Inq Mobile, One Of The First Facebook Phone Makers, Shuts Down

Inq Mobile, one of the first companies to build a Facebook phone, announced that it has shut down with a message on its site (h/t Android Police). The U.K.-based, Hutchison Whampoa-backed company didn’t say why it decided to close. We’ve emailed them for more information.
Inq, which was founded in 2008 and pivoted a year ago to focus on mobile software, said it will no longer update Material and SO.HO, its apps. Material, a news reader, released its final editions on Jan. 28, while social media aggregator SO.HO will not be updated after today, though it will continue to function. Support pages for the Cloud Touch smartphone and Inq’s featurephones remain on its site.
The timing of Inq’s closure and Material’s shutdown is interesting because several of tech’s largest companies have recently started to offer their own news apps and tools. These include Yahoo’s News Digest; Twitter and CNN’s Dataminr; and Paper by Facebook, which will launch next month.
Inq Mobile began as a maker of low-priced Android smartphones. It was one of the first companies that collaborated with Facebook to create a social smartphone in 2011, around the same time HTC and the social network struck the partnership that yielded the Salsa and ChaCha.
Inq’s Cloud Touch, which was released exclusively in the UK three years ago, had a custom Facebook wrapper built on top of Android, and an early version of SwiftKey. Though cheaply priced (starting at $50 with a subsidized contract), the Cloud Touch couldn’t compete with Samsung’s rapid takeover of the Android market. The company pivoted and started developing mobile apps one year ago.
Material, which TechCrunch covered when it launched its iOS version in August, was a social magazine app that used Inq’s “interest extraction engine” to look at the Facebook and Twitter accounts of users and figure out what kind of articles they wanted to see. Content was delivered in two daily editions.
At its launch, Material already had strong competition from popular social news readers like Flipboard, Zite, and Pulse.
Inq CEO and co-founder Ken Johnstone told TechCrunch at the time that Material differentiated from other news readers by offering an easier set-up than its rivals because all users needed to do to power Material’s algorithms was connect their Facebook or Twitter accounts.
“For somebody who has invested a lot of time in Twitter and Facebook anyway, this is about getting a return on that investment,” Johnstone told TechCrunch’s Natasha Lomas.
Yahoo, Twitter, and Facebook’s news aggregation products all feature some human curation, but, like Material, they also rely heavily on algorithms to customize content for each user. Inq had planned to monetize Material by harvesting enough data to build an advertising business, but its failure to do may be a cautionary tale for other developers of news readers, even as they continue to rethink how content is organized.
Though algorithms are necessary if a news aggregator wants to scale up (and collect enough data to be profitable), they still can’t replace the discernment of a human editor. Like Feedly, Pulse, and Zite, Material’s customized content stream suffered from problems like miscategorized stories, irrelevant content, and “the overall feeling you get from flicking through an edition is not a cohesive, editorially unified whole, but an algorithmically generated bunch of mostly random stories with (at best) a few loose, overlapping themes,” as Natasha put it.

Lenovo To Buy Motorola Mobility From Google For $2.91 Billion

TechCrunch has confirmed reports that Lenovo is buying Motorola Mobility from Google. This is the division within Google that the company purchased in 2011 for $12.5 billion. Motorola Mobility will go to Lenovo for $2.91 billion.
Of that $2.91 billion, $1.41 billion will be paid at the close of the deal. $660 million will be comprised of US cash and $750 million in Lenovo ordinary shares. The remaining $1.5 billion will be paid in the form of a three-year promissory note.
Google will maintain ownership of the vast majority of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio. Lenovo will still receive 2,000 patent assets and the Motorola Mobility brand and trademark.
According to a separate report published by Reuters, Lenovo is being advised by Credit Suisse Group while Lazard Ltd advised Google on the transaction.
“As part of Lenovo, Motorola Mobility will have a rapid path to achieving our goal of reaching the next 100 million people with the mobile Internet. With the recent launches of Moto X and Moto G, we have tremendous momentum right now and Lenovo’s hardware expertise and global reach will only help to accelerate this,” said Dennis Woodside, CEO, Motorola Mobility, in a released statement.
According to our source, Google wanted to dump the asset for some time. The company had to hold off selling the division for tax reasons.
Motorola Mobility’s performance has yet to live up to its purchase price. Since Motorola split and its consumer division went to Google, it has been a constant source of red ink. Motorola lost quite a lot of money: $248 million in the last quarter alone. Google sums this well, noting that the loss was “-21% of Motorola Mobile segment revenues.” Motorola lost $192 million in the year-ago quarter, so the trend here isn’t positive.
Google previously sold off the cable box division of Motorola Mobility for $2.4 billion.
This comes just weeks after Google purchased the hot hardware startup Nest. Since then, Nest’s role in the budding conglomerate that Google is turning into has been widely speculated about. With Motorola gone, Nest’s superstar team that includes many former Apple engineers seemingly has an empty playground.
It seems this complete’s Lenovo’s quest for an established cell phone business. It was rumored back in October that the company submitted a bid for BlackBerry. That deal clearly didn’t pan out.
Simply buying its way to the top worked for Lenovo in the past. In 2005 Lenovo purchased IBM’s personal computer division for $1.25 billion. That purchase alone caused Lenovo to be the world’s third-largest computer maker. But, using the established brand, Lenovo scaled the PC division to become the largest shipper of PCs in the world. In the last months of 2013 Lenovo overtook HP.
Just last week, Lenovo announced a plan to buy IBM’s x86 server business for $2.3 billion.
As the dust settles on this deal, it’s clear that Google took a large loss on its venture with Motorola Mobility. Google acquired an established brand with a vast portfolio of patents, a mature distribution system and a knowledgeable manufacturing arm. Even after pouring money and resources into the historic American brand, Google couldn’t make lemonade with Motorola. Maybe Lenovo, the now-leader in personal computers, will have better luck.
More as we get it.

The Core i7-4770K Review: Haswell Is Faster; Desktop Enthusiasts Yawn

The Core i7-4770K Review: Haswell Is Faster; Desktop Enthusiasts Yawn

Intel's Haswell architecture is finally available in the flagship Core i7-4770K processor. Designed to drop into an LGA 1150 interface, does this new quad-core CPU warrant a complete platform replacement, or is your older Sandy Bridge-E system better?

Editor’s Note: Eager to show off what it's doing with Intel’s Haswell architecture, system builder CyberPower PC is offering the Tom’s Hardware audience an opportunity to win a new system based on Intel’s Core i7-4770K processor. Read through our review, and then check out the last page for more information on the system, plus a link to enter our giveaway!
Do you know what it’s like to be at the top of your game, the nearest competitor several strides behind? Well, maybe not. But Intel sure does. When it comes to desktop CPUs, the company’s top-end parts continue to stave off AMD's best efforts. That applies to raw performance and efficiency.
We love fast, and we love efficient. But we also like to see healthy competition driving innovation. And again, on the desktop, there’s not enough of that to push Intel. Ivy Bridge-based CPUs are generally a small step up from the generation prior. And although the Sandy Bridge architecture included a number of notable improvements, unprecedented integration gave away Intel’s growing focus on mobility. Even as we got our hands on great features like Quick Sync, Intel was chiseling away at its enthusiast equity by limiting overclocking to K-series SKUs.
Expect more of the same from Haswell. You're going to see notable per-clock performance improvements, faster graphics, and additional features able to accelerate specific workloads. But you’re also going to witness a clumsy handling of overclocking (again), some strange decisions on the graphics side (again), and incremental gains that’ll have some of us upgrading our desktops, but more folks looking for Haswell-powered mobile platforms.
That's entirely by design, by the way. An emphasis on power is front and center with Haswell. And as a result, this architecture is going to span the broadest range of devices Intel has ever touched with one design. But I’ll argue that enthusiasts on the desktop take a back seat to make it all possible.

Meet Haswell, Now Known As Intel’s Fourth-Gen Core Architecture

Intel is rolling out the details of its Haswell-based processors in a staggered launch. The company plans to ship multiple variations of the architecture across a number of different interfaces, from very low-power segments to very performance-sensitive ones. However, the only arrangement emerging today is the quad-core SoC. Technically, Intel is talking desktop and mobile, though we’re deliberately focusing on the Core i7-4770K desktop CPU. I published a preview of Core i7-4770K’s performance almost three months ago, and that story has some information about Intel’s plans as well.

Haswell-based quad-core processors will ship in two configurations to cover the mobile and desktop markets. Only one is ready today, though. That chip features the HD Graphics 4600 engine, also known as GT2. The second, with Iris Pro Graphics 5200 (or GT3e) is coming later. Intel's engineers claim that Iris Pro scales incredibly well given a lofty power ceiling and enough cooling. However, CPUs endowed with the higher-end graphics engine are BGA-only, meaning they’re soldered down. So, enthusiasts buying LGA 1150-equipped motherboards will only find Core i7 and Core i5 CPUs with four cores and HD Graphics 4600 (technically, there’s also a 35 W Core i5 with fewer cores, but it’s still under wraps).
This implementation of Haswell is composed of 1.6 billion transistors, up from a comparable Ivy Bridge configuration’s 1.4 billion. Optimized expressly for Intel’s 22 nm node, the die measures 177 square millimeters, just slightly larger than quad-core Ivy Bridge at 160 mm².
Quad-Core Haswell with GT2
Quad-Core Ivy Bridge with GT2
Put Ivy Bridge and Haswell right next to each other and you might have a difficult time telling them apart. After all, there’s “only” a 200 million-transistor delta separating the two. That 14% growth in transistor count largely comes from a 25% increase in graphics resources compared to last generation.
That’s not to say the processor cores go untouched. Intel says it put specific emphasis on speeding up both today’s legacy code as well as applications we’ll see in the future. To that end, larger buffers enlarge the out-of-order window, which means instructions that would have previously waited for execution can be located and processed sooner. Haswell’s window is 192 instructions. Sandy Bridge was 168. Nehalem was 128. The Haswell branch predictor is improved, too. This is something Intel manages to do every generation—and for good reason, since it simultaneously enables better performance and prevents the wasted work of a branch getting predicted incorrectly. Previously, Intel’s architecture was able to execute six operations per clock cycle. However, Haswell gets two additional ports (one integer ALU and one store), enabling up to eight operations per cycle. And workloads with large data sets should see a benefit from a larger L2 TLB.

All of those changes add up to significant improvement in Haswell’s IPC compared to Ivy Bridge. That’s where we expect most of the speed-up in general-purpose apps to come from this generation, since the top-end Core i7-4770K runs at the same 3.5 GHz as -3770K.

Sure enough, when we set five different processors (employing four different architectures) to the same constant 4 GHz, we see, first, how much more work Intel gets done compared to AMD and, second, a steady progression forward in Intel’s performance.
In addition to the two execution ports Intel adds to Haswell, ports one and two now feature 256-bit Fused Multiply-Add units, doubling the number of peak theoretical floating-point operations per cycle. Integer math gets a big boost as well from AVX2 instruction support.

Of course, multiplying the architecture’s compute potential means little if you can’t get data into the core fast enough. So, Intel also made a number of changes to its caches. Haswell’s L1 and L2 caches are the same size as they were in Ivy Bridge (there’s a 32 KB L1 data, 32 KB L1 instruction, and 256 KB L2 cache per core). Bandwidth to the caches is up to doubled, though, and we’ll see in our synthetic testing that the L1D is indeed quite a bit faster. Intel claims that it can do one read every cycle from the L2 (versus one read every other cycle in Ivy Bridge), but we aren’t able to replicate those figures in our own testing.

	Cores / Threads	Base Freq.	Max. Turbo	L3	HD Graphics	Graphics Max Freq.	TDP	Price
Fourth-Gen Core i7 Family
4770T	4/8	2.5 GHz	3.7 GHz	8 MB	4600	1,200 MHz	45 W	$303
4770S	4/8	3.1 GHz	3.9 GHz	8 MB	4600	1,200 MHz	65 W	$303
4770	4/8	3.4 GHz	3.9 GHz	8 MB	4600	1,200 MHz	84 W	$303
4770K	4/8	3.5 GHz	3.9 GHz	8 MB	4600	1,250 MHz	84 W	$339
4770R	4/8	3.2 GHz	3.9 GHz	6 MB	Iris Pro 5200	1,300 MHz	65 W	N/A
4765T	4/8	2.0 GHz	3.0 GHz	8 MB	4600	1,200 MHz	35 W	$303
Fourth-Gen Core i5 Family
4670T	4/4	2.3 GHz	3.3 GHz	6 MB	4600	1,200 MHz	45 W	$213
4670S	4/4	3.1 GHz	3.8 GHz	6 MB	4600	1,200 MHz	65 W	$213
4670K	4/4	3.4 GHz	3.8 GHz	6 MB	4600	1,200 MHz	84 W	$242
4670	4/4	3.4 GHz	3.8 GHz	6 MB	4600	1,200 MHz	84 W	$213
4570	4/4	3.2 GHz	3.6 GHz	6 MB	4600	1,150 MHz	84 W	$192
4570S	4/4	2.9 GHz	3.6 GHz	6 MB	4600	1,150 MHz	65 W	$192

The Core i7-4770K gives us an 8 MB shared L3 cache, similar to Core i7s before it. Although the Sandy and Ivy Bridge designs employed a single clock domain that kept the cores and L3 running at the same speed, Haswell decouples them. Our cache bandwidth benchmark reveals a slight hit to L3 throughput, though improvements elsewhere in the System Agent keep the results fairly even.
Haswell offers the same 16 lanes of PCI Express 3.0 connectivity as Ivy Bridge, and validated memory data rates up to 1,600 MT/s. The desktop line-up’s thermal targets are quite a bit different as a result of Intel’s fully-integrated voltage regulator, but an upper bound of 84 W isn’t extreme by any stretch and a floor of 35 W is pretty familiar.
All of Intel’s upgradable processors now drop into an LGA 1150 interface, meaning any decision to adopt Haswell is also going to require a motherboard purchase, at least. So, before you drop several hundred dollars on a brand new platform, let’s figure out if Core i7-4770K is worth the investment.

 Overclocking Haswell: You’ll Pay For That

If you purchase one of the two K-series parts in Intel’s Haswell-based portfolio (and you have a Z87-based motherboard), you’ll have access to the same knobs and dials that were available from the Core i7-3770K and i5-3570K, with one notable change: the BCLK ratios popularized by X79 Express are back, facilitating some manipulation of the number that gets multiplied against the clock ratio. Intel exposes 1.0x, 1.25x, 1.67x, and 2.5x straps.
There’s a colossal difference between what Haswell-based LGA 1150 processors can do in theory, and what they can do after Intel’s product guys get done disabling the bits and pieces to create a differentiated stack, though.

Overclockers maintain control over core frequency using ratios up to 80x in 100 MHz increments. The on-die graphics engine is also adjustable in 50 MHz increments via ratios as high as 60x. Further, the memory controller is technically unlocked, allowing options for 200 and 266 MHz steps with a logical ceiling at 2,933 MT/s. Finally, the platform controller hub’s clock generator is unlocked too, supporting frequencies as high as 200 MHz.
But as with generations past, there remains a relationship between the DMI clock and PCI Express clocks—and you want PCI Express to stay as close to 100 MHz as possible. So, Intel implements 5:5, 5:4, 5:3, and 5:2 ratios to maintain constant PCIe clocks with a variable BCLK. Unlike the LGA 2011 platform, which used the CPU to adjust those ratios, Haswell requests this from the PCH. The outcome is similar, though. Expect a useable range between 5-7% around the ratio you choose for fine-tuning your overclock.
That’d all be well and good if Intel was enabling this new level of flexibility for the folks who don’t spend extra on K-series parts, giving them the ability to pick higher BCLK settings without access to the ratio multiplier. However, the company instead chooses to restrict the ratios to the Core i7-4770K and i5-4670K—the same ones you can already overclock in 100 MHz increments. Anyone buying one of the 11 other SKUs in Intel’s new Core i7 and i5 line-up is out of luck.

Overclocking Core i7-4770K

Moving on, what can you expect from a Core i7-4770K, in terms of overclocking headroom? We have a couple in the lab, and are getting 4.7 GHz, at most, across all cores using Prime95 to test for stability. However, those samples come from Intel. We were much more interested in feedback from someone with many, many retail parts at their disposal.

Our first-hand information involves a high double-digit number of processors, including samples and final shipping boxed CPUs. Sort testing was limited to 1.2 V to keep heat manageable. Ring/cache ratios are pegged at 3.9 GHz, with the memory controller operating at 1,333 MT/s. Of the chips available for sorting, only one is stable at 4.6 GHz under full load. A few are capable of operating at 4.5 GHz. More run stably at 4.4 GHz. Most are solid at 4.3 GHz and down. As you stretch above a 1,600 MT/s memory data rate or a ring ratio to match your highest single-core Turbo Boost ratio (which helps maximize performance), your top stable core frequency tends to drop.

Load-line calibration has very little, if any, effect with Haswell. There’s simply less flexibility to coax a killer overclock out of one of these CPUs using levers that were popular previously. Although the most enthusiast-friendly motherboards still include pages of options, a number of them simply don’t do anything beneficial. Flatly, it sounds like engineers and enthusiasts alike are still trying to figure out what the more obscure settings actually do.

We’re going to have to accept that Haswell-based parts get hotter, faster, it sounds like, and that they might fall a few hundred megahertz short of comparable Ivy Bridge-based parts with conventional cooling methods. It’s a good thing, then, that the architecture is inherently faster to help compensate.

 

Canon adds several new printers to lineup, including budget wide-format model

Canon adds several new printers to lineup, including budget wide-format model 

 

Canon introduced several new printer models last week at CES. While most are general upgrades from previous models, there are two affordable wide-format printers for home and small office users who need to output documents onto larger paper. In addition, there’s also a new laser printer in Canon’s ImageClass series.
The Pixma iP8720 is a 13 x 19-inch wide-format printer that uses six ink tanks for a max resolution of 9600 x 2400 dpi. The iP8720 is for the home user who wants to print large photos or photo-based craft projects, and at $300, it’s more affordable than the models in Canon’s Pixma Pro series – not to mention more compact and lighter. For the office environment, there’s the Pixma iX6820. This wide-format printer uses five ink tanks instead, since the thinking here is that this user prints text and graphics, not purely photos (a high-yield black cartridge is an option). The iX6820 sells for $200.
In the Pixma multifunction series, there’s the MX532 ($150) and MX472 ($100). Both have office-friendly features like automatic document feeders and fax, in addition to color ink printing for graphics and photos. Canon told us that both models are the same as their predecessors, the MX522 and MX452, in terms of performance and features. The difference being support for the Pixma Printing Solutions platform in the MX532, which lets you print from cloud solutions and social media sites such as Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, Evernote, Photobucket, and Canon’s own ImageGateway service. The MX472 has enhanced wireless connectivity, but no PPS here.
To the contrary, the Selphy CP910’s name does not reference the popular photo trend, but the name of Canon’s series of portable compact photo printers. These printers utilize cartridges that contain a finite amount of both ink and paper. What’s new with the CP910 is wireless support for cameras and smartphones via Wi-Fi. Smartphone users can use the Easy-PhotoPrint app for iOS and Android to print photos, but there’s also the old-school solution of plugging in a USB cable or inserting an SD card. You can also add creative touches to the photos before printing, editing them on the small LCD. 

Finally, there’s the ImageClass LBP6030w. Nothing special here, but if you’re looking for an affordable black-and-white laser printer for your office or as a secondary printer at home, it costs $159. It prints up to 19 pages per minute and has a capacity to hold 150 sheets. There’s Wi-Fi for wirelessly connecting to a network, but no support for some of the convenient Wi-Fi features found in the Pixma printers.

Yahoo Is Buying Tomfoolery, An Enterprise App Studio Led By Ex-Yahoos And AOLers

Yahoo Is Buying Tomfoolery, An Enterprise App Studio Led By Ex-Yahoos And AOLers

Yahoo’s acquisition spree continues apace, with the next deal likely to cover a few different bases for the company: mobile, enterprise and bringing ex-Yahoo talent back into the fold. We have heard that Yahoo is in advanced talks to acquire Tomfoolery, an enterprise app studio co-founded by two ex-Yahoos and two ex-AOLers. One person close to the situation says the deal could be done as soon as this week. The WSJ is also reporting a possible acquisition and puts the price at $16 million.
Tomfoolery — which opened for business last year with seed funding of $1.7 million from a group of big-name investors (it included Andreessen Horowitz, David Tisch, and a number of Yahoo and AOL veterans including Jerry Yang, Brad Garlinghouse, Ash Patel and Sam Pullara) – has been built around the concept of developing apps for enterprise users built on consumer principles.
The idea is that, in a world full of dry and often tedious enterprise software, adding consumer elements makes the apps more engaging and easier to use, and employees more productive. Tomfoolery’s slogan is ‘Work Awesome’.
The company’s first product was an app called Anchor, a real-time conversation platform. Users of the app can create groups for different threads, for example what to eat for lunch but also progress on a particular project. With a camera button alongside the main text input window, the idea is to be able to upload pictures as easily as you would in a consumer product to help make your points. Anchor also integrated with other popular apps such as Box, Dropbox and Evernote to help make it part of other workflows.
But Anchor was intended, really, to be just that: an anchor. Tomfoolery’s bigger business plan was to produce a number of apps that would work together (think Facebook with separate Messenger, Poke, Camera, Pages Manager and Instagram apps). From what we understand, that’s what it had been doing before Yahoo came knocking. One area I’d heard was in progress was a messaging app.
It’s not clear whether Yahoo would want Tomfoolery to continue along this particular enterprise/consumer trajectory, whether it has another mobile project in mind, whether this would be a talent acquisition that could see the team redeployed in a number of areas, or something else entirely.
All scenarios make some sense.
Last year, Yahoo made a couple of acquisitions that are now part of its Small Business group — Lexity (founded by ex-Yahoo Amit Kumar, who now runs the the Small Business group) and Rondee, a conference calling startup. Adding a team of people that has built a startup around apps for small workgroups would be a logical move to expand that business.
At the same time, Yahoo has its eye on making engaging mobile apps for more than just business users. Of the two dozen or so acquisitions that Yahoo has made since Mayer took over, a large portion have been in the area of mobile. But although Yahoo has been making some decent inroads in updating its mobile apps after years of near-neglect, the company has yet to really hone in on a perennial, breakthrough app — ending 2013, for example, without a single app in Apple’s Top 100.
It wouldn’t be the first time that Tomfoolery co-founder and product head Sol Lipman, who once sold a startup to AOL, would have been scooped up to boost a mobile team. In other words, Tomfoolery’s talent and ideas could just as easily be redeployed into that group.
It’s unclear how much traction Tomfoolery has had with Anchor, or whether it was in the process of raising another round of funding. Indeed, what is more obvious is that the group has a lot of talent in it that extends beyond mobile.
Co-founder/CEO Kakul Srivastava is the former GM of Flickr, who led it during its biggest phase of growth, from 37,000 users to over 50 million by the time she departed. She also played a big role in products like Yahoo Mail in her time at the company. (Like many others, she left and worked with Stewart Butterfield at Tiny Speck before moving on to co-founding Tomfoolery.)
Other co-founders like Simon Batistoni, VP of platform, had a big role to play in how Flickr build out its monetization platform and community aspects of the service (before he also left for Tiny Speck). And the final co-founder, Ethan Nagel, is described as an “architect hacker” who has worked both in enterprise but also mobile.
We are reaching out to both companies for comment and will update as we learn more.

 

Top 10 Ways to Make Money on the Internet

Top 10 Ways to Make Money on the Internet 

Start the Countdown

Unless you're a freegan and have found a way to live entirely off the grid, you probably need some sort of steady income in order to survive. The traditional way to earn money, of course, is by having a job. You work for a company or start your own, and the work you do earns you money, which you spend on things like a mortgage, rent, food, clothing, utilities and entertainment.
Most people typically work from their company's central location, a physical space where everyone from that organization gathers to exchange ideas and organize their efforts.
But a few lucky souls have found ways to make money within the comfort of their own home. With the Internet, an ever-changing arena for businesses, some people looking to earn money are finding ways to do so. Some forms are best for part-time endeavors for those looking to make a little extra money on the side, while others can lead to full-time jobs and Internet success stories.
We've put together a list of our top 10 ways to make money on the Internet, in no particular order. On the next page, we'll start with an old favorite.

10. Selling Stuff on eBay

Most people today are familiar with the concept: You have things you don't necessarily need but others are willing to buy, and you can auction off the items on eBay or other online auction sites. Simply gather your goods, create a seller's profile and start selling.
It sounds simple, but it takes some practice to sell successfully. Creating persuasive and legitimate product pages for the goods you're selling will help get buyers interested. It's also important to set reasonable minimum bids to ensure that people will buy. And remember to deliver the kind of customer service that will garner positive feedback ratings and to communicate with buyers to let them know you're reliable. The more positive feedback you receive, the more people will be willing to do business with you. And that, of course, means more money.

9. Blogging

It sounds simple, but it takes some practice to sell successfully. Creating persuasive and legitimate product pages for the goods you're selling will help get buyers interested. It's also important to set reasonable minimum bids to ensure that people will buy. And remember to deliver the kind of customer service that will garner positive feedback ratings and to communicate with buyers to let them know you're reliable. The more positive feedback you receive, the more people will be willing to do business with you. And that, of course, means more money.

If you have a particular passion for something, whether it's a hobby or an obsession, and you have something to say about it, blogging could be a profitable way to pour out your endless stream of thought. The key here, as with many other services on the Internet, is in selling advertising.
After starting up a personal blog, many writers sign up for ad services like Google AdSense, which post those familiar sponsored links you often see at the top and on the sides of Web sites. The more times your blog readers click on those ads, the more money you'll make through the ad service. This works fine if you're a casual blogger, and you may make some extra spending money. But if the blog is consistently interesting, well-written and really takes off, you may be approached by companies who want to reach your fan base with graphical advertising around your blog. Some of the more successful blogs, like I Can Has Cheezburger? and Boing Boing, have become pop-culture phenomena, and their creators have been able to quit their day jobs and blog full time because of the money they make from advertisers.

8. Designing and Selling T-shirts

A you walk around most high school and college campuses, you're likely to come into contact with lots of words. But it won't be material from textbooks or term papers -- those are probably in backpacks or sitting unfinished at home. Instead, they're the simple phrases or logos -- most of which are ironic or amusing -- printed on the T-shirts on the backs of the students.
Usually, the more unique and offbeat the design is, the more desirable the T-shirt is. The growth of the Internet has made it possible for vendors to sell T-shirts all over the world. In fact, sites like CafePress.com and SpreadShirt.com allow you to set up your own store, create your own designs and sell them yourself. If you can create your own shirt design with a clever catchphrase or come up with your own unique statement and people like it, you can start making money.

7. Freelancing

likely to come into contact with lots of words. But it won't be material from textbooks or term papers -- those are probably in backpacks or sitting unfinished at home. Instead, they're the simple phrases or logos -- most of which are ironic or amusing -- printed on the T-shirts on the backs of the students.Usually, the more unique and offbeat the design is, the more desirable the T-shirt is. The growth of the Internet has made it possible for vendors to sell T-shirts all over the world. In fact, sites like CafePress.com and SpreadShirt.com allow you to set up your own store, create your own designs and sell them yourself. If you can create your own shirt design with a clever catchphrase or come up with your own unique statement and people like it, you can start making money.

Freelancing is similar in some ways to blogging. For one thing, you get to work from your own home or office most of the time. But there are a few important distinctions. First, if you're thinking about freelance writing, chances are you need to have more experience than the average blogger. Many freelance writing positions cover specialized topics for online publications and many require expert knowledge on the subject. However, if you're passionate about things like travel or food and know how to write, a freelancing job can provide you with a good income.
Along a similar line, you might also consider self-publishing your original work rather than working on contract-driven tasks. Self-publishing offers many of the same benefits as freelance writing. This additional step is risky, though, because it requires marketing work to your target audience so they'll buy your work.
Writing's not the only way to make money freelancing, of course -- anyone with graphic design or programming experience can find contract jobs that pay well and provide challenging work, too.

 

6. Domain Name Flipping

Based on luck, strategy and business savvy, domain name flipping can be one of the more lucrative ways to earn a living online. The term comes from the real estate trick that involves buying old, undervalued houses, fixing them up to make them more attractive and modern-looking and selling them for a much higher prices.
In this case, the old and outdated place is not a house, but rather a domain name -- the main address for a Web page. With a little bit of searching, dedicated domain flippers locate unused, poorly maintained Web sites that have generic and recognizable identifiers and buy them. They usually pay a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars, but after extensive updates that make the site more business- and user-friendly, the domain name can fetch several times more than it was originally worth. The domain bird-cage.com, for instance, was bought for a mere $1,800 in 2005 -- after a redesign two years later, the site was sold for $173,000 to a bird cage vendor.

5. Financial Services

Financial services include accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll processing. Today, you can accomplish most of these services using specialized software. For businesses, this means hiring fewer people to handle these tasks. For individuals, it means doing it on their own and hiring a consultant online when necessary.
These cost-saving opportunities for consumers mean money-making opportunities for you. You can create a Web site on your own or work with an existing Web-based services group. Then, you can correspond with clients through that Web site and via e-mail.
If you want to offer financial services over the Internet, first make sure you're either trained or experienced in the services you're planning to provide. For example, you're probably not an expert on preparing taxes for a small family farm unless you've done so before or had training in farm-related accounting. In addition, make sure you know whether you'll need government licenses to offer certain services, and refrain from misrepresenting yourself or working illegally to avoid getting sued for fraud.

4. Customer Service

Many businesses support their products through a customer service department. In many cases, this means people who answer phone calls from customers. A growing number of businesses also offer customer service electronically through their Web sites and by e-mail.
At a Web site, customer service might include live chat sales and support. To use this, a customer clicks a link requesting to chat with a live person, and a customer service representative answers the request and speaks with the customer through a chat window. For e-mail customer service, the customer fills out a form at the Web site or sends e-mail directly to a particular address.
Since the live chat and e-mail depends only on having a reliable Internet connection and Web browser, businesses have looked increasingly at hiring home-based workers for these services. As a result, customer service contracting firms like Talk2Rep cover e-mail and live chat support in addition to inbound and outbound phone calls. While the pay rate is often minimal or commission-based, the growing demand for online customer service makes it a reliable source of income if you have a knack for it.

3. SEO Reviewing 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a growing area for Internet-based employment. SEO is a means of improving the results from a search engine so that they represent the closest matches and most reliable resources for the user's desired results.
As a contract SEO reviewer, working through a company like Leapforce, you can aid in this optimization. You start each evaluation task by judging a user's intent based on the key word combinations provided and your own knowledge of popular culture in the user's locale. Then, you use a set of given guidelines to evaluate how particular search results match that user's intent.
SEO reviewing can offer a steady income from home, but there are some risks. First, an SEO reviewer has to run reliable antivirus software and have a good, strong defense against malware. That's because viewing certain Web sites during evaluation tasks could introduce malware to the computer. Second, an SEO reviewer must be willing to view potentially offensive material, such as pornography. As a reviewer, you may be asked to check whether a given site contains malware or pornography, so you're putting your computer at risk as part of the job description.

2. Tutoring 

With each passing year, there seems to be increasing pressure for elementary, middle and high school students to make good grades and prepare for a path to higher education. For some kids, this means getting help from a tutor to bridge any gaps in understanding in certain subjects.
Since more families often have reliable high-speed Internet connections at home, too, Internet-based tutoring services are growing. When you apply for these jobs, you usually have to take tests in your selected subject areas and submit to background checks. Though you could start your own online tutoring service, sites like Tutor.com have already done the legwork for you in terms of marketing. These sites match thousands of kids with tutors each week.
While many Internet-based jobs offer flexible hours or multiple shifts, tutoring services might require you to be online during a specific block of time or reward you for doing so. This encourages tutors to be available during the heaviest demand. For example, when Tutor.com has more tutors than tutoring requests, it places tutors on a waitlist and gives preference to tutors who work at least five of hours per week in the 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST time slot Sunday through Thursday [source: Tutor.com].

1. Selling Handmade Goods

Earlier, we considered using sites like eBay to sell stuff that you don't need. You can also use Web sites to sell your original creations. Certain Web sites like Etsy.com and ArtFire.com are dedicated to matching the artists who create things by hand with the customers who appreciate and want to purchase their handmade goods.
If you're like most people, the word handmade probably brings to mind some traditional crafts like knitting, crochet, needlework, quilting, painting and sculpting. Handmade items don't stop there, though. You can also market woodworking, glasswork, metalwork and anything else you're capable of building at home. Be sure to focus on projects that you're already good at or that you have a passion for so you don't burn out producing each new item.
Existing Web sites like we mentioned before usually let you set up your own shop for free or for a very small fee for each item you list there. If you have a small home-based operation, this could be a better deal than setting up your own site. For many people, hosting and managing an entire Web site might be a full-time job by itself.
The biggest challenge for selling homemade goods is making back the cost of what you put into it. Not only do you want to be reimbursed for materials, but you also want to be paid proportional to the time you put into it. Keep track of your sales and purchases carefully in the first few months, and make adjustments as necessary to maximize your profit.
Now that you have our 10 ideas, click on over to the next page for even more information on ways to make money on the Internet.

 

Top 10 Web Hosting Sites Of The Year

Many websites and blogs will run fine on cheaper web hosting plans. However, when looking for cheap hosting you don't want to find cheap service instead! And of course you still want your obligatory support for PHP & MySQL web scripts. We believe the sweet spot option is to get a discount or a promo on a standard hosting plan from a reputable hosting company. Check out the selection below for the best values in the web hosting industry with the best prices and promos refreshed every day:

Best web hosting deals for the year 

Web Host	Hosting company	Price /mo.	Dom. name	Disk space	Transfer /mo.	Rating	Reviews
	HostMetro	$1.84	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited	5 stars	Best price Details
	iPage	$1.99	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited	5 stars	Best value Details
	JustHost	$2.95	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited	5 stars	Money Back Anytime Details
	WebHosting Hub	$3.10	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited	5 stars	Blog Special Details
	FatCow	$3.15	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited	5 stars	100% Wind Energy Details
	InMotion	$3.49	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited	5 stars	Best for businesses Details
	HostGator	$3.72	$12.95	Unlimited	Unlimited	4.5 stars	Pay Monthly Details
	Green Geeks	$3.96	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited	4 stars	Green energy! Details
	BlueHost	$4.95	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited	4.5 stars	Trusted Since 1996! Details
	GoDaddy	$4.99	Free	100 GB	Unlimited	3.5 stars	Domain specialist Details

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Most of the web hosts above will give you a special promo price, either via a coupon or automatically if you sign up through this page. Disclaimer: Some of these hosts will pay us a commission in addition to giving you a promotional price. These commissions are reinvested in the development of the b2evolution software.

About cheap webhosting...

The web hosting plans on this page have been selected for their low cost while still providing good value and service. These offers are well suited for hosting your first web site or blog. You can always upgrade later.
If you are unsure or just want a shortcut, we recommend you pick InMotion for a business website and iPage for all other situations...
If you are already looking into hosting pretty large, complex or multiple sites, your may want to look at the general best hosting list.

Hosting offers with details

Maximum Disk Space Maximum Transfer Free domain $ 1.84/mo 5 stars

Best price HostMetro Use coupon code b2evolution to get 25% OFF on your initial invoice! « Metro Max Guarantee: Every account includes no price increases, a 45 day money back guarantee, and more! We promise never to raise your renewal rates for as long as you are hosting with us. SSD Database Storage included! • Free Privacy Protection • Two Free Website Builders • Free Softaculous Script Installer for easy install of many scripts including b2evolution • cPanel Control Panel • Simple DNS Zone Editor • Advanced DNS Zone Editor When you contact us you will always be talking to someone who will be able to help. We have been given numerous awards for outstanding hosting and customer support. » HostMetro review » Current Prices and Promotions for HostMetro  Selected hosting package: Mega Max Hosting Payment plan Monthly Total price 12 Month Contract $ 3.34 /mo $ 40.05 24 Month Contract $ 2.59 /mo $ 62.10 36 Month Contract $ 1.84 /mo $ 66.15 Click here to verify and obtain the best price now! 1 user comment »

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Unlimited Disk Space Unlimited Transfer Free domain (for life) $ 1.99/mo 5 stars

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Unlimited Disk Space Unlimited Transfer Free Domain For Life $ 2.95/mo 5 stars

Money Back Anytime JustHost « From the business owner to the individual who desires full functionality on a small budget, Just Host provides your complete web hosting solution. Anytime Money Back Guarantee ? FREE Domain for Life ? FREE Instant Setup ? Unlimited MySQL Databases ? Unlimited Domains Unlimited ? E-Mail Accounts ? FREE Site Builder Just Host offers a ?no questions asked? Anytime money back guarantee with all our hosting plans. Our cancellation policy is very simple - if you cancel your hosting account we will provide you with a refund for the remainder of the term.» JustHost review » Current Prices and Promotions for JustHost  Selected hosting package: JustPlan Payment plan Monthly Total price 12 Month Contract $ 5.95 /mo $ 71.40 24 Month Contract $ 4.95 /mo $ 118.80 36 Month Contract $ 3.95 /mo $ 142.20 48 Month Contract $ 2.95 /mo $ 141.60 Click here to verify and obtain the best price now! 7 user comments »

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Unlimited Disk Space Unlimited Transfer Domain included! $ 3.10/mo 5 stars

Blog Special WebHosting Hub « The easiest way to get online! Get Web Hosting Hub and get reliable hosting at a budget price with 24/7 world class technical support. Great platform including b2evolution recommended suPHP setup for optimal blogging experience. Unlimited Domains ? Unlimited E-Mail Accounts ? Unlimited MySQL Databases ? FREE Site Builder ? FREE Domain for Life ? Award winning support Web Hosting Hub's combination of great features and reasonable price has made us popular with first time web site owners and long time veterans. Great hosting at a great price! » WebHostingHub review » Current Prices and Promotions for WebHosting Hub  Payment plan Monthly Total price 12 Month Contract $ 3.99 /mo $ 47.88 24 Month Contract $ 3.68 /mo $ 88.29 36 Month Contract $ 3.10 /mo $ 111.75 Click here to verify and obtain the best price now! 18 user comments »

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1 click b2evo install Unlimited Disk Space Unlimited Transfer $ 3.15/mo 5 stars

100% Wind Energy FatCow « Since 1998 the FatCow Web Hosting plan has provided reliable hosting services for individuals and businesses. Whether you're looking for a small business web host or domain name for you business ? FatCow has the service and experienced team to support you! FREE Domain Name • Unlimited MySQL Databases • Unlimited emails • Unlimited Domains Hosted • Website Builder • Shopping cart • Easy install of many scripts Our offices and our data centers are all 100% powered by wind energy. You can be proud that the machines hosting your website & email are fully eco-friendly! » FatCow review » Current Prices and Promotions for FatCow  Payment plan Monthly Total price 12 Month Contract $ 3.67 /mo $ 44.04 24 Month Contract $ 3.15 /mo $ 75.60 36 Month Contract $ 3.15 /mo $ 113.40 Click here to verify and obtain the best price now! 4 user comments »

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Unlimited Disk Space Unlimited Transfer Free Domain Forever $ 3.49/mo 5 stars

Best for businesses InMotion « Your web site deserves the best. Our easy to use business class web hosting combines all the features you need with top technical support, enterprise hardware, and our corporate commitment to quality. Free Setup ? 1 click b2evo install ? 90 day Money Back Guarantee ? Award Winning 24/7 Support ? Business Class Email ? Detailed Site Statistics ? Easy to use Control Panel Our certified technicians will help you every step of the way. Rest assured, you will get the best quality hosting from InMotion - even if you are shopping for "cheap hosting". » InMotion review » Current Prices and Promotions for InMotion  Selected hosting package: Launch Payment plan Monthly Total price 12 Month Contract $ 3.99 /mo $ 47.88 24 Month Contract $ 3.49 /mo $ 83.76 Click here to verify and obtain the best price now! 3 user comments »

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Unlimited Disk Space Unlimited Transfer Free Setup $ 3.72/mo 4.5 stars

Pay Monthly HostGator Use coupon code b2evolution25 to get 25% OFF when you order! « Sign up today and get your first month just 1 cent! After that plans, start at just $4.95 per month, with free setup. HostGator currently provides hosting to over 3,500,000 web sites. We may be one of the largest hosting companies, but we are so sure about our 24/7/365 support our owner will personally help you if you have any problems.. Free Setup ? 1 click b2evo install ? SSH Secure Shell ? 24/7/365 phone / live chat support ? 45 day money back ? 4,500 Free Templates ? Free SiteBuilder Moving from another host? Let us handle the process for you FREE of charge. » HostGator review » Current Prices and Promotions for HostGator  Selected hosting package: Hatchling Payment plan Monthly Total price Month to Month $ 6.71 /mo $ 6.71 12 Month Contract $ 5.22 /mo $ 62.64 24 Month Contract $ 4.47 /mo $ 107.28 36 Month Contract $ 3.69 /mo $ 133.00 Click here to verify and obtain the best price now! 7 user comments »

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1 click b2evo install Unlimited Disk Space Unlimited Transfer Free domain for life! $ 3.96/mo 4 stars

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