Shutting Down

This will be the last post that I make on this blog. I have 4 blogs in total and they have been a wonderful experiment for me, but it takes too much time to have 4 quality blogs. I have neglected this one enough so I will be shutting it down.

I will be shutting down one of the other ones as well; leaving only Rookie Mormon Apologist and Rookie Political Commentator up and running. These two I expect to keep going for years to come.

Thanks for visiting.

Learning SEO

Learning how to increase traffic to a website is a bear. I am not a detail person so having to involve myself in this is testing all of my weaknesses. But persist I must in order to achieve my overall goal of sufficient traffic to generate $250/day in total. That goal is high, but not unreasonably high. I simply have to work hard and long enough to figure this aspect of the business out. But it's no fun, I assure you.

I considered hiring someone to do this, but there are so many scam artists in this particular field that I don't dare try to figure out who is good and honest, and who is not. A friend of mine got taken for over $3000 by a group in Utah who took his money, but didn't deliver on the promise. Hiding behind the cloak of anonymity there are too many who are willing to lie, cheat, and even steal if they can get away with it. So I'm left with figuring it out on my own.

Kevin Thompson

Another of the interesting characters that I've met along this journey is Kevin Thompson. Kevin spends a lot of his time using a tried and true formula for making money on the Internet. He offers regular teleseminars explaining how he did it and continues to stay in touch long after you've listened to the teleseminar.

He describes himself as follows in his emails.

Kevin Thompson is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of automated income systems, emotional connection marketing and selling-without-selling.

As President of Maximum Response Inc., Kevin now has clients from around the world who are successfully using his methods.

He is the author of the international best-selling Automatic Income System that shows you how to have an automated business that pays you for doing what you love.

Kevin and his family live in the small town of Arlington, Washington.

I find his methods interesting and his communications to be worth reading. Although I have never met the man I have learned a great deal from his teleseminars and emails.

Google Analytics

I took my web sites and enrolled them in Google Analytics for free. What a great idea that was. I now know who is visiting my sites, and where they are coming from. For example most of my visitors are from the US and Canada but a few of my visitors are from Brazil! I learn what pages they stay on and how long they stay. I also see how many people never get off my home page to look at the other pages. As a a result of analyzing this, I will be redesigning many of my websites to make allowance for the patterns I've learned. This should result in more income resulting from better "income-optimized" websites. Stay tuned!

Holding Pattern Continues

I have been researching how websites that generate income are structured. From it I've learned that my websites to date are not structured correctly. I have no intention of going back and remaking them since they are working and generating a little income, although the emphasis should be on the word little. So far it is my blogs that generate the most traffic and the most ad revenue. The biggest payday however has been with my non-blog websites where someone actually purchased something I recommended! That payday was nearly $30!

The blogs generate click-through income from Google AdWords. So are that income has risen to nearly $1! I still am stuck with the same problem - learn SEO! Once I get a chance next week (I am on the road in St. Louis) I will have to tackle this problem. It sounds so tedious and I am not good at tedious tasks. I'm going to have to get over it or this project will be on the ropes. Suck it up big boy!

In summary this is my plan as of now:

1. Learn/do SEO for existing websites
2. Continue to develop an audience for the blogs
3. Go about website development differently - starting with the health and wellness sites
4. Sign up with AWeber when I'm ready to build the new websites
5. Build the health and wellness websites differently than I've built the security/IT ones.

Progress is slow

I am finding that progress is slow. While my blogs are receiving increased attention, the other web sites are not. I am going to have to learn how to do search engine optimization (SEO). I had hoped to set up one of my children in this business by asking her to learn it; I would pay her for her time, and then I would set up a website for her to market her services. She checked into it and replied that the work seemed too tedious for her. And she's the one I thought would enjoy something with that level of detail!

So now its my problem. Either I learn how to do SEO or this project is going to come to a screeching halt. On the other hand, the health and wellness business I have started is looking promising. Not only have I lost 5 pounds in 3 days, I am feeling great. This idea of nutritional cleansing is really showing a lot of promise. Isagenix may ultimately be the thing that makes this entrepreneurial project of mine successful.

Two New Sites

I have been working on two new sites in relation to my effort to finally lose the extra 75 pounds I have been carrying around for more than 10 years. The two sites are The Business of Wellness and Great Cleansing Diet. I use the word diet more in the sense that the French do in that it means a nutritional lifestyle. The links are active but I am still working on the front end content.

As I confessed at the beginning of this journey I have a very specific goal - building an online business that could generate $250/day in profits. Sales aren't my goal, profits are since it is from profits that my mortgage, etc... will get paid off. This blog has journaled the path my journey has taken. I believe that these two new websites will account for at least half of my goal so I am very optimistic about them. Wellness is a huge business at this time. Americans spend over $35 billion a year on weight loss products. My two web sites are in support of a cutting edge lifestyle that is designed to help anyone overcome obesity and keep it off. $250/day out of a $35 billion market? I'm not very ambitious am I?

Erica Douglass

Another person I have met on this journey to financial independence has been Erica Douglass. Actually I have never met her face-to-face, I have met her online through her blog, emails, and e-books. Her website tells her story in this manner:

After selling my online business at age 26 for $1,100,000.00, I "retired" and chose to teach you how to jump-start your business.

If you are motivated to change the world and want to learn from my successes (and failures!), please get my free business tips and join my community!

She does not blog frequently, perhaps once every 7-10 days, but I have come to have great confidence in her advice. Whatever she writes is worth reading. I recommend getting to know Erica to every budding Internet entrepreneur.

AdSense

In order to improve the profitability of this venture I have started placing Google AdSense ads on all of my home pages. The idea came to me when I noticed that I had earned $.25 (yes that is 25 cents) last month from my four blogs. Since this whole venture is based on trial and error I thought I would up the stakes by adding ads to all of my sites. We'll see how well we do in September.

Update

This is the complete list of my websites to date:

Blogs

Rookie Internet Entrepreneur

Rookie Mormon Apologist

Rookie Tri-Athlete

Rookie Political Commentator

Websites

Rauma Enterprises

The 123 of Online

Starting Up Online

Secure My Home PC

Secure My Office PC

Best Backup Companies

Best Hosting Companies

How to Make Income Online

Start An Online Business

The Best Domain Companies

Several of these websites have multiple URLs and some of the content of this list is duplicated. So the grand tally so far is 10 distinctly different web identities and 4 blogs.

Leslie Householder

One of the interesting people I have met along this journey is an old friend Leslie Householder. She is the proprietress of Thoughts Alive, a self-help web-site, and author of The JackRabbit Factor.

I first met Leslie and her husband Trevan before they started on the journey that has brought them such success. So when you visit their website and learn about their incredible story - I am an eyewitness to the truth of it.

Anyhow, a couple of years ago Trevan and Leslie visited our home and gave me a copy of The JackRabbit Factor, a book in the mode of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I read it soon thereafter and absolutely loved it! More importantly I set set two goals. The first of these goals had to do with my health; the second with my finances. I put the book and its teachings to the test and the first goal has already been achieved by the date I originally set. This Internet Entrepreneur effort is how I expect to reach my second goal.

I would encourage anyone interested in changing their life's circumstances to give Leslie's website and book a chance. It has certainly blessed my life.

History

I promised to tell my story last week so I intend to keep that promise starting with this post. How did I get here?

I have always been ambitious but ironically my motivation has never been money. I love a challenge! Well I have one now.

For most of the past 16 years I have been self-employed. I have the mentality of an employer, not an employee; yet because of the current economic malaise I have been obligated to take a position as an employee. Mind you I am grateful for the work. The people I work with are wonderful and I feel exceptionally blessed to have acquired a well-paying position under the current circumstances. I am definitely NOT COMPLAINING.

But I am in debt. This is the result of living within my means when my means were about double what they are now. Fortunately I wasn't living beyond my means or we would be in much more serious trouble. Some of that indebtedness is my own fault - foolishly charging things on a credit card instead of paying cash, etc.... But some of it isn't my fault (i.e. acting on bad advice from my accountant). Nevertheless I am ultimately responsible and need to find a way out. That's where the Internet entrepreneur things started.

Hope and Change

I am currently in a holding pattern as I continue to research my newest project and hope for better results. Since I am convinced that little gets accomplished simply by hoping, I am using this time to find better ways in order to get better results. But in summary this is my plan.

I have found a company that I think is going to work for me. Upon signing up with that company I will get a cookie-cutter website. In anticipation of that I have bought 2 domains which I will redirect to the cookie-cutter website, keeping my domain visible throughout the session. In that way, it will be less obvious that my site is similare to everyone else who works with this product.

Then I will have to learn how to market it. Currently I am learning about how to hold teleseminars as a marketing strategy. Stay tuned while I figure all of this out.

A New Series of Posts

I am working on a series of posts telling the background story of what lead me to the point of trying to earn money on the Internet. From that foundation I will then tell you about some of the people I've met on this journey and the lessons learned. Hopefully you will find it enjoyable reading.

The New Thing

This new project I am on will result in another cookie-cutter website but this time things will be different. This cookie-cutter website is marketed completely differently. I don't expect people to find it by searching Google or Yahoo!. That was the expectation and selling point of the first website and that didn't happen.

This new cookie-cutter website is marketed in more traditional ways. I will refer people to it directly as they notice my weight loss. Nothing is more predictable than being asked how you lost all of that weight. And when they do I will simply give them my business card with the URL on it.

I'm On To Something

As previously mentioned, my websites are not generating the kind of income that I had hoped for. But this journey is not all in vain. As a result of trying to learn how to successfully promote a web-based income I have learned many things; some of which look like they will be very useful very soon.

I have discovered a company that I will be soon be doing business with as one of their associates. It leverages three of the biggest booms that are currently going on: wellness, the Internet, and home-based businesses. Next week I will be joining this group. (I have to wait for a stolen credit card to be replaced) Once I have started to be successful I will share the details with you. Until then, mums the word.

Decisions Update

I've decided not to go ahead with the cookie-cutter website. This particular e-commerce venture is not for me. It isn't that I'm opposing cookie-cutter websites, its that I have decided against this particular one. I'm already considering another.

This pausing in the development process while I consider my next website has caused me to reflect. My websites are still not generating any traffic. So far I've only made $27.21 and I've spent much more than that. If I were on the right track I should have done better. So what am I doing wrong? I don't know but I am certain of one thing - to quit is wrong. So I'm just going to have to work through this thing to figure out the key to making money on the Internet. My family needs me to figure this out.

Decisions, Decisions

As mentioned before I am considering a cookie-cutter website to add to my portfolio. The decision isn't easy because it involves a total investment of $200 plus it requires me to step out of my comfort zone. I'm not sure which makes me more uncomfortable - the money or having to step outside of my comfort.

The upside is that this site has the potential to achieve all of my goals that I have set for this web adventure. So it makes me face how serious I am about achieving my goals. Am I willing to risk money and comfort to achieve those goals? Or is the money and comfort more important than the other goals which I have set? Basically, there are two key decision points that I have reached in this regard: 1) can I stand behind these products (if I can't stand behind the products the decision is made); and 2) am I willing to risk the money and comfort?

I'll keep you posted but as for today's activities, I will be continuing my study of this web site's potential. I'll probably make a decision this weekend so I'll let you know what I decide.

Trying Something New

As you know I have been creating websites designed to be interesting, nontechnical (despite the technical nature of the content), with the hope that it will generate an income that I can use to get out of debt and start my new career. So far a little money has been made, less than $100, but it looks promising. Today I am trying something new.

My first website was a canned website that has done nothing for me at all. I can't even edit it yet, although I expect to be able to do that as soon as I put in the time to learn WordPress. Nevertheless it has been a net loss so far. My own websites and blogs are starting to generate some traffic and even a little income. So the quick fix has failed me so far, the slow, methodical way is showing some promise.

Just to mix it up I decided to take a shot at what appears to be a reputable business that is offering another canned approach that appears to show more promise. I'll keep you posted as to how it goes. So far its cost me $10 and eventually will cost $50. So even if I'm wrong, the investment should teach me something worthwhile.

Time Away

I will not be working on my websites today. Work calls and I'll be out of town all day. See you tomorrow.

Search Engine Optimization

Yesterday and today I am devoting my time to doing Search Engine Optimization (SEO). First I have to learn about it.

I start by making sure that each page has a unique title, meta description, and meta keywords. I then create a sitemap to submit to Google, a URL file to submit to Yahoo!, and a robots.txt file to guide the crawlers through my site. Lastly I submit the site to Google and Yahoo! and wait!

Although I am certain that what I am doing could be improved, it should at least start the process of turning these sites into income producing sites. My efforts so far have been on creating valuable content that is easy to understand. Now we present it to the world!

I still have over a dozen website in my plans to make. From here on out I will do a complete website, top to bottom. With the first half dozen or so, I decided to break development out into phases so that I could learn all of the different aspects. By the end of today I will know enough (I think) to put it all together.

Adding Ads

I have been going back and adding discrete, appropriate ads to the websites I've built so far. My hope is that as readership goes up, some of these ads will be clicked on and purchases made. I'm focusing on representing companies consistent with the content of the web site. With my technical background, most of the ads are for technical services of one kind or another.

Best Domain Companies

My latest website Best Domain Companies is now up for you review. In it I have examined the best of the web sites that of domain names for sale and have come up with a list of the top five. The number one choice on my list is the world's largest domain registrar GoDaddy.com. How do you not recommend them?

Incidentally, I've decided that the next step I will take in this journey to a successful online business is to protect my domain name by purchasing the .com version of as many of them as I can. Initially I didn't want to invest in the .com domains until there was something more concrete, instead I bought mostly .info domains. But I'm now ready to make the greater financial commitment by buying .com domains.

Maintenance

I've been working on maintenance issue on the 7 sites I have put up so far. I realized early this morning (Ireland time) that I had published content on the Internet with an expectation that people would magically know my credentials. Once I realized how silly that is, I modified the About Us page in each web site to provide a brief summary of my qualifications so that I might be believed.

The hard part about doing such a thing is to brag about yourself, without bragging. How does one find that balance? Anyhow, that is what I tried to do - establish credibility without sounding braggadocio. Let me know if I succeeded.

Best Hosting Companies

I just uploaded my latest website Best Hosting Companies. I searched many hosting companies and concluded that these are among the best hosting companies available on the Internet. I hope my readers will recommend this site to individuals thinking of putting up a website.

I found something

I learned how to make hyperlinks open another window, leaving my site still open in a window. I went through all of my sites yesterday and modified the necessary links. Its surprising how easy it is once you know how. Why can't someone post simple instructions on the Internet. Every place I looked made it look inordinately complicated. What is wrong with IT people, especially programmers that they don't know how to make it simple? Hasn't anyone learned that the true sign of genius is the ability to simplify?

Started Work

Since my flight to Ireland I have been suffering from jet lag and haven't done very much. Today is my 4th day in the country and I am starting to almost feel human again so I've started working on the Best Hosting Companies website. With any luck I will finish it today.

Problems

I have again encounted a problem. I don't know how to set up a website so that people can give me their email address in exchange for a free download. Help!!

I am currently working on the Best Hosting Companies, The Best DNS Providers, and Best Domain Companies. Register.com rejected my application to be an affiliate because the web site wasn't up yet. Duhh. I received the same kind of rejection from Carbonite.com which I intended to feature on my Best Backup Sites. There seems to be an elitist attitude present in some of the leading providers of web services. It seems kind of ridiculous to me. Why wouldn't you want more people pointing to your web service?

Best Backup Sites Again

The Best Backup Sites website is now up. It provides information and options on how individuals and small to medium companies can safely and securely backup up their valuable data.

Best Backup Sites

The site I am currently working on is entitled Best Backup Sites. In this site I am explaining the importance of backing up data, what data should be backed up, and what the various types of backup are. I then recommend a couple of local and internet-based backup solutions. I am waiting for affiliate relationships to be formed before I can upload the site to the Internet. Lesson learned from this is some affiliate relationships take time so do not wait until you are developing the web site before forming these relationsips.

Update

To date my web sites have been very basic. The one that I purchased from Niche Power Group is the hardest one to edit and I haven't quite figured out how to do it yet. The rest of the web sites are relatively simple to do. Netscape is my editor of choice and I simply edit templates found at my hosting company.

Although I have a technical background (I work in network security) I have no love of programming. For readers who work in IT you know that it isn't uncommon for the network team, or the security team, to be in conflict with the programmers/developers. We come from different worlds, with different mentalities, and different levels of discipline. Developers tend to be liberal, creative, and undisiciplined. Network and security professionals (I work in both) tend to be the opposite - conservative, disciplined, and structured. Creativity is essential for programming. Our creativity is limited to problem-solving. Naturally such generalizations do not always apply, but they are nonetheless accurate in a general sense.

Finding a method that minimized the programming was essential for the reasons cited above. I just don't fit into the programmer's model.

Secure My Office PC

My latest website Secure My Office PC is now up. It is designed for the small to medium sized business that has little or no technical support staff.

Google AdSense

My Google Adsense account was approved. It was quite simple to reapply. All I had to do was click on a hyperlink in the email that informed me why I was turned down in the first place. It actually was relatively simple to do. Kudos to Google on a creating a simple process.

Slow

Work on the web sites has slowed down for personal reasons. I have a funeral to speak at this morning although I may finish the Secure My Office PC website by the end of the day. I will keep you posted.

Web Site Title

Last night I noticed that since I had started out Secure My Home PC using the pages from Starting Up Online, that Starting Up Online was appearing as the page's title in my browser. I had to go change the title value in each of the web pages and resubmit them. Its the little details like that and the favicons that make for more professional appearing content. I'm going to have to learn them all.

Little Icons

I am having trouble creating the necessary links so that my web sites have those little icons next to the title in the Favorites menu, browser window, and Google Chrome tab. I've found several web sites who claim to tell you how to incorporate these "favicons" but no luck so far. HELP!

Secure My Office PC

The next site I will put up is Secure My Office PC which will contain a lot of the same content as Secure My Home PC. Some changes will be made but it will be among the easiest of web sites to do.

Secure My Home PC

The Secure My Home PC web site is now up. My hope is that it will provide simple enough instructions for most home computer users to protect themselves. I became an Amazon affiliate as part of developing this site and point people at several security products available at Amazon. As people go to Secure My Home PC and use that site to connect to Amazon we will receive a modest commission.

Close to Finished

Secure My Home PC is almost ready to launch. I had some ideas this morning that I just had to include in this website so its launch is slightly delayed.

Starting Up Online

We've created and uploaded a new site today Starting Up Online, a website designed to help newbies get started on the Internet. The idea for it came to me when a dear friend, over 70 years old, called me to his house to help him get online. It was then that I decided to create a simple site, using non-technical language, to help people new to the Internet get started. It contains a link to another of our domains, one which hasn't been created yet. I hope to finish that related site today.

Update

There are now four sites up and running in the Rauma Enterprises attempt to develop 25-35 quality websites. They are as follows:

• Rauma Enterprises
• How to Make Income Online
• Rookie Internet Entrepreneur Blog
• Rookie Political Commentator Blog

Rauma Enterprises

A new and improved Rauma Enterprises website has been launched. This one has been created using a Fantastico template I discovered while playing with the WordPress I just blogged about. With Netscape Composer 7.02 as the HTML editor I went to work and it considerably more attractive IMHO. I think it is a tremendous improvement over the last version of the website although the content is almost identical. I think I've figured out a way to put out quality websites without being a programmer. I think I will stick with this method until I need something more. For now, my search is over for how to create quality websites. The focus now is on quality content.

WordPress

WordPress is my next attempt. I have heard great things about WordPress and need to give it a shot. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Next Phase

Since I am not happy with the way raumaenterprises.net has turned out I have located some templates from my hosting service HostGator and I will try and edit them in Netscape 7.02. The newer versions of Netscape apparently either don't include the Composer application or it doesn't work as well according to what I found on the Internet. We'll try this approach next and see what works.

Second Site Up

Yesterday I completed the first of the custom websites, one that is somewhat of a clearing house for all of the web sites. My first site is somewhat of a cookie-cutter website that I bought to see how cookie-cutter sites work. I purchased it from the Niche Power Group. This custom site was done using Microsoft Publisher and I'm not thrilled with its appearance.

Microsoft Publisher 2007

I discovered Microsoft Publisher 2007 which has a 60-day trial version. I downloaded it and discovered that it does have tools to make modest web sites. However the product seems more oriented toward marketing material rather than what I am looking for in a web development platform. The search continues.

Web Development Software

I am spending today in an ongoing search for simple web development software. Most packages I have seen try to do too much. I am looking for a modest package with "less than hideous" templates so that I can build, simple, attractive, content-rich web sites. Any advice you might have would be welcome.

An Explanation

AdSense has sent the following email explanation. I'll have to contact them again but at least the explanation makes some sense. Here is the message they sent me:

Thank you for your interest in Google AdSense. Unfortunately, after
reviewing your application, we're unable to accept you into Google AdSense
at this time.

We did not approve your application for the reasons listed below.

Issues:

- Under construction

AdSense Has Struck

For reasons that defy any explanation my AdSense account has been disabled. All I can discern from the AdSense website is that I've broken some rule. How can I break a rule when I haven't done anything? I haven't clicked on anything, I haven't even had an account for a day yet. javascript:void(0)What is wrong?

Google AdSense

Last night I joined Google AdSense in an effort to generate ad income from my websites. I own nearly 20 domains which I will developing in the coming months as information web sites. In the meantime AdSense can put ads on them for people who stumble across my sites. Once I've earned over $100 from ad placements Google will send me a check. This blog is also part of AdSense so each time you visit it a penny or two will be generated toward my goal of being debt free.

CORRECTION

I earn money when someone clicks on an ad. The simple display does not earn any money. My bad.

First Ever Blog Entry

For the first time in my life I've decided to record the steps I am going to be taking in order to generate an online income. It is my hope that this record will evolve into being of use to others who wish to learn from my successes and failures. In any case, success or failure will be recorded here first.