Apple is set to announce its eagerly awaited iPhone 5 (or maybe iPhone 4S) on October 4 at the “Lets Talk iPhone” event. Surveys show that anticipation for the next generation iPhone is high and Gazelle (a recommerce site) has noticed a marked increase in the number of iPhones being traded in over the last few days. All of this points towards a successful launch for whatever it is Apple will announce on Tuesday and with that will more than likely lead to a significant increase in revenue for them.

They won’t be the only people who will make a financial gain from the iPhone. Affiliate marketers out there may want to think about; in fact, forget thinking about, SHOULD start promoting iPhone related offers. These can include promoting various iPhone accessories such as cases, docking stations, speakers (and the list goes on) from e-tailers such as Cellular Factory and Cellphone Shop. A fact that may be of interest about Cellphone Shop is that they provide a dropshipping service so you could sell accessories on marketplaces such as eBay without having to stock up on inventory.

Something else to take into consideration as a way of making money is app development. With the release of a new iPhone, there is bound to be a new range of functionality. This may lay the foundation to new and never-before-seen apps being able to be developed. There may be people out there who have ideas for new applications but wont have a clue as to how to create them. How to Create iPhone Apps with Zero Programming Skills is a good start for people in this position.

There you have it. As far as the iPhone goes, there is no time better than the present to get yourself ready to cash in on it!!

More and more individuals, bloggers and companies are turning to Facebook as a way of connecting with people, increasing blog traffic, building a brand and the list goes on. Some people are taking that further and are selling their products right on Facebook. Having that functionality makes it a lot easier and more convenient for people to purchase your items since they don’t have to leave Facebook.

Payvment provides you with a Facebook e-commerce solution that allows you to set-up a store and best of all, it won’t cost you a thing. To launch your storefront you need to enter your PayPal (If you don’t have an account, click here to get one) username to receive payments, a store name and a currency type such as USD or NZD. After you have gotten that out of the way, the next steps are pretty much the same as you would follow with any other storefront where you enter your store categories, products, shipping, tax and so on. The way I see it, it really couldn’t be any easier to set up a store on Facebook with Payvment.

One of the nice features that the application has is the “fans only” discount where after someone becomes a fan of your page, they get access to discounted prices that you have set. This I see as a good thing because it encourages people to buy your products and at the same time you are building your audience.

Something else that that you can do is, if you are someone who sells arts and crafts on Esty Etsy – The Place To Sell Handmade Crafts, they have a Etsy-to-Facebook import tool. It allows Esty sellers to import their entire inventories to Facebook and sell them on their pages. This is the only import tool of its kind available but Payvment plans to launch import tools for other online catalogs.

If you are looking for another avenue through which you can sell your products, you should give Payvment a try. It opens you up to a world of opportunity by allowing you to sell your products on a 500 million member social network and best of all, all for FREE!

Why haven’t I posted anything in three or so months? Well, I took a nice and longer than expected break which I spent at home in Zimbabwe with my family. The vacation also meant giving blogging a break so that I could really put in some good R & R. Even if I did want to do a bit of stuff online, that would have been a little frustrating due to connection speeds over there.

Anyway, when I was over there, I came across a guy who was heavily into computers. One thing that he was getting more and more interested in and wanted to get into was blogging. The one thing that he was not too happy about was the lack of ‘African’ themes. He went on about how if he was going to blog he wanted his site to have an African look and feel to it. I did a quick search online myself and saw that there really weren’t that many African themed themes out there (I could only find one).

Something else about this guy that got me wondering was that he had the know how on how to create themes. I quizzed him on why he didn’t just go ahead and create themes for platforms like WordPress and Blogger. He really didn’t have an answer as to why he had not thought about it and done so already. That right there is a good example of someone not using their knowledge and skills to their full potential.

Internet penetration rates are on the rise in Africa and my guess is it will lead to an increase in the number of bloggers on the continent. Chances are, there will be a number who want to be identified as being African or having a connection to Africa and would want a theme that shows just that. With that in mind I gave him the idea of coming up with some templates which he can distribute for free and eventually get to the point where he has premium themes for sale. Who knows, he could end up like the likes of WooThemes, only difference being he would be exclusively creating African themed themes.

That there was just something that came to mind during the short conversation I had with this guy and something that could turn into a potential money maker. By the sounds of it, this is something that should be a no-brainer since he already has the technical skills. Of course, it is something that won’t happen overnight and he will have to come up with a plan and put a bit of work into it but it is something that is not impossible. I don’t know what you guys think about it but I see it as a good idea especially seeing as he is using skills he already has.

What you should do right now is take a bit of time out and think about what skills you have and how you can use them to create a revenue stream.

The winner is:

Jim

Congratulations! Ben will be getting in touch with you shortly to set you up with your free copy of phpOStock Pro.

Thank you to all of you who entered the competition. If you did not win, don’t forget that you can get phpOStock Pro at a discount with the 20% off coupon code which you can get by filling out the form below:

If you take out the time and put your mind to it, you could setup and have a niche store up and running in no time at all but wouldn’t it be nice if you were given a site that was all setup and ready to go? The Nice Store Builder author Mark Hansen is going to build a site following the steps laid out in the recently released guide by Adam and kelvin, ‘The Number 1 Way to Make Money Online’. Once he has completed building the site, he is going to give it away to one of his readers.

About The Number 1 Way to Make Money Online

In a nutshell, it is a newbie/intermediate affiliate marketers guide to making money by building affiliate websites via the following steps:

• Step 1, will help you pick your markets.
• Step 2, will help you research that market and plan a website.
• Step 3 will help you create the content for that site.
• Step 4 will help you build that site.
• Step 5 will help you market that site.
• Step 6 will help you manage that site over the longer term.
• Step 7 will illustrate to you how easy it is to build 10 once you’ve built one.
• Step 8 will introduce you to the concept and value of “outsourcing”.
• Step 9 will introduce you to useful tools and resources related to this model.

Back to the contest

Mark will be awarding the site to the winner on October 15th, 2009.
The entry deadline is August 31, 2009.
Details on how to enter the contest can be found here: Build a Niche Store Guide Contest

As promised, I am giving someone the chance to win a FREE copy of the phpOStock Pro plugin for WordPress. Ben Johnson (http://www.benjohnsonblog.com/) was kind enough to sponsor this competition and provide a free copy of phpOStock Pro to the winner.

phpOStock Pro is a plugin that allows you to build affiliate sites with WordPress and the Overstock.com affiliate program. You can read a bit more about it here – phpOStock, A WordPress Ecommerce Solution + 20% Off Coupon.

How to Win it!

To enter the running to win the plugin, all you need to do is simply answer the following question:

What version of php does your host need to be running for phpOstock to work?

A winner will be randomly selected on Wednesday 19 August at 7pm (New Zealand Time) and notified via email so make sure you use a valid email address.

Good Luck!!

The competition is over. You can get your hands on phpOStock Pro for just $24 using the following 20% Off Discount Coupon Code:

646FBCE77E

Following on from the post about building niche stores with phpBay Pro, there is another WordPress plugin that lets you do the same thing but the difference is that sites are built with the Overstock affiliate program on Commission Junction. The affiliate plugin helps bloggers and niche store webmasters to add Overstock listings to their sites and maximise on their affiliate program.

About Overstock

Overstock.com is a liquidation site that offers a variety of goods at a discounted rate. They are not limited to North America as is the case with a number of similar sites. They ship to a number of destinations around the world which for you as an affiliate means that your reach is not limited to only a few geographic locations.

About phpOStock

[WPMID=29] is a plugin that provides you with a way of earning money with WordPress sites and the Overstock affiliate program. It enables you to place Overstock.com listings within the posts, pages and sidebars of a site. The plugin itself is very easy to use and after configuring it and entering a few settings which doesn’t take long at all, you are good to go.

When a visitor clicks through to Overstock and purchases an item via your site, you are paid a commission on the sale. There are a few examples of sites using the phpOStock which you can find via the plugin homepage. I would have directed you towards mine but it is still a work in progress.

Main Features

• Earn up to 7% revenue through the Overstock.com affiliate program which runs through CJ.com.
• Add live Overstock.com store listings to your WordPress site within posts or pages using a single string of code.
• Configurable sidebar widget for WordPress to list up to 50 items in your WordPress sidebar.
• List items from 11 different categories and thousands of sub categories, with literally hundreds of thousands of items to choose from.
• Multiple site license which will allow you to use phpOStock on as many WordPress sites as you choose.
• FREE lifetime upgrades.
• Comprehensive user manual.

[WPMID=29] comes in a Lite version which is free and a Pro version with the Lite version obviously coming with a lot less features but it allows you to test out the plugin before you go ahead and purchase it. The Pro version is currently available for $30 which is a lot less than you would expect to pay for such a plugin. The $30 price tag is available for a limited time and the price will eventually go up as more and more features are added. I got in touch with one of the developers and he sent through a 20% off coupon code for people who purchase the plugin via Ninety Nine Ways. This means that if you act quickly you can get the plugin for just $24. If you would like the coupon code, fill out the form below: The coupon code is:

646FBCE77E

(Note: if you have any problems using the code please do get in touch with me)

To add to that, when you buy the plugin, you also get 16 bonus items for free which include:

- 4 x Template Listing Styles
- 12 x WordPress Commerce Themes

The themes themselves cost $27 and having them at your disposal only makes the process of building a niche store that much easier. I don’t know how long they will be offered as a bonus for so it might be a good idea to get your hands on [WPMID=29] for the low price as soon as possible.

Want to Get phpOStock Pro FREE? Come back in a couple of days to find out how you can win it.

Following on from the last about my experience with phpBay Pro, I managed to get a hold of a 20% off coupon code from Wade Wells (the brains behind phpBay). This coupon code was specifically put together for people who sign up via Ninety Nine Ways so instead of paying $79 for phpBay Pro you can get your hands on it for $63.20 which is a good deal for an investment that is well worth it.

Please note that the 20% off is LIMITED to the first 50 people who take advantage of the discount. To take advantage of the offer all you need to do is email me using the form below and I will email you back with the coupon code is nothing at all. The phpBay Pro Coupon Code is:

A6C7247A5C

Note: Some people have been experiencing problems using this form. If you do not see a success message or receive an email with the coupon code leave a comment and I will get it to you. If you experience any problems using the code please do let me know.

To add to that, Hostgator provided me with a couple of coupon codes for really cheap hosting for the first month (if you don’t already have a hosting account). They are:

HOSTGATOR – $9.94 off the first month (you end up paying $0.01 for the first month)

BEACH – 20% off the first invoice.

There you go, get your hands on phpBay Pro for 20% less before other people do and you miss out on the discount.

If you are someone who has got a creative flair and have a few ideas for simple products that could sell but don’t know how to go about it, Ponoko may have the answer. Ponoko is the first company in the world that allows it users design, manufacture and sell their products online. The company is only a couple of years old and even though it is based in Wellington, New Zealand, most of its business comes from the United States

How it works

Design it:

To get started with designing a product you can download the Ponoko making guide and templates (you do need to use vector art software such as Adobe Illustrator CS, CorelDRAW X3, Inkscape or Macromedia Freehand MX files to create designs). They also give you the option of buying a product plan from them (some are available for free) which you can then customise. They also have a photomake option where you can literally draw out a design with pen and paper and upload a photo of your design.

Make it:

Once you are satisfied with your design and all that’s left is getting the product made. All that is involved in this step is transferring your design to one of the Ponoko templates and uploading it, choosing the material you would like your creation made with. Ponoko then cuts out the pieces of your design which you can get shipped to you make sure that everything is as it should be. If everything is as it should be then you are all set to sell your product.

At the moment, the available materials are wood, ply sheeting, acrylic in a range of colours and thickness. The product pieces are cut using a laser cutter and are manufacture in either Wellington or San Francisco.

Sell it:

The last step is selling your product which you can do for free via the storefront they provide users with. How much your product sells for is up to you and there is no need to worry about shipping options as Ponoko takes care of that and buyers have the option of paying by credit card or PayPal. An order can either be shipped directly to the customer or it can be shipped to you to then ship to the customer. Ponoko ships worldwide and charge $10 packaging fee plus a delivery fee which is dependent on the number of sheets of material in the order and the shipping destination. One thing to note is that you also have the option of selling product plans as well as products or just product plans alone.

Opening an account is free but there is a Prime account option for $39 per month which offers you a few extra features.

Does this sound like a good idea to you?