Please note this has absolutely nothing to do with blogging tips, but everything to do with the whole thought of blogging. Blogging is about expressing our opinions and talking about what matters to us. This is one of those things that matters to me.

Africa

As I have mentioned before, one of my goals in life is to impact the nation of africa by trying to inject hope into a hopless situation. I am hoping to visit Africa for a couple of months next year to experience everything first hand and hopefully let the extreme poverty, terrible health conditions and inhumane war, really break my spirit and let it grab ahold of me and not let go.

Recently I was searching different aid organisations on myspace and google and came accross one called Invisible Children. The story of Invisible Children inspired me so much because it is a story of everyday people. Young people. 3 Film makers who decided to visit war torn Africa and find a story that would impact others – not knowing that I would start a movement that has raised millions of dollars to rebuild schools that were destroyed by war in Uganda.

Here Is There Story

I wanted to know more and see more, so I bought both of their dvd documentaries. The Initial trip ‘Invisible Children’ and also ‘Go’ which is where 12 students from America were given the opportunity to go to Uganda and experience it all first hand.

Here Is The GO Trailer

I just finished watching ‘GO’ and it is one of the most inspiring films I have ever seen. To see people my age, a generation that has been brought up to be selfish, being selfless. Being broken by the children that they meet. Seeing the pain in the African childrens eyes and then also seeing how this pain was affecting these american teens made me all the more want to visit africa.

They Way I See It Is….

That we can live our lives focusing on ourselves, getting ahead in life, walking around with our hands over our eyes, or we can choose to live our lives with the intent of helping others, bringing hope and changing lives! And you know what? We don’t have to leave the country to do this. Just find something that breaks your spirit. That makes you stop and think, ‘This isn’t right!’ – and then do something about it!

***UPDATE****

I don’t normally do this, but I have just written a post on another of my blogs which really relates with this:

Poverty Facts: 10 Detestable Statistics In Pictures

I was reading up on some of the statistics in regard to global poverty and I really wanted to share them in a way that would move people into action – and pictures I decided would be the best option.

If you like the article, please share it so that others can be impacted also!

Well it finally happened. It has been tempting to do it since last friday but I just checked my feed count and as you can see it shows I have 503 Subscribers to StandOutBlogger.com!

I would like to thank every one of my subscribers from the longest subscribed, the most active commenters, the regular readers and everyone that has just subscribed recently!

You will be excited to know that I have a lot install for this blog, especially for the month of December where I will be looking at Video Blogging (or Vloging) for the whole month! This won’t be the typical video blogs you see and I will be creating inititives for bloggers to be more creative with their blogging! So stay tuned…(and subscribe if you havn’t already!)

In regards to purchasing a video camera I have been googling and then youtubing reviews for the last 2 days and currently it looks like the camera I will be purchasing will now be the Sanyo CG9!

Sorry for the short post but I haev been working in the rain for the last week and yesterday came down with some sort of virus – so it’s an early night for me!

I must say I am pretty frustrated at the moment.

Over the last week I was getting really excited about buying one of the new Flip Mino HD video cameras- one of the fancy customized ones! This is the design I decided on:

I was only planning on getting the normal Flip Mino, however when I was on their website I found out that they made a HD (High Definition) version for $50 more so I was then keep to get that!

The whole customisation process was fun and I finally decided on the design to the left. Volunteering and helping underpriviliged children in the most poverised areas of Africa has always been a dream of mine and I was planning on using this as inspiration to keep the dream alive ever time I used the Flip Mino.

The ‘I will Speak Up!’ and the ‘Proverbs 31:8-9′ happen to be my favourite passage from the bible and something that also has been my motivation to visit africa. It says:

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.

Speak up and judge fairly,
defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

THE PROBLEMS

Everything started to go all wrong when I decided to place my order for my Flip Mino HD on their website only to find that they only post to the United States! I was pretty cut!

After talking with a few people, I decided to scrap the customised version, and try and buy a plain black Flip Mino HD from one of the few suppliers online in America. GUESS WHAT? They won’t ship it to me either!

So I decided there was only one thing left to do and that was to contact the nice people at Pure Digital and ask them what’s going on!

Here is my email:

Hi!

I am really keen to buy a new flip mino HD, but I live in Australia and it seems nowhere will ship your product over here. I even tried amazons and they said they cant for your product.

Is there a reason we are not allowed them over here? because the only thing i can think of doing is putting the postage address of someone in the united states and getting them to post it over to me, but i dont know anyone there so i cant.

I was so excited when i saw the customisable mino HD’s and I REALLY want one, is there anything i can do?

Thanks for your help,

Tom

One thing I must say is that their support is amazingly quick! I went to bed last night and just woke up 4 hours later and there was an email back from them already. However, sadly this is their reply:

Dear Thomas,

Our international product distribution is currently limited to the Flip Video Ultra being available in the US, the UK, and Canada (outside of Quebec), and the Flip Video Mino being available for purchase in the US and UK. Outside of these countries, our products cannot be shipped internationally due to licensing agreements. We do not have an ETA of when our products will be available for general retail distribution.

To purchase the UK version of the Ultra and the Mino, please visit our website at www.flipvideo.co.uk. For Ultra purchases in Canada, please visit your local Wal-Mart stores and watch for us at other major electronics retailers.

Thank you for your interest in Flip Video.

So there we go, it looks like the dream is over! I have done a quick search of small HD cameras that I can get over here and so far it looks like the best is this one:

Ebay only seems to have ‘no-name’ ones and this one seems to be a great price being $239.95 – although the Flip HD was US$243, this one is much cheaper when you take into consideration how bad our exchange rate is at the moment!

Here are a few of the cameras stats:

• 5.0 Megapixel digital video recorder
• 6.4cm (2.5″) LCD Colour screen
• 8x Digital zoom
• Storage media: Built-in memory, SD/MMC card slot support
• Movie resolution (30 fps): 1280 x 720 (HD); 720 x 480 (D1); 640 x 480 (VGA); 320 x 240 (QVGA)
• Operation modes: Movie record, picture record, voice record, MP3 player
• Multi-snap: Take up to five continuous pictures at one time
• Dimensions: (L) 6cm x (W) 3cm x (H) 11cm

So it looks like a decent set up!

Well, I will have to make a decision soon because I have something amazing coming for you all in December and I will need one before then to get things starts.

December Will Be ‘VLOGING MONTH’ on StandOutBlogger, and I will look at a heap of aspects of video blogging and how you can benefit, AND

I have something that will be a whole lot of fun for you all that is in the planning, thats lets just say it should be very funny and hopefully I can get some decent sponsors and have some fantastic prizes to give away!

Until them, click on the banner under the header of this blog and bid on my AdSpots! They are still ridiculously low!

The following is a paid review and is completely my own opinion and not influenced by being paid. If you are interested in having me review your site or product please contact me.

Do You Want To Retire At 21?

I know a few of you may be thinking, ‘but I am already older that 21.’ Thats ok! Because today I will be looking at a website  that although is called RetireAt21.com, Michael Dunlop, the founder says:

I hear you cry. Don’t worry, despite the name, the information and advice is more geared towards retiring prior to having a fake hip installed. Even if you retire just a few years earlier due to the advice at retireat21.com it surely has to be worth taking 5 minutes from your day to check it out… doesn’t it?

But What Credibility Does Michael Have?

Well Michael has something in common with many of the most successful business men in the world. He is young, and a college drop-out – getting his business education the old fashion way. On the street!

Starting his entrepreneurial career on Ebay, Michael soon moved onto websites and currently runs many successful websites including, WebDesignDev.com and RetireAt21.com.

An All-In-One Entrepreneurial Website!

While most websites focus on just one area, RetireAt21.com takes it a couple of steps further and has integrated some of the most important tools an entrepreneur needs online – all in one website. These tools include:

• Interviews With Successful Entrepreneurs
• An Active Entrepreneur Forum
• The Rich List – Top 50 Entrepreneurs Under 30
• Frequently Updated Blog

So let’s take a look at each of these and see how you can benefit from what RetireAt21.com has to offer!

Interviews With Successful Entrepreneurs

You know when you visit a website and they have an interview posts and you have no idea what who the person being interview is? Well that’s not what its like here! Michael has somehow managed to get interviews with some of the most successful online entrepreneurs – that I am almost positive you would not only have heard of, but wish you were even just remotely as successful as them. People Like:

• Darren Rowse – ProBlogger.net
• Aaron Wall – SEOBlook.com
• Matt Walls – SnorgTees.com

An Active Entrepreneur Forum

One of the things that aspiring entrepreneurs really need to focus on is networking! Networking is one of the most important things in business. Finding people you can partner with, learn from and build each other up is what will not only keep you in business but help you turn your project into something big!

The RetireAt21 Forum is a great place for you to meet some of these people! So what makes this forum so special? Well it could be the fact that there are over 2000 members which means that finding people who will compliment your business or website should be quite easy. PLUS they are all there for the same reason that you are – They want to create a successful business or website and want to retire early!

I love getting around people with the same dreams and desire that I have, because it is so inspiring, and keeps me on track. So I strongly suggest you head on over to the forum and register and start networking!

The Rich List

Simply put, this is an inspiring list of the richest 50 entrepreneurs under the age of 30! ‘The Rich List’ ranges from The founder of FaceBook who is worth $700million to the 19 year old founder of Bodis who is already worth $1million!

Frequently Updated Blog

The thing I  have found about websites that include blogs is that they are not usually updated all to often, it is just another service they try to provide – but usually fail! However the thing that Michael has done that as a blogger like, is that he spends a lot of time on the blog section of the website . The way that he does this is by having multiple authors for the blog. The added benefit of this is that the expertise areas is also increased! Check out just a few of the great posts on the blog:

• 10 Reasons Having Your Own Internet Business Is Better Than Any Job
• 6 Lifestyle Choices For Successful Entrepreneurs
• A Beginners Guide To Internet Marketing

Advertising Opportunities

If you have a product or website that is targetted towards entrepreneurs then this seems like a great place to find them and there are many great ways to advertise! But first lets check out the websites stats:

• It’s a PageRank 3
• Alexa Rating Of 77,525!
• 500+ RSS Subscribers

And Here is what a few advertisers have said:

“Wow, when I signed up for advertising on Retire at 21, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, not only do I get a good amount of traffic but Michael has personaly guided me on how to get the most out of advertising on Retire at 21!
I would recommend advertising on Retire at 21 to anyone who wants to promote a new website or a already estimblished website wanting to boost traffic and sales!” – UniversalClients.com

“I have been promoting my Reverse Funnel System on all of Michaels websites for a few months now and I’m still collecting affiliate commissions! I can’t begin to tell you how impressed I am with the amount of quality traffic I receive on a daily basis. I advertise on a lot of different websites and I can honestly tell you that my ads with Michael out-perform all of my other ads. If you have the opportunity to advertise on one of Michaels websites take it!” – ReverseFunnelSystem.com

Nothing like raving reviews!

I must say that Michael has done an amazing job with his advertising page. It is well laid out and gives you all the information you need to make an informed decision. AND, when you are ready to purchase and add you can do it through paypal right there and then.

So why not head on over and check out his advertising offers and if it’s what you are looking for, then grab yourself one of the spots – I’m sure you won’t be dissapointed.

Overview

So there we go, RetireAt21.com seems to be a great website to become a part of if:

• You are an entrepreneur looking for networking opportunities
• You are interested in becoming an entrepreneur and keen on learning
• You are looking for advertising opportunities that target entrepreneurs

One last thing I think you should do before commenting on RetireAt21.com below is to subscribe to his RSS feed!

What Could You Do With 90 Days Free Web Hosting?

Every so often an amazing deal comes along that you would have to be made not to take a hold of! And the ‘3 Months FREE Web Hosting. No Strings attached.
‘ offer from Jumpline is one of those deals!

The great thing about this offer is that it’s not just a small hosting package where they don’t even give you enough room to host a 10 page static website – this comes with all the bells and whistles, like:

• 10 GB Disk Space (Host up to 16 sub-domains)
• 100 Email Accounts
• Plesk 8.3 Control Panel System
• Over 30 Integrated Applications
• 3 Tiered Daily Back Ups
• 24-7-365 Amazing Customer Support (Even though you are not paying!)

This offer seemed to good to pass up! So I decided to be nice to you all and think of a few ways that you can benefit (and PROFIT) from 3 Months FREE Web Hosting

3 Ways To Benefit From This Free Hosting Offer!

• Create And Flip A Website/Blog
  This seemed the logical options for me. You are getting 3 Months FREE Web Hosting so why not spend the first month building a quality blog, generate traffic to it (read my post on 5 Ways To Take Your Blog To The Next Level post) and by the end of the first month you should have quite a successful little blog on your hands – so sell it!

  The double bonus here, is that it hasn’t cost you anything to start, and you are giving the potential buyers the added bonus of 2 months free hosting!

• Test Yourself In Affiliate Marketing
  I find myself always trying new things and affiliate marketing is one of them. So instead of getting a whole new paid hosting package for your new affiliate marketing idea, buy the domain you want and then set up your 3 Months FREE Web Hosting account to see if you are making money from it before you start shelling out money each month for hosting!
  
• Build A MFA or Ebay Affiliate Website
  The thing I don’t like about ‘made for adsense’ and ebay affiliate website is the fact that it since you are targetting search engine traffic it usually takes a few months before you start getting indexed which results in clicks and money.

  Why not take advantage of this offer, which gives you 3 months to get your new project up and running, and hopefully by the end of the 3 months your new website will be making you more than the small monthly hosting fee and it will provide you with some passive income! But if you find it’s not going to make you enough money, you can just sell the website anyway!

This seems like a great offer! I don’t usually promote things like this, but I just saw the possibilities for you all to benefit from this so I wanted to let you know. So if you interested sign up for your 3 Months FREE Web Hosting and if you do, I’d love to hear what you did with it!

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Also, if you haven’t already, head on over and check out my AdSpot Auction, where I am auctioning off all my Adspots (currently rediculously low!) to try and buy myself a new Flip Mino Video Camera!