Bar Progress

The phone line didn’t get much better so I didn’t do much calling. It will happen on Tuesday next week.

I was going to work with Pauline to get clickcartpro installed, but had some difficulties with the script location when I first uploaded it. User error so there is nothing stopping me, just haven’t gotten to it yet.

I did ring the supplier and spoke to him for a while about his e-commerce solution that he is offering to his suppliers – for £250 pcm + VAT! Thanks fully this is a niche supplier and not a book supplier so it isn’t critical to our business to deal with him. I have the opportunity to meet him when I go to Birmingham this weekend for an industry trade show though. We’ll see what happens.

I have worked on a site that could go with the niche pack we’ve already released for our existing members and I have also near enough finished the next one and have created an XSP project for a third pack which I really need to get out there before the 15th of August.

I have also migrated my money tips review site to XSP but I have to set up an automatic redirect of the old URL’s so that they can find the articles they are looking for.

Other than that I have not done much. I have decided to let the battery life of my laptop decide how long I am working every day. Feels great! 

For next week I am working on the XSP niche packs and on selling loads of books.

I will also make sure the publishing business ecommerce situation is resolved so that we can start to implement the affiliate programme.

Short one today! It’s because I want a holiday…

Petrol, Coffee and an Internet connection please

Wooha what a week.

My phone line sounds worse than a dry wood fire and my broadband got disconnected early. So I can sympathize with Rob S down in Portland about not having internet access. As I don’t. nor can I call waterstones or ottakars to ask them to buy our books as they can barely hear me over the crackling phone line.

Dial up at best is 28.8 speed but usually 9.6. In comparison broadband is usually around 400 where I live.

But I have written a list of the things I CAN do offline and yesterday I even hunted down the costs of a 3g data connection card for my laptop. Hah! I saw it as very expensive as it charges me for the amount of data not for the time used. So I dropped in on the nearest Starbucks this morning after dropping Thomas off to nursery ( a perk of working for myself ) and found it empty.

Yes. At 9:15am this Starbucks had two staff and no custom! But alas – no wireless hotspot. So I finish my drink ( grande latte ) and drive off home. I make a detour to the local serviced office building and find that they do hotdesks for £4 an hour or a permanent desk for £350 per month ( erk!) or an office with 3 to 4 desk spaces for £1300 a month. I have access to a free office space in Southampton but parking is at a premium down there costing me around £160 a month if I chose to go there 5 days a week. ( unlikely! )

I can still not get over the fact that Starbucks was empty…

Anyway, I suffer through 45 minutes of poor dial up to find my nearest local hotspots. 1 in the working mans club, 2 in nightclubs ( why on EARTH??) and 3 in various pubs. The closest one to me though is either the working mans club one or one at the local petrol station.

WHY? Imagine a small local petrol station in a residential area. It has the sweets and car condiment isles a freezer and a coffee machine. Plus a wireless hotspot.

But where on EARTH am I supposed to put down my laptop? Where am I going to sit and work? In my car while going through the carwash??

So for me my working environment while I wait for the broadband to work itself out will either be in the local Harvester or the local serviced office building. Unless the cinema complex will have a hotspot when it finally opens its doors. If I need access that is. Currently this is being written in a local sandwich bar.

It’s a hard life when broadband disconnects…

So in short, I haven’t achieved nearly as much as I was supposed to, but I have been able to think more about what I want to achieve with my self employment status. I have researched 3G costs and broadband hotspot costs and I have researched a couple of niches with a good representation in the magazine shelves in WH Smiths.

I’ve read more than I planned and I have just done other things to keep the progress going. There are always other things that I can do to keep on progressing. If there is a roadblock ahead of me, I find a way around it, over it or through it. Easy.

For next week,
If my phone line corrects itself, I will be calling book stores for 8 to 12 hours and see what it does to our revenue.

I will work with Pauline to get our ecommerce solution installed on one of our sites so that we can set up our affiliate programme.

I will also call and introduce myself to one of our suppliers as they have upgraded their internet offering – in fact I need to do this first.

I will also work on two content sites for the holding company behind niche service station and provide some long awaited resource updates to our members.

Cheers,
jon

- Every day in every way, I'm getting better and better -

Publishing, Progress And Promotion

I can not get over the fact that I do NOT have a regular JOB to go to!

It's two full weeks ago since I had my last working day and I just can not get over the feeling that I am on holiday.

The worst thing is that the days are starting to get mixed up. I almost forgot it was Friday today!

So as a result, part of this afternoon was spent on planning my next 12 weeks progress. Particularly on the publishing business. It needs focus to drive it forward and upwards, which is a challenge with everything that I have on.

We got thermal binding equipment now so that we can print workbook style books on demand as well as spiral bound books.

How that fits in with our business plans is beyond me but I'm going with whatever Pauline decides. She is doing the bulk of all the work at the moment anyway.

So if anybody wants workbooks printed and bound from the UK then drop me a line and I'll quote ya a price. That is the functional offer. If you can think of a way a printed workbook can benefit your business or product offerings, then that's great. I'd be glad to help out.

And if anybody has any experience in the lingerie business please get in touch.

Pauline has also decided to take on a merchandising job to make ends meet now that there is no regular income coming in. My google adwords and adsense have vanished. Adwords because I stopped the promotions, granted, but adsense as well haven't been given the attention that the sites deserve to get new content on them. so the income has gone.

But she gets to see the strangest things on her travels..... Like today she had to undertake a black car doing 45 in the outside lane. Glaring at the lone driver as she drives passed she gets to see that he is in fact doing ALOT more than just driving slowly!!

He was busy enjoying the one handed drive if you catch my drift!! And from Paulines description he had LOTS to enjoy - but I can not for the life of me figure out what is so inspirational about the motorway down to Bournemouth!

What a life. And here I am doing housework like I wanted to. oh well.
I have a bit more tweaking to do on the plan that I will be achieving by the 30th of September, but I'll let you know what it was on the 1st of October. and then I'll tell you how I did it.

for now I will concentrate on becoming a Stepford husband, working the publishing revenues up and working on the niche service station automation.

Cheers,
Jon

Carry On regardless

This week I made my first sales by personally calling a book chain of stores. It was a bit short of the weekly target but it was more than we would have taken in if I hadn't made the calls.
I have the rest of the chain to call next week and then on to other chains to drive sales in there. But there is an opportunity there at least to generate some sales.
I have also made a little progress on the various NSS projects we've got running. I really enjoy the hands on supporting of our members but we could certainly benefit from having organised some of our resources a little more effectively.
I knocked up a little site in xsitepro to test google sitemapping and the result is here:
http://www.nicheservicestation.com/googled_in_60_seconds.html
and the end result was baffling to say the least...
I've built another site with xsitepro which is a test site for a potential future niche for the service station. So I won't tell you what that one is on just yet.
the service station now tallies 34 members, without any real promotion of any kind.
I'll meet up with Andy this weekend to sort out the missing details. I suspect it will be a very VERY long rapid results event!
I am enjoying the limited freedom that I have gained from giving up gainful employment but it is still feeling a little like I am on holiday...
I have also taken up walking for an hour or so in the evening listening to weird people like Peter Twist & Mark Vurnum and a few other strange characters talking about internet marketing. ( iRiver Martin? bah! get the real stuff ! A sony NW of course! ) (admittedly you win on the name front.. ) ( MY next gadget purchase might be a tablet PC...which is effectively a pda style PC the size of a laptop)

Between now and next week - get on top of the niche service station stuff and contiue to increase my publishing sales.

As for London, all I am going to say on that matter is that I am not going to let the terrorist virus take up more of my time than it already has. I feel for those that have been directly affected and I can only imagine how lucky yet saddened some people feel today. Like those that had family in London , or those that would have had family in London if it wasn't for a change of circumstance. I have had my moment to reflect and I have offered a thought to those that suffered. Now I intend to honour their sacrifice by ignoring the chaos that the terrorists are trying to create and take on the spirit of one of the WW2 veterans caught up in the chaos on his way to a Veteran reunion:

"We've gone through this and worse before you know. I'll get to where I need to be soon enough. London is London "

He said this with a smile and it looked to me as if he knew what this would do to peoples spirits and how they would come together and help each other.

And that was far more than I intended to say.

Unproductivity insurance please!

Yet another unproductive week internet business wise. That is ceratinly the sentiment I am starting with today.

I thik I may have lost my way somehow lately and although there is alot to do I don't seem to get them done on time or at all.
So sod the goals from last week - I''d rather just tell you what I DID do.
I've developed a clear idea of what I can do with the money related content I have accrued over the last couple of years.
I have spoken to my wife for hours on end about how to organise our time on the publishing business
I have quit my job and as of Today I am no longer anybodys employee.
I have worked on more content for the site that I HAVE published.
I have started work on another site, and I have about 3 others that needs finishing as well.
I have started work on the SECOND free content site that we will give away. Paul is working on the first one.
I have decided that I need to find an office to work from maybe one or two mornings a week as a productivity exercise.
I have finished two camtasia videos for the membership site but my flash producer thingy isn't working and I need to get it reinstalled
I spent most of last night trying to find all the paperwork that was supposed to go with my laptop when I handed it in at work today.
I have decided that I need a holiday, but it is very unlikely I will be able to get one for a while, but I do need to find my centre again.
I wrote and published two articles and a newsletter.
I have updated our sales page as required and I have been doing research into some new niches that I heard of in the newsagent.

So why does the week feel so unproductive? I can only assume it is because it is supposed to!