Welcome to 2010

// January 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Personal Goals

Here we go again for another year, and a decade for matter (it’s amazing to think what’s happened in my life over the past 10 years!).

Towards the end of last year I lost focus for a while as is also evident from the lack of posts here at jono.me.

After having a holiday in October for a couple of weeks I never really got back in to my online projects. The Christmas rush came, work was busy, etc, etc.

Like a lot of people the new year becomes an opportunity to refocus and reset your goals.

For me it’s back to reviewing my various projects and prioritising my time… At this stage it seems that webmasterblog.com.au and australianwebmaster.com will be my focus. Will keep you informed!

Webmaster Blog

// September 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // webmasterblog.com.au

I’ve gone live with another site, www.webmasterblog.com.au, a Webmaster Blog specifically for the Australian market.

Not sure how often I will be able to post to it but I’ve had the domain for a while so I may as well use it.

I wanted to launch with more content however I had researched a list of Australian Web Directories and wanted to get the list out there rather than have it as a draft for god knows how long.

The idea of this site is to give me something to promote which can then publicize the forum. Should be interesting to see how it (and I) goes.

Whoops I did it again

// September 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // webmasterincome.net

You know how I complain about my lack of focus on projects… I bought another web site! For US$30 it seemed too good to pass up.

The site is webmasterincome.net and is based on how to make money online information. Although it’s a fairly new site it contains a decent amount of content, including an eBook on Yahoo Answers which was promoted on Digital Point.

It obviously needs periodic posts however I am hoping that it will it will attract traffic through search engines and build up over time. At this stage it’s getting NO search engine traffic so I will send it some links and see what happens.

Hosting in Australia

// September 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Webmaster tips

In the last couple of weeks or so I have moved all my sites from a US based VPS to one located in Australia.

I am going to be hosting an e-commerce site and since it was targeting the Australian market I wanted to be confident that it is going to be as fast as possible for Australian visitors.

When my sites were in the US there was no real noticeable delay browsing the sites but now the server is in Australia you can really see the difference – the response times are great.

You can really tell a difference when FTPing files. A 300MB file took over an hour to download from the US VPS, now it takes less than 10 minutes.

The problem is that the cost of this additional performance is costing about an extra AU$70/month – I was previously paying US$45 (about AU$54), now I am paying AU$125. The specifications of the Australian server (disk space and traffic) is also much less too!

However when you are investing $1000s of dollars on an e-commerce venture the $70/month is insignificant price to pay.

To me the most important aspect was responsive and qualified support. After doing my research I’m confident I’ve found it and so far I am very happy with the move. Wish I wasn’t paying more for it but as I said, is it really worth the risk?

“Make Money Blogging” ebook

// August 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Webmaster tips

6-figure/year earner Daniel Scocco of www.dailyblogtips.com has released a free “Make Money Blogging” ebook on his blog.

In the 54 pages Daniel covers 5 main areas. They are:

• Content,
• Design and Usability,
• Networking,
• Promotion, and
• Monetization.

Its a great read and is packed full on helpful tips on blogging.

I will personally be going through and trying out a few things, particularly in the area of networking and promotion. The book isn’t too heavy however it still manages to cover the whole process from deciding a niche all the way through to how to make money from the site once it’s established.

I thought the idea of creating “killer articles” mixed in with normal posts was a great suggestion. It gives me some great ideas for a blog site I am planning on starting.

To get your copy, go to http://www.dailyblogtips.com/make-money-blogging/.

australianwebmaster.com update

// August 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // australianwebmaster.com

Australian Webmaster continues to be my main focus and has had a great past week – my traffic has been consistently higher than normal which is really great to see.

The monthly newsletters seem to be doing the trick of reminding people about the site. I’ve also proceeded with the “Site Of The Month” competition.

These two things have probably caused the recent traffic spike but hopefully it will continue!

I’ve put on two additional moderators however they aren’t big contributors unfortunately, but they can approve moderated posts in those times I can’t which is great.

I still need to get the word out about the site and at this stage I can only see this happening by getting out there and getting involved in other forums and blogs. It’s a catch-22 though, if I’m out marketing the site activity can drop off and then the people that my marketing does attract see a site with little activity!

I think I have to do something though to take it to the next level.

and we’re back (again)

// August 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Personal Goals

I must say I get disappointed whenever I visit a blog and find that the owner is a very sporadic poster,  so I am going to commit to getting this place going and be consistent with my posting.

Although this is a personal blog, it’s still written for people to follow my progress and for me to report what I’m learning. Do I worry about traffic? Not at all.

For me, the real benefit of this blog is keeping me on target. Posting what I want to achieve in the coming week and then reporting back makes me accountable and actually drives me to do what I set out to achieve – rather than spending time on things I shouldn’t be.

So where have I been?

Well for some time on this blog I’ve been debating with myself exactly what I should be doing online. What’s the best use of my time? Without knowing the answer it makes it difficult to actually commit to this blog, and to my web sites.

I know what the long term goal is – it’s to be able to replace my day job with an online income. The big question is how do I achieve that?

I had come to the decision that what I have been doing is probably not the right answer. Building my online income with my limited time is a big ask (maybe impossible) with small websites. Web sites take a lot of time and I do find it difficult to commit the necessary time. Sure, I can build them and maintain them but marketing them (other than SEO) is where I struggle. Without marketing the sites will probably never really take off.

I had come to the realisation a couple of weeks ago that the answer is probably to design and develop an online business application which really put a big question mark about what I do with my existing sites.

I’ve since calmed down a bit and think I will keep doing what I am doing for the short-term but with some changes. I will post my upcoming plans shortly…

and we’re back…

// July 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // australianwebmaster.com

In my last goal post I mentioned I’d be a little quiet for a bit – well, it took a bit longer than expected!

I was actually repainting my office so the computers were all packed away for a couple of weeks and I was just doing the odd bit of maintenance using my laptop. We finished painting about a week ago but then I had end of financial year and had to update the accounts so I stayed offline for a little longer to get it all out of the way.

Have a few things to finish off in the office (door handle, rehang whiteboard, etc) but I trying to be productive again!

What’s new?

I got another good ad sale! I was happy after my first one but then they came back for another! Ever since buying australianwebmaster.com I was wanting to buy vBSEO but at US$150 I didn’t want to spend that much on what is a bit of a gamble – with these two ad sales I decided to take the plunge.

Will need to wait for Google’s next PR update to see whether it changes the PR.

I’ve made a few other minor changes to Australian Webmaster and kept up with the monthly newsletter.

Nothing else much has happened…

I now need to sit down and map out my next priorities now I should be getting back in to things.

Do blogs and forums make money?

// June 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // Personal Goals

With blogs and forums there is only a small percentages of them that have the ability to make a good income. Of those sites making a good income, they have taken many years to build to that level and in most cases they started life as a secondary income and built.

Did John Chow make his money blogging on johnchow.com? No. Did Darren Rowse make his money blogging on problogger.net? No. These sites weren’t their primary source of income in the beginning, even if they are now.

I’d also argue that it would be difficult for these sites to regenerate their success in current times. There is a lot more “noise” now and getting yourself heard is difficult. It’s not impossible however it would be more difficult.

There is no arguement that blogs and forums CAN make money, however there is a small percentage which would make the type of money I’d require to replace my full-time income.

Blogs and forums take a long to build, and in the build phase they take an enormous amount of work.

I see most blogs and forums as marketing tools. They are a great way to build your brand and network, however as far as making considerable money goes, the odds are against you.

Working towards something

// June 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Personal Goals

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been considering the best route for me to take with my online ventures.

I tend to have lots of ideas which I haven’t fully implemented for one reason or another, and recently I have begun to question which projects are the best ones for me to work on first.

Ultimately I am doing all of this to make money (full-time income type of money) so therefore whatever I spend my time on should be leading towards that goal.

As I’ve mentioned before, building a non-income generating site would still help me work towards that goal – just for the experience, but I think I need to be concentrating on the projects that will in fact have a direct impact on my goals.

With the current economic conditions I feel some urgency to increase my income and therefore I’ve decided to concentrate on those that that have the ability to become full-time income generating sites.

At the moment I feel as though my current income is where I need to aim. If I look at my current full-time income and calculate it as a daily rate, I need to work out how I can make that amount each and every day. There are going to by ups and downs so I actually need to aim higher than that.

When I see that figure it’s daunting however it does help me to be realistic about what types of sites I should work on. If it’s not going to come close, then it’s something that has to wait.

I actually hope that I never rely on a single site to make all my income – ideally I would have several sites which all contribute to my income, however it’s a good gauge to determine where I should be spending my time.