In fact, if you were a US tech investor it would certainly be a good day for taking a valium and going to bed in the hope that things will be better tomorrow.

Everywhere you look it's more bad news from the tech sector. Even the darling children of the Net boom such as Yahoo and Cisco have issued strong earnings warnings and announced cut-backs while the heads of both Amazon and Oracle are now the targets of either government scrutiny or private lawsuits for the way they have handled their own stock portfolios.

Meanwhile, half a world away, New Zealanders smile quietly to themselves as the ride the crest of a mini economic boom brought about by climbing export receipts for primary produce.

Should we feel smug that our failure to jump onboard the new economy freight train two or three years ago has actually worked in our favour right now?

Even our close neigbbour Australia is teetering on the edge of what could be a nasty recession while we continue doing better and better by shipping dead animals and their various components to markets around the globe.

Readers Say (updated hourly) From yesterday... making money from online publishing... - Spiro website stuff... - Bede Profit from Content... - Daniel Subscriptions for Aardvark... - Grizzz Online publishing profits... - Charlie Internet news for profit... - Brian Make Money @ Aardvark... - Rob Making money... - Grant revenue... - Matt Have Your Say

On the surface, it sounds like we did the right thing by sticking to our old economy core business activities right?

Well that remains to be seen -- but I'm not so sure. Remember that if our trading partners are suffering, they will be less able to buy our primary exports. It could be that we're just (yet again) running well behind the rest of the world and will sooner or later catch the same economic malaise that is currently affecting the USA, UK, Japan and Australia.

Remember -- although the tech stocks are getting thrashed, it only looks as bad as it does because they were so incredibly over-inflated in value to start with. Where would modern business be without email, websites, e-commerce, etc?

My prediction: most tech stocks have almost bottomed. The market has almost finished venting its spleen at those companies whose value was blown up beyond belief by reckless investors and within six months sanity will return to the marketplace. People will wake up and realise that the tech sector is not magical or a road to rapid riches -- it's just another element of a healthy economy.

Calling All Banks
IDG published another story today in which they document the banks' attempts at dealing with online credit card fraud.

There's talk of PIN numbers and all sorts of extra complexity in an attempt to make it harder for online fraudsters to misuse other people's credit card details.

Well hell -- if there are any bankers reading this, please contact me. I do have a system in my list of "million dollar ideas" that could virtually eliminate online credit-card fraud without the need for strong encryption, PINs, card-readers or other complex and expensive add-ons.

Do I have to finally give in to the pressure that I've been under for the past four years and move to the USA to get this funded? I despair that such a valuable idea seems to be ignored by the local investor community and even the banks which stand to benefit so much when the scope and potential earnings (or savings) that such a system would generate are obvious.

What's even more frustrating is that the core technology required to implement this system is simple, proven and inexpensive to put in place. In fact the biggest problem with taking it to the USA will be the fact that it may fall below the minimum investment levels set by many VCs.

I rest my case that there is no hi-tech VC infrastructure in NZ.

From Yesterday
Thanks to all those readers who submitted suggestions on how small online publishers can make money on the Net.

Many lamented the lack of a micropayments system that would allow a pay-per-view kind of system to be implemented and a similar number suggested that reselling content to the print media or other sites might be an option.

Suffice to say there appears to be no "magic bullet" to turning an online publishing presence into a goldmine (although I still have a few ideas of my own so stay tuned and look for changes!).

As always, your feedback is welcomed.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!