amazon posts

By Matt Brownell
Daily Finance

Are you such a big fan of "The Vampire Diaries" that you write your own stories about the denizens of Mystic Falls? Well, Amazon (AMZN) wants to publish your work -- and it wants to see you get paid for it. The company announced Wednesday that, for the first time, authors will be able to make money on their fan fiction under a new venture it's calling Kindle Worlds.

Fan fiction describes that under-appreciated genre of writing in which amateur authors make use of an already-established fictional universe, often from a TV or book series. At heart, it has always been a way for devoted fans to explore and share "what if" questions about their favorite characters -- sometimes filling in background, other times going far outside the established canon: What does Hermione do on summer vacation? What if Buffy got turned into a vampire? What if Admiral Adama and President Roslyn met The Doctor from "Doctor Who"?

Despite the increased duty-free limits, most Canadian shoppers won't be making a run for the border this Black Friday.

According to a new survey released by UPS Canada, only 12 per cent of Canadians will brave the long lineups at stores and the U.S. - Canada border on the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend. While price-sensitive Canadians know that the Black Friday deals are exponentially greater south of the border they won't be heading out in droves stateside.

Instead, they'll be favouring online shopping carts over physical shopping carts. More than half of shoppers expect to save 10 to 49 per cent off the retail sticker price this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. As such, Canadian retailers are pulling out all the stops in the battle for the non-expanding consumer pie.



"Canadian retailers have obviously picked-up their game in an attempt to keep a larger share of the consumer wallet, particularly with the ecommerce offering that should attract a lot of traffic this season," said Gordon Reed, director at UPS Canada. They've done this by catching consumer attention much earlier than usual. And they had to. Shoppers are researching their purchases earlier and flocking to comparison sites to ensure that they are indeed getting the best deal possible. "What we're seeing globally is that holiday shoppers are tending to put away their wallets in December and sales are not driving the same level of interest that they once did," said Rafe Petkovic, head of Industry at Google Canada. This is expected to continue in spite of the good deals advertised closer to Christmas.

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As we approach the notoriously competitive Christmas shopping season, this popped into our Inbox from investment site, Seeking Alpha:

PayPal has joined the Q4 price-matching frenzy: the online payments giant will refund customers on purchases costing $250 or less if they find a lower price. Up to $1K in refunds are covered, and PayPal says it will handle return shipping costs. PayPal and parent eBay (EBAY) have one big thing in common with the bricks-and-mortar retailers doing price-matching: it sees Amazon (AMZN), which uses its own online payments system, as a top competitor.

Price matching is a huge deal this year as conventional retailers take on the online marketing might of Amazon. The next few years will be interesting to watch, but for consumers willing to shop around and do their research, it should mean more money to save or invest - both things we all need to do more of.

By Jonah Loab
Minyanville

Superlatives are always suspect. Saying that anything is "best" or "biggest" or even "most likely to succeed" is a risky move, and it's doubly so in the world of finance. However, branding consultancy Interbrand, a division of global marketing company Omnicom, has taken this responsibility on itself with its annual report on what it calls the "Best Global Brands," a designation measured by a combination of financial performance and conceptual brand value. Of interest to investors, of course, are the companies that have gained the most in the past year, and I have (at great personal risk) combed through the data to bring those to you. Here, according to Interbrand, are the biggest brands in the world that are still on their way up.

RELATED: World's fastest falling brands

Shoppers in the United States have gone gaga over Apple's new iPad snapping up 300,000 on the first day of sales and Canadians are likely to go almost as crazy when the e-reader slash tablet computer comes to Canada at the end of the month, likely on April 25.

Do I want one? Yes. Will I buy one? No, well, at least not yet.

So what's all the fuss about? For most people the iPad will have no appeal whatsoever other than the fact it is the latest cool Apple gadget. Numerous comments on the web complain that the iPad does not do enough, stuck somewhere between an iPhone and a MacBook, but too big to be a phone, too restrictive and with too small a memory to be a laptop.

Here's a website that takes the guesswork out of cross-border shopping: Wishabi is a handy price comparison tool that scans 350 merchants on both sides of the border and spits out the best deals. You can even set personalized alerts that will let you know when an item reaches a desired price (Now you won't have to rot in a traffic jam at the border, wondering whether it was worth it just to save $3 on that toaster oven).