About Me 0008: People Making Money Online

Paying for Android apps is easier for AT&T users as the operator is adding carrier billing for its Android device owners. Users who find an app they like in Android Market will have the option of having the software purchase tacked on to their monthly bill, rather than go through Google Checkout. The update brings a much needed payment alternative to Android Market and hopefully points the way to carrier billing support from all carriers soon.

Right now, a lot of people don’t buy apps from Android Market because they’re limited to Google Checkout. Besides being flaky for some users, Google Checkout requires new users to enter in their credit card information. It’s a step that turns people off and has been hurting paid downloads on Android Market compared to iTunes, where many users already have their credit card on file with Apple.

What people really want is to just add purchases to their carrier bill. A new Strategy Analytics survey found that 38 percent of consumers prefer carrier billing more than pre-registered accounts like iTunes and PayPal, which are tied for 31 percent. Credit or debit card entry is favored by 22 percent of users.

This is important for Android and its ecosystem of developers. Options like PayPal are also welcome but the easiest thing to do for a consumer is just tack it on to their bill. T-Mobile has previously supported this and Sprint announced last year that it would, though it hasn’t followed through. Verizon Wireless supports carrier billing for app downloads in its VCast App store but there’s no word when it will be come to Android Market. Google’s Eric Chu said Google will continue to partner with more carriers on carrier billing so hopefully we’ll see Sprint and Verizon at some point soon.

Overall, it’s another sign that Google is making significant efforts to address some of the problems in Android Market. Recently, Google overhauled the look of the Android Market, making it easier for people to browse content using more categories and additional tools such as finding related apps. For developers, Google has upped the size of apps to 50MB, reduced the refund window to 15 minutes and earlier this year, opened up sales overseas to more countries. There’s still more to be done. I’ve asked about that promised online Android Market storefront. But gradually, Google is getting the picture. Android developers need to be able to make money and giving them tools to do that will help the entire ecosystem flourish. Mobile ads and in-app purchases are important monetization pieces but paid downloads are key for many developers looking for a return on their work. Expanded carrier billing could be an essential piece in helping Android developers close the revenue gap on their iOS counterparts.

Related research from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

Why Google Launched App Inventor

Is Amazon the New Self-Publish Kingpin?

Why Carriers Still Hold the Key to Handset Sales

The Education Tech Series is supported by Dell The Power To Do More, where you’ll find perspectives, trends and stories that inspire Dell to create technology solutions that work harder for its customers so they can do and achieve more.

Non-profit organizations and passionate individuals have found a slew of creative ways to leverage social media and the class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet to make the world a better place. Online campaigns help provide clean drinking water, food and malaria-preventing bed nets to people who need them.

Creative uses of the web are helping to provide and enhance education. These four projects, for instance, found innovative ways to help build schools through digital campaigns.

1. Epic Change

Epic Change has become a model for raising money using social media. Since 2008, its annual TweetsGiving has asked people to tweet about what they’re thankful for while making a donation. The strategy was so successful that #tweetsgiving became a trending topic on Twitter during the first year’s campaign.

Starting out, the benefactor of TweetsGiving was a school in Tanzania that was founded by Mama Lucky Kamptoni, a passionate local woman who started the school using money she earned from her poultry business (now there are two more benefactors). Epic Change wanted to help her rebuild and expand the school.

The organization also launched To Mama With Love, a website where users can make a donation by creating a “heart space” for a mother they care about. The “heart space” is a collection of photos, videos and words dedicated to that mother. Other people who care about that mother are invited to donate in her honor.

From one of the classrooms that was built using donations from these campaigns, the students now tweet and connect with the rest of the world.

“So often, we hear the stories of children in the so-called ‘developing’ world from the perspective of the media, non-profits or friends who have traveled or volunteered,” explains the Epic Change Blog. “What happens now – when these students can share their own stories, and build relationships with the rest of the world, for themselves? How will the world be different when these children, who live so geographically far away, move into our virtual backyard? What difference will it make in their lives to know that their voices will be heard?”

2. Stillerstrong

When Ben Sitller launched the Stillerstrong campaign on YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter and a branded website, he did it with a video that poked fun at Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong campaign. It was hard to tell if he was kidding.

But the campaign, which sells Stillerstrong headbands and accepts donations by text message and credit card, has raised about $300,000 to help provide temporary schools for Haitians displaced by January’s earthquake. At the time the campaign was announced, the organization and its partners Causecast and the Global Philanthropy Group were expecting each school to cost between $45,000 and $55,000.

3. TwitChange

Instead of auctioning off celebrity memorabilia to support a charity, TwitChange hosts eBay auctions for celebrity Twitter interaction. The donation’s bidders put down to have a celebrity follow them, retweet their tweet, or mention them in an update. The proceeds go to aHomeInHaiti.org, which will use them to build a home and school for children with disabilities in Haiti.

The first auction in September raised $531,640.25. The website instructs us to “stay tuned for the celebrity tweet auction coming this holiday season.”

4. University of the People

Less of a “campaign” than a full-blown effort to democratize education, University of the People provides tuition-free higher education through an online campus.

Since launching last year, the university has accepted about 700 students from 100 different countries to its three- to four-year programs for business and computer science. Recently the university opened computer centers in Haiti so that students with limited Internet access could enroll in its courses.

“I do believe that if we take the millions of people around the world who could not afford going to university and teach them tuition free, we’re not only changing their lives, and their family’s lives, we also change their communities, their countries,” founder Shai Shai Reshef says. “And if we have a lot of them, we will change the world for a better world.”

Series Supported by Dell The Power To Do More/>

More Social Good Resources from Mashable:

- How Online Classrooms Are Helping Haiti Rebuild Its Education System/> - Why Social Media Is Reinventing Activism/> - 5 Creative Social Good Campaigns for the Holiday Season/> - 4 Real Challenges to Crowdsourcing for Social Good/> - 9 Creative Social Good Campaigns Worth Recognizing

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, urbancow

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

People Making Money Online