RSS
people

Rocket Spanish Review

For a long time I’ve wanted to learn more Spanish.  Spanish is a very important language to know, especially in the United States.  Not only that, but it’s becoming more important every year, as the Latin population continues to expand.  Knowing Spanish is also very helpful in business, and can give you a huge advantage over other prospective employees.  There’s no doubt learning Spanish is a big advantage in life.

After taking three years of high school Spanish, I decided I’d had enough and gave it up.  Since then, I’ve learned what a mistake that was and have been wanting to get back into it and learn Spanish fluently.  I thought, why not download Spanish lessons online?  After months of putting it off, I finally set out to find the best Spanish learning software.  I was looking for something that was inexpensive, and could help me learn Spanish fast.  I first looked at Rosetta Stone, after seeing all the commercials for it on TV.  Unfortunately, that runs about $500 dollars for the full package.  That’s out of my price range.  Then I started looking for alternatives.  I wanted to be able to download Spanish lessons and learn at my own pace.

After a few days of research, the best I found was Rocket SpanishRocket Spanish is a very popular Spanish learning software, and it costs under $100 dollars.  That fit right into my budget so I gave it a shot.  The course includes 31 audio lessons that all come with written transcripts.  Pretty standard.  There’s also an advanced grammar book (in pdf format).  This is a great addition to the audio lessons and very important part of learning the language.  The best part by far, however, are the software games.

Rocket Spanish comes with 3 Spanish learning software packages.  The first is a vocabulary game that teaches you common words by associating them with pictures.  This is a very important starting point in learning Spanish.  This will get you well on your way to understanding a conversation in Spanish.  Next is a spoken word software which helps you understand how native speakers pronounce common words.  This will get you to the point where you can understand a Spanish conversation.  Next, is the verb tenses software.  This is one of the most difficult aspects of learning Spanish, and this software makes it much easier.  It may be the most important Spanish learning software you will find.

This all comes with email support and a members forum, which is very useful.  I’m still learning, but I’m well on my way to understanding the Spanish language, and I attribute a large part of it to Rocket Spanish.  This is a great course at a great value.  It’s not often you can learn an entire language for $100 bucks.

Click here to check out Rocket Spanish.

No Comments | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Jamorama Review

If you’ve been trying to learn the guitar, but don’t want to pay for expensive lessons, you’ve probably thought about taking guitar lessons online.  The internet is a great place to learn a new skill, so I decided to set out and find the best place to download guitar lessons.  There’s a lot of online guitar lessons out there.  Too many, if you ask me.  So I decided to go with one that charges a one-time fee for the course rather than paying monthly.  That way I could learn it at my own pace and not be pressured to learn it as fast as possible before I end up paying hundreds of dollars.  Let’s face it, even with the best lessons, it takes months or even years to get good at the guitar.

I decided to go with Jamorama.  It appears to be very popular on the net, and for only $40 dollars, it’s a great deal.  You can download some free lessons on the site to get a feel of how it works.  It offers over a year of lessons, plus a bunch of cool software that teaches you how to do things like read music, play songs you hear on the radio, and tune your guitar.  In fact, this was my favorite part about it.  They make it fun to learn by using software programs rather than having someone try to explain it.  I also like how Jamorama really caters to beginners.

Overall, I was really pleased with my purchase.  After my cousin taught me some basic chords, I was really anxious to learn more guitar, and Jamorama makes it really simple.  You pay once, and you get all the lessons you could ever need.  Plus you get some pretty sweet video lessons that teach you how to play popular songs quickly.  This was my original goal anyway, so it worked out great for me.  I was able to pick up almost any of the songs in an hour and play them like a seasoned guitarist.

Long story short, if you’re a beginner at the guitar, this is probably the best place to start.  It’s the best value I’ve found on the net.  If you’re already advanced, and looking to improve, I would probably go elsewhere.  For me, this was a great purchase and I highly recommend it for anyone looking to download guitar lessons.

Click here to check it out.

No Comments | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Driver Robot Review

Have you ever had to search the internet for a driver?  It’s a pain in the a$$.  Seriously.  And nobody ever holds on to the driver discs for all their hardware.  I’ve had to reinstall my operating system several times, and each time I end up spending hours looking for driver downloads all over the net.  It just sucks.  That’s why I set out looking for some driver download software that could automatically find drivers for your hardware and install it for you.  There’s a few out there, but Driver Robot seems to be the most advanced.  It automatically crawls the net for drivers and claims to support over 100,000 different hardware devices.

To test it out, it will let you scan your computer for free and it will tell you which of your drivers need updating.  I gave it a run and it seemed extremely accurate so I bought it for $30 bucks.  I was in the process of shopping for a new Netbook computer anyway so I figured it would be a good way to give it a test run.  I have tons of hardware laying around; phones, cameras, etc, and I never hold on to the driver discs.  I figure this would save me a few hours of trouble.

Well, it turns out that it was a great investment.  This thing seems like it can find and install drivers for just about anything.  My new Netbook was up and running at full speed in no time and I didn’t have to mess around with any driver discs or waste my whole day searching for drivers on the net.  Driver Robot delivers.  If you’re looking for automatic driver download software, this is your product.

Click here to check it out.

No Comments | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Drop Shipping Reviews

Look for stuff to sell on eBay?  Need wholesale products? Looking for the best dropshippers?  Real wholesale drop ship merchandise is out there, but it’s very hard to find.

As a long time ecommerce business owner, I’ve tried many of the most popular wholesale directories & suppliers and can provide a review of my experiences with them.  These drop shipping reviews are my own opinion, and result from several years of eCommerce experience and research.  Always use caution when sourcing products for your own drop shipping business.

WorldWide Brands Review

· Price: Currently $299 dollars

· Good selection – over 8,000 wholesalers and drop shippers

· Video lessons

· A members forum

· Live support

WorldWide Brands is the most popular wholesale directory out there because its eBay Certified. In fact it’s the only eBay Certified source there is.  The listing is comprehensive and the suppliers have all been reviewed and confirmed safe by professionals.  It’s by far the most well known wholesale listing out there.  It does lack in some areas though. For instance, it’s not the best directory for electronics products, and it doesn’t cater to drop shippers.  There are some drop shipping sources in this directory, but not as many as you’d expect with over 8,000 suppliers.  You also will run into another major problem.  Since so many eBay sellers use this to source products, you will have a ton of competition.  This means lots of other sellers with the same products at the same price.  The biggest upside is that this is the most reliable wholesale directory out there, and you can be sure you’re dealing with legitimate wholesale and dropship companies.

Doba Review

· Price: Currently $49.95 - $59.95 per month

· Around 250 suppliers

· All drop shipments

· eCommerce training for beginners

Doba isn’t a wholesale directory but rather a middleman between you and about 250 drop shippers. It’s very popular because itt makes drop shipping really simple.  They handle all the hard stuff for you. However, the ‘wholesale’ prices are known to be high. It’s a popular choice for new sellers, but it’s very hard to make good money with the high ‘wholesale’ pricing they give you.  It’s also a very popular source for eBay sellers which means a lot of competition. Products also go out of stock frequently without notice, so it’s not good for use on auctions or for selling on Amazon. If you are serious at all about making money selling products online, I would avoid Doba.  For recreational use, then it may be a good choice just because it’s easy.

DHGate Review

· Free access

· Suppliers come from China – BEWARE OF SCAMMERS

· Many products are counterfeit

DHGate is a community of Chinese suppliers that advertise their products on the website. DHGate itself is the moderator of these suppliers.  It’s somewhat like an eBay of Chinese wholesalers.  They attempt to deter scam artists, but they don’t do it very well.  Also, most of the products are counterfeit, which is why the pricing seems too good to be true. You may never receive your product either, so be careful with this one.  If you plan to sell on eBay or Amazon, don’t source from here.  Selling counterfeit products is illegal and you will be banned.  I’d advise against using DHGate except for personal purchases.

Alibaba Review

· Free access

· Suppliers from all over the world

· LOTS of scammers

· Suppliers do not drop ship and often require large bulk orders

Alibaba is a good source if you want to buy large pallets of product. However, there are TONS of Chinese scammers populating the site. They will say and do anything to get your money from you and you will never get your product.  You have to be extremely careful dealing with anyone on Alibaba or you could get ripped off big time.  It’s happened to me before so be advised.  If you decide to use it, do your research, and don’t send payment via Western Union if possible.  Also note that if you receive a pallet of product and there are damages, that’s your own problem.  Almost none of these suppliers drop ship either.  This is not a good option for drop shippers.

Salehoo Review

· Price: Currently $67 dollars

· 8,000+ wholesalers and drop shippers

· A large community of members

· Members can rate experiences with suppliers, negative or positive

· Support from eCommerce professionals

· Free training

· All types of brand name products

Salehoo is my favorite wholesale and drop shipping directory.  I am currently running two eCommerce stores using sources that I found in Salehoo and I make good money off of them.  The directory offers a similar number of suppliers as WorldWide Brands, but at a fraction of the cost.  It also caters more to the drop shipping community, which is nice.  The one downside to Salehoo is that there are some less than reputable sources in the directory.  It’s a very large listing and sometimes scammers will get through.  Fortunately, they usually get spotted quickly since members are allowed to review the suppliers and leave public feedback, but you still need to be a little cautious.  Despite this, I still have found it to be the best drop shipping source for the price.  Overall, its the best value for product sourcing.

1 Comment | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Salehoo Review

Salehoo is an increasingly popular wholesale supplier directory.  It promises over 8,000 wholesale and drop shipping sources, categorized into an easy to use directory.  But is it worth the money?

As a current independent ecommerce store owner, I’ve sifted through a ton of crappy wholesale and drop shipping suppliers.  In fact, when I first started out, I wasted months dealing with middlemen and scammers that did nothing but rip me off and eat all my profits.  I promise you if you try to find your own wholesale suppliers on Google, you will not get real wholesale pricing.  The wholesalers and drop shippers that you find on Google and other search engines are middlemen that make their money by getting between you and the real wholesale suppliers.  Eventually you will find that out and move on to wholesale directories.

Wholesale directories are listings of certified wholesale and drop shipping suppliers that have been reviewed by professionals and other members of the directory.  Salehoo and WorldWide Brands are by far the most popular.  WorldWide Brands is the biggest wholesale supplier directory because it’s eBay Certified, so you know it’s legit.  Salehoo is the second most popular, because it costs only $67 dollars and it claims a similar number of wholesale suppliers.

I have tried both and personally prefer Salehoo over WorldWide Brands.  The first, and most important reason, is that it’s less than 1/3 the price of WorldWide Brands.  On top of that, it caters more to drop shipping suppliers than WorldWide Brands does.  I also have found more electronics suppliers in Salehoo than WorldWide Brands.  They both offer a similar number of suppliers, however, I got more value out of my Salehoo purchase.  The one drawback, is that there are a few less-than-reputable sources in the Salehoo directory so you have to be careful.  Luckily, the Salehoo members are allowed to rate and review the suppliers, so you will eventually find out who’s who.  On the other hand, you will find the best dropshippers out there as well.

If you’re looking for quality wholesale drop ship merchandise, I’d go with Salehoo.

Click here to check it out.

1 Comment | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,