Make Money with your iPhone

Startups are giving you legitimate ways of making money with your iPhone.  With get rick quick schemes aplenty, there is good reason to be skeptical but there are a few apps that make it easy for you to start making real money.  The apps that are really succeeding have deals with national brands to feature jobs like sourcing photos of local restaurants or auditing in-store displays.  Here are the top 3 Apps that you can start making money with today.

3.)  TaskRabbit - This app was launched in July 2011, just a few months after the closed a $5 million Series A round.  TaskRabbit lets anyone post a "task" for anyone else to complete.  From picking up a package to helping someone move.  About TaskRabbit  Download the app

Reviews on iTunes are mixed with a bell curve favoring 5 stars, but plenty of 1 star reviews.  My criticism of TaskRabbit is that available tasks are concentrated in a few major metro areas (San Fran, Chicago, etc).  My opinion is that TaskRabbit will lose out to competitors that have focused on corporate sales instead of peer-to-peer tasks.

I have tried to use TaskRabbit, but the available task are not in my area.



2.) Field Agent - This startup has not received the funding or TechCrunch exposure.  Their website tells Target, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, and P&G.  Download the app and you will see a nice list of available jobs.  They aren't the highest paying jobs, but they make it extremely easy to take a job.  The instant approval lets you take a job when you are close by instead of applying and waiting an hour+ for approval.  I tried Field Agent for the first time tonight, auditing the Laundry Detergent aisle at Wal-Mart.  From download to first task, it maybe took 5 minutes and I complete my first task in 5 minutes or less.  It was 10 questions and 2 photos... a  pretty easy $8.  The only problem I see with Field Agent is that it has just a few opportunities in any area.
a different story though with a strong list of customers like
 
About Field Agent   Download the app

1.) Gigwalk - This startup is leading the micro-job-app space, with almost $8 million in funding so far, they are the most likely to succeed with the combination of marketing prowess and focus on corporate clients to keep the map full of gigs.  I downloaded for the first time in 2011when I first read about it on techcrunch.  At that time, it had the same challenges as TaskRabbit, a lack of available "gigs" in my area.  So I mothballed the app until I got an email update about new gigs posted for a campaign with Bing.  Bing has gone all out to pay you $10 for taking some pictures and updating local business back to 2012 when they started to crowdsource their business listings.  This got me interested again and I proceeded to apply for a get 15 gigs.  All I can say is, read the directions carefully and make sure you practice using the Bing panoramic app.  I didn't do to well, only getting paid for 3 of the 15 apps because my panoramic photo skills were lacking.  They gave me a chance to get better images, but I had to ask to be removed from the tasks because I was unable to get back to the locations before the deadline.  As of June 18th, 2013, there were still a ton of Bing gigs available.
listings.  This partnership goes

Gigwalk has done an awesome job of filling the map with available gigs.  For your first few gigs, they require someone to approve you before you get the gig.  Complete a few gigs and it turns to an automated process.  They rank their gigwalkers based on the gigs you have completed so if you sign up, make sure you complete it.  Once you finish a gig, it goes to the customer for review.  I did mine on a Saturday and I got feedback by Tuesday and was paid the following day.  Paypal is their only method for payment currently.

About Gigwalk  Download the app

In my opinion, Gigwalk is in the lead, but Field Agent has the potential to build a strong company on this business model.  Download the apps and start making money!

Think of the NSA as Just another twitter follower

Productivity in Washington blamed on access to once-believed deleted snapchat photos.

Rebrand the killer whale

Communication 3.0 for human resources

Coffee Cup Sleeve Ad

Traditional advertising channels are slipping as market share gets diluted to the now 40+ channels that marketers have to choose from. The classic three of radio, TV, and print can still have some unique applications.

Take for examples these coffee cup sleeves spotted at Imperio coffee in Columbus, Ohio. Promoting WOW Cable, the real estate that is usually occupied by a brand logo is replaced with a full color promotion for WOW's cable, phone, and internet service.

Is this effective? It's a difficult campaign to measure. This particular ad did not have a QR code, mobile page, or campaign specific URL. Without one of those three pieces, the sleeves are no different than a print ad, billboard, or bus sign. It's more effective if the ads are targeted. The challenge of targeting directly conflicts with the economics of printing.

Is it worth it for the coffee shop? Depends on the coffee shop. Small businesses need to save money and you could expect that the ad pays for all or a portion of the coffee sleeve and the coffee shop gets the discount in exchange for the service.

Who would do this? This marketin channel is for small, neighborhood coffee shops only. Why wouldn't Starbucks do this? 1.) they don't have to. 2.) they would not sacrifice the brand image to save a few pennies 3.) Customers would distain the change from their symbol of affluence that turns them into walking billboards. And 4.) They couldn't afford it.

That may be a slight exaggeration since Starbucks could surely afford to spend more on their sleeves, but they would lose the economies of scale that their operation has and their buying power would be diminished. Big brands buy in bulk and the high volume prints for paper and packaging are static, repeated images.

There is a startup in Columbus working on this exact challenge. How to provide measurable, localized, small runs for independent coffee shops. They also have a mission to donate a cup of water for every coffee sleeve.

Check them out at coveredcoffee.com