Blogging Along

Completed a few short 45 second long promo videos for the Freedom centre. These just highlighted future events and turned out really nice. Gave me a boost on pushing this type of video to other businesses and the good thing is they can use them on their web site and are featured on Humber.TV too.

Looking to cut back on my domains I’m letting a lot drop that in my eyes I could do without renewing as 10 would cost £70 for 2 years! On the flip side all my Hull domains are now listed on HullDomians.co.uk and give the ability for visitors to show an interest and place an offer in through a form system. To start my campaign off to either rent them out or sell them I’ve placed an Ad in the Hull Daily Mail for a week starting 19th February.

Just bought 2 domains YorkshireSEO.uk and YorkshireDesign.co.uk for £60 which I thought was a bargain and should be able to get them ranking and sold on to a local business. (if I don’t use them myself)

Looking through my SAGE accounts I noticed I’d dropped a bombshell and missed nearly everyones hosting renewals from last year. #fail But should be a nice boost for a few bills I have come up or have now.

I took a punge and turned off my shop plugin for JokeShop.org.uk and made posts as normal posts but mirrored the path so not to upset Google etc. Instead of actually selling products myself I’m giving” Paid on results” affiliate links from Silly Jokes. Traffic from my site is directed to them I make a sale and I get a cut of it but has proven shite TBH.

I may turn the shop back on if by the end of this month I don’t make one sale.

I’m quite a laid back “do anything for anyone” kind of guy, but over the past few months I’m seeing more and more reason to look after No1 more. Dog eat dog world it’s turning into I just need to look at every situation a little more before jumping in to the rescue or offering.

I found my CV on an old memory stick and decided to apply for a few jobs in SEO, Marketing etc just to see what response I get as theirs no harm in trying to see what bites I get from it. I actually wouldn’t mind going into a decent company to work on SEO and online marketing for companies. I would do a bad job too! ;o)

I decided to pull the internet connection from Beverley as I was only using it twice a week for 1 or 2 hours and was costing £40 + a month. So just a waste really.

Final thought for me about my Hull Domains, I may need to educate business about mini sites and “do what you say on the tin” domains buy hopefully enough will get it and opt for the rent option to try and test.

Not to go into detail or go on about “Good, bad & Ugly” it seems as though the world is against me and nothing was letting up. Each day I thought (and still are)  what can possibly land on my lap today that will put me in a foul mood?

Google Instant  is maybe having an effect on my rev from Adsense, as it seems to be up and can see more of my local websites like HullExport.co.uk which never got any click through or revenue doing well and now getting traffic.

I really don’t want to rely on Google for a monthly revenue and still crave an Automated Revenue Stream of some kind besides Adsense. Maybe a digital download of some kind or automated service that needs minimal effort.

My latest project I’m hoping to push is my Joke Shop but also the JokeShop.TV which will show jokes in a video been used and so giving the buyer a great idea of how they work, look and can decide on whether to buy or not after watching the video.

I am a bit of a gadget freak and love new technology, with me offering a VoIP service to clients as an add-on I was interested to see if a Mobile Internet Dongle could be sufficient  for my Home use. So to run 2 laptops, a tower and 2 landline numbers the answer is YES – In my area we get around 1mb up and 1mb down on Three on a bad day with no aerial.

I ordered another package from Three as my current 3GB for £7.50 offer wouldn’t be enough for the month and so 15GB (500Mb per Day) for £15 seemed a good deal. The video above explains and shows you in more detail but basically this time next month I won’t have a landline with my current provider KCOM and Karoo. This saves us around £40+ a month and now could only pay £4 for the phone number and line and £15 for the Mobile broadband connection with Three.

I do work from home but do most of my heavy traffic when out and about at other locations. Within a week or so I should be able to see if this was a sensible change and will update here. I have tested the system for a few weeks and all works fine and think the system will work even better when I get an external aerial for the dongle.

Still not got an IPAD due to the £600+ price tag

With me feeling a little sorry for myself, I’m due some (maybe not luck) but rewards for my efforts as this self employment lark can be a bit time consuming and takes over your full life.

I’m still looking for people in the Humber area wanting to break into the HyperLocal game. I’ll set a domain, website etc up for you and then you run it adding images, videos, content but passing some of the content Humber.TV’s way!

Talking of video, You Tube is a good way to drum interest up to Local sites or any site thinking about it. Take a video of a local parade for example, post the first 2 minutes to You Tube and the full version to your site. In the description in the first line on You Tube paste a link to the full video and if the want to see more or are just wanting more in general they will click through.

A quote from Leo when we met him the other night on a Wedge Welly knees up – “Make Money, Have Fun but don’t forget to make money having fun”

Making money is hard! Losing it a lot easier!

Making money and then with very little effort after the setup to carry on making it is even harder.

An ultimate goal for us all?

Scott Jones has 2 websites I think down to a T.

First is a tattoo website that converts everything from a word and name translated into one of many popular languages. No physical stock and when an order comes in for say the name “Gavin” it’s converted to Chinese at £x by a (one of many) private translator of Scott’s and the next time a “Gavin” wants the conversion it won’t cost Scott a penny!

To name a few on offer:

• Arabic Translation
• Gujarati Translation
• Chinese Translation
• Hindi Translation
• Hebrew Translation
• Thai Translation

The second a fresh new site of Ambigrams. I’ve not seen a site online like it until now so should do well if promoted in the right places. Ambigram isn’t a word you type in every day and so may need to play on the present idea maybe ?

Scott’s site

What is an ambigram?
A design that may be read as the same word or phrase (or sometimes two different words or phrases) when oriented in two different ways, usually when reflected in a vertical axis or when rotated through 180 degrees.

Basically you have say Jasmine and Joanne enter them both in click on Script and it creates a style of name that reads Joanne one way up and Jasmine the other. Some names don’t work in that way and it creates 2 words that both can be read either way up but as separate names.

Great idea and when you start banging in names of people you know and then see both names when 180’d it’s great.

So another sit back and let it work for you website with no stock. I’m pretty sure it’s just a computer program used when generating the bigger image that is sent vie email to you as that’s the only way it could be. Another blinding idea and a great one to grow and let the cash roll in website.

I have a Joke Shop online and it ranks pretty well in Google for the expected phrases and keywords. The only thing is, unlike Scott’s websites I have to order stock, store the stock, print orders out to send with the products, pack joke items, post the orders, restock etc so not a “sit back” and reap the rewards website.

I have a few ideas on current trends a lot of people are turning to online, but time will tell whether theirs a market for my idea. The hard work for these types of “sit back and reap” websites/ideas is in the planning and preperation. Get the model working for you and as automated as possible the better in my eyes.

• Needs no stock
• As near to 100% automated as possible
• People will want to buy online
• Hasn’t been done before
• Isn’t illegal ;o)

Mini sites using affiliates is one idea, but it does need quite a bit of input to keep offers and products fresh.

Email me your ideas LOL