Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

PasturesNew

silvercar wrote: »

Tesco were selling a book called starting a business online. It didn't tell you what to sell, just how to get going with an idea, getting a website up and running, showing up on google etc.

That's the bit I've always been quite good at .... the bit I've always been lacking is "producing an actual product, an item, for sale". Long-term I don't believe there's money for "people like me" to ponce about writing fluff .... technologies are moving and changing, one needs a "thing to sell".

tomterm8

PasturesNew wrote: »

Most money's in gadgets .... I've got a Nokia 6310 and not good at using it to send a text. I've never seen a plasma TV or a big TV, never seen/used Sky, never gamed, haven't ever seen an iPod or iPhone.... so I struggle to see what I could write about and not look an idiot.

You don't need to go for the most money. I think everyone tries to sell gadgets... and yeah, there is a lot of money in it... but you can make a lot of money in Amazon selling ANYTHING. Including $5 products like books or the ordinary things you have in the kitchen... like saucepans, and pillow cases.

There are a couple of people I've met making a decent living out of just book review sites.

Basically, the thing you need to do is get people to Amazon, it doesn't matter what product you choose... most of the time, people don't even buy what you suggest anyway! And you shouldn't be too enthusiastic... people can sell BS a mile away.

misskool

tomterm8 wrote: »

There are a couple of people I've met making a decent living out of just book review sites.

How would you make money from that? Is that like just having advertising on your website and links to amazon?

mostlycheerful

Pastures : “I've thought about it and tried reading reviews to cobble something together myself, but felt I didn't actually understand the thing well enough to write intelligently.”

I think your writing is fine and I read lots of stuff by lay people like myself, and in this context, also like yourself, who are looking at the product or subject from the outside and just making general comments so I think you could do well just saying whatever you want, seeing as you’re articulate, intelligent and fluent and with a wide frame of reference and lots of understanding and experience. I wouldn’t say that if you were inarticulate but you have good powers of expression, for sure. And a wide frame of reference.

Yes, I don’t particularly want to read experts’ stuff and generally I don’t want to read much techy stuff. I’m fairly techy myself and I’ve got a fairly good grasp of a lot of technical stuff. But when I’m reading about stuff I don’t want lots of detailed cleverness, mostly I want general fairly low level fools’ guide stuff written in plain English that I can easily understand without having to reach for the dictionary and google lots of obscure stuff that I don’t know about.

As a lot of us do these days, I do lots of research for all sorts of things, but when, for instance, I’m buying a new computer or a scanner etc I want a potted one or two page guide to it written in normal language that I can easily understand. Once I’ve read that, and three or four more ones like that, written by users and not experts, then, if I’m interested in researching it further then I may tackle some 10 and 20 page technical briefs but I tend to give up on them half way through when I come up against too much technical jargon and concepts that I’m not already familiar with.

So I think you should just press on and do what you like and I think there’s a market for anything and probably nearly everything that you would write. You’ve got a good and profound understanding of the universe and in particular net stuff and I think you’ve already got quite a following and a series of one and two page descriptions by you about pretty much any subject or product would be great, however much or little techy insight you might want to include. And, and this is also powerful, like any good reviewer, you’re aware of your limitations.

Yeah, Pastures, believe me, you’ve got it and you’ve got it good. Just bang it out and do what you want and go for it. I think you’ll get on fine. If you use the scatter gun approach and press forward on 5 or 10 fronts I reckon you’ll be very successful in at least two or three of them and possibly the whole lot. I generally try five or ten things at once in the hope and expectation that one or two or three of them will come good and I’ve been proved right on more occasions than I’ve just wasted my efforts.

tomterm8

Misskool: It's pretty simple. Say, you are an expert in software programming. You start up a site about programming. Put good content on it (basically articles about programming). You add adsense, and people click on the links (so you make money from your content articles). Once a day, you also write a book review on a programming textbook. It should be a honest review - as good as you can write it. At the top and bottom of the review you put an amazon associate link. If people click on the link, and buy the book, you get commission from it.

Every article stays on the internet for years, so in four years time, you could still make money if someone reads a review you wrote.

The best part is, if they click on your link, and don't buy your book, but they buy something else - say a kindle - within 24 hours, you still get a commission.

That's it. Just change the type of book to whatever you are interested. Make the book reviews as good as possible.

You make money out of a lot of sources... your content makes money from adsense, your book reviews make money from amazon, and you use it on your CV to prove you are an expert in your field, so it helps you get jobs. People contact you as a consultant because of your web site.

lostinrates

I've entered my ''dry'' quarter of the year. I eat more healthily these months because I don't ''store''calories for a glass of wine or two. I'm also on acount down to meet the new GP in about a fortnight...shudder. I'll probably get progressively more neurotic until that's over (doctor not the abstaining from drink)

PasturesNew

Right now I could write about a pie .... I'm starving, but it's way too late to start trying to dig around for proper food .... if it were my kitchen/house then about now I'd be down there whipping up some cheese/onion pastries, or sausage rolls... but I'd be crucified if I started cooking at this time of night

Starving though ... pies!!!!

fc123

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's the end of the year and time I should be cracking on with my self-assessment. Finally I'll actually sit down and work out how much I earnt in 09-10. And, I always think "and then I'll look at Apr-Dec of this tax year" but somehow having completed and paid for the tax return I've just done, I just want to surf the net

That's why I've never got much of an idea how much I actually have. November looked good, December didn't. I was doing "very well" in October (by my yardstick), but abysmal in December. So it's hard to say. I think I'm looking at having averaged an annualised £13-14k in the past 18 months, which is quite shabby compared to, say, benefits incomes If I had nothing at all and were simply sitting around on benefits reading Heat magazine I'd actually be better off than that.

In my town, just LHA on a 1-bed flat + JSA + Council Tax paid is equivalent to a job paying £15k. Thing is, in this town, the median full-time job for a female is £16,500 and jobs actually advertised are nowhere near as high as that. It's £13,500-14,000 for an Office Manager or similar, with about 3 jobs at that level appearing per year.

PasturesNew wrote: »

OK, 2011 and my new Genius Plan (you can't keep a serial entrepreneur down) .... should have done this years ago, but it's like everything in life, sometimes you just don't see the opportunity, just the barriers.

So, I've identified (since last Wednesday) a great business opportunity, then today "the break" seems to have appeared and there's a free course in something in a week that I'm trying to book onto, which will enable me to understand and see if I have the skill, which isn't really a skill (any monkey can do it really) .... and I might be entering the fashion accessories market with my "Business in a Box" idea. It's a potential business I am sounding out, that I believe can be run from a shoebox. The Business in a Box concept, means a small, completely portable business. No premises, no equipment, no storage needed.... just a box of stuff. OK, in reality if it works out I'd need a bigger box than a shoe box, but it's 100% portable.

No further details, have to see if I'm rubbish at it next week.

I'll use the free course to get full costings and timings + take some snaps so I can at least write an article about it, which in itself should yield a few bob.

ooooh that sounds interesting.....good luck with it.

Don't get too bogged down with benefit income compared to your current one...just keep at it and, one day, benefit income levels will be far behind.
You know my view...I 100% belive you are a self employed person and as silvercar says (or was it viva?) you netowrk wonderfully online with no problems at all.....you just need to find more niche areas in internet land.
You did a spec for me that was massively helpful...ok I didn't understand it all ....but I sorted my domains out and have a clearer idea of how to go forward.

Now I quoted all sorts of posts but only 3 showed up?

From memory.....clean a field LIR? How do you clean a field? lol

London fireworks...I was there on the bridge last year and wading through the rivers of wee to London Bridge as Waterloo was shut...at 2am. This year friends popped in and then left to go elswhere at 11.30pm (we declined as I couldn't face kissing strangers as I didn't know them all) and we watched the London display from the house through the trees (we have the whole London panorama from the back once the leaves are down).

Son was out, DD in Brighton so a nice empty house yum yum......that's one thing that;'s changed...my house is full of young people all the time as we are all back living together again. The noise + to-ing and fro-ing is constant. I get interrupted all the time...even now...I sneak a a nice quiet hour on MSE..then if it's not my inbox, it's one or other wanting something, asking something and so on.

I have some house rules though and sons GF is only allowed to stay over 2 nights a week (or she'd move back in... please no) and the rule says if they make 'noise' then we will too.......which has guaranteed no embarrassing moments....as son would just die of shame. The threat worked though.;)


Anyways...my only news is the cat threw up all over my face in the early hours and it has gone down as one of 'The Most Hideous Moments' ever. OH heard him retch and then I woke up and it was in my mouth, my hair, my eyes and all over the bed as he ran away, still retching.
I couldn't even scream or speak as it I had to keep mouth shut as OH mopped me with tissues....then I had to wash....then we had to strip the bed.

And DStar.......in the face of adversity and all that....it's true ...as I have surprised myself at what we did. If it stopped tomo, I would have no regrets and just feel glad I had the chance......though we are going to try and push it up a little bit further but not risking what we have made so far.
The new studio is amaaaayzing and I have since found out it was empty for years as they were trying to get resi planning all along the site...and the council said no.....so we got a great deal.

tomterm8

fc123 wrote: »

From memory.....clean a field LIR? How do you clean a field? lol

Er, I imagine that you pick the poo the horses deposit on it... and place it on a nearby compost heap.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Right now I could write about a pie ....

Any chip shops nearby?

lostinrates

fc123 wrote: »

I couldn't even scream or speak as it I had to keep mouth shut as OH mopped me with tissues....then I had to wash....then we had to strip the bed.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Poor you!

You clean a field in much the same way as you clean a litter tray. But it takes longer and is heavier.:o