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.
Comments
6 Responses to “It’s been a tiring year”
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Speaking of your ebooks, I would like to know how that has been going for you. (maybe things you learned looking back on your experiance making and marketing them)
I have been thinking of writing an ebook on a specific subject that I consider myself quite knowledgeable in. Hearing about your successes/lack of would be good for motivation/re-planning…
You did post something shortly after writing your ebook but I don’t remember an overview from several months out.. (unless I missed it?)
I may be reading this wrong but I have to ask myself a question if its still at all viable to expect to live off ones websites?
I have been big fan of your blogg for quite a while and always thought how inovative and turned on you were. Now and again I see you trying hard with new ideas, webs etc for which I salute you. But at the end all this sweat and tears for the profits you mentioned in this entry?
Don’t get me wrong I would be happy earning numbers like that but than again I am nowhere near at putting so much effort in my websites.
So I have to ask from business point of view is it worth the effort?
Imho if you aimed all that energy of yours into ONE business being offline or online than the rewards could be greater.
Good luck with your move
Dan
PS
I hope I am completely off as I also hope to create decent living from my websites some day.
Tyler, the ebooks have been ok, but haven’t made any new sales lately. To be honest, unless you have some kind of information that is going to go viral I would prefer to just publish the info on a site for free.
Dan, $300 is just from this site. To be honest I get a lot more back from it than just the money. I don’t expect to make any money from it, but it seems like there are a few companies that don’t mind advertising here.
Websites do take time to get established. You constantly need to keep working to add new features/content and keep marketing them. Whether it is worth or not, I don’t know, but it is something I enjoy immensely. Every person I have known has been successful in business has loved what they are doing.
The advantage I have now is that I can sit back a bit and decide exactly what I want to do next. Whether it is to look for another job, go travelling or start working on a business.
It is definitely a good idea putting all of your efforts into just one or two ideas. I have had difficulty finding exactly what might be successful, so I have tried several things. From next year, I will be looking at what I have and working in a far concentrated fashion and posssibly offloading anything which I cannot see the potential or no longer interests me.
So happy to see you take the plunge. No delusions that it will be easy, but I know that no matter what the outcome, you will be glad you at least gave it a try. Even through the tough times, I have not regretted taking the chance…and it appears that now we will begin to reap some of the rewards. There are still a lot of opportunities and i think you’ll do well.
Are you going to be heading back home to do this or another country that has a lower cost of living?
I read in good to great how they were talking about companies that have a passion for what they are doing.. But they highlighted that the companies have a passion for the mission and not necessarily the means for doing it. (the example was Fannie May is passionate about enabling people to home ownership but does not necessarily feel passionate about the mechanics of the mortgage)
Which leads me to this point. I think your passion is probably for creating websites, publishing info, building communities etc. Not so much with any particular website. (at least thats how I am, and it seems like you are from your next post about a roundabout strategy)
I think to be doing this fulltime you will want to find something you can feel passionate about with your websites. (subject matter/or mission) Plus I would think just hunting out niches that might be high yielding and continuing to move on would have as much of a snowball effect..
Pfadvice, thanks as always for the encouragement. It is people like you that give me the confidence to take the challenge. I am going home to Australia for a while. I will be staying with my family, which will help reduce living costs. I also want to take the opportunity to do some travelling, probably initially in Australia then on to Asia and beyond! When I have travelled before, I was so motivated to write. I can sometimes be difficult to find the motivation while you are working.
Tyler, thanks for your comments. What you say is what I spend a lot of my free time thinking about. I read John Chow a lot these days, and you can see is really passionate about his blog and his computer hardware sites. I think my focus will be on travel. It is just hard to feel passionate about travel when you are in an office! I can say all of the sites I have created, I am at least interested in the topic. I might not feel passionate, but at least interested enough to create a site and maintain it. I think from next year I will be spending some time going through all my sites and possibly selling off any that I am not interested in maintaining.