Success in small steps
July 2, 2008
I have been battling away now on my Beijing blog for nearly a year now and it is just over a month until the the games start in August.
The Wall Street Journal linked to the blog today and Problogger published an article I wrote on Facebook.
Traffic from Google still isn’t great, but I am expecting that to change when the Olympics are on and in the next thirty days as media networks go into Olympic coverage overdrive.
I still have no idea as to how the site will fare, but I am fairly confident I have done enough to at least get it to a point where it should do well.
I keep thinking of the analogy of someone publishing a book or releasing a movie - no matter how much work you put into something you have no idea as to how successful it will be until it is actually released. The site is live of course, but the start of the Olympics is going to be our “premiere”.
My China visa woes
June 15, 2008
I have been in China for a few months now and since I last posted about getting a visa to stay here for the Olympics, I still haven’t gotten it yet.
Worst still the agent has my passport and my previous visa has long expired. The Chinese government is getting very strict now as to who can stay here while the Olympics are on. People who have been here for years are having to leave the country.
The agent who is getting my visa assures me there is no problem and it will be ready soon. Problem is he has been saying the same thing for the past few weeks. Sometimes it gets me really worried as to might or could happen and other times, usually after a couple of beers I just think it will be a fun story to tell people in a few years.
It makes me feel pretty uncomfortable not having my passport, living in a communist country. It is also the longest I have stayed in the one place for quite some time. Even though I am planning to stay here for a few more months yet, I am dying to travel somewhere else.
Fun and games in China
April 27, 2008
I was surprised last year when I came to China how easy it had become to rent an apartment and live in the country (aside from the crowds and the pollution). With the run up to the Olympics, China has become more like it was ten years ago - controlling the movement of people in the country.
I had a bit of a panic last week when I started reading about the visa clampdowns and how China was basically trying to do what it could to make it difficult to both enter and stay in the country. I have applied for a six month visa and will know next week if my application has been successful.
This of course has made it a huge headache for anyone wanting to travel to the country either for business or pleasure. Tibet is totally off limits for now. Many festivals and events have been postponed until after the Olympics. So there is not a lot of Olympic stuff happening now.
The new design for my Beijing site is now up. There is still a bit of work to do on it, but it’s a big improvement on the old design.
Internet clampdown in China
March 19, 2008
Sorry, for the lack of updates on this blog. I have been spending what little time I have online working on my Beijing Olympic site. Traveling in China is fun, but also very tiring. Everything seems to take a day or two longer than you expect. Finding wifi places in smaller towns is also not easy. Internet cafes in China are not very relaxing places to try and work.
Just the other day I was trying to do some work and I constantly had 3 or 4 people standing around me looking at what I was doing.
China has really clamped down on the internet over the trouble going on in Tibet. Having trouble with Gmail for the first time, which is worrying. I know there are ways around it, but it is slow enough trying to reach external sites. I did see some images of the rioting in Tibet on tv here, but not in the last couple of days.
Funny t-shirts from Thailand
March 7, 2008
I don’t know who comes up with these designs, but some of them are pretty funny. I apologize if anyone finds it offensive. You can click on the image to see in more detail.
Change of scenery in Hua Hin
March 3, 2008
I came to Hua Hin yesterday, which is about 4 hours south of Bangkok. It is a pleasant enough seaside resort, perfect for getting away from Bangkok. The beach is not as great as some of Thailand’s islands, but it is not a bad place to go to get away from the congestion of Bangkok.
I am targetting to arrive in China sometime next week to start work again on my Beijing Olympic site.
Met up with a Kiwi who is running a hedge fund while traveling in Thailand. More and more hotels and guesthouses are offering free wifi, including where I am staying now. It is not a bad lifestyle if you can work entirely from the web.
The nicest cup of tea I have ever had
February 23, 2008
I am in Thailand now and this weekend some elections are being held. I took a quick look at the online edition of the Bangkok Post and couldn’t find anything about it. And why would this bother a foreigner holidaying in Thailand? Perhaps to give Thai people a chance to spend some time thinking about their votes, the government has banned the sale of alcohol.
Most of the bars are closed and it is unusually quiet. 7-11 which generally sells alcohol 24 hours have stopped selling, but smaller stores get around it by wrapping your drinks in newspaper.
Some bars stay open, but are keeping the music down. The ones that continue to sell alcohol serve it in coffee mugs.
A guy next to me earlier today downed his Heineken and said, “That was the nicest cup of tea I ever had”.
The coolest internet cafe I have seen
February 14, 2008
I had a look around the Paragon shopping center today in Bangkok and came across True Urbanpark. The design is pretty impressive. It is an internet cafe, coffee shop and they sell computers, gadgets and mobile phones.
It is the perfect place for trendy nerds to hangout.
On the move again
February 8, 2008
I am going to Thailand this weekend for the start of a new trip. I am planning to travel north up through Thailand, to Laos and China before arriving in Beijing where I will be staying until after the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
I bought a new Canon EOS 400D which I have been learning how to use today, so hopefully I will be able to add a bit more colour to the site.
One more week in Beijing
December 7, 2007
The time has gone incredibly fast here and I will be jetting back to Australia in just over a week. I remember it was just a few weeks ago when I was suffering from the cold and feeling like I couldn’t wait to get back to Australia quick enough.
I haven’t been able to do everything that I had wanted, but I am reasonably happy with the results so far. It could be better, but I think what I have done so far on my Beijing site is a reasonable framework moving into next year.
The other night I couldn’t sleep as I was thinking about the different things I need to do for the website. I decided to start writing down everything I am doing for the website, mostly with regards to marketing ideas and techniques I am implementing. Obviously it is not a good idea to write about it here. I know there are a few competitors lurking out there also looking to cash in on the Olympics!
If the site is successful, I think the ebook could do really well. Everybody loves to read a success story about exactly how someone made money. It could also become a good blue-print for creating a site based around a single event and how to go about marketing it. The goal is also not to spend any money on advertising - just my time.
If the site was really successful, maybe even a publisher might be interested? And if the site does poorly… well let’s not even go there…
