From 0 to independence is now Seeking Revenue.
A few people and asked what is happening to this blog and enjoyed the content. Thanks for the much needed encouragement! They kept me going!
This project is continuing at the new home, SeekingRevenue.com.
Join me as we seek revenue and gain financial independence.
Quick round of performance and activities in week 7-8 and February revenue.
2 little spikes in traffic which I will talk about more in my posts.
From 0 to independence
Traffic on this site still in limbo. Planning a couple more lesson learnt topic to see if it helps.
Despite moving to 59ideas.com, I’m still getting residual traffic. This is linking and search engine indexing at work. The nice little spike is of course from googleblog which I talked about in my last post.
Since moving to my own domain, I’m using AWStats which gives a different reporting format. Posting here the monthly chart.
Traffic levelled, planning a few ideas up my sleeve to drive it up.
It’s worrying, I’m getting less in Feb. I have not figure out the reason, possibly within normal variation.
That’s extactly the message of this post. To tell readers (if any) that I had not given up on my goal and this blog.
I am not giving up, but I’m giving an excuse. The Great Firewall.
It is a real pain updating via proxy. I’m already slipping behind with updates on Best Blog on WordPress. I’m certainly behind on this one.
Yes I thought of moving. In fact I already had the domain 0toindependence.com. But it is hard work moving blog. Did it once with 59ideas, can’t say I enjoy it. It is nice to have the wordpress.com guys running the blog.
Also I’m working on my ideas. One problem with ideas is you tend to spend too much time thinking about them then doing. And when you spend time doing, you don’t want to repeat by writing about them.
Through the process had learnt quite a bit about time management. Balancing real world work with virtual ventures.
I planned to post more updates and lesson learnt in future. Stay tuned.
A while back Scoble wrote some tips for getting our blog into the A-list.
This blog had been around for (coming to) 2 months – a very short time in blogodom. There is no deny that I’m looking to get into the A-list and earn revenue from online activities like blogging.
This blog is not getting traffic. My two other blogs are.
I surf alot for blog to list on the Best Blog on WordPress. I also looked at blogs that frequently get onto the Fastest Growing blogs and Top Posts.
Here’s what I learn about what gets traffics and what not.
Update of week 5-6 performance and activities.
Time flys. I’m planning marriage this year so there’s plenty of happenings off-line. Updating of this blog is certainly slacking behind. 59ideas though is gaining traction slowly and nicely.
Whois.la seems to reach a temporary plateau. Need more ideas to push it along. The redesign is ready and I need to fix a time to get it launched.
Managed to get hosting for Ken and the Art of MotorCycle Maintenance up but it’s behind schedule as well. Plenty of catching up to do.
Torn between skipping a beat or continue to launch sites at the planned rate of one every 2 weeks, I decided to press on.
From 0 to independence and 59ideas
Tommy at Sick Of The Money Making Scams left me a comment today. He has a similar goal of earning revenue from online sources. His target is to “find a sustainable income from the Internet by the time my child is born” (in end September this year!).
Tommy is looking at many program and finding out what works and what doesn’t. I had alluded before my view on such programs. Needless to say, I cannot agree with him more on the topics and what he is doing. Check out his research on scams, ebooks, get rich quick programs.
If you are trying earn revenue online, learn the rope, don’t fall for the traps. Learn to fish so that you have fish abundant as you need.
Jochen at DarK Moon Blog is using Adsense together with his online games and music to make online revenue. Very interesting idea. If you have talent in those areas, this is one way to go.
Whether online or offline, it is important know your strengths and find ways to use them for to maximise return.
Good fortune to your quest!
I register or renew 20-30 domains a year so I’m always looking for cheap domain deal. With this 0 to independence project, I’m expecting to register more.
iPower now offers domain at $2.95 which is the cheapest I had seen. Yahoo Small Business is offering at $2.99 (for up to 5 years) but it is for new sign up only.
Note that these prices are for new domain registration. For renewal, the price is between $7 to $9. You might get slightly below $7 if you sign up as reseller of a domain registrar.
As a plug, I can do renewal at $7++. Drop me a note if you are interested or can help me drive my price down further.
The price of cheap
Everything comes with a price. My recent experience tells me that the price of cheap domain is much wasted time and frustration. Let me recount.
Ken and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Yes, bookmark that, because it will be a pain to type.
It is almost halfway into the 6th week and I am just announcing the idea. All because I was trying to save a couple of dollars on the domain name KenandtheArtofMotorcycleMaintenance.com.
This was supposed to be a filler idea so, I’m not too concerned. Still I would like to get it up and going.
It is also an exercise too in extra long domain name. I wanted to see the effect (if any) a very long domain name has on promoting the site and getting traffic.
Short names are running out and domain names are getting longer or are mix-mash of characters (meebo, lexxe, riya came to mind). Try hitchhikersguidetothegalaxy.com.
About the Idea
The name of couse is a play on the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Ken is my name so it fitted very nicely.
The site is a full blown experimentation of what I call “idea in the blogging“.
I like riding motorcycle (more about that on the site later) and one of my dream is to run a motorcycle repair shop and look at all the different motorbike coming in – Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, BMW, KTM, Aprilla, Cagiva, Ducati, Triumph … talking to the riders. All motorcycle riders have fantastic story to tell.
Very nice … but not going to happen any time soon. At least I can blog about it!
Commentary
Not much activities last week. 59 Ideas is growing nicely as I get into the blogging flow.
Can you believe it? I registered for a domain for last week’s idea and until I have not gotten the account to the domain. More on this when the account is finally accessible. The price to pay for going cheap.
Activities
Routines
I had been collecting real-life evidences of people creating revenue from online activities.
Bloggers, by their very nature, are very forthcoming with sharing their success stories. Here, Steve Pavlina share about his traffic and Adsense revenue growth rate.
Starting from Feb 2005 with $53, he is projecting $4700 in Jan 2006! A consistent average growth rate of 50% that has yet to taper off.
This will come as no surprise if you read Steve’s content. Very amazing things he is doing and blogging.
What will be the growth rate of a less than average blogger like myself? Let me share this with you on Jan 2007.
Just one real thing: Get back on track.
Activities
Routines
Barely a month into my 0 to independence plan, the Chinese New Year holiday is wreaking havoc on the plan. The demand of relationship added to that as well.
Already I’m behind plan for the last two weeks. Beside a personal short-coming that need improving, I seriously need to adapt and overcome.
So, I’m behind
Some of the original plans and thoughts had to be changed.
I was supposed to launch a new idea every 2 weeks. I believe this is still possible, but need more focus.
The last idea, Whois.la, was simple – brought it and made an introduction. A new design was made and should be ready this week.
The idea for week 5-6 was in the head but I might not pull it off, again because of the happenings in my offline life. Despite that I’m going to put in a filler idea.
The filler idea is really just that, to fill up the gap in my plan. It will be lightweight so that I can get a grip on my time and get back on track.
More reports on my progress, traffic, revenue, plans and idea coming up.
First, some backgrounder.
Online directories are very much like their real world counterparts. They are classified list of websites.
Two of the most well known directories are Yahoo and dmoz. Getting a listing in these 2 can mean a noticable increase in traffic and search engine ranking but it is not easy.
What about other directories?
There are countless other directories. Some are effective, some marginal, the rest worthless waste of time. But how do you know?
One useful method is to look out for personal testimonies or experiences. My plan is to also report my experience with directories on this blog as time goes by.
As countless as the directories are services that will help you submit to them. Coincident? Just say they mutually ensure eachother’s existence.
So, what about the paid inclusion and paid submission services?
Is Yahoo directory worth $299? Personally I have yet to use any paid service so I cannot comment from experience. Again, report will appear as if I ever try them.
More good readings:
 | オテモニャン on No, I have not given up |
 | afandina on How much can a blog worth… |
 | Michael Tim on Now Seeking Revenue |
| Michael Tim on Idea for Week 3-4 –… |
| Michael Tim on About Directory Submissio… |
