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#11 – U.S. Independence Day, 2006

Although we live in a time when fewer US Americans know the history of their own country and the original intentions of freedom and liberty is was founded on, this year might offer a chance to get these folks back on track.

This is because July 4th, 2006 will be the 230th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. My research has uncovered many small towns throughout the United States who are already making plans to celebrate this anniversary with a little more pomp and circumstance than the usual 4th of July.

Combine that with the patriotism that the potential of troops returning from overseas will inspire if they begin returning home en masse and that’s why I’m predicting there will be a much stronger than usual interest and media coverage leading up to Independence Day in 2006.

Profit Ideas: Spread patriotism and earn your keep at the same time – what could be better than that? Flags sell well especially during the buildup to Independence Day – and that’s always good during the time of year when most sales start to slump. Besides the usual “Stars and Stripes”, historical flags such as the “Betsy Ross” and the Gadsden “Don’t Tread On Me” flag could be very good sellers. These are easy to source items with low wholesale costs and high profit margins that are easy to market online and either stock and ship yourself our through a dropshipper.

Websites providing information on the history of the Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution in the context of today’s current events and politics could become very popular in 2006 and provide the traffic to convert into sales.

Portal sites with information about upcoming July 4th celebrations in your city or region could draw plenty of targeted traffic too. Independence Day party planning guides could also provide a good draw and allow you to market BBQ grills, picnic tables and other summertime gear via affiliate programs.

Check Your Calendar: There are plenty of holidays throughout the year. This report should start your creative juices flowing on ways you can prepare ahead of time to tap into upcoming holidays no matter where you live and what holidays you celebrate!

#12 – Geocaching

Next, I’d like to take a look at some hobby niches that I believe would be well worth tapping into in 2006. The first of these is geocaching, also known as gps geocaching. It is a form of global treasure hiding and treasure hunting incorporating satellite navigation technology and the internet.

People who participate in geocaching use small, often handheld Global Postitioning System (GPS) receivers to find a “cache” or hidden container of treasure placed somewhere on the planet. Geocachers post information about their caches and cache finds online. There is a large and growing community of people around the world playing this high tech game of hide and seek.

This hobby has only been around for about 5 years, and its popularity is just starting to catch on. This is due to the fact that the GPS technology to participate in the sport has only recently been available to the public.

Profit Ideas: As the price of handheld GPS receivers continues to drop and more media attention is given to this fascinating activity, I predict a large increase in interest in geocaching in 2006. Although there are already several large community sites dedicated to this sport, my keyword research shows that people are starting to search for geocaching information targeted to their own cities and states, for example “Texas geocaching” and “geocaching Houston”. This provides you with the opportunity to provide targeted localized content for these searchers that could place well in the search engines and be useful to your visitors. Content sites built like this would be good places to advertise and sell geocaching gear such as handheld gps receivers, geocaching coins, and geocaching software.

Outside the Box – You could create and promote your own geocaching contest as a marketing device for whatever product or service you currently offer. This would allow you to take advantage of the current community of geocachers and their websites. For example, if you are an online baseball card dealer, you could bury several geocaches containing old baseball cards and issue a press release about your contest and post your geocache contest in the online forums. This could bring some instant buzz and media attention to your business.

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Like last year’s Chronicles of Narnia, Charlotte’s Web is one of those stories that every kid (and as a result every adult) knows by heart. Most of us probably remember the musical 1973 animated version of Wilbur the pig and his caretaker spider Charlotte who determines to save his life. This new live action version uses state-of-the-art effects, has (thankfully) dropped the musical numbers, and casts all-star voice talent. It’s a decent movie, but not one that bears repeat viewing.

Farm girl Fern (Dakota Fanning) saves runt-of-the-litter pig Wilbur (voiced by Dominic Scott Kay) from her father’s axe. When he gets too big to manage at home, Fern moves Wilbur across the road to her uncle’s barn where he meets a whole group of new animals. His best friend is the spider Charlotte (voiced by Julia Roberts), who comes up with a plan to save Wilbur from his eventual destiny - the smokehouse.

Charlotte’s Web does an excellent job in combining live action, puppetry, and CGI work to form the seamless effect of animals that talk (much like 1995’s Babe only better). Charlotte is pure CGI, and she looks great. The animation is so crisp that she even gets close-ups, so you can see the color of her eyes (brown), all in striking detail.

It must have been easy to get a large budget for this movie (and thus excellent effects) considering all of the famous names that play the various critters in Wilbur’s barn. You get Robert Redford (Ike the horse), Oprah Winfrey (Gussy the Goose), Reba McIntyre (Betsy the cow), John Cleese (Samuel the sheep), and on and on. It’s a pretty impressive list, even if you do find all the familiar voices distracting from the story.

It’s a cute (and mildly touching) tale, and unless you grew up on a farm with little sympathy for livestock, you’ll identify with adorable Wilbur and his desire to live. There are nice themes of acceptance, friendship, and sacrifice that help propel the story and give it meaning. Comic relief comes in the form of Steve Buscemi’s rat Templeton who has all the best lines (“Bring on the filth!”), and two crows who keep trying to outlast that skinny guy in the cornfield who never leaves.

So what we have here is a perfectly fine children’s movie, that adults will probably like, but just barely. While it has its moments, Charlotte’s Web doesn’t quite break out of the demographic shell to appeal to everyone. That’ll do pig...

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Flickr is a Web2.0 Application and an online community where you can share photos and web service suites. You can use Flickr to share photos, but you can also use it as a blogger by using short blogs for your photo tags. Flickr has grown in popularity due to the fact you can tag photos, which can then be browsed using keywords. There are close to, if not more than, 1 million photos currently in Flickr now. This community was created by Ludicorp in Vancouver Canada, and launched in February of 2004. It was originally created for the MMOPG Neverending but was shelved when Flickr caught on by a multitude of other users.

Yahoo now owns Ludicorp and Flickr, the change caused all the information and photos there to being ruled by US federal law. In 2006, due to a serious need for more space by users, the upload limit was increased from 20 MB to 100 MB for free users and up to 2 GB for pro users. When Yahoo acquired Flickr, members were required to associate their accounts with a Yahoo ID.

Getting started with Flickr is simple enough and can be done in a few simple steps. Hit Sign Up and log in with your Yahoo ID, or if you are already logged into Yahoo, it will prompt for you to verify your password. That’s it, you are done. Once logged into your Flickr account, upload your photo and read the community guideline. After this simply begin exploring Flickr.

Using Flickr as part of your marketing plan is utilizing the value of a photograph. Here you can store important images such as your company logo and then tag it to create a market strategy. You can also use it to help your marketing team by keeping all your images in one location. Flickr is designed as an online photo manager and anyone Webmaster or anyone involved in Internet marketing will tell you that management and organization is a very real key to success.

Your images can be uploaded from your computer, sent in an email, or through your camera phone, or straight from your desktop using free third­party programs. You can create collections or sets to make a presentation from photos only, and add tags to them to make the show easier to find. If there are photos you want to share while others are private or for your customers only, you can use the group and privacy controls to determine which ones you share. If your business is based in a central location, you can take photos and then put them in your Flickr account, and let people know where they were shot. This will generate interest around your location as other photos taken from there are viewed. If you have a blog, you can even attach photos to it from your Flickr account.

Every good business needs a real marketing campaign and one of those is creating media kits, such as cards, photo books, framed prints, DVDs and more. You can create all of these marketing tools using your Flickr account and then have them either shipped to your home or for pickup at your local Target Store. This is currently only available in the United States. Plus keeping in touch has never been easier? you can talk to family, friends, and business partners all while sharing your photos.

By joining one of the many groups on Flickr, you can get together with people and businesses that share your interests or can reach a common goal together. It does not matter who you are and what you offer, you will find a group that fits your needs, and if not or you are looking for something more, simply start your own group.

Using Flickr as part of your Internet marketing or as a Webmaster simply makes good sense. No more worrying about your computer going down and you losing photos, or being on a different computer and needing one certain image. By using Flickr, you will have access to them all with a few keystrokes and a click or two of your mouse.