I have been looking at others ways to increase revenue from my site recently. I recently signed up with Amazon as an affiliate to selling merchandise they carry. You earn commissions of varying amounts for the different items.

I have no idea how well this will work out, but being that I do review products from time to time, I thought I might as well add a link to a place where you can purchase them too.

Three Methods of Product Placement

I have done three things to get the products out there.

First, in posts where I review products that they carry, I will specifically add a little banner or advertisement square for the exact product that I am talking about. One example is my recent article about recovering pictures or files on a flash memory card. You will see an advertisement for Recover Pro on there.

Second, you will see at the bottom of posts there is a banner that has 2 or 3 advertisements for different products that Amazon carries. Over time, they analyze each page that their ads appear on and then tailor the product selections to the theme of the page.

Third, I have added a Thoughts From My Life Store. Basically, this is my own little on-line store that allows me to pick the categories and exact products I want to display. So I only went through and picked out items that I own or have used in the past that I would recommend. The other handy thing about this place is that if you ever see me talk about a product, there is a good chance you will find it in the store and can go read up on it at Amazon. Amazon has a lot of reviews, which I also have used in the past when buying stuff, even if I don't buy it through them.

Summary

Anyhow, the whole thing is a little experiment to see if I can generate a few more dollars and cents out of my traffic. Regardless, it does add some extra content and a simple way for people to go see reviews and such.

I'll keep you posted on whether I think it has been of value to me or not. I was using Chitika and Bidvertiser in the past, but the results have only been in the dollar or two a month range. Poor ad placement on my part could be the problem, but I have not been able to get them working better.

Post a Comment ... (2 Comments)

My wife and I attended Dirty Rotten Scoundrels that was part of our play series with Theatre Calgary. I have to say it was probably the funniest musical I have seen to date and I have seen a few in New York and others as they tour through.

As far as overall quality, I wouldn't say it was the best, but the humour was fantastic. Definitely more of an adult's performance with some low brow, crude humour.

It is basically about 2 con artists who woo wealth women and take advantage of them for their money. The one con artist is your older suave gentlemen and the other is a young one wanting to learn the ropes. The whole experience is hilarious.

I would recommend anyone to go see this sans your children.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

This is a very cool video that was created using data publicly available on the internet. It shows 24 hours worth of flights from around the world in a span of 72 seconds. It also lights up the earth in reference to the position of the sun.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

My favourite cartoon strip. Thought I would reprint this one.

Post a Comment ... (1 Comments)

My wife and I purchased a 2004 Mazda 3 around a month ago. I have to say we have been very pleasantly surprised. It runs quite smooth and gets very reasonable gas mileage. Here are the specs and my mileage results.

• Year: 2004
• Model: Mazda 3
• Engine: 2.0L
• Transmission: Automatic (triptonic)
• Mileage: 50,000 mi or 80,000km
• Highway speed: 80 miles/h or 130 km/h

Based on that I took my highway mileage going both directions to a location and found that I hit 38 mpg (6.2 L/100km) and 41 mpg (5.74 L/100km) respectively. Our city driving so far has been around 35 mpg (6.7 L/100km).

I will be slapping winter tires on soon, so I will do a comparison then as well. I also want to drive a slower speed and do a comparison.

Some Recent Comparisons

The last weekend in August of 2009 I drove from Calgary to Edmonton and back with some city driving while I was in Edmonton. I put on 567.3 km for the stretch I checked and used 36.04 litres of fuel. This is equivalent to 352.52 miles and 9.52 US gallons. That is a fuel economy of 6.35 L/100km or 37 miles per gallon. I drove around 115 km/h to 120 km/h on Highway 2.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

I recently purchased a Mazda 3 for my wife. It was a good exercise in the process of buying a used car through a private sale. There a a number of issue to take care of and I developed my own little process. You can read about it in my article Negotiating a Private Sale on a Car.

This article provides an example of a Bill of Sale or what I call a Purchase Agreement. You should always, always, always have one of these. It defines the actual agreement that you have come to with the seller. You will need it to insure and register your vehicle.

Feel free to use this template. I am sick of not being able to find a decent one for free. I have underlined and italicized the sections you will want to fill in yourself. You can copy and paste it into a text editor or try downloading a template:

• Bill of Sale Template (Microsoft Word)
• Bill of Sale Template (PDF)

I would keep the overall sections there, but you can add criteria to each one as you see fit. There might be more or less conditions as well.

Post a Comment ... (2 Comments)

I attended the Henry Rollins - Recountdown Tour at the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary last night. My first time to hear him speak. If you don't know anything about Henry Rollins, you can read up about him on the Henry Rollins Wikipedia page.

I don't really know him at all, but a friend recommended to go see him. He basically talks about a variety of things going on in the world, politics, places he has been, or experiences he has had. It is quite interesting and rather funny. More than a few rants and he talked for close to 3 hours without a single break. Not even a drink of water and I don't remember seeing him take the microphone away from his mouth.

I recommend checking him out. He'll make you laugh. Keep in mind that he is a little bit profane, so it isn't really an all ages crowd.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

I have learned a lot about negotiating and due diligence on a car when buying privately. This is from my own experiences and talking to other people that have purchased used vehicles and what they feel is important. If you don't think you need to do any of these items, then feel free not to.

I just whipped this article up from my recent experiences and I will continue to add to it over the next few weeks.

Due Diligence - Inspection Reports and VIN Checks

This involves checking out the vehicle for history or information that the owner either does not want to disclose or just plain does not know.

The VIN Report is a history of whether there are liens against the vehicle, it has been written off in an accident, where it has been registered, or other information. You can pay for it at your local registry ($22 in Alberta, Canada) or there are a lot of websites that offer a flat rate fee to check a number of vehicles over a certain time period. You should always, always, always do this check. It is cheap, quick, and can show you a lot. You can even ask for the number over the phone before you go see and a lot of owners list it in their ads.

The Inspection Report is an inspection by an actual mechanic shop to see the status of the car. They will identify items needing repair or that will need to be replaced soon. If the tires, brakes, and shocks are all on their death bed, then you might want to drop the price a bit to factor in this upcoming expense.

Deposit and a Contract

If you think you have a good deal, but you need time to do some further checking (VIN and Inspection) and get the financing arranged, then you will probably want to put a deposit down and do up a little contract.

The deposit will give the owner some security that you aren't just going to walk away, so he gets some compensation if he turned away other legitimate buyers and you end up not buying the vehicle.

The contract part is a good way to make sure there is an understanding between you and the owner as what the expectations are. What the final price is, what conditions need to be cleared before the deal can proceed, and a deposit so he will not sell to someone else until the conditions are cleared. If you don't live up to your end of the contract then he can keep the deposit and if his vehicle doesn't live up to his, then you should get your deposit back.

Some conditions might be that the owner can keep the deposit if:

• You do not finalize your conditions by a certain date.
• You do not bring him the final payment by a certain time.

Some conditions for you, the buyer, to get your deposit back and back out of the deal:

• The VIN number check for liens and accidents shows something he did not disclose to you when you asked.
• The Vehicle Inspection comes back with an estimate on repairs needed higher than a certain amount of money.
• The owner did not complete something he promised to do before a certain date (new tires, brakes, repairs, locating missing items, etc).

Bill of Sale

When you actually pay for the vehicle, you should get a bill of sale from the owner and make sure you get all the keys and everything at that point. You now own the car, but you can't just drive away in it until it is insured and registered.

UPDATE: Here is a free bill of sale that I created from other ones I found on-line.

Insurance

You have to have purchased the car and have the bill of sale to insure it. Talk to you insurance broker about this. If you are needing to pick up the car sooner than later, then you can get them to usually fax a copy of the insurance pink slip to you.

Registering

You have to have the bill of sale and insurance papers to register your car. This is where you get the plates and register yourself as the owner of this vehicle at your local government registry.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

My wife's car has just about had it and I am looking at used vehicles in Calgary. It has been awhile since I purchased a vehicle. The last time I puchased one, it was through the old faithful Buy and Sell guide at the local gas station. This is my second time buying a used car in Calgary.

It has really changed now. I am using a number of different sites to find stuff now. Basically, it is the used listing sites and the car dealer sites for Calgary.

Don't take my advice as I haven't purchased yet, but I have done a fair bit of looking.

Used Listing Sites

The ones I am finding the best selection with right now are:

• Calgary Kijiji - A great free site.
• UsedCalgary.com - Another great free site.
• Calgary CraigsList - Not as flashy, but free and a ton of people use it.
• BuySell Classifieds - This one isn't free, but you get a ton of listings. It comes out on-line a bit later than the print version I believe, so it is harder to get a deal if you just look on-line and the vehicle goes quickly.
• Auto Trader - Not as many pictures posted and it is the same story as the BuySell. Paper print comes out on Thursday and it is released on the Internet on the Monday.
• Autohound - This is a Canadian site speciailizing in used vehicles through participating dealers. Very handy to sort and find what you are looking for. There appears to be some basic buying guarantees offered as well.
• eBay - Old faithful is still a very useful tool and you can find deals all over. More U.S. vehicles are on here, but a lot are from dealerships so it is fairly legit. You only have to pay a small deposit and can pay the remainder when you go take a look at it.
• classifiedextra.ca - These are the classifieds from select newspapers (Calgary Sun is one of them).
• autocatch! - It has some interesting ways to search for vehicles.
• autoHunter.ca - Few different search methods and you can browse be dealer as well.

Dealer Sites

Basically pull up the sites for any of the dealers that you know of that sell new or used vehicles. They will have tons of listings and contact information to use. I think you are less likely to find a deal here, but it is a good reference point and you might just find exactly what you are looking for in terms of the specs as well.

Getting The Car Book Value for Free

There is that handy little black book to get the trade-in values for used vehicles or what some people call the "trade in" price. Quite often you have to pay for this book periodically or pay an on-line fee to get access to it. I found a handy way of getting a quote.

On the GMC website there is an Appraise Trade In tool that will let you punch in information and then give you a range of what your vehicle is approximately worth. This is more for the trade-in value, so chances are it will sell for higher privately.

What Costs Might Be Upcoming

When looking at a used vehicle, take note of the service work that has been done to it. Sometimes a little research on-line can tell you what has been a typical problem for that vehicle or things that might need to be replaced soon. Tires, brakes, fluid changes, and more are good to take note of. It is a cost that will have to be done anyways, but it is nice to know if you will be doing it within the year or if it is a couple years away.

A lot of cars have major service at various mileages. For example, the next major service for a 2005 Matrix is at 192,000 km. If you are looking at a Matrix that is already at 160,000 you will be thinking about soon. If you are under 100,000 you have a longs ways to go.

Automatic or a Standard

Also called a manual transmission, a standard is usually $1,000 cheaper off the new sticker price. A lot of the cheaper used vehicles you see will be a standard. If you don't want a stick-shift, pay attention to that.

Factor In Taxes

When comparing vehicle costs, the taxes can be significant as well. 5% GST will add $500 for every $10,000 you are putting into it. If you buy privately, you may not have to pay GST. I believe you are supposed to, but it is difficult to enforce. If you buy from a dealer, you will be paying the GST.

Also consider that province or state that you are buying it in. They may other applicable taxes depending on where you are from yourself.

Post a Comment ... (5 Comments)

Sorry for not posting in awhile. It has been busy and I have been lazy as well. The most recent turn of events is that our tenants downstairs are leaving so I have posted an ad to rent it out again.

It is actually a pretty sweet little location. Bus stop out front, newly renovated, two bedroom, 1000 square feet, laundry, large backyard, tons of parking, utilities are included, and the internet is included as well. Don't really need to do anything other than hook up the phone.

Hopefully it goes well. We just did some showings today and hopefully do more going into the weekend. Here are a few pics below. We are located in Ogden along a major bus route that goes downtown and we are only a 7 minute drive east of Chinook Centre. If you know anyone interested you can get a hold of me through the Contact Page.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)