3 Presents and Tax Write Offs for the Internet Entrepreneur

Posted on November 18th, 2007 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: Deals, General Business.

So the Holiday Season is upon us. Time for thanks and cheer and presents… and your last chance for getting business expenses for the calendar year.

I thought I’d share three things I think are great expenses for this year.

1. Canon Digital Rebel XTi 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera - I purchased this just a few months ago to use for my freelance design work, my photography sites, and to use for product and model shots for use in my shops and blogs. I love it and wish I had gotten one sooner.

The picture above links to Amazon but it’s also available from NewEgg (one of my most trusted online electronic shops in terms of service, refunds, etc):
Canon Rebel XTI Black 10.1 MP Digital Camera - $669.99 at Newegg.com

If you can’t quite justify an SLR I offer you my second favorite camera
Canon PowerShot SD800 IS 7.1 Megapixel Digital ELPH Camera. Image stabilization is great and the Elph line is wonderful for its size and convenience.

2. Next on my list that I purchased this year (at a great rebate price) is my Palm 755p Dark Blue Smartphone (Sprint). I already owned a Treo 600 but upgraded to this when I discovered a much better phone plan which let me get this cheaply with a rebate. With the savings I made on switching plans I paid for this new phone in about two months.

My Treo has become a normal part of life for me now, the 755p was just a better upgrade from my 600 model: faster internet (faster than the iPhone) better camera, better screen resolution, more memory and processing speed.

One of the fabulous uses for my Treo is to be able to get internet access wherever I have a phone signal. I can get it on the phone itself or I can use bluetooth or the normal sync cord the Treo came with to get internet access for my laptop. No need to hunt for wifi. I’ve used it to work on my shops while out visiting family who don’t have broadband access (the Treo speed is faster than the dial up they got).

Palm(r) Treo(tm) 755p-Midnight Blue Palm(r) Treo(tm) 755p-Midnight Blue
With world-class Palm ease and broadband-like speed. The Palm(r) Treo(tm) 755p smart device delivers everything you need in one go-anywhere, Palm OS(r) device. It combines a smarter phone with wireless email 1 , a built-in browser 1 , and rich media capabilities — all at blazing, broadband-like speeds 2 .

3. And to finish this list I’m adding in something I did not purchase but would like to have… a fantastic, inexpensive, lightweight, mini laptop, the ASUS Eee PC 4G Notebook PC (7″, 512 MB RAM), Pearl White. If you own a desktop machine and would like a laptop for travel I highly recommend this machine. As a traveler myself, when I bought a laptop (a Dell Inspiron 600m which is still going strong) I partly chose it for weight. I have not regretted that decision. However at less than 2 pounds, the Eee PC has my old Dell beat by over 3 pounds and by a lot in size which makes a difference when you’re lugging around that laptop bag plus other items.

The con is that it does not have the computing power nor memory or storage capacity as a regular sized laptop so I’m pretty sure that means no using Photoshop CS3 while out traveling. But if you run a web based business like a CafePress store, there is plenty of work you can do via the web alone. The machine reportedly starts up very quickly and comes loaded with a custom Linux variant and 40+ applications and has Open Office so you can do documents and spreadsheets etc. It also has a webcam and microphone, built in card reader and usb ports (which mean easy memory expansion).

And one of the best parts is that all this is $400 including software. Yep, $400 folks.

One of these plus a Treo would make a super lightweight, less-worry-about-theft, travel team. Or you can use this as a supplement to your desktop machine at home: work on your desktop but surf on the laptop.

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Online Encrypted File Backup - 2 Gigs Free

Posted on March 5th, 2007 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: Website Tips, Deals.

Mozy is an online backup site that allows you 2 Gigs for free personal storage and has pricing for unlimited and business storage as well.

A feature I like is that data is encrypted on your computer before it is sent online. You can even use your own encryption key so not even Mozy can see what it is. PC Magazine and the NY Times give the service positive marks.

While the 2 gig deal is for personal use only, I figure I can use this for personal file back up and that will mean more room with my other back up system for business files.

Mozy’s website is: https://mozy.com but if you’d like to throw me a referral (you and I will get an extra 250 Mb in our free accounts) please use this link: https://mozy.com/?ref=43N4QB

Thanks to Tony for the heads up on this company (I used his referral link).

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Great Deal on an External Hard Drive - Back Up Lately?

Posted on November 21st, 2006 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: Deals.

500 Gig Iomega External Hard drive - $154.10 after rebate and deal

This is a great deal if you use the $50 rebate. If you use Google Checkout you’ll even get an additional $10 off which will put you at $154.10 with free shipping!
I’ll post more on the topic of Back Ups but I wanted to post this before the deal expired. Iomega is a brand long in the storage business (raise your hand if you have Zip or Syquest discs lying around from early graphic design days!). I don’t personally own this product (just put together a 400 Gig drive) but my Iomega Zip Drive is still working so I have confidence in their brand. I have also purchased from Buy.com before using Google Checkout and had no problems getting the $10 off deal as well. Get this for business use and the tax write off is also nice.

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Good Business Card Deal - Vista Print

Posted on October 8th, 2006 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: Marketing, Offline Promotion, Deals.

Here’s my discount link (25% off of your order) to Vista Print - I use these folks often both for their customizable cards but also for their free card offer (you pay shipping). You can get the free cards as many times as you like so whenever I’m ordering the normal kind I put in an order for some free ones as well.

The cards have a nice weight to them and the printing has come out great. The free version comes with a tagline about Vista Print on the back printed in grey.

Here’s a pic of some cards I made using the free option. I was lucky to find a stock design that went with my theme (rockclimbing). But do you see how I creatively used the lines for an address as places for my own text? You can use text fields for whatever you want, you don’t have to follow their “Address Line 1″ suggestions.
picofrgbizcards

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