March 6, 2010

Josh vs The Geek Squad

I want to steal business from Best Buy’s Geek Squad. I don’t have anything against any of their techs. In fact, I think all of those techs would be better off going into business for themselves but my instincts tell me Best Buy has a no competition agreement as part of their terms of employment.image

Why I Want Geek Squad’s Business To Become My Business 
They’re simply too expensive. Technicians are seeing $9-23 out of every $150-300 charged. On top of that, Geek Squad doesn’t want to share knowledge with their customers as outlined in the training section of their website: “Training Services EXCLUDES teaching how to remove viruses or spyware and any other propritary Geek Squad information.” For a company making millions, you’d think they’d have someone who would catch typos like the misspelling of proprietary. image

Geek Squad does not provide valuable services to their customers. Anyone in need of technical support can easily find better value browsing through the ads on Craigslist. There are plenty of well-qualified technicians with more experience and better training than their Geek Squad counterparts.

Geek Squad Is Bad For America 
imageBest Buy’s Geek Squad is just a step above a company who outsources their services to India. They charge fees like Mark Shuttleworth will be working on your computer but pay technicians the salaries of fast food workers. By hiring a local technician, a customer not only saves money but helps a computer professional from becoming another member of the working poor.

There’s a lot more than low prices to cheer about! By hiring directly, customers also avoid the salesman disguised as Chuck. This person’s primary mission is not to provide the best tools and service but to sell Geek-Squad-branded merchandise. Take comfort in knowing a self-employed technician will just as happily install a free antivirus program like Avast! as they will a suite like Kaspersky.

Dissecting The Services
The virus and spyware removal is shown above and what follows is a closer look at other Geek Squad services. image

Anyone with internet service can get 25gb of free online storage space using Skydrive. For $89, a 500gb hard drive can be purchased –no Geek Squad restoration point necessary. For less than $99, I can provide customers with 500gb of backup storage space and a link in their web browser to SkyDrive… or they can do this themselves by reading this.

Take a look at what Geek Squad charges for up to 9gb of data backup…imageIf a 500gb portable hard drive can be purchased for $89, why would it cost an extra $100 to backup 9gb of data? A dual-layer DVD can hold 8.5gb. I purcimagehase these at a cost of around 25¢ each. BlueRay media has come down to about $2.50 each and can hold 25gb of data. The easiest method I can think of though for both portability and choice for a customer is a flash drive, like a 16gb SanDisk Cruzer, which is still only $33.


Hire Me!!!
While I probably won’t put a dent in Geek Squad’s business, I do hope potential customers in this area come across my blog as they research the company. I want your business.

The services I offer

  • Virus & Spyware Removal
  • Security and Performance
  • Wireless Networking
  • Computer Tune-Up
  • Computer Set-up
  • Email
  • Printer Help
  • Backup
  • Data Recovery
  • Software Install
  • Hardware Install
  • Technology Consultation
  • Training
  • Hardware Repair

Serving:
Northern Whatcom County
Bellingham, Washington
Abbotsford, British Columbia
The Fraser Valley
Available for remote support to all areas of the world. I’m not a Mac guy but there are plenty of them on Craigslist.

Resumé and recommendations: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cylon

$35/hr for all services. Any additional hardware or software will be at direct cost with no hidden fees. Contact me by email using the link on the top of the page or via Google Voice or Skype:

Skype Me™!

February 27, 2010

Host Your Own Music For $10 A Year

Inexpensive Web Hosting & Free Online Storage
imageWhat’s an album cost these days? On Amazon or iTunes around $10. Interestingly, this is the annual cost for the Chromedocs domain and there are other providers offering web hosting for this same low price. Just type “web hosting $10 year” into your favorite search engine.

My Portland, Oregon friends Wester Daywick have generously provided a copy of their debut album to host online. My favorite tracks are Less Is More and Winnie but each song is superb indie rock in the same vein as Fugazi or Queens Of The Stone Age. For those who like variety, there are 7 audio formats to choose from and tracks can be downloaded individually or as an entire folder including artwork.

AAC FLAC M4A MP3 OGG WMA WMA Lossless

…and just like that, an album is online for $10 a year. I’m taking advantage of Blogger and Google working together cohesively as well as 25gb of storage space from Microsoft’s Skydrive service. Bobby, Louis, and Trent can always use some beer gas money. Show them some love by catching a show or buying some merchandise. For more information on all things Wester Daywick…

http://www.westerdaywick.com
http://www.facebook.com/westerdaywick.pdx
http://www.twitter.com/WesterDaywick
http://www.myspace.com/WesterDaywick
http://www.reverbnation.com/westerdaywick
http://www.youtube.com/westerdaywickpdx
http://westerdaywick.bandcamp.com/

Content Management Systems, Creative Commons, and Direct Delivery 
Throwing an album online is a snap but a band should get some financial reward for all their hard work. This doesn’t stray far from maintaining a blog. For bands with their own domains, a few hours of creativity and an open source content management system (CMS) like Drupal, Joomla, and Modx can result in aesthetically pleasing presentation of your music as well as online payment processing. Check out the Create a Killer Band Site with Drupal: A 6-part Tutorial Series on GoMediaZine to help get you started. If the examples in the previous links don’t have you impressed, have a look a the Pearl Jam website running on Drupalimage Don’t rush to duplicate Pearl Jam until you’ve browsed through the Jets Overhead website. Jets Overhead hails from nearby Victoria, British Columbia. They released their 2006 album Bridges using the voluntary purchase model. With their latest album No Nations, the band is now supporting the creative commons movement.image Jets Overhead albums are available through all the major retailers. However, check out the choices when buying directly through their website…imageimageimageimageimageimageThis band really gets the modern industry. Fans are treated to free, high-quality digital downloads of rarities, remixes, and instrumentals in a variety of formats not just the merchandise being sold.

Any band is capable of duplicating this model or extending it with their own creativity. For musicians who typically lose money after recording, instead of printing 800 discs, reduce it to 50 and host your songs online in a variety of formats. Get on iTunes, eMusic, Amie Street, etc but don’t forget the value in direct marketing. Even if you take a bold leap and offer music for name your own prices, $1 a couple thousand times is a reasonably achievable goal. The idea here is not to sacrifice one method for the other but to adopt both. For $10 a year, the return on your investment has far more potential than any other strategy you could choose from so why not include it in your arsenal. Keep selling CDs and digital downloads through music retailers but pump the direct marketing through your own website where the money goes straight to your own checking account.