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One Month Of Using My Asus Eee PC Review

Last month I got an Asus Eee PC as a gift, it was very impressive since the beginning. You can read about it in my post “Asus Eee PC First Impression“. Now it has been a month of owning it, I think I should write a brief review for fellow Eee PC owners and future buyers. Even though Asus names the Eee PC as Easy to learn, Easy to work, and Easy to play, if you want to explore its true potentials, things can get really advanced. To stay on topic a little, the Asus Eee PC helped inspire me with a lot of niche store ideas too! I’ve actually built an Eee PC niche store using Build A Niche Store and it became an instant success.

Really Easy Out Of The Box

When I first used the Asus Eee PC out of the box, it was very very easy to use. Don’t be freaked out because it runs on Linux and you’ve heard only super geeks play with Linux. The factory Linux running on the Eee PC has been modified by Asus so that a 5 year old can manage to use it with no problem. Because of this, I got bored of the system after my first week of using it. It’s just too damn simple! I also don’t like the fact that there’s hardly anything that can be customized. Even change the wallpaper requires me to modify some system files. However, if you are looking for a stable and easy to use platform without distractions, the default system may be best for you.

Opening The Doors To Ubuntu

After reading some tutorials and guides from Eeeuser.com, I’ve decided to switched to use Ubuntu instead. Installation was quite difficult since the Eee PC doesn’t come with an optical drive. I’ve spent endless hours trying to get Ubuntu to boot from my USB thumb drive. I got Ubuntu installed but then found out I also need to modify it in order to make it work with the Asus Eee PC. Ubuntu also runs quite slow on my Eee PC.

My Asus Eee PC running Xubuntu.

EeeXubuntu Works Great On My Asus Eee PC

Users of the Eee PC community had developed a custom version of Xubuntu that works best on the Eee PC. It is called eeeXubuntu, you can find out more here. I installed it and most of my headaches were gone! It fixed all the problems associated with drivers and performance. This is what I am using now and I will probably keep it as a permanent solution. It leaves lots of room for me to customize and learn. Most of the features are there and it is very similar to Windows. There are 2 problems I encountered while using eeeXubuntu. One is that the Asus keyboard FN keys won’t work. It is impossible to change my screen brightness and volume level without FN keys. The problem is now fixed with a fix script here. Another problem is the default network manager is very mediocre. It won’t remember profiles and it is a pain for me to connect to my school’s secure network. I’ve tried using WICD and WIFI-RADAR but they can’t connect at all. I am still finding a solution for it.

Windows On The Asus Eee PC?

I know it is possible to run Windows XP on the Eee PC but haven’t yet try it. I don’t think it is a good idea because I already have an Asus laptop running windows and the Eee PC is just not designed for it. However, I am planning to install Windows on my Eee PC the next few days just to see how it will turn out. It’s going to be a fun task with no optical drive.

I am a Asus fan!

Conclusion and Niche Ideas

The Asus Eee PC is a great little laptop for anyone. If you intend to use it to surf the web and create basic office documents, the default Linux system is perfect for you. For tech-savvy users like me, you may want to explore other Linux options or even getting Windows to run on it. The learning path is endless! Since the past month of using my Asus Eee PC, I learned a great deal of things about Linux and the Eee PC. I also explored many niche store ideas from using it. I’ve set up a niche store targeting the Eee PC and planning to set up another one targeting SD memory cards. (A SD card is a must have for Eee users.) If you are planning to buy an Asus Eee PC, don’t wait, get it now!

My 4GB SDHC Class 6 memory card.

Asus Eee PC 8GB for as low as $400 on BuyAsusEee.com!

16GB ADATA Turbo SDHC Class 6 memory card as low as $15!

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Tags: 8gb, asus, asus eee, buy, class 6, eee, eee pc, eee pc review, eeexubuntu, idea, linux, Niche, niche store, review, sdhc, ssd, ubuntu, xubuntu

A Good Domain Is Worth A Million

Domain names have came down in price from $30 2 years ago to now only $10. Almost everyone can afford to own a domain. Most online activists I know own more than 5 domains. I, too, own more than 5 domains but very few of them are good ones. Since everybody can get domain names these days, it is very difficult to see a top quality one still available for grab.

If you plan to open up a few niche stores, you must find some decent domain names that are specific to your niche so you can get some hits from search engines. Let me give you an example. Couple weeks ago I got an Asus Eee PC as a gift. I was actually very interested at buying one for a long time. I knew it is a very hot item but still not a lot of people got their hands it. I used WebCEO to do some research on it and found that the term “buy asus eee” has lots of searches a day but not a lot of competitions. I then went over to Godaddy.com to find a domain that at least contain “buy asus eee” in it. I typed in buyasuseee.com and amazingly it was still available. I bought it instantly. I uploaded Build a Niche Store (aka BANS) on it and left it empty for a few days as I was extremely busy. After those few days, I checked the stats for the empty BANS site and saw Google already visited and brought in 6 hits with the term “buy asus eee”. This is the power of a good domain and basic research.

You can find good domains too. But it requires some forward looking and some researching. Try to see what will be the next hot thing and look for available domains related to it. Another approach is to find a very specific domain. Let me show you how I find a good domain using this approach. I am a long time Nikon camera user and I am only interested in Nikon cameras and lenses. I go to Terapeak (an eBay research tool) and search the term “nikon”. It has many listings but the sell-through rate is only at around 35%. I look at its related keywords and found that the term “nikkor” has a better rate at around 56%. Nikkor is Nikon’s lens division. It is quite specific because most likely only Nikon or camera enthusiasts will know about it. Now that I have this idea in mind, I go to Godaddy.com and see if there’s any good domain left for a Nikkor Lens niche site. I type in “nikkorlens.com” and it is already taken. I type in “nikkorlenses.com” and it is still available! Let’s try another one for a potential niche store. I search “buynikkor.com” and it is available too! This is just one of the ways to find a specific domain and you may find other ways more effective.

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Tags: bans, Build A Niche Store, domain, domain name, godaddy, name, Niche, research, site, store, terapeak

Blogging About Making Money With Niche Stores

As many of you can see, I am changing the focus of this blog from general business to niche stores. I started to pay attention to the whole niche store business model soon after I started this blog. After reading Shoemoney’s build a niche store tutorial last month (view here), I bought my first niche store domain and bought the BANS script. I began to realize how interesting and amazing the whole BANS concept is. Because I was once a seller on eBay, the build a niche store eBay affiliate business model reminds me of how easy it is to make a profit online.

I started my first BANS project with CellPhoneJet.com. It was fun and easy to set up with the BANS script. The store is currently making some very small profits but it lets me see the real potential of this whole thing. If I build a store with careful research and very specific and targeted niche ideas, it is going to be very profitable.

I also noticed a growing community of BANS owners seeking advices and knowledge from each other. Mark from TheNicheStoreBuilder.com is among the top for providing and sharing valuable information for the community. I hope to use this blog to share my experiences on building my niche store empire. The blog will also help me stay focused and on track on how to effectively make money online.

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Tags: affiliate, bans, Build A Niche Store, ebay, make money online, Niche

How Much It Costs to Build A Niche Store

If you have been active on the make money online blog world, you must heard of the script called “Build A Niche Store“. If you don’t know what it is, please read my post about it here. If you are interested in getting started in setting up your own niche store empire, you must start with planning. Without careful planning and analyzing, you will fail sooner or later. The first thing you might have to think of is the cost of starting up. The saying “you have to spend money to make money” is true if you are serious about making money off your niche stores. Today I am going to tell you in detail of how much it will cost you to build a niche store.

Build A Niche Store Script - there are 2 things that you have to have for building a successful niche store empire, the Build A Niche Store script is one of them. The script helps you spit out niche stores in minutes. It is also very good at SEO and customizing. There are other scripts for such work but BANS is the only I would recommend because it is the easiest and most user-friendly. Your goal is to have more stores in less time. The script is $97.

Web hosting - the other thing that you must have is web hosting. You need a home for your niche stores. Since having a niche store empire is like having a real business, you want your business to be hosted in a safe and reliable place. When your hosting provider is down, your business is down. You need to have a host that is always up and always fast. Most other niche store experts recommend using Hostgator, but I think BlueFur is better. Hostgator is quite fast and reliable but it is a bit crowded. From the months I’ve been using BlueFur I have never experienced downtime and it was always fast from end to end. One hosting is good for many niche stores so you only have to get one. Start with the most basic package and upgrade when needed. Their Mini UNIX package is $6.95 per month.

Domain names - you don’t have to register a domain name for your niche store but it is highly recommended to do so. Your visitors will most likely buy something through your store if it has a related and a well-thought-out domain name. It helps build you a brand and a strong image. A domain costs $9.99 per year through Godaddy. If you use this couple code during your checkout “OYH3″, it is only $6.99 per year.

Keyword research tool - if you want to build a rock star niche store empire, you should invest in a paid keyword tool. You can get by with the free WordTracker trial during the initial stage but when you start to build more and more stores, a good keyword tool will help you big time. Depending on your development style, you can get different tools at different prices. You can spend $329 for an annual subscription of WordTracker but I think that is not the best way to invest your money. I recommend doing keyword research one day per week. That way you only have to spend $7.95 for a daily subscription of Wordze, also a very good research tool. The total amount you will spend per year is $95.40.

These are the basic requirements for starting up your niche store empire. Of course you might spend more on other tools and resources down the road but it is a good idea for planning your budget. If you add everything up, the total cost for the first year of operation is $345.7, assuming you will have 10 stores. That translate to $28.81 per month per store. When you divide it by 10, it is only around $3 per month. Believe me you can easily make that back plus more.

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Tags: bans, Build A Niche Store, costs, domain, fee, godaddy, hosting, Niche, store, Web Hosting, wordtracker, wordze