The Re-Birth of the Blogtrepreneur Forums!

Unfortunately for the last few days, writer’s block has managed to nestle itself between my ears and so I’ve been a bit short of things to say. That should change a bit as I’ve got a few guest posts lined up for the coming week. Speaking of guest posting, if you want to write a little piece for Blogtrepreneur in exchange for a link then please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Whilst the procrastination lingered I thought it would be more helpful if I did a little bit of maintenance and spring cleaning work (well global warming means its basically spring time here in the UK). As a result I’ve become a member of Commission Junction which deserves a post on its own for the time being. You can see the banner ad in the left sidebar.

On top of this (and as a result of my lingering at YGG) I decided to see if a revamp of the forums could be on the cards. I’d often seen the Vanilla software being put to good use, and I had always liked its clean and easy to understand appearance.

So at the weekend, I decided to download a copy and upload it to the forum directory, deleting phpBB and all the spammified posts along the way. This unfortunately means that any conversations that had been struck up were washed away down the drain, but there weren’t too many to have a song and dance about.

So without further ado, I bring to you: Blogtrepreneur Forums (part 2 - the rebirth).

What I love the most about Vanilla is the use of extensions (a bit like Wordpress really), where everything and anything is downloadable.

As a result, I’ve got a newsletter mailer, different skins, a “digg” extension, Account Pictures and quite a few more which generally enhance the usability of the forum. Also one of the best features is the ability to ban a member from the Admin interface without having to journey into the depths of MySQL which was a big bummer.

Finally, I would like to introduce the first Forum moderator in the form of Nick James who has a lot of experience in racking up huge amounts of posts at YE.com. Hopefully as this forum grows I can get a bit of help from you guys as moderators and make this a community thing!

In the mean time, please take a few seconds to register, and then I will have to manually approve you (yet another cool anti-spam measure) which may take upto 24 hours - but trust me - its worth the wait! Please check it out and get posting once you’re memberified.

Babysitting - Is It Easier Than Online Income?

Yesterday was my first ever real job. Some of you may recall my attempt at becoming a caddy at a local golf course which was ended with the claim of age prejudice. However this time, my age worked in my favour.

Babysitting is probably the classic job for teenagers. You don’t have to be a girl to look after kids when their parents are away - fortunately for me though, I was taking care of a young boy for 4 hours. Anyway, the hours go by quickly, there is often no manual labour involved and the pay is pretty decent compared to working at the local supermarket.

Anyway, my next door neighbour called me up to ask for a favour and I readily agreed to babysit her son. Once I arrived, the boy and I played on his Nintendo Wii. This was my first time and to be honest I was pretty amazed by how fun the games were, even though the graphics weren’t next generation. My favourite game was Tennis on Wii Sports. Whilst I won’t turn this into a battle of the consoles though, I still prefer my Xbox 360!

After playing for 1 or 2 hours, the kid ate his dinner (which his mum had pre-prepared) and we played a few boardgames. Then after 3 and a half hours I put the boy to sleep and went downstairs to do a bit of light Economics reading. His parents came back shortly after and I got paid £20 for the 4 hours - not bad considering supermarket wages are at £4.50 odd per hour here in the UK.

But was this income easier than earning online? A few points:

• You don’t really gain any knowledge from babysitting. Whilst blogging, Im constantly reading and acquiring new technical jargon and techniques to increase earnings, alter websites - heck I even managed to be able to fully edit HTML since starting last February!
• But - babysitters don’t really get burnt out. Much of looking after kids involves watching TV and playing games. And if the family are rich then the experience can be better than your own home.
• The pay is much more definite and consistent, £5 per hour is nearly certain whereas online, you never know when your more faithful TLA customers might leave you. Maybe this is part of the ride for an entrepreneur and results in more thrills on top of the spills.

Really I wouldn’t say no if another person asked me to babysit. It’s an easy job and supplements my online income really nicely. On top of this I record my income on a spreadsheet in Dollars so the conversion rate will really help my cause this month! Marketing my babysitting service is something which I thought about yesterday as well, but that will take up another post for sure!

Deceitful Marketing Tactics: How To Worsen Your Public Image

Recently in the UK there has been a bit of an uproar about Colgate and its infamous ads. I’m sure most of you can picture just about any tooth-related adverts - they always happen to show models with the pearliest whites and toothpaste that looks so good that you just want to eat it (although flouride is bad for you - so don’t do it!)

Colgate’s long-standing claim that more than 80 per cent of dentists recommend its toothpaste is “misleading” and must never be used again, the advertising watchdog has ruled.

The claim was sparked by competing toothpaste companies which claimed that the same percentage of dentists interviewed recommended their differentiated product - thus bringing up the notion that Colgate had lied.

It IS understandable why companies do these things though. All of them have financial and social goals which they have to meet. Brand loyalty and convincing the customer to purchase their products instead of from their competitors is fundamental in ensuring repeat success. Sales must be maximised and profit margins must be reached to ensure good economic growth for the company.

But should these aims entail the use of lying to attract customers?

It’s a question of morality and ethics. If you want your business to be based on lies and deceit for the quick buck then it’s up to you, but as we’ve found out here, there will always be negative consequences - once the word gets out, the media can ruin your business and your livelihood.

A fantabulous example is that of Jade Goody who went into the Celebrity Big Brother house for the 2nd time. The first time she managed to cause a rift and escaped with huge criticism - her PR people did wonders to turn that around. This time, she hasn’t been so lucky. Accusations of racism and bullying have turned Britain against her and we’re embarrassed to associate ourselves with the self-proclaimed star.

Back to the matter in hand - public image is everything. Ask Jade whether she would have wanted to look like a villain when she left the house, a swift answer of “no” would have been heard. The same applies to Colgate - a poor public image caused my deceitful marketing tactics is likely to have negative consequences and its the image of a treacherous company which will stay with people the longest.

One last example. When was the last time you went into McDonalds and ordered a Big Mac which didn’t look half as good as the juicy one you saw in the advert?

Food for thought…(no pun intended).

Broken the $100 Adsense Barrier

Lately I havn’t been checking my Adsense account too much as the inactivity has been pretty depressing! But today I thought I’d login to see how much I had earnt from a collection of sites. To my excitement (and relief), I finally realised that I had broken the $100 barrier for Adsense so that they can now pay me.

I hate having my money kept in someone else’s hands. I think that’s why services like Text Link Ads and Adbrite which pay you monthly whatever you earn are taking off so much. And for the vast majoirty of webmasters out there, $100 is pretty damn hard to make, even in the life of your website.

I managed to get a PIN Code, despite it getting lost in the post a couple of time, and I setup my account so that earnings are directly deposited into my personal bank account which will be easier and quicker than a cheque. So I’ll definitely give you guys a screenshot once I get my payment.

Conclusion here is that there are so many other ways to diversify apart from the Adsense Bread and Butter so if you’ve got a bit of spare time this evening, research into other income methods and ways whereby you can make monthly, consistent money that don’t rely on happy-go-lucky clicks. And… I love you Google!

Minimize The Scale Of Your Dependency

Yesterday just after lunch, the lights went out. At first we thought it was a usual trip caused by a powersurge to the house, but then we looked around the neighbourhood and figured that the whole street had gone out of power as well. It seemed as if a massive storm had damaged some electricity pilons which supplied the area with juice.

Anyway, I looked around the house searching for things to do, but the computer and internet were no good, as were the television and the Xbox. In fact, the only thing I was able to do was have a chat with my parents and reflect upon the day. But it struck me how reliant we were and still are upon electricity. And another worrying thought occurred to me.

I’m fortunate as blogging isn’t my career and it isn’t a means of getting the bread on the table (any income I earn is purely spendable and for fun). But imagine if you were a full-time blogger, or you had a website which was the main source of your income. In doing so you are reliant upon your internet working, your computer working, your electricity working, your local generator working and so on and so forth.

In fact, the scale of dependency is staggering.

But surely the same can be said for any job I hear you ask? You’re correct, working in a high street stall requires there to be foot traffic which requires there to be transport, and petrol and natural resources etc. So in effect we all rely upon something or someone else. The fact here is to minimize your dependency, so that you’re relying upon fewer factors in your life.

In the blogging world, many people use solely Google Adsense for their income. Then they are devastated when Google bans their account due to fraudelent activity and they have no other income source to turn too. The answer here then is to diversify. Clever affiliate marketers make good use of this through different online services; others fall into the Googletrap and spend their time optimising when in fact they are missing out on so much more.

So in conclusion, have a think about the things around you that you’re dependent on. If it’s your car, then try to practice walking or cycling, if it’s the internet, then try and diversify your interests or your business to the offline world and if it’s electricity, try living in darkness for a few hours and see how you could cope in a world without power.

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