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Miscellaneous Ramblings – 9/27/2007

written by John Chow on September 27th, 2007

Michael Kwan Review Special

Many of you may already know that Michael Kwan helps me do some of the ReviewMe reviews. If you read any of his reviews then you know he is very good at it. For those who want Michael to review their site but don’t have the $400 asking price, Michael is offer his review service for only $40. The only catch is the review will be posted at Beyond The Rhetoric and not John Chow dot Com. Full information on this offer is available here.

Preview My PPC Ads

Kieron of Here.org.uk has launched a new website call PreviewMyPPC. The site allows you to preview your PPC ads for Google Adwords, MS AdCenter and Yahoo! Search Marketing. It’s useful for advertisers who want to see what their ads will look like in the major search engines.

Suing Automakers for Canadian Price Discrepancies

I was wondering how long it would take before this happens. The Toronto-based class-action lawsuit firm Juroviesky and Ricci is expected to file a $2 billion class-action suit on behalf of four Canadians who feel that they paid more for their cars than they would have in the U.S. The class-action suit is open to any Canadian consumer who bought a new vehicle between August, 2005 and August, 2007 when the Canadian dollar was rapidly appreciating, but the prices of Canadian cars weren’t adjusting. I qualify for this class!

In related news, Porsche Cars North America is the first automaker to announce that it will be sharply reducing the prices of its vehicles sold in Canada. The price of a 2007 Porsche model compared to a 2008 will go down a full 10%, so a 2007 Cayman that cost $69,600 in Canada last year will cost $63,500 today. Unfortunately, a 2008 Cayman in the US starts at $49,400. I know where I will be buying my next car!

John Chow Wins The First iPod Touch

Some guys have all the luck and it’s usually me. I am the winner of a brand new 16GB iPod Touch in the Million Euro Wiki giveaway. Then again, my odds were pretty good at 1 in 25.

ipod250.jpg

Yes we know. It sounds fake, rigged and more of that, but it’s true. Like we said, we really had to think twice about this one because we can guess how some people will react. Sure, we could have picked again and see if we’d end up with someone else’s name, but that just wouldn’t be fair.

I did say I would give away the Touch if I won it and I will do that. I just need to come up with a contest idea. Right now, I have two ideas. The first is to give it to newsletter subscriber. The second is to give it to a Million Euro Wiki page owner who used the JohnChow coupon code to get 10% off their Wiki page. If you have any other ideas, let me know.

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  1. I say give it to a subscriber :mrgreen:
    Some of us couldn’t afford a page :cry:

  2. How about subscribing to RSS gets you 1 entry, and subscribing to newsletter gets you another entry?

    That way poor folk like me dont have to be forced to buy something which they cant afford!! :mrgreen:

  3. Price differences are not only the auto market, it applies pretty much to everything we buy. I have just got back from Miami and I see the same products here for at least 20-25% more while the dollar hold a par. I am glad to see someone reacting to it, especially to big price tag items like cars. Consumers need to stand up for themselves so the retailers don’t just pocket huge profits. Luckily living in Toronto, I am an hour drive from Buffalo NY and I will be shopping there instead in Canada.

    • As for the cars, it used to be cheaper in Canada for Americans. The caveat is that the car companies will not honor your warranty claims here. I assume it is the save vice versa. Lookout for warranty claims. However if you live close enough to the border it probably doesn’t make any difference. Just drive over and get it repaired. Just don’t bring your cheap Canadian drugs down here. Do spend money however in large amounts. :o )

    • As for the cars, it used to be cheaper in Canada for Americans. The caveat is that the car companies will not honor your warranty claims here. I assume it is the same vice versa. Lookout for warranty claims. However if you live close enough to the border it probably doesn’t make any difference. Just drive over and get it repaired. Just don’t bring your cheap Canadian drugs down here. Do spend money however in large amounts. :o )

  4. Vote for newsletter subscriber :mrgreen:

  5. No matter what contest you will run. Don’t forget to post your blog contest info on MyBlogContest.com.

    BTW, I just receive my Google AdSesne earning!
    Dammit!! The exchange rate is 0.995 : 1
    1 USD = 0.995 CAD
    Oh My God! If the rate is 1:1 I just lose 7.66!!
    Man!! USD sucks!!

  6. I say you give it to someone who used your coupon code to buy a wiki page…. 1 entry per page bought on the wiki.

    That’s my 2 dollars.

  7. Seems like Google updated John’s pagerank to 5.

  8. Congratulations to John for winning the iPod. I guess some guys are just lucky.

  9. How much are you making from the dealdotcom banner? I think it looks pretty crappy

  10. You’re luckier than a fish

  11. I would say make the contest for the wiki thing.

    Btw John, if I buy a wiki page now, will I have 2 out of 25 chances because 1 out of 25 chance to get the wiki ipod and 1 out of 25 chance to get your ipod? Or is it 2 out of 50?

    Wait it all depends on how many people enter your contest. Well like I said, make it the Wiki thing, that way you won’t be flooded with submissions.

  12. omg, crazy canadians!

    It is normal here that cars are in germany 10,000 euro cheaper than in the netherlands..

  13. Thanks for the mention of http://www.PreviewMyPPC.com John, I owe you a beer!

  14. Uh oh, I feel like I may soon be experiencing the John Chow effect with that mention in your ramblings… and it’s the first mention in the list too! Kumiko (Cash Quests) posted about it too and I’ve already received three orders. I doubt I’m stealing any business from you, though.

    Regarding the iPod Touch, I think you should give it away to your most prolific guest blogger… oh wait, that’s me! :)

  15. Ian

    I must admit, I’m confused. I am new to blogs (June). Recovering from a failed business. So I’m pondering – will blogs help my “real-world” business?

    I have been to this site before, but heard about it again and thought I would visit.

    And I don’t wish to sound impolite, but I still aint sure that the blogging world is NOT full of “pyramid-selling” type hype.

    I post on a few sites I like. But the “big” sites like this make me ponder. Why do people comment with 2 words?

    Why not give some proper insight into the topic at hand?

    Its a bit like the dot-com boom and bust. It lacks substance.

    I strongly recommend getting your business activities to have some sound real-world basis. And I aint saying affilliate type stuff is wrong. Far from it.

    It just needs some grounding. Surely we should all be building foundations built upon things we are either expert in or passionate about? That way, what we say has merit.

    Anyway, I’ll copy this onto the clipboard so I can paste it elsewhere. Because it won’t be accepted!

    Oh and by the way, fail well. Because you need to learn from mistakes rather than find another one to make.

    • check the side bar, there’s a top commentators box, so people will reply as much as they can to get themselves there. All this to get more visitors to their own blog.

      Indeed it does hurt the blog in a way as the good comments vanish somewhere inside the big flood of replies with the average of two words.

  16. John, we would like to post your review of the Touch on our site: http://www.iphonecanada.net. Would you be receptive? We aren’t getting it in Canada for another few weeks.. Thanks! :mrgreen:

  17. You unbelievable lucky guy..try to go to my site to win the coupon for Ooma. I am giving it away.
    It shouldn’t be difficult to win it because no one is partecipating :(

  18. Dude, how do you keep on winning all the expensive prizes?! haha…nice work! :cool:
    Forget about a contest idea for the iPod Touch…I’ll take the Touch instead of the Forex book I won a while back. :grin:

  19. I think I am going to have to take up that review offer!

  20. Now that`s a coincidence. I have a MEW page too …. guss i`m not so lucky. :smile:

  21. newsletter subscriber, or how bout you let me test it and i write a review that you can put up on ttz

  22. I would say newsletter subscribers over coupon users. The coupon users already have a chance to win an iPod and will have more chances as page numbers increase. Open it up to a different pool of people.

    • Good point. How bout you even let people that dont read your blog win it? Or maybe have like a “wheres the ipod” thing. Like there was a site that people would enter the serial number of a dollar and it would go across the country. you can do that with the ipod.

  23. I am with the newsletter subscribers

  24. Guk

    The millioneurowiki guy made John Chow win so he could get a review…very clever.

  25. And there are lots of people talking about the cheap Kwan reviews. I’m tempted to take him up on his offer. Hopefully he won’t be overloaded.

  26. I don’t know if it’s me but it sounds fishy.

    I could have sworn 99% that John was going to be the winner, nah you’re all taking the piss out of a word called “Random”. John you can’t alter the laws of probability so don’t try to ;)

  27. IPod touch is one of my wish list hehe.

  28. So many posts about the car price differentials. I’m thinking I’ll put my car in an international container and leave it on the dock till I figure out where the dollar is the weakest. :smile:

  29. Nice of you to give a shout-out/promotion for Kwan

    I will definitely be interested in finding out what method you use to give that iPod touch away!

  30. Great win, certainly interesting to see what you come up with for a contest.

  31. I was just writing an article on whether BMW will follow Porsche in slashing the car prices in Canada. It is known that the BMW models are way cheaper in the US and many people have inquired if the prices will be reduced. So far, BMW Canada has announced that they have no intention on doing so, but I think it will only make sense for them to keep up with the competitors. I’m pretty confident that Mercedes-Benz might follow Porsche and then BMW would have no choice. In the mean time, BMW is expecting to sell even more cars in the next year after the launch of several new models: 1-series, M3, X6 and an X1 model that was announced today.

  32. You should give the iPod touch way to a newsletter subscriber… :D

  33. John, I think I have the best idea yet! :?:

    Give it away to me! Forget the rest of these people. They just want a free Ipod Touch. I on the other hand don’t want it, :!: , I need it so that I can tell everybody that I got John Chow’s Ipod Touch.

    BTW to all of you people of lesser intelligence who might find this comment offensive, it is nothing more than a joke. Don’t take it too personally.

  34. How John creates a 125 by 125 ad of the free ipod touch and you have to put it on your site – this is 2 entries :mrgreen:

  35. Give it to a subscriber.

  36. Another vote for the newsletter subscriber.

  37. Congratulations! The iPod looks very cool!

    Regards,
    seocity.wordpress.com

  38. Har har. It does sound like a fiddle that you won the ipod. But then, you gotta be in it to win it, so congrats on the prize!

  39. The class action suit for differential pricing will be very interesting to watch. It will have serious implications for all products sold in both countries. When the two currencies are moving in different directions, life becomes extremely difficult for marketeers to keep track and adjust prices, if that is all that is behind the differences. If however a loss leader strategy is being followed, there is going to be fun and games.

  40. I hope i get it, so I can review the book!

  41. Congratulations John.

    I would use it to promote your newsletter :twisted: (So give it away to a subscriber).

    Cheers

  42. I’d love the book, thanks!

  43. We all dream a lot – some are lucky, some are not!

  44. John you might as well come over to my site and win the Video Nano too. MUUHHHAAAAHHAAA :twisted:

  45. Max

    Count me in for the book, or the ipod or both lol
    I think the ipod contest should be a winner from the RSS feed :-)
    Thanks for such a great blog, really enjoy reading your posts.

  46. Going to give it another shot to win the book. Thanks for providing so many opportunities to win.

  47. I’d be interested to learn a bit about Forex :)

  48. Hi John

    I just bought the web_directory page on MEW with your coupon….hope i win the iPod :)

  49. My extra entry for the 7 Winning Strategies for Trading Forex book.

  50. Wannabe trader

    What happened to my previous entry?…

  51. RSS entry for the book!

  52. RSS entry for the book too!

  53. you are realy lucky John… anyway you are also having contests so it is OK if you also win some times.

  54. will i be third time lucky for the forex book :mrgreen:

  55. Oh ! Will you be giving away that iPod touch ?
    I’d love to win it.

  56. I expect all kind of currencies million dollar wiki will be flooding the internet for the coming 3 months. :twisted:

  57. I know mad COW is a cheater . :(

Trackbacks

  1. Two Days Left To Win | Million Dollar Portfolio - September 28, 2007 at 4:51 pm
  2. Contest Winners, Random or Rigged? | Blogging with Cents - September 30, 2007 at 9:23 pm