Good tutorial.
I like how you point out that you don't need expensive gear to take good shots. And you mention the timer. I use a 2 sec timer so I can get my hands off the camera before the shot. I use manual settings with a very small (what is in english) "hole" around F28 to F36 to get a deeper area of focus and it means longer shutter times. Photographing minis can be like sniping, even your own pulse can ruin a shot.
I would have added one thing though. As you mentioned something like 5mp is way too big to post on the net. So why take pictures too close from the mini? Even with macro there is something called minimum focus distance, and way too many takes pictures too close so the camera can only focus on the backround, leaving the mini really blurry. I take pictures from about 40cm distance and just crop them with the same software I resize the to net friendly size.
