1. A photo frame fixture/dock

The Apple iPad will easily double as a digital photo frame on steroids.  Instead of storing your iPad in your desk or on your coffee table, why not show it off and put it up on your wall?  It could have an inbuilt charger in it so any time you store it on your wall you are charging it at the same time.  It could also include some sort of anti-theft device so that you can show off your iPad without having to worry about it going AWOL during a party while you’re out the back refilling the ice tray.

2. Blogpaper (blog reader transformed into a daily newspaper)

How awesome is this idea?  Instead of a boring old blog reader app, why not turn your favourite blogs into a daily newspaper designed for iPad viewing?  Every time your favourite blogs publish new articles they’d be included in that day’s blogpaper which would be specifically designed for you to read on your iPad.  The most viewed articles would be considered major headlines, whereas lesser known blogs would be further on in the newspaper.  The app could even learn your reading preferences so that it could guess each day what you’d consider headline articles to go on the front page or which blog articles would be best suited to go in a less prominent area of the blogpaper.

If you scan through a blogpaper one day but don’t have time to read an article, you could cut it out and paste it into a scrapbook, which would categorize these articles for future reading without having to troul through an archive of old blogpaper editions.  In fact this scrapbook could then be converted into an ebook which you could then name ‘Best blog articles of 2010′ and read it at your liesure when you feel like some nestelgic reading.

You could even take it to the next level and people could share their blogpapers with other iPad users.

3. An easy-on-the-eyes screen guard

Protection screens are pretty much mandatory for iPhones as they keep the screen scratch-free and keep the resale price high (why would you ever want to sell your iPhone though?).  For the iPad a protection screen could go a step further and soften the glare of the back-lit screen.
Yes, Apple screens are a delight on the eyes already, but if you’re planning on sitting and reading a novel for 5 hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon, you want to be as kind on your eyes as possible.  I’m sure staring at a computer screen has affected my eyes so I’m reluctant to switch from paper to screen for reading novels.  If someone could invent a healthier way to read books on an LCD screen I’d definitely be willing to pay.

While we’re at it we should probably make this a fully seal-able waterproof case.  I have a feeling a lot of these will sit on coffee tables…

4. A soft keyboard that doubles as a protective case

If you’re doing any serious typing you’ll want a traditional keyboard.  Writing a 1,500 word blog article on the iPad touch screen just won’t cut it.  However what you don’t want to do is have to carry around a whole lot of accessories everywhere you take your iPad.  What if you could take a standard sized keyboard that could be folded in half to form a carry case for the iPad?  I saw a concept version of this for the Palm Pilot years ago – the keyboard could be wrapped around the Palm Pilot and double as a protective case.  This idea could be brought over to the iPad and as long as it was elegantly designed it’d be a sought after accessory for any blogger.

5. USB/SD Card multi-adapter

It seems crazy to me that Apple didn’t add a USB port or two at the bottom of the iPad (along with the standard Apple charger slot).  An SD slot would have also been extremely useful for travel or just in general when your friend offers to share some photos with you that are on her SD card in her camera.  What they have done is offered accessories but they appear to be rather limited.  An all-in-one adapter would be very convenient, and while we’re at it, if you could figure out a way for the iPad to use an external SD card reader as additional storage, you’d be pretty popular (it would be an easy and cheap way to boost the iPad’s internal memory).

6. A deluxe universal remote control

Turning the iPad into and easy-to-use remote control would be fantastic.  No buttons to push, just touching and sliding your way through Boxee, XBMC or other media center software.  If would give channel surfing a whole new meaning!

50c every vend!

1. How does 480% return on investment sound?

Although you can buy second hand for far less, for the sake or an argument let’s say you pay $500 for one machine. If all you earned was $10 a month then you’ll have made a 24% return on investment after one year. That is still very impressive if you compare it to other investment opportunities out there.

Let’s say you buy second hand and a machine costs you $150 and you manage to site it at a high paying location. At a monthly profit of $60 you’d have made a 480% return on investment after 1 year.

2. Do you like the thought of earning money without having to do anything?

Bulk candy machines can be a very good passive income source. Of course they’re not completely passive because you still have to go on site from time to time to retrieve the coins, clean the machines and restock them. But as you only really need to do this once every couple of months, I would consider it to be a very good passive income source.

3. Do you want to start a business but don’t have enough time?

Setting up a business usually takes a lot of time and a lot of money. If you already have a full time job it’s probably going to be very hard for you to find enough time to invest in such a venture. Bulk candy vending is great because you can start small and work your way up. Begin by buying a couple of second hand machines, this will only cost a few hundred dollars once they are placed on locations it’ll only take a hour a month to service them. As the profits come in you can re-invest them back into the business by buying more vending machines.

4. It will help contribute to a local charitable organization

Because these machines don’t take in a lot of money compared to fully fledged electronic vending machines, just loose change, businesses are usually happy to have the machines on site and simply allow 10% of profits
to be donated to a local charity. It’s a win-win situation, you can avoid paying the business any rental space costs and the business can donate to a local charity without actually paying any money.

5. You’ll have an endless supply of cheap candy for your snacking pleasure

Do you like M&M’s, Skittles or gumballs? If you’re operating you’re own bulk candy business then you’ll be bound to have more than you can eat.  Of course I’m only talking about those ones that ‘drop on the floor’.

6. It’s an uncomplicated way to invest your money

Warren Buffet never invests in a business which he doesn’t understand, and nor should you. Bulk candy vending is so simple a child could start doing it. Which brings us to point seven…

7. Make it a family business

Bulk vending is great to run as a family business. Restocking and cleaning is the perfect way for your children to earn pocket money

8. Do you like holidays?

Who doesn’t right? If you turn it into a full time business and leave your day job, you’ll suddenly find yourself with a lot more time on your hands. If you are efficient in the way you run things you’ll be able to take weeks off at a time while your little machines will keep churning through the coins.

9. It can be your means to an end

Maybe you’ve got a fantastic idea for a business, or you want to make a career out of doing what you love but haven’t sorted out where the money will come? Or maybe you are working long hours in the office and you’re missing priceless time with your family.
As long as you’ve got a full time job you’ll find yourself unable to invest the time an energy needed to get where you want to be. Why not start a bulk candy business? As explained in point three, you can start small until you build it to the point where it brings in enough money to cover your living expenses. At that point you’ll be able to take the leap of faith, leave your job and spend more time doing what you’re passionate about.

50c every vend!

Business and entrepreneurship have always been a passion for me. Unfortunately as I’m currently working up to 50 hours a week climbing up the corporate ladder I just don’t have the time at the moment to put any of my ideas into action.

I could quit my job, but with a mortgage and baby on the way, and with the state the economy is at the moment, I just don’t see it as being a responsible thing to do. Last year I started a health and fitness blog in the hopes that it would build up to the point that it would eventually become a money earner and give me a door out of the corporate world of more hours for more pay.

That blog still exists but unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to invest in it to get it over that tipping point. I figure I’d need at least 2 hours a day and with only 1 and a half free nights per week I just haven’t been able to focus enough of my energy on it.

What I need is to build up a more passive form of income.

Near the end of 2008 I came across the blog Genius Types by Brian Lee. One of the topics covered in that blog is passive income. Brian reminds his readers that no income is truly passive, it always requires some amount of involvement whether it’s stock investments, real estate or domain name trading – they all require a certain amount of work.

For most of us, buying a rental property is the best form of passive income. You buy a property, take in rent covering the interest on the loan and wait until you can buy the next house which allows you to snowball the passive income.

Unfortunately rental properties do actually require a lot of investment. There is also an amount of risk and, depending on where you live, it can be a bad investment. At my present stage in life, I really don’t want to have another mortgage on the back of my mind.

So what is a better form of passive income for people like me? Bulk candy machines.

Bulk candy machines you say? Why not proper vending machines – surely they would make much more than a simply coin operating gumball machine? Yes they would but they would also demand a lot more attention than a simple bulk candy vending machines.

With a bulk candy machine I figure I’ll be able to make about minimum $0.50 per vend. If I manage to place

the site at a location that gives out 1 vend a day then I’m making a profit of $15 per month. Multiply that by 12 months in a year and I’ve got an annual profit of $180. Let’s say I pay $300 for the machine (you should be able to get machines for a lot less than this) then the return on investment is 60%.

Does a 60% return sound good? It certainly does for me, which is why I’m investigating this further!

From Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/passive%20income)
Earnings an individual derives from a rental property, limited partnership, or other enterprise in which he or she is not actively involved.
Investopedia Commentary
There are three main categories of income: active income, passive income, and portfolio income. Passive income does not include earnings from wages or active business participation, nor does it include income from dividends, interest, or capital gains. For tax purposes, it is important to note that losses in passive income generally cannot offset active or portfolio income.

Based on this definition it seems that passive income is any income derived from investments/businesses in which one is not actively involved.  Most business owners or free lancers are not passive income earners.  This is because they need to be working and involved in things things in order for the income to be generated.

True passive income is when work is done initially and from then on the income comes in whether or not you work.
For example:
- rental properties
- royalties from books/films/music
- businesses which can be managed by an employee

All of the above examples require minimal effort to keep the income coming.  Unfortunately they also require huge initial investments of either money or time which the average person cannot afford.
Passive income is a great concept and should you be lucky enough to inherit $1m I would definitely recommend buying a profitable business or a few investment properties.  But for the rest of us we need to start off with income that is not quite as passive as the above examples.

Enter, semi-passive income.

Some people will argue that no type of income can be 100% passive as it will always require some degree of time and energy.  Instead, the idea of a continuum is presented where a full time job is at one end (100% active, 0% passive) and living off the interest of a large sum of money in your bank is at the other end (0% active, 100% passive).

Of course even at these extremes, nothing is truly absolute.  If you are on annual leave while working a full time job you can momentarily enjoy passive income.  Also, if you need to negotiate new interest rates, or shop around with other banks for better returns on your term deposit you suddenly find your income is not passive (at least while you are sorted those things out).

Essentially this income continuum means we should want to be as close to the passive income side as possible.

Examples of semi-passive income:

An example of a semi-passive income could be that of blogging.  A blog can earn money around the clock, with successful bloggers earning over $100k a year.  A blog is not passive income as it requires maintenance and updates, and new content.  But it can be seen as semi-passive income as the money you earn is not directly related to the hours you are putting into it.

Another example would be a drop-shipping e-commerce store.  While it would require you to spend time and resources on marketing, logistics and product sourcing, the actual income would not be generated from the hours you put in but from the success of the site itself.

What does that mean for us wage slaves?

Well, assuming that people reading this blog are interested in starting their own business you will realize that you need to move away from trading time for money to a more passive form of income.  A great way to do this is start small.  Create a small passive income stream which you can then slowly build upon until it is reliable enough to move further towards the passive side of the continuum.

The problem with aiming for quantitative goals (such as earning $125 or more per day) is that you can end up aiming an striving for the wrong things and end up with something you never really wanted in the first place.

The world we live in is addicted to wealth creation. Money is the object of most of our endeavors. But it has been conclusively proved that money does not bring happiness. In fact if you can be content with being poor then you are actually richer than most of the people of Forbes rich list.

What I am looking to achieve with my online endeavors is financial freedom. That is, the freedom to do what I want, when I want, wherever I want. In the kind of society we live in that means you will need money to survive (eat, drink, stay warm at night and so on) but that doesn’t mean if I become rich I have reached my goal. What if I have to work 50 to 60 hours a week to maintain that level of income?

Essentially I would like to spend as little time as possible earning as much money as possible but I don’t want to be on a never ending journey of wealth creation. For this reason I have done a few calculations to come up with a figure that I can use as a benchmark.

Goal: Reach the point where I earn a consistent average of US$125.00 per day.

I am willing to bet money that the second person is more likely to succeed than the first. Don’t get me wrong, there are many people just like the first guy who will end up beating the odds and making it anyway. But they are few and far between. There are many, many more who will get disheartened long before the finish line and give up.

You see there are many children who have dreams and lofty ambitions of what they would like to be when they grow up. But unless these kids formulate goals to make their dreams become reality they will only ever live out their dreams as, well, dreams!

The importance of setting goals is seen in almost all areas of life. Many famous sports people, politicians and business people admit that they had to set goals to reach their levels of abnormal success. The reason is simple. Without setting specific goals your success is only by chance. And that chance, is a very small one.

For too long I have been focusing on simply doing as much as I can in the hope that one day I will find something that will work and can start reaping the benefits. I already have the big goal – to build a successful business online. But what smaller goals am I aiming to achieve to reach this huge goal?

There are thousands of ways to make money online, what way am I choosing to make it? If I have chosen a method, what steps am I taking to reach this goal? The point is that the ones of us who set small, challenging yet realizable goals that are all in line with reaching one main goal, are the ones who will most likely succeed. For the rest, their goals will simply remain as dreams.

Moving forward I am planning on choosing one task which I must have completed each week. Along with this will be other tasks which I may or may not work on. As readers I encourage you to do the same. If you do not have a full time job you can of course choose more than one main task, but for those of us who do have a full time job there is a need especially at the onset to KISS.

Stop dreaming about your goal and start working to achieve it!

P.S. Look for my upcoming post in which I will write down my goals and translate them into tangible results. After all, it is not until you write down your goals that the rubber starts to hit the road.

I will not be tutoring anyone as such but rather using my experiences as lessons for both myself and my readers to learn from. I do not yet have any experience with making any real amount of money right now. As I type these words I admit I am an amateur.

My main source of income is my salary from my 40 hour a week daytime job. Additional revenue comes from interest earned on a small amount of savings.

By the end of this year (2008) I plan to have started at least one successful internet business venture and to have increased my passive income level.

The cumulation of this blog will occur the day I no longer requier to work in my day job.  This will be when I have created a large enough stream of passive income that I will no longer need my monthly paycheck.

Please follow along to see how my progress is coming along, and to learn from my successes and my mistakes so that you too can upsize your pay!