the added benefit of colour for illustrations.
Battery life is very good.
The on-screen virtual keyboard is surprisingly effective but you wouldn't want to type more than a short email on it, because the lack of tactile feedback makes typing a strangely hesitant affair, even for someone who spends his life at a keyboard.
Setting up the Wi-Fi is idiot-proof easy.
The operating system: Like the advert says, 'You already know how to use it'. It's intuitive and doesn't get in the way of letting you do things - plus, there's only one button!
The app store: It's by far the best of its kind, with a fabulous selection of free or paid-for apps. If you can imagine doing it, there's an app for it.
The Bad...
It's expensive. iPad's starting price is £429 and the 64GB model that I had costs a penny shy of £600 - and that's without 3G. Add a 3G SIM and it would be £699.
Remember that lovely display? Well, outside you can't see it on anything but the dullest of days.
Connectivity: I mentioned Wi-Fi and 3G, plus there's a charging/data cable for connecting to your PC. But there are no USB ports or memory card slots, so if you want to transfer content to your iPad you will need access to your Mac or PC running iTunes. Holiday snaps on your digital camera? Wait until you get home and pray you don't lose your camera. Which brings me to..
Verdict...
iPad is beautiful, brilliant and very seriously flawed. So seriously, I wouldn't buy or recommend buying one.
Apple iPad: A short review
What is Affiliate Marketing?
More and more people get involved with affiliate marketing every day, yet they do not have the knowledge needed to succeed and end up making expensive mistakes. Affiliate marketing is one of the major pieces involved in making money online. It is a joint effort between a merchant and an affiliate. Following is an explanation of some of the common misconceptions many have.
In affiliate marketing, you make money when you get a visitor to your assigned website and the visitor purchases an item or in some cases provides their information to the merchant thereby becoming a lead for them. The compensation is set by the merchant at the time you sign up with the program. For the merchant, affiliate marketing is attractive because they do not have to pay you until you bring them results minimizing their advertising costs.
Affiliate networks like Clickbank or Linkshare make it easy to setup a system between affiliates and merchants. The network provides a website link for the products you are going to market and usually collects all commission fees which it then pays most of it to you . These networks sometimes provide statistics to inform you how well the product is doing as well as information regarding refunds.
The merchant is typically a web site owner that wants their product marketed by others. They are able to control the affiliate program. The merchant develops the web site with the sales copy as well as the product that is going to be sold. Sometimes they even provide you with marketing material like banners and sample ads to help you increase your sales. The advantage for a merchant is that their product will get free marketing by you, and will only have to pay you when a sale is made or a lead is generated your provided website.
You, the affiliate promotes, one or more merchants web sites. Your main task is to drive qualified traffic to the assigned website. Many in affiliate marketing will promote a product by writing reviews of the product or targeting buyers through pay-per-click marketing. The dangers of being involved with this is that you might spend a lot of time and money marketing the product and not make a sale. Learning internet marketing principles will help the you avoid these costly mistakes. The advantage for you is that you do not have to put together a product to make money online. When you learn effective internet marketing techniques then you can make a full time income marketing other people's products.
Affiliate marketing can be a great avenue to make money. It is easy to get started with and you can have a marketing campaign up in a few days. The key to succeeding is to get qualified traffic to the web site.
What is So Great About Affiliate Marketing?
I'll tell you what. One simple click on an affiliate ad can earn you money. Yes, it could just be a few pennies but it could also be several hundred dollars. And that could be repeated over and over again.
Affiliate marketing is one of the least understood and yet, one of the best ways to make money online. What the marketer does is join affiliate programs, such as Clickbank, that have products or services they want to promote. The marketer promotes the product, finds customers for the company they are promoting and, when the customer buys, the marketer gets a commission.
The most common business model is the marketer creating a site (or sites) on topic(s) that are of interest to them. Once the site is established, and getting a large amount of targeted traffic, the potential for making a nice income can be as simple as putting up Google AdSense ads and/or a few affiliate links.
The Internet provides available traffic 24/7/365. The term 'business hours' has become meaningless. And the more unique the content, the greater the potential for targeted traffic. And the greater the targeted traffic, the higher the potential for earning income. And this traffic can come any time of the day or night, while you are sleeping or while you are on vacation. What a nice way to earn extra income!
There are many affiliate networks available to marketers. The key is to pick a topic for a site that is of interest to you. That way you will be able to keep it updated with good content. Good content will get you the traffic. And traffic will get you the sales.