Another 'Reality Assessment' of I.M. Earnings

Another 'Reality Assessment' of I.M. Earnings

Last night I looked at another overseas Online Marketing offering 

involving a subscription coaching system. 

Under their new "full disclosure" laws they had these statistics

of their participants' actual earnings ....

The 91% grouping is rather sobering really, as this probably holds true for many

(if not most) internet and network marketing systems on offer

It still depends which way you look at the half-fillled glass though ....

If you just want to earn an extra $3,000 a year for 10 hrs work per month, well ....

according to these statistics 2 in every 100 people will achieve that.

I would love for some Bloggers who offer their own training material to publish

similar statistics for their own course participants!

An excellent 'Reality Assessment' of blogging

I just read this excellent reality description of the Blogging  journey ....

I told people all through our coaching program that there is

no "normal" in this business.

There is no standard. You set your own pace. You make your own rules

of what "success" looks like and you let those be your guide.

Some of you will make money in two weeks, others will take many months,

even years before it all "clicks".

When you've finally "made it", whatever time it took will seem insignificant

because the rewards are infinitely greater than your struggle. And there

will be more time after, basking in the light of of your success, than there

was that came before.

Remember that :)

Due to the level of spam comments I am getting on this blog, I have had to remove anonymous comment access.

Please use a valid account to leave genuine comments.

Thank you - Col Sanders

xbox 360 repair quide

Found an excellent XBOX repair guide

 

Long-Time-No-Post

SOOoooo much has happened since Oct 2006 !
Am I much further down the road to earning a full-time on-line income ...
well ... perhaps,
though in real dollar terms I haven't much to show for my efforts yet.
I have learned an awful lot and I'm certainly having my patience put-to-the-test !

I had set a (extremely aggressive) goal for the end of June (2007) to have an on-line income close-to matching my present off-line (day-job) income. Now part way through April and only 82.5 days to go, but for a God-given miracle, I cannot see me achieving that goal date.

I believe I did everything "The Blogging Cash Machine" told me to do, researching keywords, posting regularly, setting up PINGS, etc, etc. But day after day, week after week I couldn't even FIND my blogs in the search engines, even when I put the exact strings into the search !
Eventually, like so many others, after two months of effort, I gave up on the blogging bit and moved on.

Around that time, I went to a Gold Coast seminar hosted by my
long-time marketing mentor from Western Australia, Mal Emery.
Because the seminar was on the coast, which is about an hour drive from my home, and it would be late at night driving back, I invited a workmate to go with me for company.
The seminar focused around on-line marketing using Google; Adwords; Adsense; and (in particular) e-books, with guest speakers Andrew and Darryl Grant

Little did I know that My workmate would see the opportunity in on-line marketing and run with it like I never could have imagined!
He has now picked up much of what I had learned and gone on to surpass me in his endeavours, having already received the first of his own cheques for affiliate sales.

Some of the things which I have discovered along the way are:

1. Doing this while working full-time and being a father/husband/home-owner is VERY challenging and requires considerable determination !
   I have been getting up quite regularly at 4~4:30 am for months now to try and find some uninterrupted time to work on this stuff.
   

2. Short (2~3hr) bursts at this really are very inadequate.
   You almost need to be able take a week-at-a-time to work full 7+ hour days on this stuff to make head-way.
   (Something I've not had the luxury of yet)
   This is not to say it can't be done, as I know a number of people who have broken-free doing it this way. It's just much slower and more frustrating because you see nothing for your efforts.
   I've been reading a good article on this over the last two weeks. One which I actually got when I purchased one of my various marketing tools last year
   (I can't remember which one now)
   It's "1001 Newbie-Friendly Tips" by BobMcElwain
   

   
   
   
   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   The reason I say "good" article, is because it's one of the few I've read which add reality to all the wonders of making money off the web.
   

3. Getting a start in web marketing really does require the support of your family (wife/husband/kids) because to get this stuff up and running consumes a vast amount of time and energy. Time which often has other demands on it as a family member.
   
4. Another challenge has been the lack of my partner's belief in ultimate success.
   There is a firmly held belief that it is not possible to earn a living AND enjoy what I call "time-choice-freedom". The ability to choose when you will work, where and how much.
   
5. I've never been one who needs a lot of sleep.
   5 hours a night is mostly sufficient.
   In trying to get a headstart on this stuff though, even I am feeing the drain of this push!
   Going to bed at 10:30~11 and up again at 4~4:30 day after day is taking a toll.
   
6. You have to be prepared to give up a lot to ever hope to get this to work.
   Examples; This weekend was the Easter holiday here in Australia.
   I had to choose between playing ball with the kids or ... do my marketing
   (did some of both)
   I had to choose between taking the family out or ... focusing on the marketing
   (family won)
   I had to choose between helping my elderly neighbour or ... my marketing
   (neighbour got my time)
   I had to choose between sleeping in because I didn't have to get up to go to work, ... or get up and do my marketing.
   (I slept in some, but still got up much earlier than I would normally by choice)
   
   And at this stage of my progress those sort of things are really hard choices, as I don't see any end to it yet and I don't really know which should get priority.
   * On the one-hand I'm watching my girls grow up and I'm not spending the time with them (which I so desperately want to be spending with them), both because of my day job and because of my attempts at internet marketing. Yet on the other-hand, I have-to work my day job to pay the bills and if I dont do the marketing stuff and attempt to change our circumstances then they are ulikely ever to change
   * I'm watching opportunities slip past because we just don't have the money to participate in those opportunities which we won't have unless I can change our circumstances.
   
   I know attainment is there to be had,
   ... but I just can't seem to reach it yet.
   
7. It is my belief that you have to hold tightly to three "keys" if you want to succeed.
   

   (a) You must believe
   - that it is possible to realise your dream and
   - that the creator wants you to realise that dream
   (b) You must be persistent
   ... beyond all normal levels of persistence !
   (c) You must provide useful information on a theme which you honestly love and enjoy, (are passionate about) providing answers to questions shared by a large number of people.
   

Anyhow ... back to the story ...
So I had started down the Google Adwords trail only to be hit by the Google algorithm changes so I had gone across to Blogging only to not get indexed after months of effort. I had started down the content-rich-website avenue using SiteBuildIt (SBI) when along came the seminar.
We go to the seminar and get all "revitalised " and my workmate starts down the path of ... e-books, then ... Adwords, then content-rich-web-sites. He buys a product out of Israel (whereas I am using SBI). We set aside some of our lunch breaks to go to our local library where there is open internet access (our work prohibits certain things, much of which stops our endeavours) and pursue our learning there. Because much of my research is saved to files local to my home PC in MS Word, Excel and PDF formats, I cannot access them at the library so I'm limited in what I can achieve. (I don't have a suitably equipped laptop so I can't do it that way either).

Then came the next hurdle.
Around November my home internet connection started going bad and over the December January February period was all but unusable except for the occasional email and sporadic web browsing.
Basically I lost three months of learning & development time

AAaaaarrrggghh!

Once the internet problem was fixed, and having seen my workmate's success with Adwords I flipped back to giving that a go ... yes ... right back to where I first started in March 2006 with GoogleCash
I have to say it has NOT worked for me, and my workmate has found that after his initial income from it, Adwords never really became profitable for him so he too has laid adwords-only, aside. That is definitely not to say we won't use it as a adjunct to our other web marketing activities, but just as it's own self-contained income stream we've both "parked" it

So here I am today.
Still only ONE of my blogs has been spidered (indexed) by Google and I'm stuffed if I can see why the other one hasn't been.
(If anyone can suggest how I go about finding out, please enlighten me. I put an awful lot of effort into what is currently a useless blog !)

So I've gone back to focus on SBI and niche marketing and my workmate is doing likewise using his package. Both systems have a similar focus (content-rich web sites) but employ slightly differing methods of design and monetization.
He's ahead of me because he didn't spend so long trying to work out a niche to work in whereas I've lost myself a LOT of time bound-up in trying to find an available and profitable niche.

So what brought me back to this blog after months of absence ?
Guess what ... out-of-the-blue I had an offer for a link exchange from someone !
So, what with all I'd learned, the internet working again, adwords not proving profitable and now the offer of a link exchange, I thought I should perhaps update my "journey"

Keyword research

Today I learnt some more about keyword research.
I learnt:
Yet another way to come up with keywords to research (See Aaron's Ideas article)

To use the Digital Point Forum Keyword Suggestion Tool to determine the poularity of the keyword(s). (Aaron suggests keywords should have nore than 1,000 searches to be worthwhile)

That the KeywordDiscovery tool which Aaron uses from www.keyworddiscovery.com offers a fantastic set of research tools, but for me at this stage, US$49.95/mth or US$495/pa is out of my league (for the moment)

How to use the allinurl: , intitle: , and inurl: functions within Google to see how much competition there is for the keyword(s)

To use MarketLeap to check the visibility of websites and see how may back-links sites needed to make their pages (with the chosen keyword(s)) appear in the top 10 positions on Google

Still no change in status

I still cannot find either of my blogs in the search engines despite pinging them etc, so I'm pouring all my effort into the "Affilliate Masters Course"
So far I'm only up to Day6 of the 10-day course . . . on the initial read-through, then I have to turn round and start implementing it.

To fit it in, I've been studying on the train (as well as writing the occassional entry for this and my other blog) and getting up at 4:30am to do and hour-and-a-half each day.

It doesn't seem like much and progress is VERY slow but I WILL get there !

Learning Learning Learning

An awful lot has happened in the last eight days.

I took a break from posting as I'm just seeing NO fruit for my efforts !

I still can't even find either of my blogs in the search engines, even if I use VERY specific keywords!

So I decided to backtrack and do some more study before spending a huge amount of time blogging for no good reason.

During this time I have discovered two resources that I am currently investigating

1. Jeff Walters
Rapid Niche Websites (RNW)
www.rapidnichewebsites.com
(US$197 AUD$262.30)

• This first one turns blogs into high-performing websites and makes the blog look like "normal" web pages
  I've yet to fully explore this one as it's quite expensive, given my lack of income from my endeavours so far.

2. Joel Comm
Virtual Real Estate (VRE)
www.instantadsensetemplates.com
US$277 (AUD$368.81)

• The second supplies pre-optimised Google Adsense templated web sites

NOTE: This one took a while to load (even at 512Kbps) as there are 13 THIRTEEN video product/site-references and a very long sales letter.

Neither of them will help in choosing a rich niche but I guess that's the real secret isn't it !

A third and perhaps the most important find was when I came across Allan Gardyne's article "Affiliate Program Tutorial"

Allan has (in his words) been "Earning a good living from affiliate programs since 1998. "

Allan's whole site is a mine of information for newbies.

• MOST importantly he links to a (free) 193-page e-book by Ken Evoy called the Affiliate Masters Course.

Basically I cannot begin to describe how helpful these two resources have been to me, even if I haven't yet started to benefit from them financially. They have change my thinking.

You HAVE TO download, print-out, and read-for-yourself, as I just don't know where to begin with praise or comment for the insight I have gained from these resources.

The two resources have (a) helped me understand that it is normal that a new blog may go through a phase of upto eight weeks with no apparent presence on the web, before starting to get some visitors and comments and links and the-like.

(This has renewed my hope !)

And (b) Ken's whole approach is that where most people aim for a 1~3% return from their Affiliate Marketing, most of those he trains get between 5 and 10% and occassionally upto 20% returns !

He bases this on PRE-selling through information-rich sites rather than DIRECT sales links, and teaches that spending the time up-front is MOST important. It's NOT a race against time it's, about GETTING IT RIGHT - UP-FRONT and not wasting a whole lot of energy further down the track.

Oh and yes, I've been working with my daughter on getting her own web marketing under-way. I'll blog about that in my next post as the kids have just come down looking for me to make them their breakfast.

Wed 10th October Update

«Previous Post

The last two night have been spent doing household and business accounts and EOFY tax returns.

Tonight I spent way too much time trying to work out how I can see how many (if any) visits my blog(s) get.
Most of the offerings require the inclusion of a banner.

I have however begun researching how I set up WordPress on my BlueDomino! web server then I'll get all the stats I need.

Spent all day researching how to drive traffic to the BLOG

Friday night, most of Saturday and again Sunday morning we were at a prohetic conference so no BLOGing
Sun afternoon through till now (1am Mon) I've been solidly trying to work out how I get traffic to my first main BLOG.
I've found heaps of good articles and it looks like I'm already doing quite a bit of what they suggest, but there's lots more I can do also.
So, over the next few nights I'll start to try a few of those and see what happens.
Once I start getting some traffic, I'll put Adsense in place.

I've been compiling a spreadsheet of terms (jargon/slang) I've run across as I've been on this journey of discovery, so I think I'll start to record them here in case they assist someone else who may read this hotch-potch of my experience.
(God I'm tired ! I'm making SOOO many typing mistakes!)

I've also amassed a whole bunch of useful links so I'll start recording them in here as well.
So-far to-date they include:

Pre 8th October 2006
AWM Forum
http://www.adwordmentor.com/members/forums/index.php?
Digital Point Forum
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/
ABAKUS Revrese Keyword Generator
http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de/tools/topword.html
Adsense URL Checker
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/adsense-sandbox/
Overture Results Generator
http://www.resultsgenerator.com/overture/
Blogger.com Login
http://www.blogger.com/login.g
First blog attempt
http://blog-monster-taming.blogspot.com
Second blog attempt
http://digital-video-security.blogspot.com
Site Feed URL
http://{sitename}.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Affiliates Alert
P:\Program Files\Affiliates Alert\AffiliatesAlert.exe
Tips for Making Money via Blogs
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=141305
Pro Blogger (Auzzie)
http://www.problogger.net
Page Rank Explained
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/07/16/google-page-rank-explained/
Blogging For Beginners
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/14/blogging-for-beginners-2/
All my DigitalPoint forum posts
Find all my DP forum posts

8th October 2006

Great Adsense Newbie link
http://www.adsensechat.com/showthread.php?t=3666
Another good newbie article
http://www.webpublishingblog.com/2006/03/

Biggest Google AdSense publishers
http://www.johnchow.com/index.php/the-internets-biggest-google-whores/

Excel version of Ping-O-matic
ping_your_weblog_with_excel

keyword analysis
http://www.pingoat.com/goat/keyword_analysis

Kping
http://kping.com/
Ping My Blog
http://www.pingmyblog.com/
Ping The Empire
http://www.pingtheempire.com
Pinger
http://pinger.blogflux.com/
Pingoat
http://pingoat.com/
Ping-o-matic
http://pingomatic.com/
RPC2 Ping
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2

Spider Simulator
http://www.pingoat.com/goat/spider_simulator

Ten steps to a well optimised site - p1
http://websearch.about.com/od/beginnersguidetoseo/a/tenstepsseo.htm
Ten steps to a well optimised site - p2
http://websearch.about.com/od/beginnersguidetoseo/a/tenstepsseo_2.htm

Top Ten Tips for Improved SEP - p1
http://websearch.about.com/od/searchenginemarketing/a/toptentipsSEO.htm
Top Ten Tips for Improved SEP - p2
http://websearch.about.com/od/searchenginemarketing/a/toptentipsSEO_2.htm

Where and how to place keywords
http://websearch.about.com/od/seononos/a/spooky.htm

The Glossary

CPC
Cost Per Click
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/CPC.html
Advertisers will pay Internet publishers based on the number of clicks a specific ad gets
Black Hat
Black Hat SEO
http://seoblackhat.com/
THE Black Hat SEO forum !
Black Hat
Black Hat SEO
http://websearch.about.com/od/seononos/a/spamseo.htm
Explanation of "Black Hat" "Search Engine Optimization"
● Keyword stuffing● Invisible text● Doorway Pages
BTR
BlogToRank
http://www.blogtorank.com
BlogToRank(BTR) is an automatic blog and ping Microsoft Windows platform application
Cloaking
Cloaking (Black hat SEO)
http://seoblackhat.com/category/cloaking/
Cloaking involves using the ip address or features of the HTTP request (e.g. the User-Agent field) in order to identify and deliver unique content to a specific ip or User-agent.
SEC
Search Engine Cloaking
SEP
Search Engine Placement
YPN
Yahoo Publisher Network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Publisher_Network
The Yahoo! Publisher Network (abbreviated YPN) is a beta network, launched on August 2, 2005 by Yahoo
AdSense
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adsense
AdSense is an advertising program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text and image advertisements on their sites. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on a per-click basis.
AdWords
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdWords
is a search marketing program utilizing small textual advertisements on Google and it's partner sites on a CPC (cost per click) basis.
AWM
Ad Word Mentor
http://www.adwordmentor.com/members/googleadwordsguide/copywriting.htm
Chris and Jeremy have teamed up to provide you with the latest cutting-edge information on making a killing with Google Adwords--Adword Mentor!
CPI
Cost Per Impression
Instead of paying by the click for those ads, you will pay by the 1000 impressions.
CTR
Click Through Rate
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/CTR.html
the ratio of the number of times a user clicks on an online advertisement per number of viewers who view the Web site that has the advertisement on it. For example, if one out of 100 people who visit a specific Web site click on an advertisement and are taken to the advertiser's site, then the CTR of that advertisement is 1/100, or 1%.
IMO
In My Opinion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMO
Impression
Page Impression OR Ad-Unit Impression
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/whats_a_google_adsense_page_impression.html
Until now, your AdSense 'page impressions' reflected the number of times the AdSense code was triggered. This meant that multiple ad units on a page would log up to 3 'page impressions' in your reports, when only a single page view had taken place in a user's browser.Page impressions are now just that - the number of page views we detect. Ad Unit Impressions are the new name for the old behaviour: one impression logged for each ad unit shown.
KEI
Keyword Effectiveness Index
http://www.goldranking.com/search_engine_ranking_keywords.html
KEI is a statistical formulationthat reveals the most effective keyword phrases and terms to use to optimize your web pages
MFA
Made For Adsense
http://www.wootsite.com/HOME/webmaster-news-articles-tips-25.html
A site is made for AdSense if its sole purpose is to get users to click on AdSense ads. Its owners don't intend that users will learn from its content or participate in a community. All that they want is for them to click on an ad.
PPC
Pay Per Click
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/PPC.html
an Internet marketing formula used to price online advertisements. Same as cost-per-click (CPC)
PR
Page Rank
http://www.strategic-ranking.com/FAQ/pagerank.htm
the name given to Google's link popularity calculation or score. PR is determined by measuring both the quantity and quality of incoming links to a website and is a major factor in Google’s site ranking algorithm
R/SORD/S
Results / Supply OR Demand / Supply
Ideally you want to have keywords which have high demand and low supply.The ratio is calculated by Supply / Demand
RDF
Resource Description Framework
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RDF.html
RDF is a general framework for describing a Web site's metadata, or the information about the information on the site
RSS
Rich Site SummaryORReally Simple Syndication
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RSS.html
Short for RDF Site Summary or Rich Site Summary, an XML format for syndicating Web content.
SEM(1)
Search Engine Marketing
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/SEM.html
SEM is often used to describe acts associated with researching, submitting and positioning a Web site within search engines to achieve maximum exposure of your Web site
SEM(2)
SEM Glossary
http://www.strategic-ranking.com/semglossary.htm
All the SEM terms explained
SEO
Search Engine Optimization
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/SEO.html
the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine
SERP
Search Engine Results Page
http://www.strategic-ranking.com/FAQ/serp.htm
SERP is a web page that a search engine returns with the results of its search.

P9 Published - more lost time

This is soo hard getting the dedicated time !
Last night I spent most of the night repairing a computer that had one user account corrupted on it. I managed to recover everthing but not till after 1am so again no blogging
Now tonight I had an evening appointment so didn't get home till 9pm then had to do household accounts so now it almost 2am and I'm just doing the blogs.
And I STILL haven't progressed the monetisation side of it !

Blog2 outline refined, p8 published, p9 started

Updated and further clarified my thinking on my main blog outline
Completed and publised part#8 and started part#9
Now 12:30am so no time for more research or next step in blog & ping process
Maybe tomorrow night ?

Another big gap in posts but this is a steep learning cliff !

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Once again there's a big gap in my posts but it's not because I haven't been active in my pursuit.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've found this GOLDMINE of a forum at DigitalPoint and I've been pretty busy gleaning knowledge and doing a bit of participating along the way.
I've also been spending some learning time at a fellow-Aussie's site called Pro-blogger.
His site is good from two aspects.

1. He's a fellow Auzz so his comments and $values are geographically relevant
2. He's got a lot of great explanatory stuff for noobs like myself such as
   Blogging For Beginners

Last night for example, I picked up an article off his site explaining all about Page Rank

I'm about to upload today's main blog entry from the PPC then hit the sack but tomorrow night I want to take the next step in advertising my blogs, although I've now added links to my signature in all my Digital Point posts.

I STILL haven't been able to get an answer on how to make te Yahoo PING api work under WinXP

As a by-the-bye, I've had some really encouraging feedback from some of my contacts at Digital Point.
I'm now even more firmy convinced that within 12 moths I can be earning $1500/week off the internet.
Sadly I realised that I then need to take 42% tax out of that, so that is really only $870/week but I reckon we could almost live on that if I get desperate enough to get out of the 7-to-7 rat-race !

MorgansMom replied to me thus;

When I say 'work damn hard' I mean you have to be committed and stay focused.
I've seen more blogs go stale than I can count.

I get up at least an hour before my kids so I can get a good start on the day.
I write messages for my autoresponder, write some posts, do some research, add to my idea list, market in forums, search for advertising, work with JV's, do some SEO, etc.

I like to focus on a few good quality sites rather than hundreds of MFA sites or dup content sites.
I don't have a copywriter and I write 99% of my own content. Because of that, it can be a hard thing to balance site editor/administrator/marketer all at the same time.

That's what I mean by hard work.
There are things you can do to automate some processes, and make other things more efficient, but it still requires a lot of commitment on your part to earn a very decent living.

You sound like that type of person and you've got a pretty good 'blogging plan' so it shouldn't be too out-of-reach for you.
You'll probably be more successful than a lot of people hoping to earn income from blogging.

While ACT said;

It certainly sounds like you're dedicated to the cause.

To me working hard blogging means.
- Posting at least two original quality posts per day
- Leaving good comments on other related blogs on a daily basis
- Spend daily time researching SEO, marketing, etc.

That may not sound like a lot of work but doing it for a year does take a lot of dedication (which by the sounds of it you have).

My JASJAR PPC lost tonight's main blog ! Arrrgh!

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I wrote most of tonights blog on my i-mate JASJAR Pocket PC on the way to work this morning on the train.
I just went to grab it, finish it off and upload it . . . and IT'S GONE !
Drat! drat! drat! and double drat !
Don't know what I did but I was in a rush to close it as we came into the station and I suspect it didn't get saved.

I've spent a whole lot more time up on the Digital Point forum again tonight which hasn't moved me closer to getting my blog monetised ! I spent the time however, as I was getting my account set up properly and responding to some threads I had started asking questions about the failing Yahoo ping and blogging viability.


Some of the feedback on the forum is positive but cautionary in terms of rapid money expectations and indeed my dollar goals. Still I'll stick with them as goals and see how I go.
Goal 2
2 or more monetised blogs by Nov 2006
>= $300/mth before Christmas 2006

Goal 3
3~4 monetised blogs by Mar 2007
>=$1000/mth before Mar 2007

Goal 4
Adword campaign(s) in place by June 2007
>=$3000/mth before June 2007

Goal 5
Resign from employment July~Aug 2007

I also created my first (30-day) web poll on how much profit bloggers make blogging.

I've set myself a new curfew of 11:30pm to go to bed as I'm going to wind up ill if I keep up these 1:30 and 2:00am stints with this stuff for very much longer.

I've spent HOURS on trying to set up my first PING

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

div align="justify">

Catchup

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Tonight I went back and did an outline for my Security blog to try and give it(me) some clarity on where I'm going with what I'm writing.

I spent some ime reading through the Google Adsense tutorial and Terms and Conditions in
preparation for monetization.
I didn't however get onto the next step of Yahoo PING setup. (Naughty! I shouldn't have jumpped ahead of the e-book! "Baby-steps" Colin, "baby-steps")

I caught up two days worth of blogging by finishing off last nights one and publishing a seperate one for tonight as well.
Now Ive just got Tuesday nights' one to do on the train tomorrow and that should leave me time for the Yahoo PING bit !

The security blog outline thus far is:

Blog Outline

#1 Welcome to my blog on all things security related
The intent of this blog is to provide a forum for discussion of all aspects of security, electronics and computing which people may find interesting.

• Physical security of premises
• Security of computer data from corruption, theft or malicious intrusion by virus or hacking
• Video and perimeter security systems
• Security of power supply during attempted robbery or storms

#2 Beaten by security - that's a good thing - really !
Laptop security problem

#3 Laptop security issue resolved
Discuss resolution and brief comment on ZAIS and NIS.
Added affiliate links for both ZAIS and NIS

#4 First Aspect of Security - Power
Things to be covered
1. Premises security and it's dependence on power
2. Digital electronic equipment and the effect of power loss(and subsequent restoration).
3. Data security during power outages.
4. Physical/personal security without power


#5 Premises security (part 1) System Types
Need of battery supply and recharging
Size and cost mean minimal battery backup

Five levels of security in two broad types – local / monitored

• closed-circuit video / perimeter detection / on-site guards
• closed-circuit video / perimeter detection / off-site monitoring
• video OR perimeter protection / off-site monitoring center.

Three examples of "monitored" or "back-to-base" systems

• video AND perimeter detection / NO off-site monitoring.
• video OR perimeter protection / NO off-site monitoring.
• Perimeter-only detection being the most basic

Three examples of "local alert " systems

"local" systems,
several sub-categories.
1. audible and/or visible.
2. video capture system.

Monitored systems alert on lost power / low battery

#6 Premises security (part 2) Local vs Monitored also Use of Video Survellience
Local can be disarmed by power removal
Serious installs use monitored and power backup
Most local go unattended – lack of police
Best “local” combines perimeter and video

Explanation of perimeter – devices in path of entry – physical perimeter breach
· closure detectors
· Glass breakage
· Pressure mats
· Infra-red beams

Explanation of monitors – devices which watch for movement or change within an area
· Passive IR movement
· Proximity
· Infra-red beams
· Moisture or Noise detection
· Video Cameras

Benefits of cameras
Video recording methods
Different cameras

Non-affiliate info links to Dick Smith, Jaycar, ZTV/AEE

“More about the pros and cons of wireless security in a later blog.”

In the next installments,
setting up video security using your home computer
remote-monitor your site via the internet.
risks of doing remote monitoring

#7 Premises security (part 3) Wired or Wireless ?

Poor light-handling ability of cheaper cameras

First of the topics
Wireless vs. wired

Both types are vulnerable
Number of wireless systems
Reputable ones have jamming detection
Plug for LYNX Ademco

Main differences wireless vs. wired
Cons
Battery maint.
Remote intrusion poss.
Dearer sensors Cabling costly
Still need power Batteries expensive NiMH
Interference prone
Pros
Suit difficult sites Intrusion difficult
Easy install Cheaper sensors
Fast install Central power source
Better picture quality

Care needed on what’s monitored as it may be a “theft invitation”

#8 Premises security (part 4) Using Your Computer for DIY Video Surveillance

A look at DVR’s
Discussion of Lux
Positioning the cameras
Connecting cameras to a DVR
Using a PC as a DVR
Connecting cameras to a PC
Surveillance Software for a PC
Live video output from cameras to a monitor.

#9 Premises security (part 5) Remote monitoring & it’s risks



#10 Premises security (part 6) Non-video device monitoring



#11 Premises security (part 7) Power security for monitoring systems



#12 Premises security (part 7) UPS Power

Missed Sunday night as well !

Started out to Blog, got part of the security blog written then fell asleep at the computer !

Missed last night. Just realised previous night was still unpublished draft

Doh !
I'll have to develop a bit more committment than this !

I didn't blog at all last night because the osteo had advised I stay off the computer for 12-24 hrs while my back settled down.
Come back on to do tonights upload and realise I hadn't published the one I'd done for this blog back on the 21st.

I'd put it in draft while I did the night's main blog so I could link to it, then forgot to come back and do the link and publish it.
Durrrrrr !
I think I'll just publish this before I do tonight's main blog so I don't forget !

I did quite a bit more of the main blog on the train yesterday so I'm just going to upload it tonight and not do much else, as I've had a very heavy day around the house.

Tomorrow I want to spend several hours on getting the PING'ing part of the deal happening then I think the next step is the monetisation.

One thing I think I need to look, at is the order of what I'm presenting in the main blog.
I sort of feel I'm not following a very orderly progression in what I'm writing.
It's ok for me, but maybe not for my readers . . . if I have any ? !
I've not had any comments so far and I don't yet know how to view my hit-count statistics.
Mind you, that migh be a bit depressing just yet.

Oh yes. I emailed Danny, the chap that wrote "The Blogging Cash Machine", but so far he hasn't gotten back to me yet.
Maybe he's off travelling the world again !

That'll do for recording this bit of the journey tonight.

No further progress tonight - end-of-term school committments

Yet another night passes without being able to further my learning to the next step of blogging.
Again wrote quite a bit of my "main" blog on both journey's on the train today.
Started writing about Security Point #1 - Premises security and it's dependence on power

Nothing tonight - Monthly tax

Another brief entry tonight.
As I said last night I was intending to trial writing today's blogs on the train and upload them before finishing off my monthly tax.
I just did that and it worked a treat !
Only a couple of minutes online "prettying-up" the layout

Because of the tax and kid's school commitments, there won't be much time for any other research tonight.

I did manage to insert my first two Commission Junction affiliate links in yesterday's blog, not that there'll be much traffic till I get the PINGing happening on the other search engines I.

Step 4 - Next steps

Just a brief entry tonight as I spent a LOT of time getting my first two affiliate links into the other blog and I need to do some GST tonight before hitting the sack.

Did quite a bit of research after my rant last night (see previous post)

Looks like I need to plough ahead with getting the ping stuff happening from the other search engines as it may take Google some months before it indexes a newbies blog !!
(There HAS to be a way around that)

I'm also going to try writing my blog entries on the train each day and just paste them in and add the links at night

It's been a while - a quick catch up

So much has happened since this my first foray into blogging turned into such a disheartening exercise. Even now, two weeks later if you were to go to google and search on "Taming The Blog Monster" nothing would be found.
Nor does a Google search of "blog-monster-taming" (the blog URL) return anything.
I DON'T understand !
Anyhow, I've done a whole lot more research (hours and hours and hours) on keywords, urls, adwords analyser, wordtracker, abakus, resultsgenerator and more, finally coming up with what seemed like good keywords for an adsense attractive URL
I put it all together last night as
http://digital-video-security.blogspot.com only to find that as soon as the blogspot.com bit gets added, all the relevant adsense ads get replaced by blog-related ads ! Grrrrrr !
Think I'm frustrated ? You're right ! I'm currently NOT understanding this thing.
I only wish I had recourse to someone who has been-there-done-that to get some one-one-one mentoring on how to get started in this blogging scene.
I'm going to TRY and contact one of the authors of "Bloggers Guide To Profits" or "The Blogging Cash Machine" or "The Blog And Ping Tutorial" all of which are brilliant step-by-step ebooks but obviously I'm missing something along the way.

I was going to monetize my new blog tonight but it's not showing up on the search engine yet either so not much point in rushing the adsense thing till I can get some traffic !

I found a brilliant forum over the last few nights as well. I'm already a member of the Adword Mentor Forum but that's pretty specific to Adwords whereas this new one Digital Point covers EVERY aspect of e-biz and seems to be VERY active. I've already joined up.