Reilly Labs

I seem to have struck a nerve with the release of Quantum Qr Generator on Thursday, huge number of sales and a ton of affiliate jumping in early. I got alot of feedback requesting the ability to encode contact information, email, SMS, and a few other things so I released version 1.5 with all these features added a few minutes ago. You can download it from the original thank you page. If you need me to resend you the reciept, just send me a funny joke to: reilly@reillylabs.com

I will respond to the funniest jokes first.

If you haven’t seen The Quantum QR Generator, it has become my fastest selling WSO and there are a few discount copies still left:

Quantum QR Generator

The affiliate contest is live and well, I will be updating the leader board each night. The winners get to JV with me on a WSO. That means you will have access to my sales force, affiliates, and programming ability to come up with and promote a BAD ASS joint product.

Here is the contest info:

Affiliate Contest

Now about those funny little QR tag things…

The truth is the original version of my QR generator could do everything the new version can do, you just had to know how to encode it. Of course everyone wants a ‘done for you push button’ system, hence the new release. But consider for a second what you are missing…

For starters here is everything you need to know about this particular format of matrix bar-codes:

http://www.idautomation.com/barcode/qr-code.html

They sell a QR tag Generator for quite alot of money, one that is no different than the one sell re-sell rights too. This should be an indicator as to the value of owning my brandable tool and selling it to online and offline customers.

I promise I’m done with the shameless self promotion…

I hate QR tags personally, I think they are a terrible way to encode data. Even in the world of barcode’s there are so many better formats out there, but it seems we are stuck with them.

Being in New York City I see them everywhere.

Subway posters, in stores, on busses, on menus, heck I’ve even seen them on billboards.

One thing I have NEVER seen was someone take out their phone and scan the damn advertisement. It’s no surprise why, the Madison Ave type advertisers would tell you to just put QR tags on everything and colorize them to make them cool and flashy.

In the direct response world, we as internet marketers know different. Here’s a crazy idea, give an incentive for scanning the code. Have a big ol’ headline that reads “download your free gift here” and QR tag to the URL underneath it.

Now the interesting thing about QR tags is what can be encoded. Vcards are popular now, I went with the smaller format ‘MECARD’ in my generator simply to shrink the size of the tag.

Now there are a TON of URI formats that modern phones recognize and I suspect it will grow as QR tags become more popular. For example, you can force people to like your facebook page, start a youtube video, follow you on twitter, and even execute commands on the phone. Here’s an interesting little article I found in my research:

http://code.google.com/p/zxing/wiki/BarcodeContents

The hacker in me finds this exciting, I’m sure there are many yet undiscovered exploits that can be encoded into these tags. Especially as more formats are created and recognized by phones.

<self promotion>

Any exploits and tricks I find I’ll share on Profit hackers.

Profit Hackers

</self promotion>

One thing a buddy of mine has been doing for offline clients is building them a phone app on the different platforms, iphone, android, etc. He then creates a site that redirects the user to the appropriate download based on the user agent and encodes the url into a QR tag.

The business owner hangs up a sign saying “download our free app” and the QR code below it. The user who scans it automatically has the download start for their particular phone model.

My god he is selling this simple service for a fortune, and businesses eat it up.

Of course that concept opens some interesting doors to world of hacking mobile phones, but if that’s something you are interested in, I suggest you check this out:

http://www.hackfromacave.com/pwntooth.html

This guy has a TON of fun stuff on his blog. Katana is a MUST.

Bluetooth is a much better way to share data than matrix barcodes. In fact when done correctly, anyone who walks past a booth in the mall could automatically receive a text message or even start a bluetooth transfer.

I’ve got it working on my laptop but for like $500 you can get a netbook and an extended range bluetooth adapter to set this up. Now anyone who walks within a certain radius of your computer gets a text message about a sale going on at your store. I haven’t approached any local businesses about this, but I’m sure I could charge a FORTUNE for the set up.

Enough ranting from me. Drop me a comment and I’ll be your friend!

- Reilly

P.S. Everyone loves the PS

P.P.S Anyone interested in some ‘out of the box but still legal’ ideas on making money is welcome to join Profit Hackers. No topic is taboo, and the community is small. I might even limit it’s membership soon.

P.P.P.S. Now I’m just going overboard with the PS crap.