Yesterday as a very nice surprise I got paid by Scratchback. I was really happy - because, well I’m broke and the money I was sent can now buy me a week’s worth of Tim Horton’s coffee and that makes me REALLY FREAKIN’ HAPPY! Seriously!

I had honestly forgot about it… not the widget itself but the payout schedule for it. I had no idea I’d reached the payout threshold, so maybe I’ll have to step it up and be more diligent with tracking this sort of thing I’ve actually got to do that this year for all the sites I’ve got running (in one way shape or form) and be more on top of those domains that seem to lapse and I forget to renew.

I have one site that I didn’t renew and someone is now trying to sell it for $500. Yes, this makes me mad. Will they make money with that name. Very, unlikely… but who am I to say. I’m not a master domaineer. So, I’m going to keep track of it and see if it sells. I’m just morbidly curious about it. LOL.

Anyhoo - over at nichetoriches - the fun and games have started. And to those of you haven’t been by to see it and join in the fun - there is still time to do it. It’s free to sign up and all that jazz. It’s been created so we can get together and get some sites up and running making us money. So stop by and say hi!

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Happy New Year everyone!

I am guessing that most of you have cranked out a “My 2008 to-do list” and you know I’m right there with you on that one.  You’d think it would be an easy thing to do - creating a to-do list.  But honestly I’ve had one hell of a time.  It’s not that I don’t have enough to put on the list, it’s a matter of getting everything done on the list that seems to trip me up every time.

Often I find myself stuck on tasks that wouldn’t normally be all that hard - like updating websites.  You know, those ones that are actually interesting and I like to update, but don’t because I’m caught up in RSS feeds or hooked on a coding dilemma.  It’s crazy those things that trip me up.

So this year I’m trying my to-do list a little differently.

I’ve actually set myself goals for January.  Then I wrote up a to-do list of things to accomplish to reach those goals I’ve created for January.

I was almost relieved when I finished that list.

… it’s not all that long.  It’s not even all that time consuming.  I’m hoping that it works - that I reach my goals or at least get pretty close to it.  I guess I’ve set my goals a little higher than usual.  I’m thinking this will push me to take a few extra steps to accomplish the task and move forward and see where it takes me.  If I didn’t set them a little more lofty… I might be a bit more inclined to be a bit more lazy and just not do it.

It’s the psychology of it all I guess - and I’m trying to work myself into a place where I can see things happening.  Goals being reached.  Money being earned and learn from each month and set new goals and try new ideas.  Write it down and see where I was and where I’ve gotten by the end of the month… end of the year.  Always keeping track.

This is where I’ve faltered on before and I’m hoping the way I’ve set it up this year I’m on the right track

What are my goals exactly?  I’m working on different avenues of income.  I don’t want to be relying heavily on one thing over others - I would like to spread that out a little bit more this month.  So I’m setting up the different areas to make a bit of income in and see what works - what bombs - so I can change it for next month if needed.

My monetary goal for January is $1000.

This is a bit lofty considering I make less than $500 a month right now.  But I’m aiming high.  I want to do it.  I want this year to be the most successful year yet for me.

Have you made a list?  Have you set any goals for 2008?  If you have, leave a comment on where we can find them.  I’d love to hear what you have in mind!

Good luck everyone, I know 2008 is going to be a really great year for everyone!

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I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and I think this will be my next “to-do” is to create a smaller blog.   I’ve got a few blogs on the go right now and to be quite honest they’re time consuming.  So much so that I’ve fallen behind on where I wanted them to be content-wise.  Although I do have to admit, even with the neglect they’re still churning along.

But I’m looking for something a little different - I know the old mantra that content is king and all that good stuff and having more pages out there for the search engines to find means I’m casting my website net a little wider and further to catch more visitors.

I’m falling behind.

So I’m thinking of my next project as being a mini blog site.  I’m not saying that it won’t be updated… but maybe having a smaller site - a more focused site - might be what’s in order to take my income up another notch.   Trying to diversify on what I know works, but maybe not have to put hours and hours in each day to keep things going on these blogs.

With a mini-blog I’m looking at finding a niche.  Research the keywords.  Look into any affiliate programs/products I could incorporate onto the site.   Work on adding pages.  Not hundreds… lets try for a max of 20.  That might even be too many to this experiment.  But I’m hoping with the focus on a niche - a focus on keywords relevant - products that are relevant… or even have a blog about one product.  That might be something new to try out.

I’m just looking at trying to diversify how I’m doing things online a little.  I don’t mind having blogs that I work on often - it’s just that if I have all my sites that way … there is no way in hell I’m going to accomplish what I want to do.  So I’m thinking small.  Tiny.  Minuscule.   Yup.  Next project that’s what I’m going to do…

So now I have to see what domains I have sitting around… or maybe it’s time to get a new domain again and work out from there.

I’m curious… how many of you have tried a smaller blog concept?  Has it been successful for you?

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For those of us who live in Canada, today we’re remembering our troops who fought and sacrificed for us.

I just thought I’d drop everyone a line to say that not much has been done today - and this writing everyday thing isn’t as easy as I would have imagined it to be.

My little project that I’ve worked on hit a bit of a programming malfunction yesterday and I had to wipe it all out and start again. That was a bit of a pain in the butt, but luckily I didn’t lose my database - woot. I’m hoping to get a blog up and running with the site but I think that might end up taking a little while to put together, but still - I’m really happy with the way the site has turned out

I am now going back to my site that I put up a Top 100 list with and start a blog on there as well. I’m not planning on updating all that often, but updating is necessary to keep those sites relatively competitive in the search engines.

So, back to adding content to my blogs and see where the week takes me

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Every couple of nights I find myself falling asleep in front of the TV.  This usually comes after staying up till 1:00 in the morning working on my projects.  I often wonder if I’m doing the right thing.  You know, like I could be doing something far more useful… I don’t know.  I guess it’s got to do with - building sites, and waiting, and waiting… and finally things come around.  It’s a definite waiting game - and sometimes the waiting KILLS ME!

I don’t really have much of an update today - NaBloPoMo is still in full swing… and you’re still getting an eyeful here.  It’s not really easy to have something consistantly good to write about - everyday for me, because I find myself doing content writing, keyword lookups, stats and all that usual stuff - that has some interesting moments for me, but for the most part I’m thinking as I write this down… it’s a bit dry to talk about with everyone else

So just a quick recap - I dusted off a domain that I’d not really done much with in a year… eep.  I re-designed the template for the site and made it far more fun and I have to say I’m quite proud of how it turned out.  I even solved a technical problem I’d been having with the site, since 2006 and never fixed because I just couldn’t for the life of me (at that time) figure it out.  So at 1:00 this morning… I went to bed happy!  Tonight I’m going to be working on adding content to the site… maybe… since it’s Friday my computer time gets a little bit boggled.  But I’m hoping to have more up by the end of the weekend.

Other than that… same ol’ same ol.

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