Time to blow some dust off this blog.  It has been over a month since my last entry.  Many things could of happened to explain the lack of blog posts:

• A terrible accident with the lawn mower– all my fingers scattered in the backyard.  I tried typing with my elbows but found it very uncomfortable.
• A friend gave me a dog as a present.  The dog cannot deciede where he wants to be.  He wants to go outside, then back inside, then outside, then in, out, in, out, in, out.  My days are spent opening and closing the door. 
• I could not see the words on the screen through my tears.  Tears that formed every time I looked at my AdSense revenue.
• I stumbled over a tree root and hit my head on a rock.  When I woke up I experienced a  instance of perfect clarity and reason in which I realized that this website was a big waste of time.  So I quite this blog and went back to watching TV reruns.

All these are possibilities but none of them is what happened.

The Website Starter Kit

About a month ago, just after my last post, I was walking across a parking lot carrying a bag of potatoes and a big chuck of cheese when I suddenly realized that I know a lot more then I give myself credit.  I know things, things that other people do not know, things that I could sell them.

During dinner as I munched on my baked potato I started to formulate what was to become the ‘Build Your Own Website – Starter Kit’.  A complete package composing of a few ebooks and website templates.  The ebooks would explain to the beginner everything they need to know to start their own money making website:

• How to create a website
• How to setup a web hosting account and domain name
• How to decide on a Niche
• How to write content for your website
• How to get traffic to your website
• How to setup AdSense and generate revenue
• How to become an affiliate and generate revenue

As you probably know ebooks about this topic are plentiful.  Ebooks about ‘making money online’ are offered like trinkets in a Mexican resort town.  So I needed to differentiate myself somehow.  That is why I also created a special template that comes with the ebooks.  It is a complete website template  – the same one used my howthiswebsitemakesmoney.com.

A person who buys my Starter Kit will get all the information they need to be able to understand the ‘make money online’ business and they will get a website to apply their knowledge.  All they need to do is add their own content and make a few stylistic changes to make their website unique.  What took me months to accomplish on my website, doing all the research and creating the website, can be done in a matter of days with the Website Starter Kit.

I loved my idea the instant I came up with it.  So for the next month I sat at my computer and punched away.  I could think of nothing else but my Starter Kit.  If I have a flaw then this is it – I can only focus on one thing at a time.  I had to complete the entire package before I could write another blog post.  Even though my traffic started to suffer – where once I was averaging about 70 visitors a day I was now averaging around 45.  The blog was calling me but I was not listening – must finish the Starter Kit first.

The ebook ended up being 5 main parts and over 200 pages.  I am so glad that it is finally complete.

One of my biggest fears is the blank page and everyday I had to confront it, 200 times in total.  And on top of that some parts of the ebook were extremely boring to write.  Specifically the tutorials on how to use the website template.  The tutorials are step by step screen shot based guides.  So I had to do every step, take a screen shot, format the image and then place it properly into the document.  Hours spent fiddling with margins and padding just to get the images to appear properly on the page.  There are 80 images in the ebook – 80 instances of grief and frustration. 

But that is the past.  It is all done now.  The past me suffered but the present me will benefit.  Now all I have to do is sell it.

The Damn Button

You have probably had this experience or something similar.  You buy a large shelving unit from IKEA,  you are a handy person so putting it all together will not be a problem.  Following the instructions and using the special tools you put the cabinet together.  You are almost done – everything goes without a problem, all that remains is to put on the last little cabinet door.  So far to build the entire cabinet has taken two hours.  But now the stupid little door just does not go on.  For the next 3 hours you try everything to get the door on.  It just does not fit properly – the fu*king thing won’t close.  What started out as a pleasant Saturday afternoon project turns into a red faced cursing day in hell.

That cute little button you see at the top right corner of every page on this website was my last cabinet door.  The entire Starter Kit went relatively well.  The ebooks, the templates, the landing page all went quite smoothly.  All were done in calmness and in a state resembling nirvana.  Sometimes I whistled while I worked.

The little button was left for last.  Such a simple thing – make a little button and place it in the top right corner.  I did not even consider it as a task.  It was just something I needed to do after I was done the Starter Kit – put the ribbon on the Christmas present.  I allotted 30 minutes.

Now looking back I am surprised my laptop lived through the ordeal.  If I would of expressed my frustration in a physical manner the laptop would be on the floor scattered in a million pieces, the bottoms of my feet would be full of computer parts lodged under the skin.  But fortunately I am able to keep my feelings of hate and disgust safely to myself.

It ended up taking 3 hours to put that button where it is.  Sometimes it was on the top left corner, sometimes it was in the middle of page, sometimes it moved around when I re-sized the browser window, and worst of all, sometimes I could not find it anywhere on the page.

But now like the cabinet door which now opens and closes perfectly, the button sits where it should.  It does not move, and looks the same on all pages and on all browser versions.  There were some good things that came out of the experience.

1. In CSS I fully understand the difference between absolute and relative position.
2. To make absolute position work on a <DIV> tag the container in which the <DIV> tag sits must have have the position element set as relative.
3. browsershots.org is a great website to check the browser compatibility of your website.
4. For the little cabinet door you need to use number 13 screws not 18.

First Two Starter Kits Are Sold

If you have been keeping an eye on the number (total revenue) on the homepage then you must of noticed the recent large increase.  For the first 160 days this website managed to make $150 and then in a matter of days it jumps to over $400 hundred dollars.  Looking at the revenue graph you can barley see the Adsense revenue for the last 30 days – the Starter Kit and hosting Affiliate sales dominate the graph like four skyskrapers in an native African village:

The explanation is simple – I sold two copies of the Website Starter Kit.  The two sales of the Starter Kit completely overshadow 6 months of AdSense earnings.  Am I excited?  No.  These two sales did not come easy.  I had to invite a couple of my friends over for dinner, fill them up with alcohol, and then spend the night persuading them to buy the kit.  Being my friends, and drunk, they capitulated.  The day I put the kit up for sale they bought it.  The money is real, but the sale was forced.

If I could get you drunk and force you to buy the Starter Kit I would.  But unfortunately I cannot.  Selling to you and other visitors is a lot harder.  I will be excited when someone buys the Starter Kit through the traditional method: Loving this website, wanting one of their own, clicking the landing page button, reading the landing page, clicking the buy button.

You can find the website starter kit here.

Making More Money Online, Optimistic and Motivational, So You Want To Be A Webmaster...Get in my Head, What YOU Should Do

In my twenties I really enjoyed reading.  Especially fiction.  One of my favorite activities was going to the book store and spending half a day there.  Browsing through the fiction section.  Looking at covers and skimming the back.  After a few hours of drinking my coffee and flipping through 20 books, I would pick one.  Pay the cashier and head home.

The next couple weeks were spent in a new world.  Early in the morning, before work, I would stop at the local coffee shop, order a large coffee and read.  An hour later, coffee gone, and 20 pages later my body and mind are ready for the day.  I could not imagine starting a day any other way.  Each chapter ends wanting more, and each chapter begins with promise of more to come.   I would wake up anticipating what will happen next, and then spend the day thinking about what had happened.

Everything was going great until I made a terrible mistake.  One that can never be undone.  An misstep that changed me forever.  I decided that I would try to write a story.  At first this does not seem like something horrible – what is the harm in trying?

The problem was not that I wanted to write a story, or that I tried.  The problem is that I purchased a book about how to write a book.  After reading the ‘how to book’ a bit of beauty left my soul forever.  I felt like a small kid who peeks around a dark corner in Disneyland and sees Micky Mouse without his mouse head.  Instead he sees a man with the head of the costume dangling from his hand and smoking a cigarette.  Mickey mouse will never be the same.

The ‘how to write’ book reduced fiction writing into a science.  It turned the author into somebody who’s job is to entertain me.  He has to create a story that I want to read.  Make strange and wacky characters, create unusual situations, build suspense.  Do what ever he can to interest the reader.

I use to think that an author was somebody who had a special connection to another world.  A world that only he has access to.  A world that he shows me with words.  I felt like I was peering at a privileged place.  I was not able to figure out why I enjoyed reading so much – I just assumed that it was magic.

But then the truth was revealed.  I was being played for a fool.  The author does not have a special connection to the universe.  He simply knows my weakness.  My need to be entertained.  The story does not come out of him through some special medium – he simple thinks to himself, “what can I do to make this character different, what can I do to surprise the reader.” 

So now when I read a fictional book the magic is gone.  When I come across some character with a odd trait I simply think, ‘great job Mr. Author at conjuring that up’, or when something unexpected happens in the story I think, ‘you must be really proud of your self for coming up with that twist’.  I use to think of an author as somebody who, late at night sits in his candle lit den, a quill in hand, putting to paper words sent to him from above.  Now I see him as a guy in a sweaty business suit, sitting in an office behind a computer, under florescent lighting, thinking, ‘what twist should I throw in now to keep the idiot reading.’  I had to stop reading fiction because it made me bitter. 

Warning To New Webmasters

Before I became a webmaster I was the innocent kid at Disneyland.  Mickey was a mouse that stood on two legs, magic mountain a place where the king and queen live. 

The Internet was a place where people exchanged ideas freely.  If someone had something to say they would create a website and tell the world.  Their only intent was to share.  To exchange ideas.

But now I know better.  Most websites are created to sell things.  Sites are optimized to get Google to notice them.  Words are chosen not because they tell the best story, or give the most accurate information, but because they bring the most visitors to the websites.  And the more visitors to the website, the more money is made.  Webmasters are spending a lot of their time figuring out where to place ads, how to best deceive the reader into clicking them.  They are constantly checking their stats, what page generates the most money, which page is under performing, what can be done to increase revenue.  Mickey Mouse is not baking chocolate chip cookies for Minnie Mouse – he is thinking about how the hell he is going to make next month’s rent.

Now when I arrive at a website, the first thing I notice is how it is being monetized.  Where are the ads?    What are they selling?  Why do they want me to click on that?  Are they telling me this because its true or because they are using keywords for Google’s sake?  I notice that a specific word is being used over and over again.  It is hard to read, but I know why they are doing it.  They want that page to be at the top of Google search results.

Members on forums are not simply being friendly by answering your questions and giving you advise.  They are hoping that you click on their signature link – visit their website – and buy whatever they are selling.  Like the guy who rings on your door, comes in and begins to vacuum your carpet.  He is not doing it because he wants you to have a dirt free floor, he is doing it hoping that you buy the vacuum. 

The Internet has turned from a place of wonder and mystery, into just another place to sell things.  So this is a word of warning to anybody wanting to become a webmaster.  Be prepared to loose your Internet innocence.  Be prepared to loose something that you will never get back.  Like my ability to sit in my favorite chair, sip on hot chocolate, and be taken away by a good tale.

So You Want To Be A Webmaster...Get in my Head

I am not a social butterfly. I do not enjoy going to house warming parties and commenting on the beautiful red rug. I do not care that my friend’s Facebook status is “Gone to store for apples.”

I had a Facebook account, but after a few months stopped using it. Too much information about things I do not care about. Why do people spend so much time exchanging the minutia of everyday events. Should I care that my friend went to British Columbia for a vacation and that he saw a moose. Should I look at his 22 pictures of the moose eating grass and be entertained? I do not understand it.

Now there is Twitter. Exchange even smaller bits of information. It is so easy to do that you will get details like, “feeling hungry, thinking of eating a carrot”. All day you can watch these little bits of unfiltered information scrolling across your screen. When I first heard about it, I thought that it was a ridiculous idea. Nobody will use it.

Not only are people reading these little packets of non-info. They also enjoy writing them. Lots of them. “I found a dime under the bed today”. Before I started this website all these social networks did not concern me. They are a success – great – but does not concern me.

But now it looks like I need to use them. On every blog about increasing traffic you read about how vital the social networks are to traffic. Sign up to as many social sites as you can and start building your network.

That scares me a little. I do not want to turn into a micro information junky. Spending hours exchanging small talk with 200 network friends. Small talking to 5 people at a cocktail party scares me. “How’s the weather?”, “Good” “Hows work?”, “Good”. Repeat 5 times. And now with Twitter I would have to do that 200 times a day.

Social Networks are Great For Traffic

Social Networks are good because you can send information through them very quickly. It is a very simple principle:

You know something (1 person knows)
You tell two of your friends (3 people know)
Each of them tells two of their friends (10 people know)
Each of them tell two of their friends (18 people know)

As this continues through the network more and more people know at a faster and faster rate. Simply by telling two of your friends you can get the information to hundreds of people in very little time. It just depends how big the network is and how willing your friends are to tell their friends. You tell them that you won the lottery and in no time all your friends will know.

The other advantage is that your friends do not have the same friends as you do. So your friends might tell somebody that you do not even know. Now suddenly it is in a network that you did not even know existed. People you do not know are receiving your information.

Networking sounds great. A great way to get traffic. It is. But I am not going to do it.

The First Step Is The Most Important

The most important step in the social network is the first one. Tell two of your friends. That gets the ball rolling. After that they tell their friends and on it goes.

The question is: why should I spend my time doing that first step? Other people will do it for me. If the website is interesting, if people want to pass it on to their friends then they will. I would have to start my social network from scratch. I would have to login everyday and chat with my network. Reading all the banter, and writing banter. Day in and day out. Lots of time wasted.

Let Other People Do the Social Networking

Instead of me doing it, there are people out there already with huge social networks. They enjoy exchanging information. If one of the people visit the website and finds it interesting then they will pass it on.

Currently I have 50 visitors a day. I am guessing that lots of them use Facebook and Twitter. At least some of them will find the website interesting and pass it on. Start the network process. Why should I spend my time starting the process when there are so many others that enjoy doing it and have much larger networks then I could ever have.

My small contribution to the increase in traffic via social network would be small compared to the abilities of my visitors. I would just be one out of many. My contribution small compared to the whole. Not worth the effort. I will focus on the website. Adding and improving content. Let the social butterflies with their establish networks do the marketing. They want to do it.

Of course, if my traffic does not increase, then I will register onto Twitter and tell my friends that “I just got back from the store. I am so happy. The apples where on sale.”

About Traffic, Visitors, Promotion, So You Want To Be A Webmaster...Get in my Head, What YOU Expect vs Reality, What YOU Should Do

Recently Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book about geniuses (Outliers: The Story of Success).  In it he argues that our notions of geniuses are mostly wrong.  We picture a genius as someone who, against all odds, rises to the top because of talent and special abilitie.

Gladwell claims that this view is wrong.  In fact, he argues, successful people got where there are not through special talent, but simply by practicing a lot.  The winners are those that have the most experience.  And most importantly have that experience before anybody else.

Becoming an Expert In Only 10000 Hours

It is claimed that 10000 hours is the time required to become a expert in a field.  And it does not matter which field.  It could be piano player, programmer, or accountant. 10000 hours of practice is required.  Only once you achieve this base amount of experience can you start trying to direct your experience into a specific direction and become the best.  Before you even try to be the best you better have 10000 hours of experience.

In the book Gladwell gives many examples.  Bill Gates had access to a computer before almost everybody else in the world.  While other kids where playing with hula hoops Bill was practicing his programming.  By the time computers became accessible to other people Bill had the 10000 hours under his belt.  A big advantage.

Other examples include Mozart, Gretzky, John Lennon.  All of these guys had some advantage that enabled them to get 10000 hours of experience before their competition.

I will be an Expert in 9,900 Hours

What does this mean for me?  I am just starting out in the online business world.  My total experience is ~100 hours.  And I know that I am starting out late.  Making money online has been around since at least 1995.  This puts me way behind.

First I need to gather 10000 hours of experience just to become an expert.  If I spend ~2 hours a day working on my website then I will gain the required expertise in 5000 days (13 years).  Only then I can begin to compete against other experts who have been around for a while.

This is not good.  People with 10000 hours of experience are already around and they are making money online.  But by the time I get my 10000 hours they will have 10000 more.  There is no way out of this conundrum.  I cannot become the Bill Gates, Gretzky, Mozart of the online money making industry.

The problem is that I started too late.  I can never become the best in this field.  There will always be somebody with more experience then me.  Somebody who will already know what I just “discovered”.

The only thing I can hope for is that Gladwell is wrong.  Well at least partly wrong.  I need some of my personal talent, whatever it is, to give me some advantage.  An advantage that lets me bypass 9,900 hours of experience.

So You Want To Be A Webmaster...Get in my Head

The first time I came across the word ‘WebMaster’ I did not know what to think.  What came to mind is Jedi Master. Is a webmaster some mysterious cloaked super being that controls information?  An all powerful, behind the scenes, manipulator of the web. Is the webmaster watching me now?  These were the kind of thoughts running through my head when I saw the word webmaster at the bottom of a website.

Lately I have become a webmaster.   I quickly discovered that webmaster simply means the person who is responsible for the website.   I have found that the term is misleading. A webmaster is absolutely nothing like a Jedi Master.   There is no comparison.

As a webmaster I feel more like a service droid then a Jedi Master.  If I were to put a web cam in my room here is what you would see the webmaster doing:

• You will notice that instead of living in a dank cave surrounded by all sorts of potions and dusty books, most of my time is spent in the spare room.  The walls are egg white and there is a plastic red flower in the corner.  When there are visitors at the house I get kicked out and am forced to perform my magic at the kitchen table.
• You might see me getting extremely aggravated as I spend hours trying to find out why an 30×30 pixel image is not aligning to the left.  It is a stupid little image that will not move over 5 pixels.  Move, damn you, move.  It is a fight that can last all day.  For an hour I might be wining – it moves over 2 pixels, but then two hours later I can be loosing terribly – the image is gone.  It is a battle that takes all my powers, but absolutely nothing like the one between Luke and Vader.
• Every 20 minutes I am tempted by the dark side of the force.  A temptation that I always give in to.  The need to check my visitor stats.  I know they have not changed much and there is no need to check.  Once a day is enough.  But the force is strong.  If I was a budding new Jedi I would probably turn to the dark side right after Yoda serves me soup.
• In the summer I am in my boxers and t-shirt.  The shirt might have remnants of supper from the night before.  In winter I wear my fuzzy yellow slippers and have a blanket across my lap.  I have been searching ebay for a big brown hooded cloak (like Obi One Kenobi’s) which would be ideal for those really cold days.
• Lot of time is spent on forums.  Since it is a great way to bring attention to the website.  Although usually a tedious task, it gets interesting when I need to figure out which smiley to use.  There are so many to choose from.  I need to make sure that the proper meaning is received by the reader.  Deciding on the right one sometimes takes all my mind powers.  Quite unlike Obi One Kenobi who with the wave of his hand can convince the guards that “these are not the droids you are looking for”.
• My arm always hurts.  The motion of moving between keyboard and mouse, and then back again can be very stressing.  This action does not seem like much, but doing it over and over again causes pain.  And the sharp edges at the end of the table pinch my wrists – after a full day of typing it can become crippling.  Luke was able to defeat Vader even after his hand was cut off.

Web Master <> Jedi Master

So You Want To Be A Webmaster...Get in my Head