Australia Archive

When I saw that Allen was looking for a new place to inhabit I did the typical thing and said, “Hey, why not consider Auckland?”

Of course Allen decided to then ask a few of us to write up a bit of a post on our cities and why they’d be great to live in. Now this is easier said that done & I have to admit, not being a true Aucklander I’m hard pushed to start my article as “Why I love Auckland” – I won’t sugar coat it. I live here because I got a job here – but I stay here because …. well now, lets take a look at that shall we?

Auckland, the City of Sails, is the northern most city in New Zealand. It’s a city of over 1.4 million people, and is currently in the process of transitioning from 7 regional cities into one super city. Built around the volcanic isthmus, Auckland is a rather spread out city, with the narrowest section of the city being something like 5 kilometers from east to west. You can drive to the coast (either east or west) in about 10 mins from anywhere in the city.

Continue reading “Why I Love Auckland, New Zealand” »

Yesterday the domain name sales service from Sitepoint was split and renamed as Flippa. Sitepoint members were notified of the change earlier this month and auctions were transferred to Flippa yesterday.

On the Sitepoint forum, most of the feedback has been negative so far. Of course it’s important to note that people will always speak out about any change – just see any Facebook change for a good example. Flippa charges a new ”success” fee (similar to the final value fee that eBay charges) which ranges from $10-$500 depending on the final value of the sale. This fee along with the “web 2.0 bubbly look” account for the majority of the negative comments.

The most interesting comment comes from SitePoint Co-founder Mark Harbottle who notes:

Meanwhile while you all whine and complain about the fees, the design, etc. the smart sellers are listing their sites on flippa.com and they are attracting the majority of the buyer interest. They will also get the added benefit of the PR we’re about to roll out.

So, it’s totally up to you! If you want to come across to flippa and sell your site in the professional marketplace we’re creating for serious buyers, we welcome you with open arms. If not, please do go to digitalpoint. List your site for free and see if the old adage of “you get what you pay for” applies.

Pretty shocking to see Mark call his customers “whiners and complainers” and offer them to leave and go to DigitalPoint. Especially considering Mark wants them to pay an extra fee on their sales. I guess time will tell if Flippa becomes another huge success for Sitepoint like their split of 99designs has apparently become.

Update: I’ve received the following note from Mark:

I’ll stop by here Allen. Perhaps a poor choice of words, but I stand by message…

There are plenty of free alternatives to Flippa to sell low end, low quality web sites. What we’re building is a quality marketplace where over 30% of the sites listed sell, and where thousands of serious cashed-up buyers frequent daily.

Sure, we charge a slight premium to list ($19 listing fee plus 5% success fee), but we’re not the most expensive in this space — you’ll find that many of the domain name marketplaces charge 10% or more. In terms of the design, it’s a subjective thing, but we are looking at making some minor tweaks to it.

We do take comments from our customers seriously. In fact all of our customers were personally invited to our beta launch several weeks ago and were encouraged to provide feedback. A cross section of our frequent users were also invited to our private alpha several months prior. We have personally been in direct contact with many of them and implemented many changes over several months as a result of their input.

Flippa has been live for a couple of days now and so far we haven’t seen any drop off in listings whatsoever. We’ve also had many compliments from buyers saying that life is so much easier for them on Flippa. That said, we will continue to make improvements based on real customer feedback as we always do.

There’s cool and then there’s cool. And then there are the virtual tours that Pixelcase has put together. Pixelcase says they are a “virtual tour specialist” and they have put together a variety of tours to showcase their technology. There are tours of Freemantle Prison,

When I met with Robert Scoble last week, we talked about the future of the Web and how businesses should interact online. While we didn’t discuss virtual tours, here’s a tour of a spa which certainly makes me wish I was in the jetted tub.

I can’t embed the NYC virtual tours but here are a few links to check them out (they need to add deep linking):

• Central Park / 6th Avenue
• Downtown/Brooklyn Bridge / Times Square / Empire State Building

Earlier this year on our sister site we reported on a Love Bus which allowed daters to all ride a city bus in the hopes of finding that special someone. Now Air New Zealand has launched the Matchmaking Flight which also hopes to bring together singles in the hopes of finding that special someone 35,000 feet in the air.

The Matchmaking Flight website uses a Ning-powered social network. The site offers info on pricing and allows interested singles to signup for an account to participate. There is also a blog and a dating search based on the site profiles – you can select from US or Kiwi people.

The flight will depart Los Angeles International Airport for Auckland, New Zealand, on October 13, 2009. Matchmaking Flight passengers will be encapsulated in the matchmaking experience, including: a pre-flight gate party; themed food, drink, and games throughout the flight; entertainment; and a large-scale, singles-only party at the SKYCITY Convention Centre in Auckland.

The Matchmaking Flight looks like a fun idea and I like the usage of the Web to drive interest and start to bring the participants together.

A basic search shows a price of $1,800 from NYC. The bus ride is a couple of hours while the Matchmaking Flight could be 12-14+ hours! Continue reading “Air New Zealand Launches “Matchmaking Flight”” »

Last month we reported on the startups that came out of the StartupCamp in Australia. Today I’ve learned that the six startups are now being auctions individually on the Sitepoint Marketplace. I am unsure if this was the plan from the beginning or if the developers just decided to pick up a small bit of cash quickly.

Here are the startups with links to their auctions (amounts in US$):

• ActivityHorizon – current bid $1,800
• EpicTweet – current bid $600
• MyPetsNeedLove – current bid $555
• GiveDo – current bid $1,600
• ThreeFeeds – current bid $500
• iTrafficApp – current bid $1,550

One of the biggest stories of late is how many people have died and how much destruction due to the Australian brushfires. CNN is reporting that at least 181 people dead and nearly 1000 homes destroyed in bushfires. I’ve never been to Australia but hope to visit one day. My prayers go out to all of the people affected by this tragedy.

The Sitepoint team which is based in Melbourne has put together an offer for their eBooks. They have posted a very good recap of the brushfire issue which is worth reading. To help affected families in the area, Sitepoint has created a way for you to help by purchasing a set of five eBooks of your choosing for $29.95 (normally $150). All of the proceeds from the sale will go to helping victims of the Australian brushfires.

The books include html, css, design, backend development along with business and management offerings. Share the story (using the Sitepoint link not this CN link) to your colleagues and friends and let’s try to help them reach their goal of $50,000 by February 13th.

Continuing our look at local startup blogs and resources, tonight we take a trip about as far away from NYC as is possible. Let’s head to Australia and TechNation Australia.

The site is edited by Kim Heras and other writers include Geoff Evason, Mike Watkins, Paul Pajo and Lee Goodman.

They have an "Aussie Startup Index" which ranks Australian startups each month. Last week they had a good article about Australia as an enterprise 2.0 hub. Other content areas include reviews, interviews and conference coverage.

Please keep the tips on great local startup blogs coming!