The Adsense Idiot
Proving to myself that I can make money online
New Year, New Plan
Author: admin3 Jan
Hello Dear Readers,
I know that at the moment there aren’t many of you and quite frankly I’m not surprised. My attempts to make this blog into something interesting failed quite spectacularly, although to be honest watching me fail was part of the point, of course it would have been more interesting to watch me succeed but at least I proved what not to do.
Anyway, now that we are into 2008 its time for me to put the past behind us (whilst not forgetting the mistakes I made) and begin working on making this blog what I originally intended it to be.
My biggest mistake so far has been a failure to plan - yes its true, I thought I was planning but in reality all I did last year was post random stuff without thinking about what it was I was posting. This year I plan to think before I post and actually write useful information.
The question is what exactly is ‘useful information’ ? The whole point of this blog was to document my attempts to make money online, which seems like quite a good topic for a blog. Well yes it would be if I had actually done something to try and make some money, rather than just talking about it. You see last year not only was I unfocused on this blog, but I was also unfocused in my attempts to make money. It wasn’t always like that, there was a time about 18 months ago where I was quite focused and where I did actually make a little money. Unfortunately I became a victim of laziness brought on by lack of planning and lack of focus. Instead of picking an online business and doing it to the best of my ability, instead I kept reading about all manner of different ways to make money online and never got around to really implementing any of them beyond spending a few hours fiddling with each idea. This year I plan to be a lot more disciplined. I’m still trying to decide exactly where I’m going to concentrate my energy but I have a few ideas.
In the meantime, I hope you had a great Xmas and the New Year has started off well. Making money online isn’t easy, but it can definitely be done, all you need is the desire and drive to work at it. Last year I had the desire, but lacked the necessary drive…. this year I’ve got the drive I lacked and my desire is even stronger.
2008 is going to be OUR year !!
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3 Responses for "New Year, New Plan"
Dear Idiot,
I ran across you blog and said to myself wow, it’s someone in the same boat as I. 2 readers subscribers more than I, and what appears to be a whole lot of motivation. It’s great.
Then, I noticed its been three months since your last post. What happened? I’ve read through what you have here, and so far it’s great! Just wanted you to know that I’m reading!
Sean,
Well, it’s Monday morning… actually it’s almost Lunchtime for me here in New Orleans. I wanted to tell you a little bit about my issues and maybe we can motivate each other to actually work towards our comon goals.
I started my blog with one goal in mind. Securing the financial future of my family through the internet. See, I am a web developer / designer and I’ve been living off of the web full time for about three years now. All in all it’s been a near seven year journey, but alas… it became self supporting.
At the point that I was successful enough as a freelancer, to support my family, the full time job offers started rolling in. The funny part is that at that point, I didn’t need the work.
So here we are today. My job is great. The people I work with are great, finances are steady… but something was missing in my life and I just couldn’t figure it out.
Then I started to notice that whenever a client came in with the next best idea, I jumped all over it and felt inspired to give it my all (even though it wasn’t mine). For a quick example, my boss owns a website called Gumbo Groove. It’s a social site for New Orleans. I re-designed the site for him and became almost obsessed with the concept of how pouplar and finacially viable it could become. It had been established, it was already popular, and all it needed was some TLC from a developer/ designer to make it look and function properly. To me… it was the perfect money making idea and he (my boss) refused to give it the time it deserved.
After some real hard-core self examination, I deduced my strange behavior down to the need to FEEL successful. I NEEDED to feel that what I was doing was appreciated. While I am the national manager for the web division of my company and I get paid well… I never really FEEL appreciated. The systems in place within bigger companies sort of take the bells and whistles out my day to day work. Where as a freelance guy… I got to experience personal satisfaction and in some sense… the glory of a successful project.
Then it came to me… after all these years, I’ve got NOTHING! I’ve built and designed websites for over 200 clients on my own, and another 250 for companies that subbed me out as a freelancer. Yet, I have no portfolio, no place to show off my work and in fact… I didn’t and still don’t even have a resume. No one would EVER start to appreciate me with out that. And what happens if I change jobs? Willing or un-willing, I had nothing to show for my years of work and that’s a little scary.
I decided that the solution to all my mental anguish was an online protfolio and blog where I could accomplish all those little things that were missing. After I started to develop the idea, I became supper interested in what other freelancers turned pro had to say about their lives… and guess what… I couldn’t find any. It’s not to say they aren’t out there… I just couldn’t find them.
The concept is born. I bought a domain name… to which I still regret (never will be happy with my own choices), I used WordPress as my platform and went to it. Motivated like never before I was on my way to building a place that newbies could use as a guide to building their own careers. Within ONE day… I wanted to give up. But why?
Looking at the big picture I was, and still am, going against the grain instilled within me. As a designer, I can see instant results of my hard work by the click of a button. At sales meetings… I close the deal at the table… again, instant gratification. As it turns out, writing a blog, is one of the farthest things from instant gratification and it hurts. It’s a painfully slow process and it sucks to be honest.
When I ran across your blog, I decided to post a comment. You had no clue it was coming. You had no idea that it would appear in your e-mail. But… it was exciting to some degree I’m sure.
Ahhh… the euphoria and bliss of an un-solicited comment on your blog. It’s gotta be a great feeling and I hope that I can keep myself motivated long enough to experience such a happening. In the meantime, I hope that you continue to post. Rambles and haphazzard articels is part of the learning curve I think and we BOTH would be silly to think otherwise. It’s the nature of the beast. We should BOTH just let things flow as they come… Look, this comment is almost long enough to make a real post out of and it started out as a simple motivational tool for both of us… Hmmm…. maybe someone outhere in the blogosphere will stumble on this comment and be inspired as well all because I spent five minutes longer writing it than I planned! Oh do I wish… any way, please forgive me eating all of your comments space… feel free to delete or move it as you please.
Keep it up Sean,
- John
[...] can read John’s comments Here. He has been struggling with many of the same issues I think we all share when first starting out. [...]
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