Blogging Along

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”

Attended a Hull and Humbers Chamber of Commerce speed networking and lunch today at Cave castle (FAB grounds complete with moat) and I realised I need to get out more.

I did use to go to a few networking events but was trying to promote web design and VoIP. Web design is saturated and VoIP people didn’t want to take or trial it.

So out this morning and people I spoke to warmed to the idea of my Humber.TV idea and concept which made me feel fuzzy inside! Also people came up to me and was saying “Are you Mr Humber TV?” again this was a little strange and almost felt like a celebrity  😉

The Chamber hold a speed networking and lunch every month and WILL be going to every one from now!

On another note with Humber TV Valerie Prentice (our only host) is departing to France for a month and needed a stand in. Jess from Divine Clark PR was very interested as an extra permanent host and bagged 4 interviews next week at £50 a shot for advertising. “Result” I thought and hope she keeps her intro rate up.

This made me realise I need to up a gear with the whole Humber TV game and am now on the look out for more willing people to help out on a short term volunteering basis (hope to pay on invoice for their time ASAP). Wanting people who see the potential of the concept, are willing to stick with it and help out how they can to make it work/grow.

3 days till D day, D been DOG! “WOOF WOOF”

Adsense has nicely increased daily which is nice and aren’t sure if it’s with me adding new content on a few or just people looking on-line more leading up to gardening and getting out weather.

Needed to raise some funds and sold a few domains in the past week which in one way wish I never as I let them go for peanuts but altogether made a nice tidy sum to help out. Tried to sell my scuba gear too but think it may be harder than I think due to testing etc.

Signing off and catching some Zzzzzzz

Ok here goes a rant on our wholesaler of VoIP who we resell VoIP under our umbrella of Hull VoIP.

Since taking them on-board last May-June 08 to sell VoIP through them, I have lost count of issues they have had with their system. From a total melt down, to lines been cut off, poor sound quality and so on. If you were a one man band or personal use you wouldn’t in all fairness notice that much.

I have a local company on Gradwell’s system with around 50 phones making 1500 incoming and outgoing calls a month (excluding internal) and all works great with the setup we’ve installed. All hell breaks loose at least once a month and phones either de-register or are just totally unusable to name just 2 problems.  When something isn’t right these guy’s are the first to SHOUT with calls coming in and going out every minute of the day, something goes wrong, they know!

Apparently over the past 6 months Gradwell have invested in a lot of kit to fail safe it but it always seems to have issues still after all their investment. Their status (what they do post) reads like a nightmare script and you wouldn’t touch them if they paid you.

One of my biggest rants is at their over flow (lack of staff) system that goes to a answering service who never get informed of whats going on. Email is a wonderful tool to just say

Hey any customers calling (from their mobiles LOL) about VoIP it’s down with a estimated time of fix 30 minutes

Call backs happen at least 24 hours after any messages you’ve left and emails longer. I’m not sure whether it’s lack of money extra staff don’t get employed or it’s just penny pinching that leaves a shite customer service.

I’m sure Gradwell have Google scan the Internet for mentions of “Gradwell” and read this and many other rants. How about a bit of compensation or credit to my account as I must have ran around like a blue arse fly for hours this year trying to calm clients down and show willing to resolve issues out of my control.

Before this year is out and with all the issues over the past 12 months and some days feeling phyically sick. I’m affraid I’ll have to say for them reasons I will have to think about saying….

I’M OUT

Maybe…