Not quite retired yet
November 27, 2006
Even though I announced that I am quitting my job, it doesn’t mean I am sitting back on a beach drinking martinis.
I still have a lot of work to do. The beauty is that I now have a lot more choice and freedom as to what and where I want to live and work. I need to be careful with maintaining my bank balances and maintain my cash flow, like all good businesses.
Lately I have considered looking into SEO related jobs. There are actually jobs in my hometown, Melbourne where they are looking for people with SEO experience. I would get a kick out of this, just to see what companies are looking for in this area. I wouldn’t even mind doing some physical work like a bicycle courier to get back in shape.
If there is anyone in Melbourne reading this and into working on websites, please send me an email, I would love to meet up.
Got my domain
November 27, 2006
I finally got the domain I recently purchased into my GoDaddy account. The nameservers are updated and I am working on it now. I have a lot to do on the site, before I make any announcements. Unfortunately, it is not an exciting or original idea, but it will kind of fit in with my overall, undefined, vague strategy of emerging websites.
It’s been a tiring year
November 25, 2006
I still can’t imagine leaving my apartment, even though I have started to sell off some of my stuff. It makes it hard, because in some ways I want to leave Japan and others I want to stay. Unfortunately, there is no way to launch my internet business while living in Tokyo. It is just too expensive a place to stay unless you are making good money.
Since, I am earning so little in Japan from websites, it makes sense to live in a country with cheaper living costs. I have launched a lot of different websites this year and easily have over 100 domains now. Most of which I have plans to create at least a one page site. I have put together three ebooks, which has brought in a few hundred dollars.
My Adsense earnings have not increased at all, but my affiliate sales have increase slowly. I have also found a few more programs that have proved profitable.
This blog hasn’t achieved anything startling, but is easily bringing in $300 a month. Not bad for something that I do mainly for my own benefit, and something I just enjoy updating.
Like other people before me, I have had to make a decision as to whether I try to work on my career as a salaried employee, or to take my websites to the next level and incorporate them into a formal company. I have decided of course the later. I am also thinking of other businesses I could potentially operate so that I am not entirely dependant on the web for income, but rather using the internet to promote an offline business that I am considering starting.
At least for a while, I will be taking some time off and working on my travel websites to try and relax, while still being able to fund my living costs.
The Google Story
November 25, 2006
After not being able to find anything that looked vaguely interesting, I picked up a copy of ‘The Google Story’ by David Vise and Mark Malseed. It is a fast pace read and is interesting to think what you were doing as the company evovled and when exactly you started using it for search.
I can’t really using anything else - I was very late to get onto the world wide web, even though I was using some kind of text version when I was at university.
People love to bag Google for whatever reason, but they have paid me several thousands of dollars of the past year or so, so I cannot really complain.
Even though most people would be familiar with their story, it still makes an interesting read and it is definitely required reading for any webmaster.
Japanese Viral Video
November 24, 2006
I just couldn’t help not posting this. Japanese businesses are just starting to discover how they can use “viral videos” to promote their products.
This is a pretty good example:
Think of Adsense and affiliates as a computer game
November 21, 2006
A lot of my friends and colleagues play computer games. Often it is kind of difficult at work to explain what I do during my free time, as I am sure building websites for profit is against company policy. Many people I know, go home to play computer games, not that I am against this in any way as a form of entertainment. I used to play a lot of games when I was younger, but now if feels like a complete waste of time when I think of all things I could be doing.
I find that Adsense and affiliate marketing is probably not unlike any strategical game. For me, playing the adsense game is entertaining, perhaps it is a very geeky game but it is something I enjoy and trying to increase my numbers has never in the slightest made it feel like “work”.
At least it helps you to increase your bottom line, without having to go out and buy the latest consoles.
Installed Drupal
November 21, 2006
I finally got around to installing Drupal on a spare domain I had. There is a huge list of setup options. I am not sure what they all mean yet, but I have turned almost everything on. I have installed a different theme, which was fairly painless.
Forums and user blogs are inbuilt and I believe there is a way users can upload pictures to the site. All of these things require separate components in Joomla.
It feels like any new software at the start. It is so easy to get used to an application and as soon as you start using something different, it all seems too complex - which is where I am at with it right now.
I am no expert with Joomla, but I have been using it for around a year now and can get most things done with it that I want.
I think knowledge of these open source content management systems is invaluable if you wanted to create websites for people. Potentially a profitable little side business. By installing a few different modules you can create a fairly decent website with no programming knowledge in a matter of hours.
Any areas you are a bit rusty on you could easily outsource to an offshore company.
You could do it all so inexpensively, make a decent profit and still be able to charge a competitive rate.
I quit my job today
November 20, 2006
After a few months of thinking whether I am doing the right thing or now, I quit my job today. I will be there for a few more weeks yet, but it does certainly feel liberating.
Thinking of giving Drupal a try
November 17, 2006
I have been focused so much on Joomla lately, I kind of forgot about Drupal.
But after seeing what it can do I think I will have to give it a try.
There is an interesting comparison here. I have been frustrated lately with Joomla, so I am willing to give something else a try.
For sale on Sitepoint
November 17, 2006
I think I might have mentioned this before but occasionally there are some great sites for sale on Sitepoint. I even bought a new domain there yesterday.
It is one of the few places that people disclose their earnings for their sites. Take a look at this auction, a Christian guitar forum. Not exactly my niche, but it is an excellent example of site that is making a lot of money, with fairly minimal effort from the owner.
I am sure he put a lot of work in it to get it where it is now, but he says he only spends a few hours a week on it. All of the other work is done by volunteers. There are just so many untapped niches out there.
