If you purchased any Microsoft operating system over the past number of years, you were probably inundated with offers to purchase Microsoft Plus! This product promised to give you even more than was originally provided in your OS.

Personally, I thought it was Microsoft’s attempt to make you part with even more of your hard earned cash than you had already. What Plus! provided was essentially eye candy and it added very little in the way of extra functionality.

But, it looks like Microsoft will no longer me making this product available to the public. According to their website, they believe that they have now built all of the Plus! functionality into their products. My theory is that the public realized that the product wasn’t worth the money and voted with their feet.

Have you had any experience with the Microsoft Plus! products? Did you like them or not? Are you going to miss them? Were they worth the money?

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/05/15/plus-subtracted/trackback/

I have been receiving some comments lately from people who are opposed to me wanting to make money from Daily Cup of Tech. It seems that there is an unwritten rule on the Internet that states:

“Thou shall not benefit from thine hard work when it is related to the Internet!”

Rather than addressing these comments individually, I thought it would be best to respond to each of these issues in one post so that I can clearly lay out where I stand on.

Advertising on DCoT

This is often the first complain that I will hear when it comes to making money with DCoT. People simply do not want to see advertisements. Period. It doesn’t matter if they are one the front page, in a post, in a comment, or in the RSS feed.

I’ve taken a look at a lot of blogs and the vast majority of them have advertising on them. If you go to the top five blogs according to Technorati (Endgadget, Boing Boing, Gizmodo, Techcrunch, and The Huffington Post), each and every one of them have advertising on them. Why should DCoT be any different? I try to limit my advertising and make it relevant so that if there is a product that is being shown to the reader, it is at least something that the reader would find useful.

DCoT has far fewer and less intrusive advertising than many other sites. I refuse to put pop-ups, pop-unders, and interstitial advertisement on Daily Cup of Tech. I also refuse to put on ads that attempt to install components on the reader’s computer.

I also occasionally write a paid or sponsored post about a specific product or service. I always start and finish these posts with a disclaimer that this is a paid post so that there is no confusion that I have received some compensation for writing this post and that it is an advertisement.

Readers need to realize that DCoT is a form of media and that advertising is a part of the media. You see this in magazines, television, radio, etc. Why do people expect the Internet and, more specifically, blogs to be any different?

Asking for Donations

I guess in many ways, this is almost like advertising for myself, but I have received some complaints about writing posts asking for donations to the tip jar or to release the source code. They do not like that I ask for donations on a regular basis and they are annoyed by the posts.

First of all, yes, I do ask for donations. I feel that the time and effort that I put into DCoT is worth some support and recognition. I have expenses to keep the website up. My time is valuable. People do not hesitate to ask me for help with their tech issues. (Granted, I did ask for people to submit their questions to me but they were asking long before I officially offered to answer.) Why should I hesitate to ask for a donation to support the blog?

Second, I do ask on a regular basis. The old adage, “Out of site, out of mind” holds very true on the Internet. There is good reason why you see “Gratuity not included in price” on your restaurant bill and Karma cups at Starbucks. Had I not regularly pointed out that people could help release source code to the Internet or just donate to help keep DCoT running, I would never receive any donations and DCoT would eventually die.

The one things that people don’t mention when they express their opinions about my donation requests is the fact that I also use that opportunity to recognize all of the people who have donated to DCoT in the past week and give them the recognition that they deserve. I think it is very important to shine the spotlight on these people because they understand what I am trying to do here.

What many people don’t seem to realize is that the donations that I receive are a real encouragement to me. There have been at least three or four times that I almost shut down DCoT and then someone would make a donation, even a couple of dollars, and it would change my mind. Not because I’m in it for the money but because I am encouraged by the fact that people feel that my hard work is worth giving up a small portion of the money they have earned from their hard work.

Paying for Source Code

This is an issue that started when I announced my Release the Code concept. In a nut shell, I promised to publish the source code on DCoT for my freeware applications when a certain amount had been donated toward the project. Some people thought that I should not be charging for the source code or that I was charging too much.

First, I am not charging anyone anything for the source code. When people voluntarily donate money to a project, they are doing it out of their own free will. I do not force anyone to pay me anything.

In fact, the vast majority of people who get access to the source code do not pay a single cent for it. For example, as of the writing of this post, over 2,000 people have accessed the recently released source code for DCoT Menu. There were five people who donated to the release of this source code which translates into fewer than 0.25% of the people who got the code paying anything for it. I really do not see how this is unfair to the readers of DCoT.

The other issue that comes up sometimes is that I am charging too much for the source code. In general, I ask US$100 for the source code for my projects. I have never worked or been paid as a coder but I have been a paid consultant in the past. My hourly rate back then varied between US$80 and US$145. Now, the absolute least amount of time that I have spent on one of my projects is seven hours. Based on my lowest consulting rate, my effort was worth at least US$560. All I am asking is US$100.

Also, when you hire a developer to write code for you, they are working for you to generate your product. And you need to pay to get the code. Unless you are one of the people who actually donated toward the release of the code, you haven’t paid a single penny and you have complete access to the source code to do with it whatever you want. I don’t know how much a programmer would to create an application and provide you with the source code but I’m sure it is more than free.

People have also argued that US$100 may be a small amount for someone in North America to pay but what about some people who make significantly less or are from a third world country? I have to admit that the world is not fair but, as I have stated earlier, these people do not have to pay for the code if they do not want it. All they have to do is wait and be patient. I do not know of anyone who is so poor that they cannot afford to be patient.

Readers must also be aware that I have to survive in the market that I live. I can’t convince someone at the grocery store to give me food because I gave away my source code. This is not how the world works and it is naive to believe that it does.

Still Don’t Like These Things?

I understand that there are going to be some people out there who are going to get up in arms about this and I may even lose some readers. So be it. This is how DCoT is being run and I do not apologize for it.

But, if you are truly serious about getting rid of the advertising and the donation requests and you would like all of my applications to be open source and free as soon as I release them, then it is up to you to be my boss. In fact, I am willing to quit my jobs and work on Daily Cup of Tech full time!

The only way that I would be willing to do any of this would be if I had a guaranteed monthly support base that would allow me to replace these other sources of income. With these in place I am willing to drop each of my other income sources one at a time until, eventually, I would be working full time for you, the DCoT readers.

Please do not take this offer lightly as I take this very seriously. I would be willing to put my finances in the hands of you, the readers, if you are willing to support this venture. This is how it would work:

I would accept subscriptions via PayPal (or any other legitimate form of payment) for Daily Cup of Tech. A subscription differs from a donation in that a donation is a one time contribution while a subscription is a monthly contribution. As the subscription number increases, I will start to make changes to Daily Cup of Tech and my life.

These are the changes that I would be willing to make in order as subscriptions increase:

1. Removing DCoT Discounts
2. Removing Text Link Ads
3. Removing ads in RSS feed
4. Stop writing posts for advertising
5. Release all source code and future source code as open source immediately
6. Stop asking for donations
7. Remove ads from Feedburner
8. Remove ads from AdSense
9. Quit my one day a week job and work on DCoT on that day exclusively
10. Quit my four day a week job and work on DCoT exclusively full time

So, is anyone willing to take me up on my proposition? I am willing to commit to this. How about you? If so, I will formally set up the program. I eagerly await your comments.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/05/03/making-money-blogging-a-non-apology-and-a-proposition/trackback/

Note: This post is sponsored by ReviewMe!.

Product Name: Outpost 4 Pro

Manufacturer: Agnitum

Website: http://www.agnitum.com

Product Type: Software Firewall

Price: Starting at US$39.95 (see purchase page for more information)

Website Description

Best-in-class ID-theft protection
Outpost Firewall Pro will detect and prevent (using the most effective data leak prevention technology available) malicious applications from trying to transmit data out of your PC. The security of that information is assured.

Advanced protection against network attacks
Outpost Firewall Pro detects and prevents any attempted hack attacks from outside the network.

360-degree protection against spyware
Outpost Firewall Pro detects all attempts by spyware to activate; instead, spyware is instantly removed from the PC.

Automatic detection and configuration updates for optimum security
With Outpost 4.0 you receive ImproveNet updates for the whole license period that include secure firewall settings and rules - meaning with ImproveNet you will get much less prompts from the firewall as it will be always up-to-date when it comes to deciding what to do.

Self-protection against malicious software
Outpost Firewall Pro protects itself from being terminated by malware.

What I Liked

• Nice interface
• Easy to install
• Found spyware on my system
• Protected my system from both incoming attacks and outgoing connection attempts
• Had some very good rulesets already written for common application
• Integration with Internet Explorer
• DNS caching
• Live network activity monitor by application
• Live port monitoring
• Content blocking
• Attack detection
• Attachment quarantine
• Ad blocking by size and keywords
• Active content (pop-ups, ActiveX, Flash, etc.) blocking
• Detailed even logs
• Supports multiple configurations
• Supports plugins
• Password enabled to prevent settings changes
• Protects itself from attack
• Various different modes for different situations

What I Didn’t Like

• Asked a lot of questions in the beginning
• Average user would not be able to answer questions (too technical)
• Slowed down my system a bit (especially when connection attempts were being made
• No Firefox integration
• Does not work with Vista (but a free upgrade is on the way)

Other Links

• Outpost Pro 4 Website
• Purchase
• Download Trial
• Plugins
• Screenshots
• Features
• About Agnitum

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/03/21/quick-review-outpost-4-pro/trackback/

Note: This blog entry is sponsored by LoudLaunch.

For those of you who are blogging for a little extra cash (maybe not the best reason to blog but it’s nice to have a little extra coin for those new toys), you may want to look at Data Deposit Box’s page Online Backup Reseller Success.

According to their website, their reseller program offers:

The Reseller level is our easiest program to implement. You can be up and running with your own online backup business within a day.

Our Reseller Program is:

• Marketed under the Data Deposit Box™ brand
• Data Deposit Box™ retail pricing model
• Monthly commission paid on each customer’s bill
• Everything hosted and supported directly by Data Deposit Box™
• Customer billing handled by Data Deposit Box™

Resellers create and manage customer accounts directly using our administrative portal. Customers can also register online using an encoded link from the reseller’s site. Referred links from the reseller’s site will earn the same commissions.

I haven’t personally tried this but it looks like it may be an interesting business opportunity. I would be interested to hear about how this works for people.

And the service looks pretty good to. According to PC World:

Data Deposit Box’s set-it-and-forget-it desktop client automates the backup process and handles everything in the background. It lacks scheduling, though; instead, the client backs up files as they’re changed. In our hands-on testing, the client seemed to use hardly any Windows resources and didn’t interfere with other tasks. It uploaded our 21MB backup set and didn’t slow down our Web browsing.

I kind of like the idea of instant backup. Might be worth a try.

LoudLaunch - Compensating bloggers for their unbiased opinions, reviews, and analysis. View the LoudLaunch campaign release this post was based on.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/03/20/another-affiliate-program/trackback/

Note: This blog entry is sponsored by LoudLaunch.

I was playing around with my home firewall the other day and I discovered that it has a serial port on it. Upon further examination, I discovered that I could hook an old modem up to it and if my Internet connection ever went down, it would automatically dial out and I would continue to have (slow) Internet access.

I though that this was a pretty cool idea, since I am completely lost without Internet access. Now, I definitely will not be able to run streaming videos this way but at least I can still access my e-mail and go a quick Google search.

I am fortunate enough that my Internet provider give me a free dial up account with my broadband connection. If you are not as fortunate, you can sign up for relatively inexpensive at dial-up service at locally or you could try a new startup company called PCDialup.com.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/03/15/dial-up-for-redundancy/trackback/

Note: This blog entry is sponsored by LoudLaunch.

Are you a hardcore gamer? Can you complete every level of Half-Life in your sleep but still get lost on the way to the bathroom? Do you see an article on how to overclock your system and you are surprised to realize that there are some people who do not overclock their systems? If so, then FiringSquad.com is looking for you!

FiringSquad.com is looking for creative writers and videographers who are avid gamers and technologists to compete in a chance to win cash and prizes and ultimately content contracts with FiringSquad.com.creative writers and videographers who are avid gamers and technologists to compete in a chance to win cash and prizes and ultimately content contracts with FiringSquad.com.

FiringSquad.com is the premier website for the hardcore gamer. From the website:

FiringSquad continues to bring you the absolute latest in the world of PC technology, hardware, and the games that take advantage of them. In these pages you’ll find the rigorous and unbiased reviews and previews, technology guides, and up-to-date events coverage that you’ve come to expect from FS. Our roots have always been in hardcore gaming, and we believe that these gamers will be the ones to shape the communities, competitions, and industries of tomorrow.

The writing contest preliminaries end Wednesday February 28th. The video contest preliminaries end on February 25th and March 18th. So get your entries in now!

LoudLaunch - Compensating bloggers for their unbiased opinions, reviews, and analysis. View the LoudLaunch campaign release this post was based on.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/02/23/852/trackback/

As you may have noticed, I have added a new section to the sidebar on Daily Cup of Tech.  This is the new DCoT Discounts.  There are two purposes for DCoT Discounts:

1. To generate income for Daily Cup of Tech so that I can keep it running
2. To provide products to DCoT readers at a discounted price

I see this as a win-win situation for everyone.  If you are in the market for a product and it is available through DCoT, you may as well get it at a discount.  It also helps to keep DCoT going (which is starting to become a costly venture).

The other thing about products in the DCoT Discounts section is that they are actually products that I use.  I will not put a product in the DCoT Discounts section until I have worked with it and I feel that it is something of use.  Which is pretty difficult since I find that there are a lot of FOSS products out there that will do what you want them to do for nothing.

So, hopefully we can all see a benefit out of this.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/02/11/discount-products-for-dcot-readers/trackback/

Note: This blog entry is sponsored by LoudLaunch.

Making money on the Internet is not always an easy prospect. The Internet, in many cases, has become a one way medium where people take from websites and then leave without returning any benefit to the website owner.

This is why I am skeptical about how successful Cafe.com is going to be.

From the Cafe.com website:

At Cafe.com, our mission is to provide the best gameplay and social experience available on the web. So we figured, why not give it away for free? Everyone likes free stuff right? All kidding aside, Cafe.com welcomes all players to enjoy our games without tricks or gimmicks. Simply stated, our profits come by providing an improved gameplay experience through the sale of additional items, power-ups, or other game enhancing objects. That means no spyware, no adware, no spam, none of that junk!

I think the other thing that is going to put people off from Cafe.com is the fact that you need to download a 12MB client file to play games online. There are a lot of other websites out there that require nothing more than Flash or Macromedia to play which will let you play all kinds of games.

Now, on a more positive note. The avatars do look very cool and if they get some really addictive games going, they could do quite well.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/02/10/free-games-internet-profit/trackback/

Note: This blog entry is sponsored by LoudLaunch.

I don’t know about you but just by looking at the PC-VIP website, I think they may already be in trouble. According to the news campaign release:

PC-VIP is a revolutionary new service that alters the way computer support is delivered to small and medium business and traveling executives and artists/models/actors.

I’m not really sure what this means but they have at least until April 1st to figure it out since this is when they will be releasing their service. There isn’t much on their website but I guess that will change soon. It seems like they are putting a lot of effort into generating hype about this. In fact, I even received an e-mail from them back in January. They were trying to recruit new technical resources to support the people who actually do the work. Here is the letter I received:

Hello.

On April 1, 2007, a new concept in Computer Support will be rolled out across the United States and Europe. We believe that PC-VIP will turn the market for support services to the SMB space ON IT’S EAR.

We are looking for qualified support professionals to act as field personnel in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Austin, Seattle, and Washington DC, as well as in Paris France and Brussels, Belgium, immediately.

The money is big, and no kidding, this will be so big that it’s entirely likely that anyone who isn’t “with us” might find themselves with a bit of a problem professionally, pretty soon.

One catch: We aren’t supporting the computers, we’re supporting the people. This means that while your technical skills matter, your people skills matter even more.

Simple offer: let us know of your interest, and we’re going to put upward of $100K/year in your pocket, and probably make your life easier at the same time.

You know what to do . . .

–
Jeff Yablon
President & CEO
PC-VIP Inc.
http://www.pc-vip.com

I sent him a polite response indicating that I did not work out of any of the cities that he was interested in.

So, I decided to do some digging and it seems that Mr. Yablon has been quite busy. Here is his history taken from a Google cache of his webpage:

Jeff Yablon, renowned educational speaker and broadcaster, software author, and business development expert, has worked in concert with senior management of companies large and small to craft and deploy strategies for implementing technology and business processes for employees and customers. He has been developing PC-VIP for several years.

In March 2000 Mr. Yablon, a syndicated radio and internet talk show host, sold his equity positions in Denver-based Planet Computer Inc. and San Francisco’s PlusMedia Broadcasting, both of which operated using business models designed by him and implemented under his direct supervision. Doing business as PlanetUplink®, Planet Computer was one of the first Application Service Providers, and remained one of very few serving the small-to-medium-sized business space until its sale to a larger corporate entity. PlusMedia produced and distributed news and entertainment programming via the internet, broadcast radio, and television.

In a career spanning nearly two decades, Mr. Yablon has consistently remained at the forefront of the way information is delivered and absorbed—often recasting rules for entire industries and segments of society. In February 1999, It’s Your Money Inc., the holding company for Yablon’s consulting, broadcasting, and software development efforts, was acquired by Planet Computer Inc. As its President and Chief Operating Officer, Jeff integrated Planet’s application hosting and consulting divisions with both business and consumer-oriented broadcasting services.

An internationally recognized expert in computer implementation, Jeff has written for International Data Group’s PC World Magazine and performed as an on-air analyst for CBS Television News’ Up To The Minute. In 1989 he founded the world’s first electronic publication, and built IYM Software Review’s reader base to 300,000 through distribution agreements negotiated with CompuServe, America Online, and others. In 1995, Jeff created The Computer Answer Guy™ for delivery via broadcast radio and internet-based audio. In that persona, he pioneered techniques for delivering advertising to listeners via streaming media, and maximizing its impact.

Jeff is also the author of Uninstall for Windows™. Upon its introduction in 1992, UN4WIN gained worldwide acceptance as the best tool for safely and completely removing unwanted software from computers running Microsoft’s Windows® operating system.

During his two elected terms as President of the Computer Press Association, Jeff helped author ethics standards for the journalism community, and created guidelines for accrediting electronic journalists that were implemented by virtually the entire technology tradeshow industry.

Jeff studied Economics and Marketing at Dickinson College and Rutgers University.

There is even more information about him at his ZoomInfo page.

I am definitely going to be following to see where PC-VIP goes. Jeff seems like a man with a good business sense based on his history. Even if PC-VIP looks to be shaky at this point.

LoudLaunch - Compensating bloggers for their unbiased opinions, reviews, and analysis. View the LoudLaunch campaign release this post was based on.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/02/09/flat-fee-tech-support-coming-april-1st/trackback/

Note: This blog entry is sponsored by LoudLaunch.

There are days that I think I will just scream if I have to read another boring report. My kingdom for some creativity!

One of the really easy things that you can do make your documents more eye appealing is to select different fonts for various parts of the document. Now, I’m not suggesting that you go out make every word a different font. That is a really good way to get yourself killed! But make your header one font and your title page another. Make sure they are all in the same family so that there is some consistency and suddenly your document is no longer the same old ugly page everyone else is passing around.

Need some more fonts? You can download free fonts and add to your current documents.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/01/30/urbanfonts-helps-get-rid-of-the-uglies/trackback/