This was a great week for Samsung fans. The company unveiled new foldable phones at the Unpacked event on July 26. This was Samsung’s first Unpacked event in Seoul, South Korea, and I was particularly excited to attend the event on the company’s ho…
This was a great week for Samsung fans. The company unveiled new foldable phones at the Unpacked event on July 26. This was Samsung’s first Unpacked event in Seoul, South Korea, and I was particularly excited to attend the event on the company’s home turf. It was an incredible experience with the highlight most definitely being the new devices that it has unveiled.
Samsung is confident that the new Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5 will be able to achieve incredible results in the market. The company expects to sell 50% more units than it did last year. It also believes that the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is going to attract the majority of the sales. This has already been the case with previous iterations. I feel that the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is just going to extend this gap even further.
I’ve been the biggest supporter of Samsung’s foldable phones ever since the original Galaxy Fold was released in 2019. I’ve owned every one of them since then. They have remained my daily drivers. Even though Samsung has released very capable Galaxy S flagships during the same period, I’ve only ever used Galaxy Z Fold models after the first one came out.
I felt that these devices ticked all of the boxes for me. They had a big display which made it easier for me to keep up with my work while on the road. Later models had S Pen support and that was really a blessing in disguise. The cameras were good enough, the performance was always top-notch, and Samsung eventually improved the durability as well.
The clamshell Galaxy Z Flip models have always received their due appreciation from me but I never felt the need to give up my trusty Galaxy Z Folds for them. All of the people around me who have been using them for years sing their praises nonstop but they never felt quite appealing to me, until now.
Samsung’s latest clamshell, the Galaxy Z Flip 5, has made me entertain the idea of switching over for the first time. There are a couple of reasons why. Firstly, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 doesn’t bring many significant changes. Sure, it gets a new chipset, but you also get the same chipset with the Galaxy Z Flip 5. There’s a new hinge that eliminates the panel gap, and guess what, the Flip 5 has that also. Beyond that, there’s not much to write home about, as far as the larger model is concerned.
On the other hand, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 has really come into its own this year. Even though the other changes are similarly limited, the larger cover display not only makes the device more useful when it’s folded, but it has also considerably elevated its look, particularly when you buy the matte finish versions exclusive to Samsung.com.
The earlier iterations didn’t appeal to me the way the Galaxy Z Flip 5 does. It largely because of the new cover display because now I can get more done without having to fold the device every single time and also because it’s a change that entices me more. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 doesn’t excite me in the same way and thus provides me with little incentive to switch.
Let me get this point across rather simply taking the example of Barbie and Oppenheimer, two movies that everyone seems to be talking about these days. Even though the Galaxy Z Flip’s colorful, upbeat, and youthful vibe is as odds with the rather sombre, mature, and business-like vibe of the Galaxy Z Fold, which I always felt was more aligned with my disposition, a great balance has been struck this year with the Galaxy Z Flip 5 which provides the best of both worlds in a sense.
As a loyal Samsung fan, I look forward to products from the company that excite me, encourage me to look beyond my comfort zone, and deliver an exceptional user experience. I feel that the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is going to do well on all of those accounts. That’s why I’m going to make the switch over to the clamshell and pick up the Galaxy Z Flip 5.
Google has launched a new customer support feature on the Merchant Center. The new tool enables retailers to input their customer support information and returns policy.
Providing customer service information helps brands to build trust with shoppers, increasing the chances of them becoming loyal customers.
Merchant Center is then able to share these details with shoppers without them ever having to leave the program.
Why do we care? Consumers often feel frustrated and dissatisfied when they can’t easily access customer support and returns-related information while shopping online. Giving them the ability to quickly and easily search for these details within Merchant Center can improve the user experience and help build trust. The more shoppers trust a brand, the more likely it is they will buy and become loyal customers.
Setting up customer support information. Here’s how Google said retailers can add their customer support information:
Log into the Merchant Center.
Once on the Home page, navigate to the Add customer support info card.
Select Add info.
Input the following customer support information:
Customer service telephone number
Customer service email address
Customer service web page URL (i.e. link to a customer service form)
Select the “Live chat support available” toggle if your business supports this
Select the “Chat bot support available” toggle if your business supports this
After providing the relevant information, select your preferred contact method.
Once these steps are complete, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click ‘Sa
What has Google said? Google explained the importance of providing customer service information via a statement issued on Merchant Center:
"Customer service is important for your business and your customers because it allows you to help customers solve any issues with your product or service.
"It also helps you build trust with your customers. So it’s important that your customers know how they can reach you for support."
Ecommerce, also known as electronic commerce or internet commerce, refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, and the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions. Ecommerce is often used to refer to the sale of physical products online, but it can also describe any kind of commercial transaction that is facilitated through the internet.
Whereas e-business refers to all aspects of operating an online business, ecommerce refers specifically to the transaction of goods and services.
Types of Ecommerce Models
There are four main types of ecommerce models that can describe almost every transaction that takes place between consumers and businesses.
1. Business to Consumer (B2C):
When a business sells a good or service to an individual consumer (e.g. You buy a pair of shoes from an online retailer).
2. Business to Business :
When a business sells a good or service to another business (e.g. A business sells software-as-a-service for other businesses to use)
3. Consumer to Consumer :
When a consumer sells a good or service to another consumer (e.g. You sell your old furniture on eBay to another consumer).
4. Consumer to Business :
When a consumer sells their own products or services to a business or organization (e.g. An influencer offers exposure to their online audience in exchange for a fee, or a photographer licenses their photo for a business to use).
Examples of Ecommerce
Ecommerce can take on a variety of forms involving different transactional relationships between businesses and consumers, as well as different objects being exchanged as part of these transactions.
1. Retail:
The sale of a product by a business directly to a customer without any intermediary.
2. Wholesale:
The sale of products in bulk, often to a retailer that then sells them directly to consumers.
3. Dropshipping :
The sale of a product, which is manufactured and shipped to the consumer by a third party.
4. Crowdfunding:
The collection of money from consumers in advance of a product being available in order to raise the startup capital necessary to bring it to market.
5. Subscription:
The automatic recurring purchase of a product or service on a regular basis until the subscriber chooses to cancel.
6. Physical products:
Any tangible good that requires inventory to be replenished and orders to be physically shipped to customers as sales are made.
7. Digital products:
Downloadable digital goods, templates, courses, or media that must be purchased for consumption or licensed for use.
8. Services:
A skill or set of skills is provided in exchange for compensation. The service provider’s time can be purchased for a fee.
Getting Started
Before you build your online store you need to know what to sell and how to source it. Firstly you need to find a niche, for example, fitness, technology, bodycon/summer dresses, pet products, and baby products are very popular right now.
You can also go on Instagram and see what all of the popular Instagrammers are promoting to get an idea of what you should sell. Detox and weight loss teas as well as backless, strapless bras and clothing seem to be popular.
Another site where you can do some research is Amazon, you just look at the top-selling products in a particular category and write them down. This trick is well known but since you will be selling these products on your own site and not on Amazon you do not need to worry about any direct competition.
Finally, you can go on YouTube and type in “fitness tracker reviews”, “summer dress review” or a review of any product you have found for additional inspiration.
Setting up your store:
After doing your research, create a list of at least 20 products you want to source, next: Create an online store with SHOPIFY, it is free for 14 days and no credit card is needed, however during the trial you should have made enough sales to get you started and keep your store going. You can choose from a range of free and premium themes to help you bring your store to life.
Once you have signed up you can use the powerful Oberlo plugin which is available through the store builder, this will take care of the storing and shipping by allowing you to automate the fulfillment process.
Oberlo is a dropshipping plugin which means that you will not have to physically store, pack and ship any products. You simply import products from Oberlo into your store and start selling, the suppliers do everything else, and this is the beauty of drop shipping.
If you plan on just using Oberlo then you can skip the “The Finishing Steps (Alibaba)” section after reading the “The Finishing Steps (Oberlo)” section.
Setting up your store: The Finishing Steps (Oberlo)
Next, you need to set up a payment processor on your Shopify store, you can use Shopify Payments or a third-party solution like PayPal and Stripe.
Create an account on AliExpress and use Oberlo’s chrome extension to import your chosen products in a few minutes.
First, set up a payment processor, either Shopify Payments or a third-party processor like PayPal or Stripe, you can see a list of supported payment gateways listed by country on the platform.
If you don’t mind fulfilling orders yourself you have some startup money you can go to Alibaba, search for the products you listed, find 2–3 suppliers, and order a sample, then once you are happy, you can order your first batch. It is best to start with smaller quantities for your first batch:
100–300pcs for really cheap products (less than a dollar)
100pcs for cheap products ($1 — $9)
20–50pcs for expensive items ($10 and above)
Shipping doesn’t take too long so you can always top up your starter batch when sales pick up.
It is best to start your first batch simple, for example, if you are selling fitness trackers, start with one color and 50pcs, if you are selling dresses, start with 2–3 colors in 3 sizes (S, M, L) and 20–50pcs each.
Driving Traffic To The Store
Once you’ve set up your store, you then need to think about how you’re going to get people to actually visit your store.
Driving traffic to an e-commerce store can be a lot of fun and there are a lot of different things that you can experiment with.
Before you think about driving traffic to your store, first sit down and get really clear about who your customer is, What influences them and what demographics do they occupy?
When you know that kind of information, your marketing efforts will be better off and it will be easier to spot viable opportunities.
Taking that into account…one traffic method you can experiment with is Facebook Ads. Setting up Facebook Ads is easy and 2.5 million advertisers use the service.
Provided that you do the due diligence I just mentioned (relating to knowing your customer), you should be able to take full advantage of the powerful targeting features provided by Facebook.
You can also consider sponsoring posts on social media sites, such as Pinterest and Instagram.
To do that, all that you have to do is find profiles that cater to the demographic you’re trying to go after.
Then, send them a quick message and let them know that you’d like to sponsor a post.
When sponsoring a post, you can’t be too pushy with your sales message. You’ll want to rely on your product images to do a lot of the selling for you.
Luckily, however, by this stage, you should already have some great-looking product images that you can provide when running sponsored posts.
As well as that, you can even use Google Product Ads.
The setup process for Google Product Ads can be a little bit complicated, but don’t let that keep you from using them.
CONCLUSION
In This article I’ve explained in detail 4 recommended ways you can make money online, I strongly encourage you to start from somewhere because there’s no better time to start than now.
Based on my experience and review as a blogger I strongly recommend you to start with content creation (BLOGGING) as a beginner from there you can now introduce affiliate marketing and freelancing.
If you want to host your blog I strongly recommend Bluehost for you, because they’re very good WebHost for high blog traffic and for starters.
How to Get Started: Pick what you want to do and start slow. I recommend using a platform you’re familiar with when you’re starting out, especially eBay or Amazon.
If you really want to get into selling physical stuff with arbitrage, a product research tool like Jungle Scout for Amazon can give you behind-the-scenes data to make more educated selling decisions.
Earn an Extra $23,000 per Year — Best Passive Income Apps and Websites
The best passive income apps help you build new income streams with minimal use of your time. There is a difference between income you earn at a job and income that comes in while you are doing other things, such as investing or earning royalties from intellectual property.
The first type of income that you earn directly from time you put into work, is called active income. The second type is passive income, which we are going to focus on in this post: income which does not require your direct time and labor to earn. When you have it, your financial picture can take a drastic turn for the better. Specifically, I’ll show you my best passive income apps for starting your flow of passive income going.
Earn an Extra $23,000 per Year — Best Passive Income Apps and Websites
Udemy
You might see sites like Udemy and Teachable as good platforms for learning new things, but have you considered that they are some of the best passive income apps?
Teaching a course can be as passive as you want. Be warned though, there’s a bit of work upfront. You actually have to come up with a course idea, name the course, and record yourself teaching it. Once that’s done though, upload the course and you can reap residual passive income for years to come.
There’s a reason why Udemy now hosts over 100,000 online video courses by instructors just like you and me. Learning is moving online, and Udemy puts your course in front of potentially millions of users. In exchange, you will pay the platform a share of your course proceeds. To cut down on the upfront work, you can create a short course, no longer than a couple hours of video content. Make sure to link to your course from your social media accounts and tell friends about it.
Over time, your course on Udemy should bring in some passive income to complement your job. We recommend Teachable if you’re building your brand, but if you’re just looking to make passive income without building a brand, Udemy works.
If you have a lot of photographs or take photos regularly on your travels, then the Shutterstock app is among your best passive income apps. All you have to do is upload your photos through Shutterstock Contributor, a mobile app that lets you add photos quickly to Shutterstock’s library.
Shutterstock has a huge audience of customers who rely on photos downloaded through the service.
Every time your photos get downloaded, you will earn money. Apart from the work of taking photos, earning money happens rather passively through the app. Obviously it helps if you have a huge stash of unused photos that you’ve taken over the years so you don’t need to go take new ones. However, even if you have no suitable photos to begin with, you can shoot photos on your regular travels or weekend excursions. Once you have a good number of photos, just upload them into Shutterstock Contributor and start earning money.
AirBnB’s app lets you rent out rooms and is one of the best passive income apps out there. The difference with this particular app is that you will likely make far more than with apps that reward you for daily use. You won’t need to log on daily, swipe on ads or watch any mandatory videos, as with some other passive income apps.
Instead, you list your property on AirBnB and when guests are interested, they book your property. There’s little involvement on your part in vetting and verifying guests. AirBnB takes care of this. If you so choose, you can even have another person, whom you hire for the task, receive guests and clean up after them. This way you can enjoy the income from your AirBnB completely passive.
To protect your peace of mind, AirBnB insures your property for $1 million in property damage and accident insurance. This helps deal with any adverse incidents should they occur.
Your internet connection can let you earn money from Honeygain. While the earning potential of this app might be lower than that of AirBnB and others, it really does require very little to get started. All you need is a mobile data or WiFi connection on your phone. Download the Honeygain app. Open the app, and let it run in the background. You start earning money right away.
What happens behind the scenes is that Honeygain allows data scientists to connect by sharing your network infra-structure. You do not have to manage any of this as it’s done automatically by Honeygain.
There is no cost to you in order to download the app. You just install it, get connected, and get on with your regular activities while the app runs. It’s possible to earn higher payouts by installing Honeygain on multiple devices.
Apps like AirBnB are part of what’s known as the “sharing economy.” Turo, another contender among the best passive income apps, is one of them. Turo lets you earn passive income from your car by putting it up for other users of the app to rent. If you’ve got a car and don’t use it all the time, you can list it on Turo and begin earning money.
Turo’s community benefits from renting out cars listed by individual owners as this results in cost savings over going with a traditional car rental company. For car owners, Turo is a remarkable opportunity to make money doing nothing other than letting others use an asset you already have.
Measures are in place to protect your car and ensure a smooth experience for all Turo users. Turo insures your car for up to $1 million to cover accidents and other mishaps. In addition, adding your listing to Turo can be done in as little as 10 minutes.
Outdoorsy offers an awesome opportunity for earning passive income. However, be aware that this app will only help you if you have an RV.
If you have an RV and don’t mind sharing its usage with others, then you are in luck, as this is precisely what Outdoorsy will allow you to do.
With $1 million in insurance for your RV, Outdoorsy takes away the hassles of renting out your RV and earning money from it. All drivers renting out on Outdoorsy must go through a DMV check. This makes the RV rental process safer for all involved.
In case of breakdown or other mishaps out on the road, a Rental Roadside Assistance team is available to help. Outdoorsy’s dedicated support team helps you resolve any problems or questions you may have while renting out your RV.
Outdoorsy has a wonderful community full of people that enjoy RVs and the outdoors. While making money, you will also get to meet some of these people and make new friends.
Investing your money, whether in the stock market, mutual funds, or in private companies, can be one of the most profitable passive income streams. That said, the knowledge required to make a successful go at it, and the barriers to entry, can be high.
If you are an accredited investor, putting your money into private companies through Fundable can be a great opportunity.
While you do need to be an accredited investor, the actual minimum investment amount can be as low as $1,000. On the platform, you will get to discover a wide range of businesses from all across the country and assess them for your business objectives.
Investing on Fundable streamlines the process of finding and talking with possible investment candidates. Think of it as having your own version of Shark Tank, where you can easily review investment pitches. Only if you like what a team is working on do you step in and make an investment.
Investing in smaller companies can allow you to catch a great investment before the market discovers it.
Unlike Fundable, which requires you to be an accredited investor in order to make passive income with equity investments, Fundrise opens the opportunity wider.
Regular folks with a bit of money they want to invest, not just accredited investors, can put their money to work for them through Fundrise. As little as $500 can be invested through the platform.
One other important difference is that Fundrise focuses on the real estate market, which has tended to generate consistent returns in the past.
If you’ve saved up some money and want it to do more than just sit in the bank earning little to no interest, Fundrise could be a fit for you.
You don’t need to be a sophisticated investor, as the people behind Fundable handpick real estate projects that will make a good return. Historical returns on the platform are in the range of 8.7% to 12.4% annually.
Even better, management fees on the platform are remarkably low, and the platform makes it easy for you to inspect the actual real estate. This makes it easy to invest in million dollar real estate without writing million dollar checks.
The words “best passive income apps” might conjure up images of reclining in your chair while an app on your iPhone makes money for you. Slidejoy is about as close to this ideal as you might get. There’s the obvious caveat that anything this passive is not going to make you thousands in additional income, but it can pay for the occasional dinner.
To use Slidejoy, you just download the app to your mobile phone. You then register for a Slidejoy account. Slidejoy installs a lockscreen that will display a feed of trending news and personalized ads for you. You don’t need to click on the ads to make money. You just use your phone as usual: swipe, unlock and go about your daily business.
Slidejoy will send you rewards and gifts that you can redeem through Amazon, Walmart, Paypal, and other businesses. It makes it possible to earn passive income for just having a lockscreen on your mobile phone, with little else in the way of action required from you. If you choose, you can also donate your gift rewards to a charity you like.
If you love eating out and do so often, then Seated might be a splendid passive income opportunity for you. With minimal effort needed to actually make money, this is one of the best passive income apps you can download.
Using Seated is actually quite easy. You just download the app and browse the list of curated restaurants that Seated provides you. When you see something you like, you will make a reservation through the app.
To earn your passive income, all you have to do is show up for your reservation and enjoy your meal as normal. When you get your receipt from the restaurant, upload it in the Seated app to confirm that you showed up. That’s it. You get up to 30% back each time you dine through Seated.
Seated is active in major cities all across the US. There’s a good chance that some of your favorite restaurants are already active on the platform. If so, you can now earn rewards passively through Seated for eating at your favorite spots.
Which of these best passive income apps you choose to use will depend on your goals and specific situation. Obviously, if you are an accredited investor with plenty of money that you can put to work for you, that will yield the biggest passive income for you. An app like Fundable or Fundrise could be a perfect fit.
If you are in a situation where you don’t have the liquid assets of an accredited investor but have a house you can rent, maybe AirBnB is best. It’s not just real estate or investments alone that can make you passive income though.
As we saw, with just a car or RV, you can start making passive income in the sharing economy by renting them out on platforms like Turo. Finally, apps like Slidejoy let you make passive income seemingly from thin air, with little in the way of investment on your part.