Blogger blog deleted.

Every morning I wake up to a bunch of emails letting my know my various accounts have been suspended. All fake of course and containing a nefarious link designed to scam people. This morning was a little different.

I received all my emails from my main account, but then my Gmail account wasn't working and I couldn't seem to get it to work on the mobile. Weird I thought, but with technology not unexpected. I went to one of my Google services and got the following message.

Now again that's not unusual. I accept online services are constantly targets for hackers and minimise my exposure with online services as a result. If anything I have online is lost it will just be a nuisance. With email it would probably be annoying, but other than than, not business critical. All information I consider important is backed up offline. So I provided the code and was able to get into the Google service.

Now my Gmail on my mobile wasn't working so I decided to again use the notebook. There was a message for the Google Blogger team.

Hello, Your blog at http://justlocal3107.blogspot.com/ has been reviewed and confirmed as in violation of our Terms of Service for: SPAM. In accordance to these terms, we've removed the blog and the URL is no longer accessible. 

That's a little annoying I thought. They've deleted the blog. No way to contact them. Just gone. Hmmmm. Didn't think they'd do that. That's an unexpected exposure. Now whilst I'd planned that should I lose all the information in the blog it wasn't much of a concern since it is largely local news items, but to lose that blog as well. Hmmm. Have to think about that one. I decided I'd take a backup copy of the data in the other blogs I run. Some articles may be useful. Apart from generating traffic and sharing information publicly, I find minimal return for my efforts through blogging. Yes I get a huge amount of traffic at times, but most people on the internet want freebies, so traffic rarely converts to ta return. Even if all the blogs disappeared tomorrow it wouldn't be a major concern.

However for some their Blogger blogs is their livelihood. To have Google simply delete a blog and not suspect it, or provide a method of communication to rectify a situation, well that's the risk of using Google's free services. Google, Microsoft will drop services being used by tens of millions of people without a second thought. What happens to one person is irrelevant.

As best as I can tell, the reason the blog probably was deleted was I use the facility which enables me to send posts from my email and they'll appear in the blog. All that is protecting the blog is a password which is part of the email address. This is standard. If the password is hacked then others can post to the blog. I suspect someone managed to hack the password. Nearly everyone using an online service is now usually only protected by a password. The username is often known since many online services uses their email address. In this case people who know how Blogger is set up know there's only a password to work out. Spam starts to appear, Google flags unusual activity. Instead of suspending they simply delete the blog. Game over.

So if you have any type of online presence, do seriously think about your business exposure. Your online presence is being attacked constantly and you will be totally unaware as you can't see that activity. It is only when something succeeds will you find yourself finding you're faced with an issue.

Gmail, Microsoft's online mail, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox and all the other online services expose you and your business directly to the most active and fraudulent sector in our community. Review your exposure and make sure you have a plan in case something goes wrong.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.

United Energy Summer Saver Trial

I received a letter from United Energy inviting me to participate in their Summer Saver Trial. I checked all their information and everything appears above board. In effect you can receive up to $100 per summer by reducing your energy usage for three hours on what they call an 'event day'. A day of high temperature. I'm assuming this means up to four days.

I'm happy to participate in the trial as I enjoy saving energy. The problem for me is since I'm already a relatively low energy user, it may be hard for me to reduce the energy usage even further, but I'm happy to give it a go. Our current energy usage is around 5-7 kWh per day.

For those interested in saving money on electricity, reducing your usage is quite effective. I wrote and use the following Energy Cost Calculator to work out how much appliances were costing me. Knowledge as they say is power. In this case, less power.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
Helping your business to be found by your neighbour.

YouTube - Your video may include music that is owned by a third party.

I used a couple of very old public domain videos as part of new videos I created. I received this message and also other message where others were claiming rights to the material. Pretty scary on the one hand that you may be breaching copyright, but also annoying when the material was obtained as public domain material from the Archive.org. I'd lost a bit of trust in Archive.org, but perhaps I was concerned where I shouldn't be concerned.

For this video I removed the section of music as it had no impact on the overall result. YouTube then accepted the video. But then each additional video gave me a similar issue because others appeared to be claiming copyright over the material. It was really annoying as the material was public domain.

The problem as I saw it was in YouTube's service. YouTube is just looking for similar content. It can't tell if part of that content is public domain. Once you incorporate public domain material into your own work it becomes copyright. That means any number of people can legitimately use the same public domain material, incorporate it into their work and their work as a whole becomes copyright, but not original public domain material. I hope that makes sense. At least that's how I see it.

So I decided to challenge. This is scary because you can get a strike. Three strikes and you impact your YouTube presence. So I decided to challenge two videos. It takes around 30 days and if there's no response your material is then cleared for use. Both of my videos are now valid and available on YouTube. Phew. Indeed a bit scary.

This does mean that for each video I produce in this way there may be a delay of around 30 days and I only wish to take the exposure of two videos at a time risking copyright infringement. So it will be slow progress for what I want to do. In the end however hopefully it will be worth the time.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.

Computer Repairs Melbourne - New site now live to test how the .Melbourne top level domain performs.

I decided to register the domain www.Computer-Repairs.Melbourne. The new top level domain .Melbourne provides a new opportunity to use a relevant domain for the services I provide. Now if people are searching for Computer Repairs Melbourne hopefully they'll more easily find my service.

In addition I have no idea of how well the .Melbourne domain will perform so as always, the best way to find out is to run a test. I'll be sharing the results with JustLocal members.

This is also a bit of a change in direction for me. Over the last few years I've been very focused on generating business in the local area. I simply don't like the idea of charging people travel time as I feel it is an unproductive use of time. Yet what is really strange is that isn't an issue for others, just me. So instead of making it hard for people who aren't located locally but still wish to use my services I've returned to my original business model. I simply charge for the time involved including travel time. Quite of bit of my support calls are handled over the internet or the telephone so travel isn't an issue in many cases. However sometimes travel is required, and when it is, there's no longer an issue to me if there's not an issue for the client.

If you're in Melbourne, or in fact you could be located anywhere, and need assistance with your computer, then you're welcome to contact me via email or my mobile 0415 910 703.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.

Catch Up Coffee video now live on YouTube.

I thought I'd create a short video to demonstrate the Catch Up Coffee site and the mobile page. You can find the video at http://youtu.be/T9BvU-y61Ec.

Having attended quite a few networking breakfasts and events over the years one of the best events happened completely by accident. The power who had been invite to speak at the networking event didn't turn up. The group looked at me (I was simply another attendee) and ask me to lead the group. Not quite sure why the looked at me, but I didn't mind. I thought for a moment and I thought, you know what, what I really want to know is what everyone else at the event did. That more I know about others the more likely I am to be able to use their services or refer others to them. I hope that in return people think the same way about my services.

I loved the approach so decided to incorporate the approach into Catch Up Coffee. To me there's far to much in networking events that simply is designed to fill the time. Do I really want to spend half an hour listening to a presenter promote their business. Not really. I'd rather know more about the people attending.

Attending networking events can get fairly expensive over a year. Most networking events now charge around $20-$30 and some more. If you attend just one event each week you'll end up spending close to a $1,000 a year.

With Catch Up Coffee the cost is simply the price of a cup of coffee, or whatever else you wish to buy. That's in the order of $3.50-$4. That's networking on a shoestring budget, and for many micro and small business owners, that's a welcome relief to the hip pocket.

On the Catch Up Coffee page I provide further details of my approach. All it takes is for you to invite just one person and then open it up to your contacts and you may be surprised how quickly a table of 6-8 is filled. Of course if you just want to catch up with one person, that's OK too.

Catch Up Coffee provides you with the opportunity to network with other like-minded business owners, exchange business cards, learn about each other, and relax whilst getting to know one another.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
Catch Up Coffee is a JustLocal initiative to help local businesses to get to know each other.

JustLocal.Melbourne domain name now registered and live.

The domain www.JustLocal.Melbourne is now registered and live. The domain system is a bit like a scam. If you don't register the domain someone else can, so in effect if you want to protect your internet presence a little, then often you're left with little choice.

The .Melbourne domains are worse than others. Somehow I think the Victorian government is involved and profiteering (I apologise in advance if the government is not involved) as the .Melbourne domain is probably the most expensive domain I own. If you're looking for purchase a .Melbourne domain the domain company I have on the main page of JustLocal I found to be the cheapest. Don't register any other features from the registrar otherwise the price continues to go up. I use the hosting company I have on the main page of JustLocal (www.JustLocal.com.au) so it cost me nothing extra to point the domain to the Melbourne postcode page of JustLocal.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.
Servicing Doncaster, Templestowe, Eltham and the surrounding area.

Christmas shopping hours Westfield Shoppingtown Doncaster 2014

It's getting close to Christmas so I thought it was time again to find out the Christmas shopping hours at Westfield's Doncaster Shoppingtown.

This year extended trading hours start on Sunday the 14th of December.

December
14 Sunday  9:00am – 6:00pm
15 Monday  9:00am – 9:00pm
16 Tuesday  9:00am – 9:00pm
17 Wednesday  9:00am – 9:00pm
18 Thursday  9:00am – 11:59pm
19 Friday  9:00am – 11:59pm
20 Saturday  9:00am – 9:00pm
21 Sunday  9:00am – 9:00pm
22 Monday  9:00am – 11:59pm
23 Tuesday  8:00am – 2:00am
24 Wednesday  7:00am – 5:30pm
25 Thursday  Closed
26 Friday  8:00am – 10:00pm
27 Saturday  9:00am – 9:00pm
28 Sunday  9:00am – 6:00pm
29 Monday  TBA
30 Tuesday  TBA
31 Wednesday  TBA

January
1 Thursday  TBA
2 Friday  TBA

The times from the 29th of December will be advised once they're published.

Also keep in mind if you require assistance with your computers contact Online Connections on 0415 910 703.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.
Servicing Doncaster, Templestowe, Eltham and the surrounding area.

Is SEO more cost effective than Google Adwords?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) has largely reached the status of being a scam for many businesses,  but in reality, like any business transaction, you'll get ripped off if you don't approach a purchase professionally.

I recently reviewed one client's SEO agreement and suggested they were being scammed. The agreement was professionally written and had targets that would be achieved. The problem, if the targets weren't achieved there was no penalty, so in fact the targets were just meaningless numbers. However had the business been wise enough to tie the targets to payment two things would have happened. The client would have received the service which achieved the results "they thought they wanted", or no money need to have been paid because targets were not met. With SEO this is dead easy to measure. You can agree to the list of keywords and you can measure the before and after position in Google. Nothing is left to chance.

However you'll see I wrote "they thought they wanted". You need to remove this part of the scam as well. You may think you want a particular keyword phrase to rank you well in Google's search results, but if it gets no traffic, there is no value.

A smart business person will:

1. Tie an SEO supplier to a list of known keywords.
2. Set agreed targets for those keywords in terms of positioning in Google's search results.
3. Measure the before and after position for the keywords.
4. Determine an estimate of the real value the keywords.

If you know the real value and the SEO business achieves the results you wish, then it is a service worth paying for as long as the return or the real value exceeds the cost of the service. The problem is the cost of using an SEO business can exceed the expected return so it can be a waste of money.

A good idea is to compare the cost of using SEO to the cost of using Google Adwords where you simply pay for advertising. Sometimes one will be more cost effective than the other. Sometimes both will be a total waste of money. If you do your research then it may be possible to use SEO or Google Adwords to make money. At worse, if you do your research, you'll know it isn't worth investing in either approach. Google and SEO businesses are there to make money off you. You are the only one looking after your interests so make sure you do your research.

I've now extended the SERP Calculator I wrote to include the number of clicks per month. The SERP Calculator lets you know the value of a position for a keyword in the Search Engine Results Page (a Google search). You should know the monthly value a customer is worth to you and you can use Google's Keyword Tool to determine the number of searches for a given keyword. The conversion rate is a bit rubbery and a good range is from 0.5% to 2%. The figure of 1% is the default and a good starting point. But as you can see this is just a guide and could easily be out by a factor of two in either direction. Whilst rubbery, right now it is the only guide I know of that will give you an estimated value you can use to base a decision.

The clicks per month is a figure I've just added which will enable you to determine an estimated cost using Google Adwords to achieve the same number of clicks.

As an example, I assisted Cherie Curlis, who is a member of JustLocal, to get a position in Google for Marriage Celebrant Melbourne. Previously Cherie didn't have a position in the first 10 pages of Google and is now in position 5. Google's keyword tool shows us there are 480 searches per month for the term Marriage Celebrant Melbourne. Cherie has provided the industry figure of $400-$900 for the typical service.

Plugging in the figures above we can see a position of 5 for "Marriage Celebrant Melbourne" has an estimated value of $117-$264 per month. It should be noted that it is expected the average time to acquire a new customer is 3.42 months. This is not a huge amount of new clients, just 3-4 per year.

Many SEO businesses set fees at $300-$400 a month, so if Cherie had used an SEO business for this one keyword, Cherie would be losing money. As a member of JustLocal I did this at no cost (keep in mind this will in future be a paid service). Thus it is important to know the expected type of return to see if SEO has value.

It should also be kept in mind SEO businesses often selected 8-12 keywords to optimise for, so all of the value of all the suggested keywords should be taken into account. Also the SERP Value Calculator is just guide. There's no guarantee of an actual return, but if used as a guide it is a valuable tool. More importantly, even as a guide keep in mind the return could be half to double the amount based on the default rate of conversion. For this one keyword phrase however, using an SEO business charging $300-$400 a month would be a waste as at best. It would barely recover the cost. Personally I think advertising should be 10-20% of the cost of acquiring a custom, so SEO should aim to return 5-10 times the investment. That's simply not the case here with SEO.

How then does Google Adwords compare?

Google's Adword tool suggests a bid of $4.30 for the keyword phrase "Marriage Celebrant Melbourne". With my own testing I've found I've not been able to get my paid ads positioned for the suggested bid so it costs more, often much more, but let's go with the suggested bid.

Now if we look at the SERP Value Calculator we see we expect 29.3 clicks per month. If these were paid ads using Google Adwords the cost would be $126 per month. That is certainly better than the typical SEO business charging $300-$400 per month, but at $126 a month, most of the money made would go straight back to Google. That simply isn't a good business decision.

Based on this information using an SEO business or Google Adwords is likely to be a costly exercise and most likely a loss, or at a minimum, most of the money going to third parties meaning there's little reason to use either SEO or Google Adwords in this case.

Whilst people may see this result as meaning SEO or Google Adwords is not worth it, that's simply not the case. The real meaning behind the information here is know your numbers and then you'll know if it is worthwhile for you. What amazes me in business is what works brilliantly for one business can often be a disaster for another and the opposite is also true. As an example I tested local paper advertising and found it a total waste of money. For another business they invested 10% of their turnover into local paper advertising and had a return of 10 times the advertising cost, or so they led me to believe. The information was made in passing and made have been exaggerated, but I still felt there was some substance in the information.

I'd highly recommend that you use the SERP Value Calculator to help you to determine whether or not SEO or Google Adwords is worth investing your money.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.

myGov - Tax refund notification - Alert

Today I noticed a new email scam aimed at myGov users. The myGov service is an umbrella site but one of the services promoted is secure email across a range of government services. I thought this attack was interesting as myGov is a service I'd only recently heard about.

If you receive emails sent from myGov you should discard them. To log on to your myGov services open your browser and enter the website address. Don't click on a link in an email.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.
Servicing Doncaster, Templestowe, Eltham and the surrounding area.

Westfield Gift Card stands out as it is one of the few that charges and additional fee at the time of purchase.

I was checking the rack of gift cards at Target and one in particular caught my eye. It was the Westfield Gift Card. It is quite interesting the range of gift cards. Personally I think gift cards are a bad idea. Somehow those giving gift cards think they've gone out and made the effort to buy a present when really all they've done is taken perfectly good cash and locked it into something that can be annoying, inconvenient and may even cost their family and friends more than otherwise need be. To lazy to thing of a gift and now it is OK to convert perfectly good cash into a more restrictive present that indicates just how lazy you really are. Go figure.

However the Westfield Gift Card stood out as even a worse deal for the buyer. It costs and additional $5.95 for the buyer. Who would do that? Why would people pay nearly 12% more just to give people a piece of plastic instead of a $50 note.

People are certainly weird beings. Somewhere along the line we've decided to the tune of billions of dollars across the world to replace the far more flexible, no strings attached lovely gift of a fresh new note with a more restrictive and costly gift of a gift card. We somehow thing grabbing a gift card at the check out shows we've made more of an effort.

In the past I've lost a $50 gift card from JB Hi-Fi, because it sat around for quite a while. I simply don't buy things from JB Hi-Fi that often. Another gift card I won as a prize from a networking group was close to expiry (no wonder it was offered as a prize) and soon after expired. Never saw that coming. I've also read that up 20% of gift cards never get used, but my reading recently indicates that could be closer to 10-15%. Still that's a lot of cash in the pockets of retailers for doing nothing.

I have to admit I have purchased one gift card for another person. I knew this person loved buying their music on iTunes. I wanted to give her an iTunes gift card and to me that makes sense. So I gave the gift I wanted to give that was the actual gift. Not a generic gift card that could be used in a range of stores as a replacement for cash. Perhaps others have their reasons other than laziness.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Australian Tax Calculator 2014-2015 now available.

I've now released the Australian Tax Calculator for 2014-2015. The Australian Tax Calculator enables your to enter up to four sources on income and determine the tax on the income.

Links to previous years are available on the calculator.

Recently a family member wasn't sure if they're need to pay tax as they have their main job and a second part-time job. Both jobs tax him appropriately but he was wondering if sufficient tax had been taken out. By using the Australian Tax Calculator he quickly found he had paid the appropriate amount of tax including the Medicare levy.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

How Toyota lost my trust in them and are unlikely to get future business from us.

At the moment I'm getting very annoyed with the constant upsell that is happening around us. Businesses we've used for years seem to just want to extract as much as they can from us. Bump up prices here, upsell there.

Businesses know they can increase prices and the extra profit from all their customers will exceed the profit from the customers they lose. That's why it is important to constantly review your suppliers.

I put my Toyota Avensis in for the 80,000 km service at Toyota Preston. Sat down at the desk and they said it would cost around $1,100. I asked if they could discount it which they did and the cost was around $1,030. Still pretty steep I thought. At this point they hadn't even looked at the car so I thought this was the standard service charge.

Some months later I decided to check the internet. Here's an old price from Cranbourne Toyota.

I have a Toyota Avensis. The price here was $674. I called Cranbourne Toyota for their current price and it was $768.

Now Toyota Preston decided to install a fuel filter which is where the extra cost is. Keep in mind I went in for a standard 80,000 km service. There is nothing in the Cranbourne information to indicate any additional charge for a fuel filter. At the point of booking in the car no mention of a fuel filter was made and the car had not even been touched.

It simply doesn't make sense. Toyota dealers are advertising a price for a service and then when you take the car in the price is much more. This was a standard service. Surely Toyota knows exactly what should be included in a standard service. If the fuel filter is required then that should be in the price they advertise.

To me this feels like false advertising. I've lost total faith in Toyota and their dealers now. My latest service was done by the motor mechanic that looks after our older cars. I'll be using them from now on.

Businesses can upsell and put their prices up and generally most of us simply tolerate it. It costs us a lot of money over the years but generally the devil we know is better than the devil we don't. For me I'll change if I think I'm being treated like a fool or trust is broken. In this case not servicing the car for the advertised price and upselling sight unseen, has broken my trust in Toyota. Trust once broken can rarely be mended. Our next car which will be purchased in the near future won't be a Toyota and Toyota won't even be considered.

How easy it is for companies to lose business simply by doing what isn't expected.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Alert: Westpac:New Payment

I've received a number of the following emails to different email address. These are fake scam emails and not from Westpac.

Westpac are currently forcing people to register an email address to use their online services. I keep reporting this to Westpac. Westpac just don't get how many scam emails are targeted at their customers every week.

My advice is don't provide your email address to your financial providers and then you know every email is a scam. There is no reason for my banks to send me an email. They have other ways to contact me.

Unfortunately eventually I will be forced to dump Westpac as I see little chance of Westpac catering to my needs.

If you receive these emails you should delete them. The links take you to what is most likely a hijacked WordPress site.  

Dear Customer,

Email: contactus@justlocal.com.au

Date: 11/11/2014

This email is to confirm that you recently made a Funds Transfer to a payee with account ending 8169 for the first time.

For more information about this payment please log in and select 'Payment list' from the Funds transfer menu.

Please Click here if you did not perform this transfer.

Sincerely,
Westpac Internet and SMS Banking Team


Please do not reply to this email. If you have questions regarding this email
please contact our support area on 1344 651 656 (7am to 9pm) Monday-Friday
or 9am to 6pm Saturday-Sunday AEST/AEDT).

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Leather couch from Harvey Norman is nowhere near the quality they used to be.

An elderly family member purchased a new leather couch from Harvey Norman and after a while the cushion behind their head showed the following wear.

It took a while and the seat cover was replaced. The person started using the back cushion from the second chair whilst they waited for the replacement cover and subsequently kept using the cushion from the second chair. Now the second cover is being replaced as well.

On the weekend we took measurements to make a cover to go over the back of the chair because the replaced cushion is now starting to show signs of the same wear.

Unfortunately the elderly do not want to keep making a fuss so eventually give up and put up with second rate quality. Here is a $5,000+ lounge suite that is clearly not of acceptable quality.  The previous couch lasted them over 20 years without showing this type of wear. Our leather couch is around 10-15 years old and does not show this sign of wear.

Harvey Norman should be investigating their supplier. Sadly the people I know will put up with this crappy quality furniture rather than make a fuss.

I will now be hesitant to consider using Harvey Norman for furniture given this experience. I don't want to be following up a supplier repeatedly so don't wish to take this risk.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

PS. I thought I'd add this leather lounge suite was purchased in April 2014. This quality is not good enough.

Virgin Airlines offer Uber voucher is a real concern.

Anyone considering using Uber in Australia really should check with their insurance company and make sure the car they'll travel in has insurance that will cover them.

If you read the Uber terms and conditions you'll see all the responsibility outside of the software is your responsibility. If what people are doing is illegal and there's an accident, the legal fees could wipe out people financially. This is not Uber's problem. It is yours.

Read the terms and conditions you'll see Uber's liability is limited to 500 Euro.

https://www.uber.com/legal/aus/terms

Does your insurance cover you?

If you're doing something illegal you won't be covered by insurance. Talk to your insurance company and make sure you get everything in writing. If something goes wrong it may be the most expensive form of travel you've ever used.

To see Virgin make such an offer whilst the legal situation in Australia is not resolved is not something I would expect to see from a company like Virgin.

Uber and Virgin have deep pockets and will be well protected. They are looking after their interests. Make sure you look after yours.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Subway $5 deal. Don't get tricked by the two different $5 deals.

Subway are running two $5 deals at the moment. A $5 deal where you get a six inch subway plus a drink and a second deal where you get a low fat six inch subway.

I feel the better deal is the deal which includes the drink. It may just be my imagination but I found today the $5 deal which included the drink was on the windows outside, but you only notice the $5 low fat deal which doesn't include the drink is advertised on the counter.

Of course some people will prefer the low fat deal, but for those wanting the drink, it may be worth noting the deal.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Postal vote application form Victoria. When is a scam not a scam? When it is legal.

Postal vote applications forms for the coming Victorian election are now being received in the mail by Victorians. Most people will be totally unaware they are not from the Electoral Commission, but are actually from the political parties.

People don't realise if they use these forms and send them to the address provided, the information can be collected by the political party and used for marketing purposes.

Today I was asked to witness a form. I asked the person if they were happy for the Labor Party to receive all their details including name, address, date of birth for marketing purposes, given they'd only ever vote for the Liberal Party. This was not received well. This further concerns me because the signature of the person is provided as are the details including signature of the witness.

I said I'd send them the link for what I consider is the only postal vote application form people should use. Don't use a form you receive in the mail. Check the form and the address and you'll see it is going to end up the in the hands of a political party and you may not wish to provide those details for marketing purposes.

https://www.vec.vic.gov.au/Voting/PostalVoting.html

Pass this information on to your family and friends. I was almost tricked by these forms last election and went to pass them on to a family friend thinking I was helping. Luckily I realised before the person collected the form, that I would have inadvertently where I would have exposed their personal information to be harvested for marketing purposes by a political party.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

VicRail ticket inspectors don't care so why should you?

Ever got onto a train and get annoyed because someone else is breaking the rules and don't seem to care about others?

Yesterday I got on to the Geelong train and returned to Melbourne. It's actually quite a pleasant trip and the country train is more comfortable than the city trains. Across the way were two youngish guys (they all look young to me now) that were quite pleasant and chatting to each other. One however had their feet (with thongs) on the opposite seat so that the soles of his thongs were on the seat. Now of course that means the dirt from his thongs gets on to the seat and that can dirty the clothes of others. I consider that to be inappropriate and the rules are there for people to see.

It was a bit annoying for us to see inconsiderate behaviour. Should we say something or not. I'm sure others have been in the same situation. But then I got the answer I needed.

The ticket inspector came along asking for tickets. VicRails and the government love the revenue they make from fare evaders. With all the advertising we're almost led to believe fare evaders are the scum of the earth. They avoid paying their fair share. Of course we all pay between 60-90% through our taxes since public transport is run at a loss and requires taxpayers dollars and the fare evaders will be paying taxes at some point.

So I watched the ticket inspector who checked our Myki cards were all OK. Not a word to the passenger with their feet on the seat. OK. Perhaps I didn't pay enough attention. So I watched as the ticket inspector passed by the passenger as they returned and yes he glanced sideways at the passenger with his feet on the seat but simply ignored it.

So why do we care when VicRail's own ticket inspectors don't care. VicRail's marketing has made us care but if they don't bother enforcing their own rules they're making us the rule enforcers and that's just plain crazy. VicRail needs to lead through example and the example I got was they care about fines because it's all about the money. Who cares about how much those high and inappropriate fines are for a largely taxpayer funded system. Revenue is all that matters. Let's not enforce the rules which actually avoids the situation where others end up with soiled clothes. There's only angst in that and no money to be had.

Time to rethink how much I care and follow the lead of the government. We as citizens should only care as much as our leaders do. They lead and we follow. If it doesn't really concern them it's just revenue or marketing. If it really matters then they'll do what is right.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Australia Post's Shopmate service announced enabling Australians to ship to a local USA address for companies that won't ship to Australia.

JustLocal is built on the idea of supporting local businesses. Often a product or service created or delivered locally can be done so cost effectively at the same rate as elsewhere and even at a lower cost in some situations. However let's be realistic. People will try to save money when they can just as businesses (including local businesses) will shop overseas to reduce their costs to stay profitable. You won't stay in business long if you're not profitable.

Australia Post have introduced their ShopMate service which appears to provide the ability for Australians to purchase products in the States from companies that won't ship to Australia. Australia Post then forwards the purchase on to the customer in Australia. Some USA companies charge Australians higher prices than they do locally and this is referred to as the Australia Tax. The Australia Tax will probably be more difficult to get around since the USA companies will use the geographical location based on your computer's IP address. To avoid that you'll also need to use a VPN service such as Hola which enables you to appear as though you are in the United States.

You'll then need a form of payment, perhaps a credit card or PayPal, and be mindful of potential legal restrictions and also shipping restrictions. The ShopMate site provides fairly simple guidelines to help the Aussie buyer know what they can't ship. Do keep in mind they mention devices with lithium batteries and that includes many electronic devices, so do check the information provided on the site https://shopmate.auspost.com.au.

Interestingly when I see the words Australia Tax I actually think this service is another form of Australia Tax, but some could say it is simply a mechanism to work around a situation retailers and manufacturers have put into place to unfairly charge Australians higher prices. Ultimately that's up to you to decide.

What I do like is Australia Post has now quantified the cost of such a service and that may enable Australians to work for colleagues based in America where the salaries are typically lower. The base rate of $24.95 is I feel a figure which enables so scope for the opportunity to work together for mutual benefit. I recall a Wi-Fi memory card selling for around $60 in the States and somewhere around 50-100% more expensive in Australia. The funny thing is I ended up getting the card from one of the Australian clearance site for about the same as the American price, but in the end I was disappointed in how it worked. Only half as disappointed though since I'd paid around half the price.

What would also be interesting to know is how the Australia Post prices compare with the American company postage rates. It may be important to know if there's hidden extra cost with higher rates. Also consider insurance, exchange rate and other fees for foreign country purchases. Many people only see the exchange rate but don't realise there is a further rate that is generally not mentioned and that's a hidden reduction in the amount you receive with the credit card companies. I've estimate that could be as much as 6%, so don't just look at the daily rate you see on TV, because that's not the rate you get. Look at what it costs you in Australian dollars. Finally you need to factor in risk and often the inability to make a return. Not because you can't, but because it simply isn't worth the cost. When buying in Australia from an Australian retailer often the risk and the return cost is very low.

Certainly dealing with a well known Australian brand provides a degree of confidence. I do wonder if it takes off whether or not retailers will simply change their terms and conditions to exclude forwarding services which might just stop Australia Post in their tracks.

I wonder how many others think that Australia Post's ShopMate service is a good idea. In the past I've tried to organise similar forwarding services to generate income for an overseas based contact but without a number of Australian customers it really wasn't worth their time. Perhaps Australia Post may legitimise this as an opportunity for some of our fellow home based business operators in the States.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Catch Up Coffee page now provides information on agenda and tips on organising your own Catch Up Coffee.

After attending countless networking groups with little to no return on the time involved, I decided it was time I organised my own Catch Up Coffee with people closer to me. Whilst nothing may still come from them since most people are trying to sell, there's always a possibility of making a genuine connection.

The first step was getting feedback on cafes which a Facebook group I'm in provided a great range of cafes. I then produced a map showing the cafes and now it is easier to find a suitable cafe. Organising a Catch Up Coffee isn't actually that hard because people do want to meet others in their area. Yes we all want to sell, but we also buy as well when we find a suitable business. Sometimes businesses also simply help each other. I know if I see something I can provide feedback on I like to help when I can.

I've now updated the Catch Up Coffee page with the agenda for the meetings, tips on organising your own Catch Up Coffee and tips on what makes an ideal Catch Up Coffee cafe. Visit www.mapz.com.au/catchupcoffee/ for further information.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
Helping local businesses find each other.