More techno-goodness coming soon I promise, but I realised that I had become a slug about updating the site!

So, what’s the title all about?  I was lucky enough to get an invitation to an event being run by Daniel Wagner in London last week. Not only that, but it was all kicking off fairly close to where I live, so I went along for a session in the afternoon that was being run by Mark Vurnum.

Mark’s forte is in building a huge lead-generation system which pays him on a per-site basis but which also builds a list that he uses for further monetization. So far nothing too unusual about that I hear you say.

The difference in Mark’s system is just how large it has now grown. His figures suggest a network of around 8,000 sites (yes that’s EIGHT THOUSAND!) each of which brings him an average of $5 per day before he even starts to use his list.

Now, $5 doesn’t sound like much, but every site he builds is pure increment on the existing cash flow. For me, the best thing about this all is the cost of entry. Given a hosting package of even very modest size, you should be able to get each site running for the cost of the domain, say $8. As soon as the money starts coming in, you can upgrade, outsource the work, anything you like to make it scale! The premise here is to win the race eventually by being steady, not by aiming to be a millionaire overnight.

You might be able to tell that I’m fairly excited by all this….and yes, as disclaimers go, I did sign up to Mark’s offer on the spot….having sworn to spend no money at all. I’ve only experienced this style of site building to a small degree, offering some Amazon content on a micro(micro) niche and even that has made me enough to pay for my last three month’s hosting – with no real effort on my part. I can see that a little higher ranking would hel;p that site, but that another 100 like it would be very nice indeed.

So, this is the next experiment. I will be carrying out this technique and I will be reporting back on my progress. Watch out for continuing reports.

Huh?

If that was a load of acronyms that just blew past, this is really just a post combining the last two tests I did with the Kodak Zi8. 720p is the lower HD resolution (720 pixels in height) and 60 fps is just how many frames per second the camera was capturing. Kodak pitch this as good for action.

In the spirit of that claim, the first video is a short outdoor clip of a car based on the pump-up water rocket idea. The Top Gear logo just made it more expensive!

My initial impressions of the video are pretty good clarity, hand-shake under control and if you step through it closely, you’ll see that the resolution as the car shoots off is pretty good. Shame the car itself was totally faulty and went back the next day!

In the second clip, I hauled the Zi8 back indoors and tried the classic party candles video, so beloved of a thousand doting parents every single day! I’m a lot happier with the stabilization in this clip than the one in my last post and although the Zi8 gets into the normal state with backlit exposure, I’m not unhappy with the output.

If you found these useful, then add a comment below or on YouTube and if you’d like me to try the Zi8 out in other circumstances, I’m happy to test your ideas out.

I pushed the first quick video taken on the Zi8 up to YouTube this morning, so here it is in all its glory (or horror – wait till you see the subject!)

If I had any comments to make, I’d say that it was taken in relatively poor lighting, so I am prepared to believe that had some effect on the stabilization…I will test that theory out in a separate video.

The quality of the original is good enough (even in 720p) to fully record the fact that I got very little sleep the previous night but the youtube compression obviously affects the final viewable video here.

The other thing that really caught me out is the default zoom level. This is just a tiny bit too much to be able to comfortably record a hand-held head and shoulders shot and as a result I might invest in a smaller version of my fantastic Gorillapod so that I can get a bit further away…..the tripod socket being one of the reasons I went with thee Zi8 in the first place.

The Kodak Zi8 is a sexy piece of kit and no mistake. As a pocket HD video camera it is a bit bigger than the Flip Mino series of cameras but this little beast comes with image stabilization and a separate microphone input for a stereo mic.

I made a couple of quick videos looking at the Zi8 as I unwrapped it today. This must be the first time I have ever stepped out and bought a toy within a day of its release.

Tomorrow, I will post a couple of test videos actually made with the Kodak Zi8, so come back for more!

So, this first one is just the initial excitement of unwrapping the camera….just like Christmas.

The second looks at the exterior of the Kodak Zi8 camera and the packaging as supplied in UK.

If you want to get your hands on one in the UK, I got mine from Amazon for £129, you can find it here:

Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera – Black

And because I’m so good to you, I even looked it up in the US if you want one:

Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera (Black)

I have no idea if it will boost my creativity, but at least you will see every grimace and failure in HD As always, please rate the videos if you found them useful.

If you are just about to set up your first site, particularly if it will be focused on your internet marketing efforts, then hopefully you’ll find this useful.  A quick video today, partly prompted by a question from a friend, partly by my ongoing frustration at ever finding an untaken domain that matches one of those keywords that take so long to find.

Please forgive the sound quality, my editor decided to crunch it somewhere along the way…still learning Sony Vegas I’m afraid.

As always, if you find it useful, please rate the video, tweet it or comment. All feedback is most welcome.