No doubt you guys have noticed that obnoxious, red ’I BOUGHT A SHELTER’ logo over there on the right side of my pages. That’s an organisation that is helping out with earthquake relief in Sichuan. They’re contemplating teaming up with Hands On (the organisation that I worked with in Bangladesh at the beginning of the year) who are in the area now assessing whether they’ll be able to do a deployment. I’m told they’ll have an answer for us at the end of next week and if it happens, I’ll be down there in a flash to volunteer. I loved the Bangladesh experience and now I think I’m hooked.

If the Hands On deployment doesn’t work out then I’m going to head to Mongolia in late June for three or four weeks. Because of the visa I have, I need to leave the country at some point and my current visa extension expires on June 19th. Mongolia has been on my list for ages… horsies, Ger huts, Gobi Deserts, Naadam Festivals, vodka… what’s not to like?

So with a Hands On deployment looming and Mongolia as a pretty awesome second choice, this means that I really don’t have much time to work on my new Beijing site. Sure, I’ll be here for all of August, but so will my friends and so will the Olympics which means I will either be at an event, at a bar, or in bed hungover for the entire month. Sad but true.

So I’ve got about 10 days to get all of these fun and wonderful things done:

• come up with some kind of non-crappy logo or header image
• write a bunch of articles (or find people to write them for me)
• figure out how Beijing is divided and the names of different residential areas (harder than I thought)
• find people to write area guides for me
• make time to meet my writers in person to pay them
• get some more figures for my price guide
• snap some more photos

For anyone who wants to see how things are going so far, the site is live (living in Beijing) but seriously empty. Depending on the response I get from any writers I can find, I think this is doable but it won’t be easy, especially since I’ve been distracted by more interesting projects lately. But the pressure is on and knowing that if I don’t do it before June 19th it will never get done is a big motivator.

If you check the site in a week and it looks the same can you please send me threatening emails? Wish me luck!

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I wasn’t feeling well today so pulled a sickie and spent most of the day wandering between my bed and my desk. When I was online I spent most of my time reading blogs instead of doing work and I came across a couple of interesting videos that got me thinking.

The problem is that I don’t think they got me thinking about what it should have got me thinking about - how to take the world by storm! Instead I started to wonder if I could really be bothered with all that success and the riches, employees, responsibilities and headaches that go with it or if I’m happy sitting behind my computer screen as an unknown, plugging away and making a modest salary while living what I consider to be a pretty sweet lifestyle.

Watching this has made me wonder if most people out there in internetland are after as much as they can get - dreaming big, wanting to be the best, hoping to make a name for themselves and get all the accolades that go with it. Or are most people just happy to have enough money to live their life comfortably in anonymity? To me the celebrity aspect sounds like hell and I think I would explode if I even attempted to have half as much energy as that guy has.

How about you guys? Are you dreaming of big things, bright lights and big egos or are you happy to dream big in a quietly confident sort of way, slowly building your web empire behind the scenes? I’m not sure the self promotion game is one I’m really keen on playing although I love following the people who do it well. Is this loser speak I’m spewing forth?

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If you’re planning on attempting to sell direct links on your sites and are successful at it at some point you’ll have to come up with a system to keep track of them all. Doing this sooner rather than later will save headaches and lost sales down the road. I thought it might be handy if I share with you what I do to get you thinking about how you might want to keep track of your own sales.

Set Up a Paypal Subscription

The easiest way to keep tracks of links is to not have to keep track at all. Paypal has a subscription option that completely removes the need to keep track of link expiry dates and chase people for payment. If you can get an advertiser to agree then this is the way to go but it’s not always possible either because companies want to pay by cheque or bank transfer, or because links are sold on a longer term basis and they’ll want to reassess before renewing.

Setting up a subscription is simple. Log in to Paypal and click on the ‘Merchant Services’ tab and then on the ‘Subscriptions and Recurring Payments’ link which is on the right hand side under the ‘Useful Links’ title. Click on ‘Get Started’ and then follow the instructions from there to create a subscription button. Upload the code to one of your sites, send the URL to your buyer and that’s that. I think there’s a way to email them the link too but I’ve never attempted it.

Links Tracking Spreadsheet

If  you can’t convice your advertiser that Paypal subscriptions are the way forward then you’ll have to come up with a system to track the expiry dates yourself. When I only had a few links to keep track of I just kept the emails in a separate folder and checked it every month to see which ones would be expiring. It only took a second but often I would forget to put emails into that folder and managed to completely lose touch with some people, and therefore the sale.

Once I had more than a couple of links to keep track of, I needed to come up with a new system and whipped up this handy spreadsheet:

It’s a simple thing, but it’s a lifesaver to be able to glance at the spreadsheet and know exactly how many links I have due for renewal, what dates they expire, where on my sites they’re located, what sites they link to and the contact details of the person who bought it the first time around.

In the ‘Expiry and Duration’ column I’ve got things like ‘11th - 6′. That means that the link was sold on the 6th of the month and is valid for six months. I put the price that was paid in the appropriate month’s column and then highlight the box for six months away so I know which months I need to collect renewal payments. Having the contact and link details on the spreadsheet means I don’t need to look for old emails. All the information I need to send a chaser email is right in front of my which is a huge time saver.

Most importantly, no more advertisers are lost in the abyss that is my Yahoo email account.

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Since I started travelling in January I’ve pretty much stopped reading most of my favourite blogs completely. It’s sort of strange because I really do like reading blogs but it just seems like my time is completely taken up with working on my own sites. That, and Facebook. Way too much Facebook.

So I thought I would try to motivate myself to participate more in the blogging community by turning June into a bit of a test to see how much of an effect commenting on other blogs really has on this blog’s stats. My RSS feed had 129 subscribers on June 1st and this is what I’m most interested in increasing. I just submitted to the 45n5 Top 100 list a couple of weeks ago and am currently ranked at 234. This list uses Technorati and Alexa stats to rank blogs so I figure tracking my ranking on this list is more meaningful than keeping track of those stats individually. Last month I had 55 comments and I’m curious to see not only if that will rise, but also if I’ll see comments from new people. In May this site had a daily average of 42 unique visitors and 85 page views.

I have a list of about 30 blogs that I genuinely like reading and am going to attempt to interact with them a lot more. I’ve got some make money online ones, some self improvement/motivational type blogs and a handful of travelogs on there so my main interests are covered. Some of the blogs are new discoveries, some are old favourites, some are really popular, others are smaller, but all of them are blogs that I consider to be interesting and well written.

Lets see how far ahead participating in the blogging community really pushes a blog in a month with some cold, hard figures!

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I’ve been in Beijing for just over a month now and feel like I’m pretty settled in. I still can’t say more than five words in Chinese but there’s always that thought that maybe tomorrow will be the day I make the leap up to to six. I like to aim high.

One thing being here has shown me is how much I love just hanging around and getting a feel for a place. I still haven’t been to the Great Wall, visited Mao’s creepy carcas or checked out the Forbidden City but the beauty of spending so much time here is that there’s no rush. Instead, I’ve been meeting new people, having some debaucherous nights out, exploring the art scene while attemping to get back into painting and, of course, working on my sites.

Being able to unpack, relax and do what I want with each day has done wonders some days for my production and other days for my procrastination but the point is that I never feel like I should be doing something because there’s plenty of time for everything. I might not be saying this in three months when I haven’t seen a thing and haven’t done any work but for the moment, it feels great!

Travelling slowly is something I’ve always tried to do and have combined it in the past with working abroad. This time around my work is portable and renting apartments in cool cities around the world is how I see myself spendng the next few years. I’m heading to Australia in February 2009 for a wedding and think I’ll get an apartment and hang out in Sydney or Brisbane for a few months at least. I can use that as motivation to get my earnings up since Australia is a lot more expensive that Asia. I keep hearing that Buenos Aires is a great city so might do the same there and attempt to learn Spainish… hopefully more successfully than my attempt at Chinese!

After that, who knows but I’ll be keeping a lookout for cities of interest. I’ve always wanted to spend some time living in New York City but I think I’ll need a bit more in the bank before I can afford one of those closet apartments in Manhatten.
If anyone can recommend any cities you’ve loved living in (or even just dream of living in) let me know!

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I seem to be throwing money figures out there into the internet world without really sharing exactly what projects I have on the go to get those numbers. I thought it might be useful to give you guys a bit of information on what I’m working on now, what sites I already have online and what domains I might develop in the future so you can maybe compare it to your own group of sites and see if it gives you any ideas about how to move forward.

Currents sites:

• Travoholic - This is my oldest site (8 years I think) and Google loves it. I’ve neglected it for years but putting links on it to my new sites always gets the new ones listed really fast. It’s also a link sales whore and I have no plans at the moment to do anything with it.
• Stuck in London - This is my best site for Adsense and traffic and my favourite as far as looks and content go. It earned me $200 last month in Adsense but I haven’t really explored other monetisation options. I keep meaning to attempt to strike up partnerships with rental agencies and other London based businesses but so far haven’t made the efffort. I know several affiliat eprograms that might work too but need to add them still.
• Working Holiday Info - I lied when I said my London site is my favourite, it’s this one. I spent lots of time putting a personal touch on it with the cartoons and spent even more time researching dozens (or more) of working holiday programs across several nationalities. It has a huge Adsense clickthrough rate but doesn’t get  as much traffic as I’d like, despite being at the top of Google for ‘working holidays’. The gap year, work abroad niche has a lot of companies operating in it so I think there’s some scope for teaming up at some stage.
• Wanderstruck - This was meant to be a travel blog, country guide, place for hostel reviews and oh so much more. I’ve been neglecting it lately though because I’m finding writing travel blogs posts difficult. If I can’t make them entertaining I don’t write them and I seem to be in an unfunny mood of late. But I love the domain name and it’s an ongoing project that isn’t really about making money.
• Nerdy Nomad - You’re on it! Just a site for fun, to share ideas and to explore the blogging world. I would like to be more involved in the blogging community but it seems like I read more blogs when I was chained to my desk at work with no other choice.
• Van Tour - This is a site I through up because I saw a gap in the market. I don’t really know much about it but just chucked up the little bits of information I do know. It’s very niche and only really gets busy around May and June when people start researching their trips. It’s been a good moneymaker because of affiliate programs and a partnership with a van rental company.
• Working Holiday Insurance - I have a site aimed at working holidaymakers who need to find insurance for their trips that covers working. It doesn’t get much traffic at all and I only get a few bucks a month in sales, if I’m lucky. Inexplicably, the site is PR5! I have no idea how that happened. I know for sure it has very few backlinks and it exists purely to pimp affiliate programs. Google is mysterious indeed. Not that I’m complaining.
• Super Niche Event Site - I have a site dedicated to a single day out in London that is attended by thousands of people. It gets 2000+ visits a day around the time of the event but I haven’t managed to make much off of that traffic beyond selling a few t-shirts.
• Traffic Driving Sites - I have two keyword rich domain names with one page sites on them that were built to drive traffic to an affiliate program. The program has been a success but I’m not sure how much it owes that to these sites.

Sites I’m working on:

• Beijing Guide - Identical in layout to my London site and with the same target market. I came to Beijing early to work on this site but have been lazy since it involves hitting the streets to snap photos and finding (and paying) content writers. This one won’t be done for several weeks at best.
• Working Holiday Insurance - I’ve created a copycat site of my other working holiday insurance site. No idea why since the other one isn’t really working that well. This one will be aimed at my favourite target market with my favourite currency - Brits. I just need to write a bit more content and she’ll be done hopefully within a couple of days.
• Mystery Mobile Site - I’m excited about this idea for a mobile phone site but have no idea how to monetise it. But still think it’ll be a great resource so I’ll worry about that later. The site will be stupidly simple but I need to do quite a bit of research. Fortunately I can get all the information I need from Google, other sites and online forums. I think I might be able to get this one up in a week if I work hard and can figure out  a few coding type things without too much hassle.

Undeveloped Domains:

• Canadian Travel Insurance - I have a good .ca domain name for selling travel insurance but haven’t developed it because I haven’t been able to make a go of my other site and because there aren’t that many affiliate programs aimed at Canadian backpackers.
• Backpacker Party Site - I have what I think is a catchy domain that might make for a good festival/party guide type site but there are lots out there and Im not sure if I can do it better than them.
• London Pub Crawl - I have a domain which I was going to turn into an information site for the Circle Line pub crawl in London but lost interest.
• Another City Guide - I’m going to attempt to build another guide similar to my London site and plan to spend a few months living in the city in early to mid 2009.

Most of my sites are pretty high quality in their content. I’ve research everything really well and tried to provide really unique, informative information. I think it’s important to stick with what you know and I’ve done that, focusing on backpackers with a specific interest in the working holiday niche because I know a bit about it and, more importantly, I’m always interested in learning more.

I’m not really aiming to have a set number of sites. I’m not one of the people who want to have 100 dollar a day sites about stuff I don’t know anything about. I want sites that are complete, full of good information, complement each other and run themselves so that if I do decide to add another one, I won’t be struggling to keep up with my old sites.

So there you go, hopefully this puts my monthly earnings into context a bit and shows that I’m sticking to a niche I love. I know there are lots of other ways to do things but I’ve always thought that doing what you love will pay off in the end and so far it looks like things are working out for me. Yay to backpacking and working holidays!

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After a freakishly amazing month in April that saw me break the $2500 mark for the first time, I’ve come back down to planet earth but still managed a good month. I earned $1874 in May which is about where I was expecting to be so I’m not too upset. A big reason for April’s record was a single link sale for nearly $800, so I’m not at all upset with the fall in income and was sort of expecting it. 

Earnings breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $433 - This keeps going up and up and the only reason I can think of is that the traffic across all of my sites has been steadily increasing since January. Getting to the $20 a day mark has always been a big goal of mine and it’s great to see things creeping in that direction without doing much about it.
• Affiliate Sales - $924 - Hostelworld finally came through with nearly $20 this month… yay! But it was from a single sale… boo! Everything else was crap except for my usual good performer.
• Linkworth & Text Link Ads - $165 - Nothing much to report here. Just the same steady earnings as always and I haven’t really been active in finding ways to improve this area. I guess one way would be to submit more sites but I’m not sure I have anymore that either program would be interested in at the moment.
• Private Link Sales - $352 - One of my crappiest sites mysteriously rose to PR5 and I sold a link on it for $160 for the year. I also opened up this site to accept links (bad me!) and that helped. I am owed about $280 for a sale that didn’t go through because my Paypal account was suspended but will wait until I actually get the money and then tack that onto June’s earnings. Something to give me a head start.

I’m really excited about June. For once I’ve motivated myself to do some work and I’ve got three sites on the go. One is just at the ideas stage but I plan to make it a site aimed at mobile phone users so I’m kind of interested to see how that goes. The other is a copycat of a current travel insurance site but aimed at the UK market and it’s nearly finished. I’m hoping to have it finished in a few days and will be looking for feedback. Then there’s my never ending Beijing site that I still haven’t done much work on. I am going to aim to have this done by the end of the month as well.

I don’t expect that these three projects will start paying off straight away but I’m hoping they work together to push me up above the $2000 mark consistently in the coming months and even higher by the end of the year.

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