Want to save up for a new house, car, or computer, but don't have the self discipline to set aside a bit of your paycheck every month? SmartyPig is an online banking service designed to help.
Here's how it works. You set up an account, tell SmartyPig how much you want to save, and when you want to save it by, and the service will tell you how much you need to set aside each month. You can then set up an online savings account with a pretty decent interest rate to start saving. Like ING Direct, HSBC Direct, and other online bank accounts, SmartyPig offers higher interest rates than your typical neighborhood bank because the company doesn't have the same administrative overhead costs as a bricks and mortar operation. SmartyPig also partners with a real bank (West Bank), and the accounts are FDIC insured.
In addition to helping you setup a savings account to reach your goal, SmartyPig offers one more feature. Other users can pitch in to help you save. Say your friends, relatives, or coworkers really want you to have that big screen TV so that your football parties aren't as dull as your charades shindigs. They can transfer money from their accounts to yours for free, or make contributions with a credit card, which will be subject to a 2.9% processing fee.
Time is money. And every time you have to sit down with your boss, coworkers, and some random consultant thinking what a big waste of time this meeting is, you could also argue that it's a waste of money.
Meeting Miser helps you figure out just how much money. The little web app works by pulling in average salaries for various job types and determining what their time is worth. So next time you sit down at a meeting, just open your laptop and pop in the job titles of all the attendees. Click the start button and watch the dollars rack up.
Somehow we doubt you'll actually show the total to your boss as proof that you should be allowed to skip the next meeting. But at least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that your boring meeting has been scientifically shown to be a complete and utter waste.
The key to saving money is knowing what you're spending it on. If you can keep track of every cent, you can discover exactly where your money is going and act accordingly.
Spendview is an online application that enables users to track and visualize balances and expense data in one place. This is done through an engine that tags and categorizes spending in order to make your finances somewhat exciting. Spendview also uses tag clouds and a dynamic chart instead of old fashioned pie charts and bar graphs. This way you can see all of your data at a quick glance instead of mulling over numerous columns and categories.
Users start out by registering for a free account and adding bank, credit card information and tagging transactions with keywords. How secure is the data you enter? Spendview says that its 'secure', and they do use 128 bit SSL Security. However, you should always be cautious when entering private financial data online.
Google offers AdSense customers a chance to provide exclusive content by placing ads over the top of online videos. But these flash ads can be distracting if you're watching a video. Blinkx takes a different approach by putting ads at the top of the video window so that there's never an ad covering the video display.
Blinkx is a video search engine with over 14 million hours of video online. Their technology uses both speech recognition and video analysis software to accurately find videos online from all major sources and now they are integrating this into targeted ad placement.
The Blinkx text ads will get placed together with embedded videos from such popular video sharing sites as YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, Veoh, CollegeHumor and Daily Motion. This will work with any video, be it copyrighted or not. It works by simply dropping the embed code from a video site into a form that will spit out the new Blinkx embed code complete with additional ad codes. This will then allow users to place the videos on social networks, websites and blogs to earn revenue per click. Users must have an account on Blinkx Adhoc as well as a PayPal account which they will get paid through when the ads are clicked on.
Blinkx pays you for embedding videos from YouTube, Daily Motion and other sites on your website. It doesn't matter if you created the original video or not. And it doesn't look like there's anything to prevent you from making money on copyrighted content like clips from movies and TV shows.
We assume that copyright holders might get a little uptight about that. But since Blinkx inserts an ad above the video window and not inside of it, you could argue that this is kind of the same as adding a Google AdSense unit to a webpage above content.
Think you have a hot startup idea? Write it down and you could net a little funding.
Bang Ventures from New York is offering $15,000 U.S. for startup CEOs to get their ideas off the ground. "You Be The VC" Candidates start by submitting applications outlining their plans for a new internet startup. These will be judged by handpicked professionals in the startup field to guarantee unbiased results and ensure that funding goes to best idea seen in the public's eye. There are no limits as to the number of ideas that CEO's can submit, just as long as they are in by the deadline of December 2007.
Voting begins March 2008, with the $15,000 prize money, temporary relocation expenses to Cambridge, MA, and living expenses being handed out upon final vote submissions. Winners of the "You Be The VC" campaign will also be able to utilize Bang Venture's support network, resources and materials.
Facebook is sure ready to secure its future and ward off any threats from the likes of Microsoft, Google and MySpace and anyone else who wants to try and get into their social networking path.
AllThingD is reporting that Facebook is contemplating bringing in a few more investors and raising more money so that they can either expand, or possibly get acquired. The company did get $25 million in funding in 2006 and there were a few offers on the table from Yahoo! ($1billion), and Microsoft ($6billion) that fell apart. The company that has been listed as the next best thing since Google is moving ahead fast with a reported valuation of $525 million.
The internet has proved itself for not only a popular playground, but a source of extremely important information and a viable advertising platform. It took a while for brands to realize that the internet is a far better alternative to say newspapers, TV and magazines for better targeting customers but they have.
It has been projected that Internet advertising could hit close to $61 billion by 2011, far surpassing newspapers to become the leading ad medium. Consumers have also tended to shut themselves down from ad supported media, and spent more time with media they support, like the internet and video games, which saw a rise of 19% in 2006 since 2001. That caused a drop in ad supported media like newspapers and broadcast television of 6%, or 1899 hours per person since 2001. In 2006 online ad spends hit a record number of $15 billion.
How do DLS readers feel about this? Do you prefer to check out ads online as opposed to TV, radio and in newspapers? And do you think the online landscape will be compromised with an abundance of ads given this shift in ad spends?
Discounts for everyday products are great. Who doesn't like to save a few extra dollars on something they are planning on using or buying anyway? We just have to actually remember to use the discounts.
ePerks is an online location that is focused around saving consumers cash, and offering special incentives for buying at certain locations. They specifically target savings on Real Estate Agents, Auto Dealers, and Home Contractors, offering anything from cash back, free gas, and a percentage off jobs for choosing particular advertisers. For instance, searching in the Los Angeles area we found plenty of automotive dealers who were willing to give 3 months of free gas, Sirius satellite radios, iPod's and digital cameras for buying at their dealerships. And why not offer these types of things, make customers happy and they will return.
Let's just ignore that whole babysitting, paper routes and mowing the lawn genre that makes most teenagers a little spending money. SEO has increasingly become an area where teens can report on what they like (or dislike).
Chloe Spencer stopped by the BlogHer Conference to talk a little about her venture into the world of SEO, Blogs, and Google AdSense. Chloe started a website called the "Ultimate Neopets Cheats Site". Early last year when she was 15 she started the site and actually researched keywords through WordTracker and Google Suggest to find out the popular search terms for the Neopet category so she knew what exactly to write on. Since then she pulls in about $20 - $30 per day through AdSense, working far less hours than she would babysitting to make the same amount.
Chloe's little part time venture shows us that as long as we are passionate about a topic, do our research, and stick to developing it, rewards are right around the corner. There might be a little shortage in the paper route sector but hey, they too should keep up with the times.
Google Finance got a little localization for Canada yesterday. The news was accidentally leaked last week, but its now official.
Canadian investors now have another site to rejoice over and check out relevant market information. With Canadian users being the second largest user group for Google Finance, they thought it was best to build out a localized version. The site provides users with top financial news from Canadian sources, perform Canadian searches, Bank data from the Bank of Canada on the home page, and equity data from the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, and Canadian mutual funds.
Dying to know what Google's business was like the past while? With the search monsters track record we know to expect some goodness, that said, Google will be holding their quarterly conference call to discuss the pile of cash they've made.
How has the news of the Postini security acquisition affected things? Or the finalization of the GrandCentral buyout? YouTube hooking with LG? FeedBurners paying options open to all users? The DoubleClick deal? Mobile Picasa Web? Google News Images? Google handing the reigns of its hardware over to Dell? And a handful of other juicy Google news has impacted their bottom line, and this call will clarify how the company was impacted.
A web 2.0-sized boatload of buzz has surrounded Twitter, the addictive service that allows its users to answer one simple question: what are you doing? The service has made appearances in everything from your friend's blog to the New York Times, and everyone seems jazzed about how fun tweeting is. While we're all having a good time, however, its creators, Obvious, keep hinting at how many practical uses they have up their sleeve for Twitter. Even though they haven't revealed any of their cards just yet, the rest of us are left wondering: how is such a seemingly frivolous service going to make money?
As a user who has taken the Twitter pill hook, line and sinker, I've been mulling this question for some time now. I came up with a few strategies, but then I figured: why not run them by the Twitter crew themselves? The least they could say was 'no comment,' but fortunately Evan Williams, one of Obvious and Twitter's founders, responded with a few of his own. Read on for my attempts at making Twitter some money (I'm waiting for my job offer Ev), as well as some choice words and ideas of his own from Evan.
Who wants to spend time and energy on accounting? Most people would rather wash the car or even scrub toilets. That might change soon thanks to Less Accounting.
The whole goal behind Less Accounting is to make book keeping as simple and easy as possible. The team behind Less Accounting, Less Everything, believes that users will never again use Quickbooks. In fact, they're so bullish, they see themselves changing the accounting landscape as much as 37Signals changed project management with Basecamp.
So how does it rank in real-life? Less Accounting provides users with three main categories, Money In, Money Out and Watch Money. Money In allows users to easily drop in sales leads, notes, proposals, invoices, and deposits made. Money Out has areas to input Expenses and Mileage. In the Watch Money category, users can get an account summary with bank account activity and view all paid expenses and deposits. It does not tie into your online banking; it's merely another tool to use for cross referencing. Through Watch Money, Sales reports can also be generated, as well as reports for both paid and unpaid invoices.
Everything is pretty straightforward to use, and the design is clean and very attractive. A few things that were missing in the beta test included some kind of tutorial or walkthrough of the application, and it wasn't very evident where data could be exported from reports, which I later came across on the top right navigation which might blend in a little too much. Aside from that, it wasn't too earth shattering. I would like to maybe see this application tie into 37Signals for contact and project management the same way that Freshbooks does, now that might be something to get people going on this.
Many digital music stores have a written policy to temporarily remove a certain amount of money from your bank account, to verify your worthiness to purchase music from them. Some stores tie up as much as $20/day when I buy a track. Is it that they enjoy the increased emotional stability of having an extra $20 bucks in their pocket? I know I would. The fact that the money isn't mine to use until the authorization charge is reversed gives me a slimy feeling.
So, you might tell me to never buy DRMed music, because it would be bowing to the man, and I'd concur. What about all the people that do buy music by the track? Should their money be tied up just to ensure they don't run off with a buck or two worth of music? Do any music store representatives care to comment on the policy of tying up $20 any day I decide to make a purchase?
Is this a big deal? No, but it hurts the fragile relationship that we as music lovers already have with online music services; It's a matter of trust. Stores should let customers know up front that this will happen in some sort of statement during the sign-up process, in their own best interest. (Maybe they do, who reads EULAs?)
What if the corner store nailed you for an extra $20 every time you bought a pack of gum? Sure, you get the money back but, in all likely-hood you'd never buy a pack of gum from them again. You could even go so far as to say that it's a practice which promotes music piracy. I'd much rather buy from places who don't act like they don't trust me.
Web 2.0 is all about mashups, and Microsoft wants to get in on the action. They have set up a new competition where winners can walk away with up to $25,000. The competition, announced at the 3GSM World Congress, is asking developers to create mashups that merge telecommunications features with Web 2.0 applications. So, basically, calling for some applications that weave voice and text with mapping and search features. The winner doesn't only get their share of the prize money, from $2,500 to $25,000 in cash, but if their mashup gets scooped up and released by a telecommunications company the developer could see a chance to share in revenue that it generates.
The first stage of the competition set for March 6th will see developers creating storyboards with written or graphic ideas of their ideas to show to a panel of judges. The winners from this round will move to the second phase which is to build a prototype with winners being announced for June.
Want to save up for a new house, car, or computer, but don't have the self discipline to set aside a bit of your paycheck every month? SmartyPig is an online banking service designed to help.
A web 2.0-sized boatload of buzz has surrounded 
