Blog

lucky.ie

This is a project i’ve been working on quietly for the past while with enda of iliveontheweb.com. Enda and myself are working on several partnerships at the minute but this is definitely the ‘fun’ one.

Lucky.ie will start out as a place for enda and myself to go head to head in a gambling competition. Each month, we’ll have a €20 budget, and a set of rules to go by.

We’ll battle it out in a gambling war to see who can turn the most profit each month. Every single bet we place will be blogged about and you can track both of our progress on lucky.ie

We’ll also have a tips section, along with deals and news. We’re not quite sure what direction lucky.ie will take in the long term, but for now, we just hope to have some fun and provide some entertainment and *fingers crossed* turn a profit!

Rarely do i gamble… when i do it’s usually because i’ve stumbled upon a free bet or some sort of offer. But for the purpose of this site, it will now become a regular thing. I do watch and track a lot of sport from F1, to snooker, to soccer… so i’d imagine i’ll be sticking to those rather than horses

As for my tactics, i’ll not be sticking to any particular formula. For the first couple of months, i’ll be happy to make a small profit as i learn how things work and get warmed up. After that, i’ll be hoping i can double my money each month.

I know it can be done, it just requires a tremendous amount of discipline.

topcommentator.com

This was Enda‘s baby to start with but i now find myself going 50-50 in on it. It’s a pretty simple idea and one i know will work.

We comment on other blogs, linking back to topcommentator.com and analyse traffic statistics on our own site to show you all the benefits of commenting on other blogs. Our aim is to become the ‘top commentator’ on several of the largest blogs online.

Most big blogs reward their top commentators with link backs or special mentions in blog posts. Whilst it’s wrong to comment on blogs purely for backlinks, it’s not wrong to engage in discussion and have conversations with other people, even if you are ultimately only doing it to gain backlinks. You’re still creating value for the blog owner and it’s readers, plus yourself, so it’s a win win (provided you’re not talking about rubbish, spamming or going off topic).

Tomorrow, i’ll be adding two new sites to my portfolio. Both are works in progress but both have potential.

photo credit: theloushe

One is a .ie, the other a .com and the .ie is getting me very excited Simple idea, not sure if it’s been done before but i think it will work and people will like it. I know i will! Come back tomorrow and all shall be revealed…

These past couple of weeks, i haven’t been online much and one of the reasons for that is because i’ve been looking at cars for my girlfriend. One thing that hit me straight away was how FEW second hand cars there are for sale in garages.

12 months ago, forecorts would have been full, but these days they seem to have cut way back. It might not be a good time to be selling, but it’s equally as difficult when buying (due to lack of second hand cars for sale through garages).

Some dealers we’d go to would literally have maybe half a dozen second hand cars for sale – the rest just brand new… We’d looked at & test driven a peugot 107, peugot 307, renault clio, ford fiesta, nissan micra and a few others. Yesterday, we viewed a 2004 nissan micra intending to buy it and ended up buying a 2006 Suzuki Swift.

The Suzuki Swift is a poor man’s mini (a car that’s always been on my wish list) but it is a really aggressive, hyper little car, just like the mini.

I don’t like 2 doors (especially when i’m stuck in the back of them) and it’s the only downside to this car… apart from that, it’s perfect for a first car, a run around and a fun one at that.

Insurance was working out at over €1600 for two people (girlfriend and her mother), but i managed to get it online at the last minute for just over €1200 for the entire family + me as a named driver fully comp So i drove it home from cavan today and got a good test drive out of it (about a 1 hour drive).

Today, Yahoo and Microsoft announced a partnership designed to compete with google’s search engine. Whilst they won’t say that, that’s what they’re thinking and everyone BUT microsoft and yahoo know that won’t happen.

photo credit: negatendo

Last year Microsoft tabled a $45 BILLION offer for yahoo which yahoo foolishly rejected. Today is basically the day when Yahoo conceded defeat (as a search engine) to both google and microsoft.

photo credit: official_powerset

Microsoft’s bing has been hyped up to no end but have any of you switched to bing from google? I’d hazard a guess not one of you have. It has a few cool features but the main problem with bing is that it’s not google.

That’s harsh, very harsh, but it’s the truth. Google has become so huge, it’s a verb and it’s also the definition of a search engine to non tech people.

What can bing do to compete with google? Nothing. It’s too late… much like google is too late on to the scene with it’s operating system and to a lesser extent it’s chrome browser. All bing can do is keep chipping away and hope google shoot themselves in the foot at some stage.

Windows 7 will be a success – no doubt about it. But in europe, it won’t come with ie8 which means bing is, for want of a better word, screwed. Not many people will download ie8 over firefox in europe… not many people know what ie8 or firefox are….

So guess what… they’re gonna ask friends and work buddies ‘how do i get on to the internet?’ and guess what’s going to be recommended or given to them? Firefox. So microsoft won’t be able to promote bing the way they’d like to in europe.

The only way bing will triumph is if google do something stupid, and we all know that’s highly unlikely. Google do need to be challenged and competition is healthy for them and for us and for technology in general, but right now google are invincible when it comes to search.

This saturday, August 1st, i’ll be launching a new website with enda of iliveontheweb.com. We’re working on several projects together and this will be the first new project to go live. I’m not going to give away too much but let’s just say this website is a real gamble

photo credit: mag3737

It’s a .ie and we’ll be aiming it at us irish only, although i’m sure it’ll provide entertainment and prove to be of *some* value for international visitors also. This is very much a fun website, and one i know we’re both going to enjoy ‘working’ on.

It will involve myself and Enda competing against each other on a monthly basis and if we get enough interest, we may even get more people involved and build a community around this site.

Stay tuned for the official launch this saturday