Win an eBay Gift Card from Vitamin eBay!

John Paul writes the eBay themed blog "Vitamin eBay" which covers the world of eBay selling as well as other interesting tidbits related to the auction site. John's a current eBay Powerseller (www,asapsellsit.com) and right now is offering a $25 eBay gift card in a New Year's contest he's running for the next week. Entry simply requires heading over to the contest post at Vitamin eBay and leaving your email in the comments.

You can gain bonus entries by doing any of the following:

-Post the giveaway on Twitter.
-Post the giveaway on your blog.
-Post the giveaway on a group or forum discussion board.
-Post the giveaway anywhere that someone other than yourself might see it. (keep it clean)

The winner of the $25 eBay gift card will be chosen in a week from today, so get on it folks! $25 on eBay is a nice extra for many people these days. It could provide you with a special gift to pamper yourself in these tougher economic times or allow you to resell the gift card for a small cash bonus!

Make sure to refer to the official Vitamin eBay contest post for full details. Good luck to all who enter!

A New Year, A New Computer!

With 2009 starting to sink in it was time to improve my productivity and that starts with the personal computer here at home. These days just about anything and everything can be designed, ordered or performed via the computer. You do everything from writing your blog, building websites, do your taxes, watch movies, stream music to your stereo or even order a pizza using your PC. And as always, speed in computing is of the essence. Right now Hewlett Packard is running a great special of $289 for a newly built computer (HP Pavilion a6600z AMD Dual Core 2.3GHz Desktop PC), with free shipping, and The Monetizer just couldn't resist it.

Here's the rundown of the HP's tech specs:

Operating system: Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
Processor: AMD Sempron(TM) LE1300 (2.3GHz)
Memory: 2GB DDR2-800MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x1024)
Graphics card: Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE [VGA]
Hard drive: 250GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
Networking: Ethernet Modem
DVD/CD drive: LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
Front Ports: 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, audio
Sound Card: Integrated 5.1 channel sound with front audio ports
Software: Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
Security software:No additional security software
Speakers: No speakers
Keyboard & Mouse: HP keyboard & HP optical mouse

I'm highly anticipating the HP's arrival in a week or so, since the new machine will have Windows Vista as its Operating System. I've heard good and bad, but have personally never used Vista, since XP works just fine for me and upgrading was a bit costly. Now I'll get to learn the new OS, and add that to my resume. I'm also slightly interested in seeing how fast it is compared to the Dell I have currently which has just 1 gigabyte memory and a slower processor.

As for the extras, I chose the 15 in 1 card reader which will be built into the front of the computer. It's got 2 USB ports on front, and I'm assuming a few on back. Software's another story. Since there was no included Virus protection, I purchased Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 from Amazon.com. I did thorough research on Internet security suites (anti-virus + anti-spyware + firewall) and discovered Kaspersky ranked 2nd to Norton on Amazon. It's also a top choice among online PC review sites. After reading reviews, the package seems to provide a great deal of security and doesn't tie up alot of your computer's resources (memory). Kaspersky was only $34.99 while others run as much as $50-60. It even includes a very cool "Virtual Keyobard" feature which allows you to enter personal data into that to encrypt it and prevent those cyber thiefs from getting it.

Another consideration is finding some software for photo editing and word processing. I recommend to anyone who wants to save some money and not get sucked into buying a $300 version of MS Office, to download OpenOffice.org. It includes spreadsheet (Excel compatible), word processing (Word compatible) and several other nifty office-style programs, for Free. Another bonus is that it allows you to create PDF's which can be helpful to those who design e-books. As for digital photos, I will install Google Picasa which is a very nice free photo editing, printing and online uploading tool full of cool features. Why spend big bucks for these sorts of programs when they are available for free and work very well? As for printing I'll use the all-in-one Canon Pixma MX310 printer which is very nice for under $100.

Overall, I'm looking forward to the new HP's arrival. It has a build date of January 7, 2009, and should be here shortly after that. With 2009 just underway, I look forward to this new "toy" because I believe it can make 2009 an even better, more enjoyable, moneymaking experience! I'll provide an update on my experiences once the machine is officially up and running.

(If you're interested in the deal, I found the HP a6600z at dealspl.us via the link below. You'll need to enter a coupon code at the final stage of the order to slash about $30 off the total).

HP Pavilion a6600z CTO Desktop PC

One Bad Customer Service Story

If you're running a business one of the most important mantras is "the customer is always right" or "customer service should be first and foremost". For some reason Blockbuster.com does not seem to adhere to this ideology and it can wind up hurting them. Case in point, a recent deal I spotted on a deal website for a hard-to-find Nintendo Wii video game. The game retails for over $50 in stores, but was sold out anywhere you'd look in the "real world". Blockbuster.com offers a nice Holiday special on the game, just $38 plus shipping. Great deal right?

Well the problem with this deal and the Blockbuster site is that from the moment I placed the order online there was no indication given of the item status. My order status was "In Progress" and remained that way for several days. Confused by this I sent a simple email to customer service. It was the holiday season after all so I was expecting a bit of a backup or delay in shipping. Add to this the fact that the particular game was sold out in stores.

My email was responded to and a customer service rep claims that my credit card was being validated to make sure of no fraudulent activity. The customer service rep also added I should "kindly wait up to 2 weeks for the item to ship". Very interesting, and very fishy. I send another email saying "No thank you, I won't wait two weeks, please cancel the order at once".

A day or so later I receive an email response by a different customer service rep apologizing for the delay and saying he will cancel the order. Unfortunately, this was not done and the order continued to read "In progress" on my Blockbuster.com account. Let me add that my card was charged for the $44 since the start of this story. So to sum it up, card charged, no product shipped, no status given, and lousy customer service.

A call was finally placed to Blockbuster.com's customer service. After a long wait (the main reason I try to resolve issues online rather than by phone), I spoke to a rep who explained that the video game was on order from a third party vendor. If I wanted to wait just 5-7 business days they might be getting the game in at that time and could fulfill my order. But here's the kicker: I was also informed that Blockbuster was going to allow 30 days to see if the item arrived in stock. If it didn't arrive they would refund anyone's money who placed an order for the game. If you ask me that's terrible service for several reasons:

1) Blockbuster is keeping customers in the dark about the online order status. At least indicate on the product page that the item is on backorder and may take up to a month to ship. This is one thing I love about Amazon.com, as they let you know the time frame any item may take to arrive.

Deceptive customer service? Each email response I received was from a different rep who seemed unfamiliar with the issue. The original rep claimed my order was delayed due to credit card validation, not the fact they didn't have the product, which is akin to lying.

2) Blockbuster is taking money before shipping anything. As mentioned, my card was charged, yet there's nothing to show for that charge. To add fuel to the fire, I placed the order from my Paypal credit/debit card. So the funds were basically taken away from my account and wouldn't be returned to me for 30 days. These days money is money, but with online transactions the average customer wants to know what's going on with theirs.

As you can see my friends, this is one messed-up online business model! We live in a real-time online business world as sad as it may be for some, but that convenience should include improved customer service at the click of a mouse. The online retail experience allows us to find the product we need quickly and order it securely, with confidence we will have it in a reasonable time frame. Amazon.com has the online sales model right, Blockbuster.com seems to be slightly shady with their practice. If they plan to survive and thrive online, Blockbuster needs to provide better order status info, better customer service resolution including real-time online help. Otherwise they may find themselves confronted by a slew of never helpful BBB complaints.

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Resolutions & Goals for 2009

Greetings and Happy New Year to all readers!

It's a New Year 2009, and that means many people are making those ever so popular "New Year's Resolutions". The term "resolution" gets used so nonchalantly as each New Year arrives because resolutions seem to be just mere statements people make such as "I plan to get in better shape" or "I'm going to make more money" or "I resolve to eat better". The problem with these is that they are vague, general statements that are non-commitment type plans. They're something people blurt out as part of holiday tradition but they don't become a strong part of people's daily routines for the coming year.

The Monetizer says don't make any resolutions for 2009. Goals are the way to go my friends. Vow today to set yourself one big goal, or write down 3-10 goals you'd like to achieve in the coming year. And that is step 1 of your goal-achieving process, write them down. Keep that list handy and keep yourself committed to the goals on that sheet of paper. Maybe even make several copies for yourself so you're constantly reminded of the goals you want to achieve in this brand new year.

Also consider making those goals as specific as you can. Saying "I want to lose more weight this year" could let you off easy if you lose 2 pounds. Write down "I'd like to lose 30-50 lbs" to make it more specific and give yourself something to keep to. Or use a goal such as "To increase my online income to $1000 a month", etc. Another helpful concept is the time-old tradition of announcing those goals. But announce them to people who will help you stick to them :)

Some of my 2009 Goals include increasing my Adsense income (one of last year's goals which I succeeded nicely in), improving my health even more through better diet & exercise, increasing my eBay business sales through specific niches, buying a domain & hosting for one or more of my blogs, and incorporating one or all of my online businesses. That might be the biggest of the goals, incorporation of a business. Right now with down economic times it seems necessary to find ways to write our own paychecks, so that we control our own financial well-being, rather than the government doing so. Entrepreneurs are really what drive this great nation as they provide helpful new products and services, and create jobs for the nation. I have specifics for each of the above goals which I can't go into great detail on. I've also jotted down my goals and will carefully craft better statements to hold myself to.

2008 was considered overall a bleak, painful year financially and many people may call it one of their least favorite years in recent times. Remember that a high degree of optimism is what helps people overcome adversity and succeed. That doesn't mean don't take a concerned or cautious approach to these tough circumstances but instead find the silver linings. As I mentioned in a previous post, down times can definitely hit everyone hard, but it's in these times we need to find moneymaking opportunities for 2009. Now more than ever people can begin to find those opportunities and stick to their goals for 2009 to make it one great year!

3 Moneymaking Opportunities for 2009