2006 May · Dominic Foster

Google Bread

May 29, 2006 on 9:23 pm | In AdSense, Entrepreneur | No Comments

I think that my month of ProBlogging from home is really starting to affect my family.

Here in New Zealand we have a popular brand of bread that is called ‘Vogels’.

We buy an organic brand for our kids as it is not chewy and we reckon that since it is organic then it must be better for them than regular bread.

My wife and I buy ‘Vogels’ bread for ourselves as we prefer a wholemeal grain style bread.

Today, my 3 year old son asked if he could have ‘Googles bread’ for breakfast.

Perhaps I’d better find offices somewhere.

You don’t have to get it right, You just have to get it going!

May 26, 2006 on 1:33 pm | In Entrepreneur | 1 Comment

I just read this great quote in an email I received:

You don’t have to get it right, You just have to get it going!

How true!

I haven’t got much to say about it. I believe it speaks for itself!

I really just wanted to quickly blog it to share it before I forgot.

I hope you find it is useful.

Building a Web 2.0 Website

May 25, 2006 on 11:17 pm | In Entrepreneur | 3 Comments

I’ve just read Using the Web2.0 Bandwagon to Jumpstart a Real Site and it really struck a chord for me.

If you are considering, or are currently, building a Web 2.0 App, then I recommend that you go and read it now.

I have a Wep 2.0 App that I will be building with a business partner in the near future. I’m not going to tell you what it is or what it is about though cos it’s going to be really successful and I’m goint to retire to Takapuna Beach on the profits :). Nick Wilsons post at Performancing could not have come at a better time for me.

I hate to see people make mistakes, and I can’t begin to imagine how it must feel to have people posting negative comments about your hot new website at TechCrunch. However, I’ve got to agree with whats being said.

I reckon that Winelog.com need to get on the case and have their website fixed up while it is still in its early stage. Good luck to them.

Habit of Highly Effective Blogging

May 24, 2006 on 9:18 am | In Blogging | 5 Comments

As part of Darrens request for ideas on Habits of Highly Effective Blogging, here is the most effective habit that I use:

Get out of bed early and start blogging quickly

This probably does not sound very exciting or even inspiring, but for me jumping out of bed as early as possible and getting online is the most effective way of boosting production.

However, getting up early does not necessarily mean jumping out of your pit at 5.30am sharp each day. I know from experience that when blogging is providing a major part of your income, that blogging into the early hours is not uncommon. Even going to bed and hopping out again an hour later because you can’t sleep for all the ideas in your head, and getting them into some blog posts is of utmost importance because you will probably forget them by the morining. Sometimes, if you don’t get to bed until 2.30am, getting up early can mean getting up at 8.00am.

So, for me, getting up early means getting up when I wake up - which is usually between 5.30am and 6.00am. By doing this I can be at the computer going through my start-of-the-day routine which involves checking stats, checking affilliate programs and then checking emails and RSS incase there is news that I should start blogging about. News includes material from news sources and marketing/PR material from affilliate programs.

Then I can get into my next routine which is writing my ’stock’ posts for the day. These are the posts which are form the regular daily articles/reviews etc. Once this is done then I’m virtually free to carry out research on my niches and running other aspects of my business.

By getting up early, it means that I can get into ‘The Zone’ pretty quickly and effectively manage my workload and get everything done by lunchtime. This then gives me about 2-3 hours of consulting/research time before my kids finish kindergarten. I’m then free to have family time until the kids go to bed, and then some time with my partner.

I usually do a couple of hours of work before going to bed, which might include writing a couple of posts, catching up on emails or doing some research.

My least effective days come as a result of waking up early and then rolling over and going back to sleep for an hour or two. When I do eventually get up, I feel unmotivated and without any direction. Breakfast usually takes a hour or so and I get distracted easily.

Monday morning is a quiet day in New Zealand.

May 15, 2006 on 1:33 pm | In Entrepreneur | 2 Comments

I’ve been sitting here at my laptop since 7am.

Even though I am working at home, everything seems strangely quiet. The only emails I’ve been getting are from friends here in NZ who are also starting their working week.

My RSS reader is silent apart from the Google News Feeds that update regularly.

It feels like I’m working at 3am and everyone else is asleep.

The reason is, of course, that everyone else probably is asleep.

My FoxClocks plugin says 02:24 in London, Sunday 21:24 in New York, and Sunday 18:24 in Los Angeles.

However, it’s 11:26 in Sydney, so Darren and Yaro should be up blogging. Actually, there is a ProBlogger post just arrived in my RSS reader.

Hoorah!

Update (5 mins later):
I’ve just read Darrens Post and he’s off to the cafe to write for the day. Says Monday is his quietest day for emails etc.. Probably because the rest of the world is asleep.

Carnival of Entrpreneurship

May 14, 2006 on 9:56 pm | In Entrepreneur | No Comments

My Benefits of Working From Home post last week was included in the latest Carnival of Entrepreneurship hosted by CEO Blog by Jim Estill.

Jim blogs mostly about Entrepreneurship and has the business experience (check out his profile) to offer up some great advice. His blog is worth checking out.

This is my first Blog Carnival submission, and has brought a fair bit of traffic my way.

Michael Cheneys AdSense Videos

May 8, 2006 on 8:41 pm | In AdSense, Entrepreneur, Tools | No Comments

I have not been one for buying E Books that promise riches and success, but on Friday I purchase Michael Cheneys Adsense Videos.

I was going to wait a couple of weeks until I had seen whether the changes I impliment make a difference to my earnings, but Michael Cheney is putting the price up in a few days.

Also there has already been an increase in earnings over the weekend - about a 500% increase in click on one site.

Michael Cheney is a British web marketer who runs a number of web sites and has spent the last year or so researching how to make serious money using AdSense.

He has now produced a set of 9 videos explaining and showing exactly how he sets up his AdSense strategy for his websites.

The videos include:

The basics of AdSense.
Laying the proper foundations for your AdSense strategy.
How to create pages that make money.
Powering up your AdSense income.
Testing your AdSense setup

There is also a ton of information on keyword research for creating niche articles.

As well as the above list, there are a few other bonus products that cover the following topics:

A couple of AdSense clinics where Michael takes a look at a handful of websites and analyses what is good and what is bad about their AdSense strategies.
A video about list building.
A two hour audio seminar about link building - which is actually very good.
A PDF ebook called The Worlds Most Powerful Internet Marketing Secret - which I have not had time to read yet.

And here are the reasons I bought Michael Cheneys Adsense Videos:

Most importantly it has a money back guarantee.
I found the sales copy convincing.
I had decided to take my online income more seriously and step up my money making strategy by investing in some education.

Click here if you fancy checking our Michael Cheneys AdSense Videos yourself.

I’ll be reporting back in a couple of weeks when I have more data on it’s success.

Benefits of Working From Home

May 4, 2006 on 10:28 am | In Entrepreneur | 9 Comments

Now that the initial full time developement drive is finished for the project that enabled me to become a full time entrepreneur is over, I have had to devote my time to other income sources. So for the last couple of weeks I have been ProBlogging on my other websites. And of course, by doing this, I have been working from home and finding some great benefits of this working environment.

Here are 5 benefits of working from home:

Choose your own hours - I have no choice if that I am an early riser. I have two sons aged 3 and 1. They are always awake and wanting to get up between 5.30 and 6.00 AM. I get up and make them breakfast, then my wife gets up and I start work. By doing this I can do a complete days work by early afternoon. If I want to finish earlier, then I just do a bit of work in the evening. I normally do a bit of work in the evening anyway as I tend to get some good ideas at this time. Mid to late afternoon has always been a dead and unproductive work time for me, so it is more beneficial if I use this time for chores, errands and fun.
Get to see more of your family - As I mentioned above, I make breakfast for my kids and we all sit around the table to eat it. Then I get to sit with them when I take a break, and sometimes I will drop my son off and pick him up from Kindergarten. I’m also there in the evening for dinner where we all sit around the table to eat.
Save money - No buying coffees from the local cafe. No unhealthy and expensive takeaways. There are also lots of other ways to save by working from home. First of all there are the home office expenses you can use to reduce your tax bill (most peoples biggest expense). Then there are all the other little things like travel, laundry and time. (time is not strictly and expense, but since time is money, I have included it here ;))
Maintain sanity - No more office politics! This ranks up there as one of my biggest dislikes of the regular working environment. However, some may say (myself included sometimes) that prolonged exposure to small children is not good for your sanity :). This was one of my greatest concerns about working from home, since my children are here most of the day. However, it has worked out fine. They seem to understand that I have to work and don’t bother me too much when I’m in my office.
Save time - As far as I’m concerned, time is a precious commodity. I don’t want to spend my whole time working. I want to spend time with my family and doing things that I enjoy. Working from home certainly frees up time for these activities since I don’t have to travel to work (saving about 1 hour a day) and don’t have to spend so much time doing things like ironing and shaving to get ready for work. I am also free to experiment with a theory that I have read about only working between 4 and 6 hours a day - subconciously forcing myself to make every minute count of this time. More on this at a later date.

I’m sure many readers here also work from home. If you know of any other advantages, feel free to leave a comment or trackback in a post at your blog.