The recession, benefits, the safety net, and the learning curve

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

Most people fail to make any money/do anything online because they do it for a week and that's the end of it.

Definitely my experience. Tried it, enjoyed it, lost motivation, gave up.

It's funny really because I'm not normally like that.

Phirefly

Generali wrote: »

Definitely my experience. Tried it, enjoyed it, lost motivation, gave up.

It's funny really because I'm not normally like that.

I'd definitlety subscribe to a Generali blog. You could be the antipodean Charlie Croker. Although yours would go more like 'got up - had a paddle - threw another shrimp on the barbie - expressed some sage words - went to bed.' I'd still read it though.

eranu_2

To the OP,i totally agree. The workers will continue to get shafted whilst the workshy..well they have given up trying to make them work so they just let them enjoy their lifestyle choice.

Generali

Phirefly wrote: »

I'd definitlety subscribe to a Generali blog. You could be the antipodean Charlie Croker. Although yours would go more like 'got up - had a paddle - threw another shrimp on the barbie - expressed some sage words - went to bed.' I'd still read it though.

It's silly, I know I should do the blog thing because I enjoy it (pontification, what's not to like?) and because it helps me in other parts of my life. Also, there are a few very kind people who have said they'd enjoy reading what I write.

Part of the problem comes from having had a bloody couple of years (Dad died, lost all my money/earning potential to the credit crunch, very slow start in new country) which knocked me around a lot. The rest is laziness on my part.

New country life is starting to work out so time to crack open a can of shrimps and throw a beer at the Sindy (or something - assimilation is hard work) and write about the bloody thing.

PS I heard a great Australianism yesterday: Either s h i t or get off the pot. In other words, either get on with it or go away.

fc123

Penniestopounds wrote: »

I'm a newbie that's started reading Max's blog and enjoying it.

I design websites and use Wordpress too, it's very versatile. However one of the downsides of using it on their domain name (as in charliecroker.wordpress.com rather than charliecroker.com) is that you can't put affiliate ads on it and earn from it or build your own 'virtual real estate' to sell later.

It sounds ridiculous but the industry standard for website/blog sales is 10 times monthly earnings (after 6 months consistent earnings usually). So if your site could earn £10 a day or even £5 a day through ads it would be an asset to sell in the future. And if you were to create 10 more blogs.....

Anyway I'm sure you've factored this into your plans but I thought I'd mention it as you seem to be getting successful with it so could be building an asset in the meantime.

A domain name costs about a fiver for a year for a .com and hosting for your Wordpress site is about £3 a month (or if you want to go that route you can have free hosting through my account if you need it for a while).

Anyway it's probably in your (and PasturesNew) plans anyway but just thought I'd mention it just in case.

Penny

Really useful info that and PN's stuff (but I still don't understand all the jargon.....is there a techy jargon dictionary anywhere?).

Max has inspired me too but it's fitting it in and not rambling, droning, branching off topic. Writing solo (with little interraction whilst doing it) is quite hard I find.

Must sort it out as I have a blog all ready with title but figure that needs to change too as life changed...plus would anyone find it that interesting? Don't know until you try I guess.


Maxes is a good topic and title plus has a point to it..in that a reader will carry on reading to find out the ending, whereas mine would have the depth of a soap I fear.

Gens could go back in time and run to present day..from Hedge Fund Gamble to major life change in Aus.

My fave post so far (well, the one that I found most poignant) was the list of available jobs. Said so much without loads of writing.

PasturesNew

For those not following the techie bits ... this next bit won't help much

Re the .com / .org choice, no, you cannot put any advertising on the .com version, nor can you use that to actively drive traffic to another site. So, you'd think that'd be a limiter... and to some degree it is.

When you want control of your blog, want to place adverts, dance naked on it if you wish, you need to have your own hosting and get a copy of the software from the .org. You then need hosting and to install the WP software. However, the WP install is often a one-click install these days, with automatic upgrades if you've picked the right host ... blah blah .... so it's a lot easier (see, I thought of you all and just put blah blah!)

So, there you are then, with a successful .com blog and you want to move it over. Well, you can just buy a domain name from .com, but it's still in their control, or you can do the whole hosting/.org/install route and then do one of the following:
- export/import your .com stuff and put a link on the .com to your domain saying "it's over here now" (easy enough to do)
- copy/paste it all, item by item (non techie solution)
- re-write the original material a bit, focussing on keywording and publish anew, with a link from the links part of the .com version

So, then with hosting/WP you can do what you like and monetize it.

As for ... create 10 blogs. That was my original idea. Had one that earnt me good money ... but then got all caught up in fiddling with it all the time (adserver is now 100 hours of time and counting). So I thought I'd create a few more ... except I never ever find the time to actually get those up/running.

And NONE of my sites ever get promoted. Too busy fiddling to ever advertise/promote.

Should I have sold the first one off at the industry ballpark figure of 10x monthly? No. But I'd certainly consider selling future ones if I ever cracked the way to build/monetize/promote/sell without getting sucked into all the faffing about that I manage to fill my time with.

Max_Headroom_3

Penniestopounds wrote: »

I'm a newbie that's started reading Max's blog and enjoying it.

I design websites and use Wordpress too, it's very versatile. However one of the downsides of using it on their domain name (as in charliecroker.wordpress.com rather than charliecroker.com) is that you can't put affiliate ads on it and earn from it or build your own 'virtual real estate' to sell later.

It sounds ridiculous but the industry standard for website/blog sales is 10 times monthly earnings (after 6 months consistent earnings usually). So if your site could earn £10 a day or even £5 a day through ads it would be an asset to sell in the future. And if you were to create 10 more blogs.....

Anyway I'm sure you've factored this into your plans but I thought I'd mention it as you seem to be getting successful with it so could be building an asset in the meantime.

A domain name costs about a fiver for a year for a .com and hosting for your Wordpress site is about £3 a month (or if you want to go that route you can have free hosting through my account if you need it for a while).

Anyway it's probably in your (and PasturesNew) plans anyway but just thought I'd mention it just in case.

Penny

I'd be absolitely delighted with a tenner a day if that were really possible. £300 a month? Yes please! :T

And thank you for your kind words.

Max_Headroom_3

Generali wrote: »

pontification, what's not to like?

There it is, my new catchphrase right there!! :rotfl:

Brilliant!

Part of the problem comes from having had a bloody couple of years (Dad died, lost all my money/earning potential to the credit crunch, very slow start in new country) which knocked me around a lot. The rest is laziness on my part.

The irony is that I can't think of a more interesting subject/story, knocks my blog into a cocked hat for subject matter.

Max_Headroom_3

PasturesNew wrote: »

For those not following the techie bits ... this next bit won't help much

Re the .com / .org choice, no, you cannot put any advertising on the .com version, nor can you use that to actively drive traffic to another site. So, you'd think that'd be a limiter... and to some degree it is.

When you want control of your blog, want to place adverts, dance naked on it if you wish, you need to have your own hosting and get a copy of the software from the .org. You then need hosting and to install the WP software. However, the WP install is often a one-click install these days, with automatic upgrades if you've picked the right host ... blah blah .... so it's a lot easier (see, I thought of you all and just put blah blah!)

So, there you are then, with a successful .com blog and you want to move it over. Well, you can just buy a domain name from .com, but it's still in their control, or you can do the whole hosting/.org/install route and then do one of the following:
- export/import your .com stuff and put a link on the .com to your domain saying "it's over here now" (easy enough to do)
- copy/paste it all, item by item (non techie solution)
- re-write the original material a bit, focussing on keywording and publish anew, with a link from the links part of the .com version

So, then with hosting/WP you can do what you like and monetize it.

As for ... create 10 blogs. That was my original idea. Had one that earnt me good money ... but then got all caught up in fiddling with it all the time (adserver is now 100 hours of time and counting). So I thought I'd create a few more ... except I never ever find the time to actually get those up/running.

And NONE of my sites ever get promoted. Too busy fiddling to ever advertise/promote.

Should I have sold the first one off at the industry ballpark figure of 10x monthly? No. But I'd certainly consider selling future ones if I ever cracked the way to build/monetize/promote/sell without getting sucked into all the faffing about that I manage to fill my time with.

With you all the way up to Re:

I'm soo untechy...

fc123

Max_Headroom wrote: »

With you all the way up to Re:

I'm soo untechy...

OK , I have spent part of last night researching techy skills updating and the like.
I have also been inspired by PN. I dam well need to sort our my techy capabilities once and for all.

I also want to understand her posts.

DD (who is 15) had to save my docs from Pdf destruction and made a file to send out just like that....click, click, done.

We have taught ourselves all the bits and bobs we need but we are not accomplished enough in certain techy things so I looked at Pitmans courses. Also a specialist training place locally for me to go and learn Adobe Photoshop...mind you, £575 for a day.

Thern I checked ''funding '' on Pitmans site. If you have only 2 GCSE's A-C (O Levels) and are working, you can apply for free courses.

Now, I haven't done the 'phone call yet...could be a catch (like O Levels don't count nor self employed etc) but hubby will qualify. He only has 2 O Levels.
He isn't a ficko....;)...........just, back in 1979/80 he couldn't be bothered and his parents didn't value education so didn't encourage him in any way. They just wanted him to leave school asap and get any job to bring £££ into household.

The thing that prompted this was a stonking great big quote for 15k for techy stuff I need to sort out. Some (like new website/hosting/google clean up) I will have to pay for, but, surely, we can do the rest with the right training?