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Going to the smartphone dark side? 

IT seems apparent Apple is going to be releasing the iPhone 5 in late September-October. I’ve covered iPhone 5 rumors pretty rigorously over the past six weeks.

As an iPhone 4 owner, I’m excited about upgrading to the new iPhone 5 the day it comes out. However, if the iPhone 5 isn’t extraordinary and mind-blowing, I’m thinking of changing it up and going to the dark side... Android.

The specific hardware I’m thinking of changing to is the Samsung Galaxy SIII. I’m attracted to this device for a few reasons. First off, the device has an incredibly large screen. This feature is attractive to me because email would be more seamless and mobile photo editing would be easier.

The other feature I like is the Android marketplace is evolving like crazy. New applications, hacks and modifications can be made easily. I really like to modify my device so it’s completely mine. With the iPhone you cannot legally do that.

My last reason is I love Google products. My company, iBX-MediaGroup, lives on Gmail, Calendar, Drive and Hangouts. Having an Android device would make all of those applications that I use every day work into my phone so much easier, in my opinion.

It’s a toss-up: Upgrade to the new iPhone 5 when it comes out or go Droid? Let me know your opinion on Twitter -@thedavidbell.

What is PhotoMap?

THIS past week, Instagram changed up the user interface and implemented a few new features. As soon as the update was released, my Twitter feed blew up with redundant tweets that looked like this: "What the hell is PhotoMap?" I couldn’t respond to all of the tweets, so I thought I’d throw down some knowledge for ya! Every time you geo-tagged a photograph on Instagram, above your photo it let everybody know where you were. That was the extent of geo-tagging on Instagram.

With Instagram released its newest version, it included PhotoMap. When you open the new Instagram for the first time, it asks if you would like to add photos to a map. PhotoMap is just a map with pins on it, letting people know where you’ve taken photos. Essentially, Instagram made geo-tagging more effective.

The new version of Instagram also has a new layout for user profiles, which I have mixed feelings about, and I’m sure you do too.

Six-step guide to beginning a profitable website

A lot of people ask me how I began my online career. This week, I wanted to create an article that gives you the gist of how you can start a business online. This isn’t very in depth, but it will give you basic knowledge. A lot of online marketing experts write up extravagant guides on how to make money online. To be frank, most of them are BS. You will frequently see advertisements saying "how I make $5,000 per week by sitting at home and doing nothing." Those advertisements are just funnels that suck you in and take your money, plain and simple.

I like to make money online the old-fashioned way. Good content, utilization of social media, proper monetization. Those are the three things you need to be successful online. In this post, I’m going to break down how to start a profitable blog/website.

1. IDENTIFY YOURSELF

Figure out your passion/niche.

Identify your skills (writing, speaking, interacting etc.).

Decide on a name. Either create a brand or go with your birth name!

2. BUILD YOUR WEBSITE

Register your domain name and hosting (GoDaddy is my favorite). Use WordPress as your CMS (content management system).

Pick a theme and style your site!

3. BUILD YOUR CONTENT

Tutorials

Blog posts

Guides

E-books

Videos

4. SOCIAL PROFILES

Twitter

Facebook page

YouTube

5. MERGE

Make sure all social profiles and content are integrated and styled elegantly on your website.

6. MONETIZE

AdSense

ClickBank

Referral programs

It all seems so easy, right? Those are just the basics of creating a website and monetizing it. Don’t assume since you’ve followed those six steps, everything is going to be easy. You need to be creative. Pick a niche market that isn’t saturated. The more saturated the market you decide to delve into, the harder it’s going to be to drive traffic. I personally don’t have any voodoo tactics on driving traffic. I’m old-fashioned. I drive traffic to my blog by creating killer content and using Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to reel them in! I hope this answers all of your questions.