As usual I’m a bit behind on the goings on in internet world but better late than never, I guess. A couple blogs that I read on a regular basis have been sold and it seems as though there are plenty of others that have been offloaded recently as well. I’m not really sure what to think about this flurry of blog sales. Part of me is confused, part is annoyed and part is impressed.

• The confused part - I don’t read that many blogs regularly. The more I like what the blogger is doing or has to say or the more interesting I find them, the more likely I am to become a regular reader. Based on this, I wonder why people buy blogs. Sure they’re getting a design that is up and running but they could pay a lot less for a much better custom WP design. True, they’ll be adopting a set of regular readers but how many of them are likely to continue reading? Lots of incoming links is a good thing I guess but that’s not hard to do with some serious commenting. I figure if a blogger is good they should be able to start a blog on their own. If they’re crap then people won’t read the blog anyways so it’s a big waste of money.
• The annoyed part - I think blogging is about building relationships and when the author sells the blog it sort of feels like a very nerdy betrayal. I thought he loved me… I guess I was just another notch on his RSS belt. *sniff*
• The impressed part - I have to give kudos to anyone who can create something from scratch and turn it into a saleable item in a few months. Even though the whole process leaves me feeling used and abused, I can’t help but admire them for it.

Are there are people out there who flip blogs like real estate? It might be an interesting thing to look into if you’re a talented writer and know how to turn a new blog into an established one pretty quickly. I wonder if they’d be able to continue attracting readers to their new blogs after each sale. I would be unlikely to read a blog knowing that the author plans to sell it in a few months.

I wonder how many more blogs will be sold during this mini-frenzy? I would feel strange selling my blog, I think. I would need bucketloads of money to sell any of my websites and I’d have a hard time letting go of them because of the zillions of hours I’ve put, in. I guess everyone has their price though!

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The thing that always annoyed me about blogs was the layout. Sure, new themes are popping up all the time but they all still look like blogs. Long content posts on the left and a crappy navigation system on the right. Same old layouts… boring boring boring!

Now that I’ve finally got a blog of my own I’ve gone and done the same thing with a boring design. Bad me. But I have I’ve been converted to Wordpress just a little bit because I like how easy it is to manage content. Once everything’s set up there’s no need to rummage around in the source code. Adding new content just takes a bit of writing and a few clicks and that’s fine with me.

Well now it looks like I can rejoice because some people are daring to be different and are getting a bit more creative with Wordpress. Take Brave New Traveller, Ubertramp and Vagabondish as examples. I’ve been reading all three of these blogs for a while. They were all sort of hovering between blog and online travel magazine - they looked like a blog but read like something more.

All of them are packed with great content and now they’ve added a great design into the mix which kicks everything up a notch. They’ve moved away from the traditional boring looking blog style to a one that looks more like a regular site with the ability to take advantage of all of Wordpress’ great features.

Seeing what these guys have done has gotten me excited about Wordpress again. Last night I found myself thinking about what I want to do with my seriously neglected backpacking site and seeing those sites in action has given me lots of ideas for a travel magazine type site of my own with a few twists that will hopefully set it apart.

Thanks for the inspiration guys!

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I recently submitted this site to a third-party link sales site (who shall remain nameless for reasons that should become clear - but use your imagination) and I was approved not only for their regular program but also for some special new program they’re trialling. The whole operation seemed pretty top secret and before I was told what the new program was I had to check a box to confirm that I wouldn’t let the cat out of the bag (oops!). I don’t tend to blog about new products and stuff like that so I clicked the box and was taken to the next step.

The new program, it turns out, involves allowing advertisers to purchase words that are already a part of my content to turn them into links. Fine… seems ok. That’s something that already goes on with companies like Kontera. I think their program works by detecting desirable keywords, turning them automatically into links and then having a pay per click type setup. Kontera links are easily identifiable because they have double lines under the words and I think a window pops up as well when they’re scrolled over.

So far, so good but as I carried on reading things started getting a bit dodgy. The program description stated that links they sold would look exactly the same as other links on my site. There would be no distinction between the paid hyperlinks and those that I’d added myself. Plus, with this veil of secrecy, it looks like site owners aren’t even allowed to make their readers aware of the existence of the paid links. It would therefore look like every paid link is a recommendation by the site’s owner and I’ve got a big problem with that.

There’s something sleazy about this whole operation. I’m not totally against people putting paid or pay per click links within their content (although I find them distracting) but having paid links that are indiscernible from regular links is deceptive to me. The fact that the company doesn’t allow the site owners to discuss the program is just plain shifty. They say that this new program will pay a lot more than their regular one but is abusing the trust of your readers worth a few extra bucks? Not for me.

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I’ve been spending a stupid amount of time on getting my new working holidays site up and running and I’m nearing the end. Problem is that I’m also nearing the end of my patience with it. I’m so sick of looking at it that I wouldn’t mind if the site spontaneously deleted itself into oblivion. Ok maybe that’s a bit hasty but you get the idea - I’m fed up.

I’ve done all the fun bits and now I need to tweak a few annoying things, write a lot of annoying articles, research some annoying information and install an annoying forum. The whole thing is, you guessed it, annoying the hell out of me at this point. I had all kinds of good ideas for the site but it seems to have sucked the life out of me and all I want to do at the moment is get it out of my face.

This is the first time I’ve felt this way since I started doing this website development thing. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I’ve been working full time in my regular job, building sites for hours each night and have a lot of other things going on making life pretty busy. It probably won’t be the last time I feel a bit burnt out so I’ve come up with a little list of how I might deal with the problem.

• Launch the site, ready or not - When I find myself a bit sick of a project and start to neglect it, one thing that usually brings me back on board is landing a few Adsense clicks or affiliate sales. I expect this site to do well with Adsense so if I put it out there and start to see it earning well then that will be good motivation to keep working on it.
• Work on another site - I’m pretty scatty when it comes to building sites and I normally tend to jump between them doing little bits at a time. This is probably the first time I’ve sat down and worked on a single site from start to (near) finish without also working on my other sites from time to time. I’ve found myself thinking up ideas for my other sites but haven’t had the time to work on them so maybe mixing it up a bit would be a good idea.
• Take a break from building sites - There are plenty of other things I have to do before I head off on my travels like setting up a server on my PC (whatever that means), downloading some tunes, backing up my computer, burning my photos to CD, catching up on emails, typing clever things into Facebook etc etc etc. Plus there things I can do with my sites that have nothing to do with their construction like looking at new affiliate programs, approaching potential advertisers for private link sales, researching keywords, learning new skills yadda yadda yadda. All this stuff needs to get done at one point or another so now is as good a time as any.
• Take a break from the online world completely - I have 100,000 things to do in the offline world and I could probably stand to take a break from the computer for a few days. I find when I’m not able to work on my sites for an extended period of time I usually come up with  some good ideas and am really eager to get back to work. A bit of time away while I organise my life might result in some stupendously amazing ideas. Of course I might just veg out, watch lots of TV and eat ice cream but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.

I think working hard initially is a major key to success down the road but I also think that working too hard might turn out to be negative if it saps all my energy and makes me want to assassinate my website.

I’m going to opt for a combo of options one and two. I’ll launch my new site and hope it starts to pay off and spend the next week or so after that working on my living in London site. If that doesn’t bring me back to life then I’ll start doing some non-building things and if all is lost then I’ll have a break from the internet for a few days and see how it goes.

I just need to keep my eye on the prize… more work now means less work while I’m sitting on the beach!

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Before I start I just want to say to my regular readers that I love ya, really I do! I appreciate your comments, love to see my RSS numbers increasing, I get a warm fuzzy feeling as my number of visitors slowly climbs and I generally just love writing and feeling as though people appreciate it.

But… I’m afraid your commitment doesn’t pay my bills.

It’s the drive-by, wham bam thank you ma’am traffic that I’m after. Not for this blog, but for my other sites. Things rarely change on most of my sites and therefore people don’t tend to return. They type something into Google, my page comes up, they click on the link, have a look around, and then leave me feeling used and abused.

But… they often leave in ways that pad my bank account.

To make any money I need to attract people who are looking for something other than my daily post; the ones who find my site through a click of Google and then head off in search of more information, possibly never to be seen again. People who find my sites through search engines are, funnily enough, usually searching for something. If they find it on my site that’s great and if the thing they’re searching for results in an affiliate sale then that’s even better! If they can’t find the information they’re after then off they’ll go to another site and this could lead to an Adsense click.

That’s not to say that blogs don’t get search engine traffic because they do, but blogs generally rely on repeat visits and networking to pad out their daily stats. Because of this, a high number of daily visitors doesn’t equate to a high level of earnings the way it does on a standard website.

If you’re hoping to make money with your blog then optimising your site for the search engines and targeting search traffic is key. Spending time on MyBlogLog, commenting on other blogs, posting on forums with your link in the signature and all that time consuming stuff is good for getting people to visit your site, but these people tend to be curious folks with time to kill, not people who are in the frame of mind to buy something or click on an ad.

So in other words, money wise, I would rather have 100 visitors a day to my websites then 1000 visitors a day to this blog, even if it was monetised. But then again, 1000 readers a day would be nice…

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I’ve been talking for ages about this new site I’ve been working on for what seems like an eternity and it’s finally ready. Well, it’s not actually new (it’s an overhaul of this old site) and it’s not actually finished… but I said last week that I’d unleash the beast today whether or not it was done so here it is, in its half-completed glory!

New Site: Working Holiday Info

Bits that I Still Need to Do:

• Header image - It’s crapola and I need to come up with something better but it’s not at the top of my list just now.
• Uncompleted sections - The Students, Articles, and Contests sections don’t even exist and the Destinations and Jobs sections are works in progress. The Visas bit is pretty much done but there are some small gaps here and there.
• Main page - Need to finish bits and flesh it out a bit more but not sure how.
• Blog - I’ve struggled my way to something that fits with the look of my site but I can’t work out how to get the text and links and stuff to match up. I need to write some posts as well. I think this section will focus on news and contests and maybe some personal observations by me.
• Forum - I haven’t even attempted this yet but I’ll get on the case this week I think. I’ve decided to buy a vBulletin board for $160 but won’t have the benefit of a ‘one click install’ so have to be in the right frame of mind to want to tackle the installation.
• Articles - I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve and just need to sit down and write.
• Layout - There are some individual pages that I’d like to organise better.

Geez with all the stuff that’s not done it makes me wonder what I’ve been working on these past few months! The visa info has been a mission to compile and my little cartoons have taken plenty of time too.

So I guess I’m curious about what you think of it. Because the thing is only half finished now is the time to chime in with any suggestions or criticism so I can fix it up. I’d be keen to know if you think the navigation is set up well and if there are any sections that aren’t listed that you think would fit well with the site. Anything really! Do your worst, I can take it!!

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One of the many advantages to being in this business is that the money keeps rolling in no matter what I’m doing and because of this saving money becomes pretty easy. All I really need to do to save is kill time while spending nothing. The same is true in the nine to five world but not spending any money isn’t really an option when you’ve got to get yourself to work, feed yourself, pay your rent etc. Not matter how hard you try to save there are still those minimum monthly expenses that need to get paid no matter what.

In the travel world, however, there is nobody to answer to and you can pretty much do whatever you want. Sure, you have rent to pay in the form of nightly accommodation and you still need to feed yourself and get from place to place but there is more choice about how this is done.

So I’ve come up with a few ways to kill time and cut down on my spending while still doing something worthwhile and enjoyable so that money can be saved a lot quicker.

• Volunteering - The internet is packed with paid ‘volunteer’ positions where you shell out hundreds to a middleman to set you up with an organisation to play in the sand or build a few random things. I think these are a waste of everyone’s time and money but I also think that there are plenty of worthwhile volunteer opportunities out there if you’re willing to seek them out. Many places will rightly ask you to support yourself but some great causes will provide food and accommodation like Hands On and the Burma Volunteer Program. I’d be totally fine with paying my own living costs but they’re likely to be a lot less than shelling out for a hostel and meals at restaurants and working will keep me busy and less likely to spend money than if I were travelling around. Add to all that the fact that I’d be helping out a good cause and it’s pretty much a win win.
• Work for room and board - This is something I did a lot of in New Zealand, working a few hours a day in exchange for food and a place to sleep. I’ve never had a bad experience but one of my friends warned me about a farm run by an evil woman who made her work 8+ hours a day while only feeding her hot dogs. I’d say this is the exception rather than the rule. Besides, I like hot dogs. When you’re not working you can pretty much do what you want whether that be exploring the area, pursuing a hobby or being a web geek. It’s a really great way to learn a few new skills, experience a different way of life, and meet some interesting locals. I’ve done this before through Help Exchange and WWOOF is a popular one that I’ve yet to try plus there are also lots of smaller, country-specific networks out there that I keep meaning to hunt out.
• Go sailing - I love the ocean and have always wanted to learn how to sail. I had a crack at sailing when I spent a week on a smallish yacht off the coast of Queensland with five other backpackers and a pervy boozehound captain. I was demoted to tea maker and dish pig because of my hopelessness with the ropes. Well now I’m determined to get my sea legs and there seem to be a few opportunities out there for people with no sailing skills. One I’ve come across that looks like the best experience ever is on Karaka with a French guy, his girlfriend and an ever changing crew as they wander around the world. Most boats charge a daily or weekly fee and this one is no exception but the fee is usually less that what life on land would cost.
• Join a cult - Actually I’m just kidding about this one but my dad has an irrational fear that I’m going to run off and join a cult so I thought I’d put this in just to scare him. But for those of you out there that are cult-inclined, it might be an option. Just make sure your leader has a beard. It’s not a real cult unless he has a beard. But then again don’t cults make you sign over all your money to them? Maybe not the best idea I’ve ever had.

Being able to hoard my money faster isn’t my main motivation because I’d be doing these things out of interest anyways, but it’s a nice side effect of hiding myself away somewhere without many expenses or temptation. I could always try to find a hut on a beach for $2 a night and hang out there awhile (and I plan to) but I look forward to exploring a few more interesting and interactive options as well.

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I’ve had another record month by a lot coming in at $1895.21 for October. I’m surprised with this because, while I’ve been been doing loads of work, most of my have been going towards a new site that’s not online. I haven’t really done anything to improve my active sites but earnings have still increased which is pretty surprising to me.

Here’s my earnings breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $290.61 - Sooooo close to the $10 a day mark I desperately want to reach but I just missed it. I still had my best month by a massive $2 so that’s good. I think my new site is well set up for Adsense and I’m hoping it will bump my earnings up by $50 at least.
• Affiliate Sales - $1144.50 - My main affiliate program performed really well once again and I’m starting to rely on it as steady income whereas before I was fearful that it would crash and burn at some point. Some of my other programs came through with a few sales here and there this month too which is encouraging. Nothing major but it’s nice to see that they actually work. Hostelworld continues to suck.
• Linkworth & Text Link Ads - $93.10 - Linkworth is a pile of poop. Text Link Ads were steady again. I’ve maxed my links on Travoholic.com and have three sold on my working holidays site which I expect to improve once I launch the new site.  I’ve just had my living in London site approved too and expect a few more sales. I’m not happy with the prices TLA have offered but for now I’ll take it.
• Private Link Sales - $367 - I have a couple links for $10 each that are on a subscription with Paypal so they come in each month with no effort. Plus I had a renewal of a six month link for $27. But the biggies were links for $120 and another for $200 that came totally out of the blue, as usual. Each month I wonder if I’ll land any big sales like these and each month something seems to pop up from nowhere.

I couldn’t really be more pleased with this month! I was expecting a drop in income since I was away for 10 days and am spending all of my time working on a new site. I think my earnings are a bit inflated due to over half of my earnings coming in currencies that are strong at the moment against the pitiful US dollar. I think it’s important to try to diversify currencies as well as income streams. So with that in mind, one of my goals for November is to snag some private link sales with British companies.

I plan to spend most of my time in November focusing on my London site. I want to move it to a better template (that is already built), add as much content as I can muster, snap lots of photos and get in contact with some potential advertisers. I’ve only got six weeks left here and I know once I’m gone my focus will shift so I really want to make it as good a resource as I can and then I’ll forget about it for a while.

I’m getting closer to that $2000 mark and with a final push I think I can get there by December. It’s strange to think that my goal for December about 6 months ago was only $500. Onwards and upwards!

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