The Great Experiment

2005-09-16T14:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had lunch with the executive team of an amazing company. One that I would really like to work for. A dream job if you will. It's down to me and another guy. So each of us are going to lunch with the executive team. My turn was yesterday. I hope that I was able to convey how well I could do the job. I felt that it wasn't my best performance, but as far as careers go, I have never had anything that feels so right. I'm gonna be keeping my fingers tightly crossed until I find out. I hope this is a positive result so that I can going and do a great job for these people.

2005-09-12T14:40:00.000-04:00

Well looks like I have a job if I want it. Now begins the pondering. Do I take it to get out of the bad one that I'm in now, or wait for something better to come along? My leaning is towards taking it and going away on a vacation before I start it. Well I'll keep you posted over the next day or two what my decision will be. I think I feel a vacation coming on.......

2005-09-08T15:41:00.000-04:00

I guess it's only a matter of time to get things flowing. I have an interview tomorrow and some more scheduled for next week. I'm planning on some more time this weekend to write some more articles and figure out whose gonna host my site. If anyone has a host that they really recommend let me know through the comments. I think I'll need someone that has email and autoresponder capability. Well I'm off to do my research.

2005-09-06T13:17:00.000-04:00

Well I had a great week-end. Got some more content written. My wife managed to get some stuff written for her site. So hopefully we can launch hers before Christmas. Man did I get a lot of stuff done around the house this week-end. A lot of stuff fell by the wayside as I was looking for a new job. That extra day and some great weather really helped. Not to mention a valliant effort put forward by my nine year old son, who really managed to dig down deep and put forth a herculean effort to get the work done. So now I have to come up with something to reward the young man. I'll have to give this a lot of thought, 'cause I want it to be something special, something that he'll enjoy. Well I've been getting the 60 day course emails and I'm gonna have to get back at it and do a little bit every night. Maybe I can make up some more ground.

2005-09-01T15:55:00.000-04:00

Still looking for a job. I have gone on a couple of interview this week and have had a couple of rejections. I've applied to a really great marketing company. Hopefully, I'll get a chance at an interview to convince them that I can do the job. I think I'm gonna take the long weekend and assess where I am in terms of a job and also where I am in terms of a website. And try to at least make some psitive progress at resuming the course.

2005-08-24T15:15:00.000-04:00

Ok. Looks like I manage to post two days in a row. Well I seem to be ranting on here about trying to find a job over the last couple of posts. Since this blog is supposed to be about me learning how to build and market a website and sell products and services online, I thought I should devote a blog specifically to my quest to find a job. Thus Quest 4 Fun was born. Pop by and take a look if you get a moment. Hopefully, people will want to read both blogs.

I'll have to put the web development on the back burner while I engineer a major career change.

2005-08-23T15:39:00.000-04:00

I still don't have much time to get many posts up these days. Well I found out that I didn't get another job. Made it down to the final three and no success. This is beginning to get discouraging. I knew the potential for the layoff months ago and started looking, yet I haven't been able to find anything. You get to thinking that there's something wrong with you. The longer it goes without an offer the more depressing it gets. Then it begins to affect the way you interview, virtually guaranteeing that you don't get an offer. And so the cycle begins.

Hopefully things turn around. The strain that this is putting on my relationship is becoming unbearable. Seems like my whole life is revolving around finding a job. Everything else is getting left aside. The place I'm working at now, won't stop giving me more work to do which takes more time away from my ability to find a job. It wouldn't be so bad if the package they gave me was decent, but it was kinda sad, shameful really. A good package would have made the world of difference. At this point I kind of feel like the company is giving me a good kick, with the steel toed boots, when I'm down. Nice of them to treat me that way.

Well I better wrap this up before I get on a rant and end up depressing myself. I have to try and keep a positive attitude through this all.

2005-08-19T13:52:00.000-04:00

Well I got some news on the first job that I was hoping to get and it wasn't positive. I sure hope that one of the other ones pans out. It's so stressful trying to find a job and still have to do all the work I normally do with the September 30th deadline looming. The rest of the 60 Day group is getting ahead of me. But my priority is first to my family and I do them no good until I find a job. So the search goes on. I'm gonna try and keep the blog updated and not let the 60 day fols get too far ahead (time permitting). Once I get through this, I will get back on the horse and ride like the wind. Like they say, "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

Dean

2005-08-16T13:39:00.000-04:00

Back again finally.

Well I needed to take a break. As you guys know I lost my job and needed to take the time to find a new one. I took some time off and focused on what I needed to do. Although I haven't secured anything yet, I think I'm close. Should be any day now.

I actually came real close to losing my house but womeone cam through and helped me get the mortgage caught up so until I find a good job it's gonna be a little tight. Talk about stress over the last bunch of weeks there were times when I actually thought I was gonna keel over from stress. But I went away and I'm all better now.

Finally, I found out that someone in my family has cancer. Talk about a total shock! That wat tough in itself to deal with; but when you add the other stuff on....tjat's heart attack material. Well I'm back, and looking foward to working with the group again.

2005-07-19T12:39:00.000-04:00

Well it's been a rough few days. I've put all development on hold as I deal with personal problem after personal problem. First there's the lay off hanging over my head. It's tough to work on a web site when you know your income will run out in a couple of months. You feel like every waking moment should be spent looking for work. I often wonder why it has become so hard to find a job. That's never been a problem for me. I've always had at least one job, often two. So to have trouble getting interviews, offers or a job makes you wonder if there is something wrong with me. Well having a loss of income hanging over your head makes it tough. I wonder if anyone noticed I added a donation button?

When someone you care about gets diagnosed with a terrible desease it's also tough to keep up working on a website. It's tough to even post every day or so, much less get on with life. But we manage to get by and try and maintain a psoitive attitude and give all the help we can. If anything the timing was good in that the 60 DAY course is talking about editing the e-book this week so I can still pick up working on the website content.

Well hopefully things will start to turn around. At this point I could use a break. It's like I'm fighting an uphill battle all the time. I look forward to a little downhill coast sometime in the fututre.

2005-07-14T12:46:00.000-04:00

The content is starting to come along. I'm trying to research and write some good articles. There's probably a way to short cut the process but at this stage of the game I don't know if taking short cuts with content will affect the site. My suspicions are that any shortcut will affect the quality of the site.

The rest of the group is concentrating on writing their ebooks so I'm taking the time to get some content together. Plus I'm using up some time looking for a new job, since getting my layoff notice. I also have a couple of other personal problems to deal with. I still have to be conscious to make the time and get the content developed correctly. I should start a blog about looking for a job, but I think one of the other group members has onel. The idea of having multiple blogs isn't very appealing, because they could soon start to grow out of control. I think these blogs are higher maintainance than a website, since they need to be updated regularly. I think only having a couple of blogs is the way to go.

DB

2005-07-11T09:21:00.000-04:00

I'm back from the weekend. I did a whole lot of work on the website design lessons. Specifically lesson 18. I managed to get the template for the web pages designed. I think if your not a designer or a graphics person, you start to second guess yourself. I tried my best to design a look for the website and a logo but I still have some doubts. I think that we tend to be our own worst critics. Fortunately, this site is an experiment for me. The real site is my wife's who has a better idea and a great niche market. So what I'm doing is building a site on my own to see what works and what doesn't. Hopefully, I'll make enough money on my own site to cover the costs of setting up and launching her site.

David talks a lot about writing an ebook. Right now I don't have any ideas about writing an ebook, but my wife does. I think this could end up being a perfect team. She can write and I can do the web stuff. Once she has some stuff writen I can start developing her site and get some kind of mailing list started to get her on her way.

This week, while the rest of the 60 day experiment is working on writing an ebook. Since I don't have an ebook idea yet, I'm gonna work on getting some content done for my website and finding someone to host it. If anyone knows of some good hosts, please let me know.

2005-07-07T00:23:00.000-04:00

Hey! Ok I'm a bit late with today's post. I've got the design layout for the fishing website thanks to David in lesson 18. I'm still monkeying around with the logo. I'd like to get something that looks half decent. Next step is writing some content for the site. I'll have to do some major writing in the next couple of days. Thankfully I'm not working on an ebook. While everyone else is working on ebooks this week I'll be catching up on the website design. I don't think that I'll be writing an ebook for now. Maybe in a while. Once I have some material. Right now I think the focus is on getting some website content and an email list together. I think that I should focus on building a list and getting some affiliate income.

The killer site will be my wife's. She's got a great idea. My site is just a warm up for hers. She's got the great niche idea. My site is just a practice for hers. I hope to learn what to do on my site and then take what I've learned and put into practice on my wife's site to take advantage of her idea.

Well it's late and I'm rambling so I'll cut this post short and carry on in the morning.

DB

2005-07-05T00:26:00.000-04:00

OK, OK so I didn't get my post in on the fourth of July, but I'm back. Spent today doing some tuning to the blog template. I found out how to add pop unders and went a little crazy. I reviewed lesson 18 and found out that it's time to make a web site template using Dreamweaver. Well I can't do this at work so I'll have to do it at home.

I revisited the keyword research that I did in week one and managed to come up with some better domain names. Tomorrow I'll have to finish the work on them and start working on home page content and layout. I'll have to find some fishing related affiliates to promote on the site as well. I think I need to find a tackle shop with the best commission rates and a good page ranking,. Hopefully they have some articles and reviews that I can use, especially to mail out. Tomorrow I'll have to put pen to paper and design a site. I think I'll also have to get a fishing blog where I can talk about my fishing experiences and review products. This will encourage me to get comments and solicit articles and reviews from people. Time for bed now, we'll be at it again at 4:30am. Time to get up for work, while I still have it and don't forget the website building.

DB

2005-07-01T02:08:00.000-04:00

Well today was a great day. I spent the entire day with my son and nephew.

I'm taking a few days off to get my head in the right place to continue with the lessons. Although I'm trying to keep up with the posts, I don't know how long or detailed they'd be. I haven't even registered the domain for the fishing site I want to do. OK it will get done it's just when. I'll have it done by Monday anyway.

DB

2005-06-29T22:09:00.000-04:00

Well I missed another day posting. I got my layoff notice and severance package and am officially laid off. I guess I'll have more time for the experiment. I'm going to probably going to take the next few days and spend it with my family. Afterall, they're what's important in my life.

Yesterday was day 18 and the lesson was on creating web templates. Something that I'll work on in the coming days. It's good that we're starting with templates because I didn't exactly get much done in the way of content. I'm gonna see what I can do in terms of getting a web template done and then a host and domain name. We'll get back in touch in a couple of days. Hopefully with a shiny new template.

DB

2005-06-27T14:55:00.000-04:00

It looks like day 18 is in the works for tomorrow so no new lessons today. I was sick all weekend with a raging sore throat and didn't get a lot of stuff done. Our vegetable garden out back didn't get much weeding. Neither did the blog or any of the ebooks of got to read. I did what I could and I managed to get some work around the house and some garden work done but nothing like what I wanted or needed to get done.

A few positives come out of this weekend. I signed up for Anik Singal's Affiliate Classroom. I managed to get a one month trial for a dollar, so I said what the heck. It might compliment the 60 Days to 100k course rather well. I suspect that once I get a site up and running, then I'll be making most of the income from affiliate programs (or so I imagine). At least it has been fun so far; that's the main thing. I imagine it only gets to be more fun when I start building a website. If anyone has any experience with Affiliate Classroom, please let me know. Add a comment.

The second positive that came out of this weekend was that I finally made some money with the Google Ads. It wasn't very much; well hardly anything at all really, but it was something and it showed me that I can make money online. It finally all seems possible. So I need to really focus now and get my computer fixed up and ready for the web site building lessons. I also need to focus on trying to get more traffic to my blog. Maybe if people see some of the successes I acheive, they will sign up now while they have the chance to do it for free.

Finally the third positive that came out of the past weekend was that my son, upon seeing my blog decided to set one up himself. So yesterday we registered at Blogger and started to build a blog. We couldn't publish as bedtime came upon us rather quickly. So hopefully today, we can get him published. I think I'll have to put a link to his blog on my blog once we manage to get him published.

Oh yeah, I found out how to upload images, unfortunately all I had was the skating rink from last winter. Well at least now I know I can do it.

Until tomorrow.

2005-06-24T15:54:00.000-04:00

Well the experiment is on hold until Monday for lesson 18. I was supposed to learn about putting images on my blog. Haven't had the time to do that yet but I had to get the post put out so I'm posting to the blog without much to say.

I did however have a lunch meeting with a colleague and her sister-in-law. She runs a company called Web Mystery Soppers and she gave me some good tips and suggestions for my website and for finding a host that I have to digest before I post anything. So give me a day or so and I'll go for putting the images on and posting some of Tema's advice.

2005-06-23T12:43:00.000-04:00

OK I've been busy this morning lots of new stuff to learn. David is busy revising his lesson plan for Day 17 so were taking a well deserved break until Monday. This will give me a chance to read some more ebooks and do some independent learning. I've gotten about 1,000 pages of ebooks to read and some more stuff to learn about generating and monitoring traffic. Then I'd like to see if I can get some pictures posted to this blog. I've seen some pictures posted to blogs of group members in the 60 Days to 100k forums like Whitepines gardening blog Garden Gab which I think is very well done. I think pictures add a more complex, professional element to the blog. Plus once I get a website, I'd want to add pictures for sure, so I might as well learn now.

Speaking of websites, David is starting the basics of website design on Monday so I have to make sure that I'm prepared for it. I'll have to get the domain name registered. Perhaps even try my hand at a couple of articles using the keywords that came out of the exercises in lesson four (I think it was lesson four). That's hopefully if I have enough time. Speaking of time, I need to fix my computer so I can get back online. I want to reformat the hard drive but don't seem to be able to reformat it. I think it is because the hard drive is partitioned. If anyone knows how to get rid of the partition, please leave a comment.

Talking about comments, I have two already and I'm overjoyed. At least I know people are looking at my blog. It's reasuring to know that other people can in fact see it and I'm really online. I appreciate the comments and feedback, keep it coming. Nicolette, yes the link didn't work and I couldn't figure out why. I had to grab a more experienced web guy from work, I'll refer to him as TJ. TJ looked at the HTML code, figured out what was wrong and fixed it. TJ also showed me how to make the link pop up in a new window. The code that you add after the link in the html code is traget="_blank" . TJ suggested that I copy the link code from the template and paste it where I need it, then change the code to reflect the new site I want to link to, and voila, an easy to create instant link. Thanks TJ. If only I could bring him home with me to sort out our home computer.

I also learned about counting visitors. David recommended a site called http://www.sitemeter.com to track visitors. I went to the site and registered. I even managed to add a counter. When you go back to Sitemeter you can get some pretty interesting reports. I also found out that you can find out who's currently looking at your blog as well as a detailed report on where all the visitors came from. Isn't technology wonderful? Anyway this morning I checked my email and found a report from Sitemeter which gave an even more detailed recount of the past days traffic. It gave me by the hour details! They need to get an affiliate program going. I'd sign up right away.

I'm wondering if registering at the other blogging sites is gonna generate me enought traffic? Hopefully Sitemeter will help in that regard. I think that I should also add learning about RSS feeds and XML to my "to do" list. I've registered for this stuff but don't know how it works or what it does. If any of you folks do, please provide you input in the comments section.

Well as each day goes by the posts seem to get longer. I hope that I'm not rambling on but this is supposed to chronicle my thoughts and how I'm doing in the 60 Days to 100k experiment so if it does ramble at times, then so be it I guess. By the way, how am I doing? Add a comment and let me know. Bye for today, I'm off to learn some more stuff (After I try to add links and publish this post).

DB

2005-06-22T10:23:00.000-04:00

Day 17 of the experiment and David is putting finishing touches on the 60 Days to 100k blog that he is publishing. Through David's lessons, I have learned how to create a blog on TypePad. Looks like there may be more design capabilities on TypePad; but I've managed to do OK on Blogger. I've also been reading a lot of the ebooks that David has handed out and some others that were sent to me by members of the 60 Days to 100k forum. It's getting kind of interesting trying to keep posting every day, getting the rest of the lessons done and work at the same time. Maybe if David's experiment is successful, I can work full time online, which would give me a lot more time to do more sites and blogs.

On my own I've learned about generating traffic and pinging to let the world know that my blog has been updated. Now I need to learn how to be able to measure the traffic that comes to my sight. If anyone knows any great way to measure traffic, please let me know, either through the comments section or send me an email.

I think that another major step is to get some idea of the basics of HTML coding so I can at least understand what's going on and be able to get the look I want a lot quicker than going by trial and error, which is what I'm doing now. I think I'm gonna try and add the 60 days to 100k link to the links section of the blog, but I'm not sure how to do this so it may take a while.

On the topic of adding things to the blog, I'd like to add a picture or two but haven't been able to figure that out yet. Mind you, I haven't had much of a chance to figure that out yet. I'm sure that I'll manage to find a way to get that done too. It's only a matter of time. I've asked at the 60 days to 100k forum and got a couple of answers but haven't investigated much.

At this point today's entry is starting to turn into a rather long ramble, so I'll just sign off tomorrow. Remember to comment or email me if you know how to measure traffic to the blog or to post images on Blogger. Thanks in advance.

DB

2005-06-21T10:08:00.000-04:00

Day 16 of the experiment and more on the design of weblogs and creating templates. A lot of useful information here. The exact step by step process David uses is excellent. He uses screen shots of each thing that he does so I can see exactly how things are created. It's great to have someone show you by doing and let you see what each step looks like. I've seen a lot of material that talks about how to do things in general terms but this stuff is comparatively detailed.

On to what I'm doing......I've got this blog going but right now there's no traffic. Only a couple of friends and a few people from the 60daysto100k forum have seen it. So I asked some of the people in the forum what I could do. They suggested linking to other sites. So I went to a few directories and registered. I even add some of their links to my blog. Now maybe some people will actually visit my blog and tell me what they think. Maybe even enroll in David's experiment while it's still free.

Now today I'm gonna have to register a domain name for my site so I can start working on that. There's so much to do and not enough time. It's a good thing that I'm eager. As each day goes by David's lesson's give me more and more confidence that I can do this. I can actually raise money on the internet. Who would have guessed that I would be able to get stuff up on the web. I don't think it's too much of a stretch that I can derive some income from the web.

DB

2005-06-20T08:36:00.000-04:00

Great! Another weekend with worse computer problems, not to mention the work around the house. Looks like we'll be reformatting the hard drive and installing a new operating system. I guess I better start from scratch. This would give me the opportunity to load a lot of the tools that David has given us onto my computer to make it a lean mean internet marketing machine (my attempt at comedy).

I printed the latest ebook that David gave us. 215 pagges, it's all I can do to keep up with the reading in this course. I got to get a handle on the domain name for my site, finish the keyword work and get some content created. This week David's focusing on building Blogs and Websites. I need to get something online soon. After all, if you don't have a site and traffic, you'll never make any money. Well by the end of the week, I hope to have something that you guys can go to and maybe sign up for.

DB

2005-06-18T23:56:00.000-04:00

Ok so in the experiment we're working on viral marketing and putting a plan together. Things are getting to be rather time consuming. I'm having a lot of computer problems as well. My ethernet card went and I'm without internet access.. I have to borrow it until I can get a new card and install it. Maybe tomorrow. I've also discovered Google Adsense and managed to get a couple of ads on the blog. I really need to get a couple of days of being able to work on getting the site up and running, getting some content and getting some traffic. All this while working and maintaining a house. Guess I won't be getting much sleep. Hopefully I can get the computer back online and have a good couple of days to get where I want to be. I think I have to get the site up and content on or I won't see any income at all in the 60 day experiment.

2005-06-16T23:04:00.000-04:00

Now another day. I'm reading the IdeaVirus and the Bootstrappers Bible at the same time. I don't know if that's a good idea but they're both so interesting. The experiement is picking up steam now and I must finish reading these ebooks and get the keyword research finished and pick and register a domain name. This experiment has given me more internet knowledge than all of the other material I have read combined. I have joined David's affiliate program and encourage anyoneinterested in internet marketing or generating traffic to their site to click the link and register while you can 60 Days to 100k . I have a lot to accomplish over the next few days and look forward to the weekend to get it all done. I would like to get a few domain names registered as Yahoo is having a sale on registrations for $4.95. I also need to start writing some content and newsletters to email out. Better go now so I can get this stuff done.

2005-06-15T11:01:00.000-04:00

I have joined an experiment. What kind of experiment? There's an experiment online to create a website and generate an online income in 60 days. This experiment consists of about 500 people that are at various stages in terms of internet knowledge. Some are like me with experience surfing but no clue as to how to build a site. Others have sites and a few have actually done some internet marketing with varying degrees of success. Having never created anything online, I decided to create this Blog to chronicle my trip through this experiment. I hope to create a journal that I can look back on and see what went right and what went wrong. Since I'm on day 10 I've got some catching up to do.

The first week I introduced myself to the rest of the people in the group. I came up with a vision statement and an idea for a site. I enjoy going on the occasional fishing trip and get a lot of relaxation from it. It's a great way to escape the stresses of life. I am by no means an avid angler but I enjoy fishing. I'm always looking out for tips and techniques I can try to make things more fun and enjoyable. I think I'm not alone. I think there are other people out there that would like some tips, techniques and product reviews. I also think that there are more experienced anglers out there that would enjoy passing on their tips and techniques. I'd like to start a website that caters to the recreational/hobbyist angler and provide some useful information for him to land the big one.

Ok so I got my idea for a website, now I have to come up with some strategies to get people to it. Right now I'm trying to get some keywords to drive traffic to my site. I have to find a set of keywords that are searched frequently enough but that have a lower amount of sites to compete against. Right now I'm in the middle of the research and will let you know how it goes. Next step will be to come up with a plan to get the word out.

Thanks all for now. Thanks for reading this.