Categories
Online Business

Some New Year’s Resolutions!

It must be Christmas , I am tired, frazzled, stressed  and I don’t do Christmas and I don’t have kids! Its not a good place to be quite at the moment – and for a least a week I have been trying to get to this blog to update it!

Lis stiding into the future, or at least the end of Busselton's jetty
Lis striding into the future, or at least the end of Busselton's jetty

It is, as usual, my own fault. I forgot the rest of the world doesn’t take a three weeks at Christmas and we just had week away so out of 5 weeks I only have 1 week at home! So I am frantically scheduling posts in advance for the paying blogs! Well to be honest I am lucky to have the paying blogs so thanks Mark Knowles for your faith in me.  Mark is funny writer with an eye for a funny photo: he is a self-confessed atheist and seems to like semi-naked women – check out his blog but you have been warned LOL!

Needless to say I have done very little work on my actual passive income sites and I am definitely going to be doing something about that in the new year. In fact I took Monika’s advice over at The Freelance Writer and bought a (paper) moleskine diary to manage my time.

That’s as far as I have got so far but I am going on our road trip across the Nullarbor with the knowledge that I will have around 3000km of thinking time to work out my to do list for 2009 – if I find a solar-powered, wind-up satellite-phone Internet connection which costs less than $10/minute I might even update this blog sometime in the next few weeks!

Categories
Article Marketing Back Links

Article Marketing Submission Software: Update

What’s the future of article submission software? When I was originally looking for a solution to the bulk article submission problem and I wasn’t impressed by the results I saw.

Internet is a series of tubes
photo credit: eirikso

I used to be a Business Analyst and I one thing I find on the internet that some of the standards of software and services offered are, quite frankly, amateurish. I am actually quite happy to pay for software as I know enough to know it takes a lot more time and effort to develop reliable software.

The hardest software of all to develop is software which needs to interact with a 3rd party that the developer has no control over.

This is the reason that software for article submission is particularly difficult. Every directory is slightly different and even the smallest change to the submission process means that the submission software will An alternative to automating submission is creating a service which employs people, presumably in lower wage countries, to do the work itself. This approach has issues too, anyone who has run a business with staff knows that management is no easy job – and of course even more difficult if the workforce is in another country..

One of the reasons I started with a service that submits to blogs I knew that is was fundamentally an easier piece of software which only had to interface with one other piece of software – WordPress – and that software is open source so that the inner workings are available who can understand what they are reading – which certainly isn’t me!

I noticed over at The Keyword Academy, Court is also interested in the concept in his recent Article Marketing Update post and is having problems with the service with the submission service he has been using. I’m afraid I am not terribly surprised because I think managing a workforce long-term really is beyond 99% of internet businesses.

Categories
Freelance Writing Online Business

On-Line Income Cash Flow is King

Since February I have been working 3 days a week for a small mineral exploration company. They have some great prospects but as of about a month ago we had to cancel drilling because of the inability to raise money anywhere off or on the stock exchange. My hours were cut from 3 to 2 days a week.

Freedom!
Freedom!

You know what my reaction was? I was pleased that I have more time to work on-line – I’d rather be building my business than trying to look busy at a company who is in trouble for reasons that neither I nor the directors can do a lot about at the moment.

Sure the loss of income just before Xmas when we are about to go on an expensive income and my partner won’t get holiday pay is inconvenient. But I immediately turned around and started replacing that cash flow with freelance writing.

It made me realise that I have so many more options than I had a year ago. I have finally learnt not to be dependent on a employer but discovered, at least to a small degree, how to make money online in a recession.

The trouble with building an online business: it takes time and quite a few skills – its not going to pay the mortgage this month- and maybe not even in 6 months.

So what are the quickest ways to make money in a recession?  Now these aren’t about building a business – this is about money NOW!

  • If you can write you can write articles: and developing this skill will help your online business anyway. Check out Monika’s list of on-line writing resources to get you started;
  • If you have web design or other technical skills you can also get paying work.
  • Sell stuff! Selling on eBay or other online auction sites is a full-time business for many whether you sell the junk in the spare room, haunt the local garage sales, or even drop-ship.

None of  these approaches will build your passive on-line income, you are effectively getting paid for your time but it will give you predictable cash flow NOW rather than in 6 months time – and that can be a very good thing!

BTW the image I loved – but it came via one of those email chains – if anyone can give me a source I’d gladly acknowledge it!