The summer drought has hit workwise. There has been very little work in title selection for the past three weeks and I can't even find good titles to write. I'm so glad that I got a check from Google this month and I also got my payment for my eHow articles. They both help but I think I'm still going to be short paying bills in August. I might have to borrow money from my dad as much as that hurts.
My two niche websites are going well and I just started a new niche website two days ago. It hasn't been indexed yet so I'm waiting a week or two before I start throwing backlinks at it. My career oriented niche site is doing great this month and has made over $100 in Adsense. It is currently ranked 15th for its main keyword. I made a backlinking plan that I will start next week. I own Article Marketing Robot but I don't really like how it submits the articles to the directories. My plan is to use AMR to spin 4 different articles 500 times each. I'm not sure if it can spin an article that many times and still have them be unique but I'll see. I might have to spin more than 4 articles. I'm then going to sort the article directories by PR and add an article to 100 websites per day starting with the directory with the highest PR and working down the list. There are 9,000 directories listed in AMR so I shouldn't run out of directories. When I'm done submitting everything, I should have around 2,000 backlinks. That should get my niche site in the top 10 for it's keyword. The number 1 site has 1,050 backlinks. It has a high PR and is optimized for the keyword so I'm not sure if I can beat it but I'm going to try.
Last week, I had a great idea. I would start 25 career oriented niche sites and get them ranking well by the end of the year. If each site made $100 a month like my current site, I would be making enough money to live on. However, I don't really think this idea would work. For the niche site I started two days ago, I bought the domain name three months ago and it took this long to get the articles written and the site designed. I don't think I could do that for 25 different sites at the same time. The cost would be a lot too. If I paid $10 for each domain name, that would be $250. I could use my student loan money to pay for it but I'm not sure if splitting up my time across 25 different sites plus 3 current sites is a good idea. I have a couple months to think about it as I don't get my loans until September but right now I'm thinking I'll only going with two or three sites at one time.
Speaking of student loans, I decided to accept my student loans instead of paying for tuition out of pocket. I know this sounds irresponsible but I'm going to be paying on my student loans forever anyways so I figured why not. I need money for the cruise, I need a new laptop and I would like some extra money to buy domain names. Once my niche sites start making a lot of money, I should be able to pay back my student loans quickly.
Personal News
Getting to stuff that has nothing to do with money or my business, my sister-in-law delivered a beautiful baby boy on July 7. The C-section was scheduled for July 6 but my brother thought 7-7 would be a better birthday for him so they rescheduled. It was crazy at the hospital with everyone there taking pictures. C was diagnosed with heartburn which, surprisingly, is the leading cause of SIDS. C is taking medicine to prevent it and he has to wear a heart monitor while he's sleeping. Everyone that was going to be taking care of him including me and my parents had to take an infant CPR class. Ever since C was born, everyone has been fighting. First, my mom wanted to give the baby formula until SIL's milk came in but her mom made a huge deal about it. She seems to think that formula is poison and would not let anyone give him any. Poor thing was so hungry so my mom would sneak him formula when she wasn't around. SIL didn't care. In fact, SIL is a pretty lazy mom. I'm not trying to be mean but she'll breast feed him for five minutes and thinks he's full. She will also let him cry for a good ten to fifteen minutes while she checks her email or eats breakfast. Often times, she won't even wake up at night to feed him and tells my brother to give him a pacifier to calm him down. My mom is pretty mad at her but she doesn't say anything. She doesn't want to tell them how to raise their kid. After they got home from the hospital, SIL's mother decided to move in with them and my brother hates it. She hates my mom so on the weekends, my mom will spend the night so MIL will leave. It's been working so far. My brother got into a huge fight with his MIL last week because she didn't think C should visit his great-grandpa. My brother actually put his foot down and said that he's going whether she likes it or not. She stormed out and left her date book on the cupboard. My mom came over and found it and MIL had written some pretty nasty things about us on her calendar. Apparently, she writes everything down in her calendar. Stuff like, "Today I watched Toy Story with M" or "Today J's Mom blocked me on Facebook". I really think she's psycho and it makes me happy to be single without having to deal with someone else's crazy family.
Lately, I've been thinking about having a baby. It won't be for a couple of years but I have been thinking about it. I've always wanted to be a mother and I think I would be good at it. I have a couple of concerns though. First, I can't stand pee or poop. The thought of it makes me gag. I haven't changed C's diaper and I hope I'll never have to. I don't even look at my own poop and I'll go as far as closing my eyes while flushing the toilet. I think I could get on board with the whole diaper thing but I have heard horror stories about toddlers taking off their diapers and pooping on the couch and stuff. Yuck! Maybe I could hire a nanny or something to go on cleanup duty. The second concern I have is that I have trouble getting myself to places how am I suppose to get a kid places. For example, I need a hair cut but have put it off for the past two months. What if the kid needs a doctor appointment or needs a hair cut or wants to join a club. Driving him/her around everywhere, making appointments and following up with people sounds like a lot of work. Even so, I think it would still be worth it. At the moment, my plan is to work on my business for the next year. I should be making enough money to buy a house by the time I'm 29. I'll spend three years looking for a husband and then when I'm 32 I'll have a baby - husband or not. Sperm donors are cheaper than I thought - especially if you do the insemination at home and find the donor yourself. It's along ways away and things could change in the next five years. Who knows, maybe I'll find the man of my dreams and get married.
Enough with all the baby talk. I know this post is getting long but I don't update very often and I need to get some things off my mind. One of my biggest stresses and worries right now is that my mom is starting her own business - and she wants me to do it with her. It's a henna tattoo business and she wants me to help her setup her booth at fairs and to take the money. She also wants me to set up a website which I don't have much time for. I really want to help her out as she hates her current job and is desperate to get out. I don't mind making a website for her but I don't want to sit around at some fair every weekend for hours on end. I'm hoping that she'll figure out a way to take the money and give the tattoos without needing me there. She's also hoping to do parties which I won't need to be there. Maybe she'll get so much work doing parties that she won't want to go to the county fairs. I really don't want to do this with her but I don't know how to tell her.
I guess I should end this post. It's pretty late so I need to get to bed. I stay up way too late worrying about stuff these days.
Showing posts with label nephew. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nephew. Show all posts
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
It's Offically Summer!!
I thought today would be a good time to give an update. I have a lot of news. First, I ended up getting my mom a Nook for Mother's Day. She loved it and uses it all the time. I also bought myself a netbook. Big mistake. I bought it so I could work outside on the patio but the screen is glossy so there is no way I can use it outside. I've only used it twice since I bought it in late April. It was nice to bring on vacation with me but I shouldn't have bought it.
My college classes went well and I got 3 A's and a B. I only have two classes left to graduate and I'm taking those in the fall. I've decided to pay for fall tuition with cash instead of student loans. I already have over $30,000 in student loan debt and I don't need anymore. After I graduate, I'm going to focus all my attention on my niche sites. Doing web design for clients will be a back-up plan.
Bonnaroo was amazing! I saw so many great bands. I wish I hadn't dragged my parents along. They were a bunch of party poopers. They complained the entire time and it really brought me down. The festival could have been a lot more amazing if they didn't complain about every little thing. Anyways, I enjoyed the festival regardless. I was able to save up enough money to pay for gas and my parents paid for food. It's been over a week I got back and I'm sick. I think I caught a virus at the festival. I can't breathe, I'm sleeping all day and night and I've got a horrible cough. I went to the doctor and she told me to take some cough medicine and I'll be fine in a couple days. That was four days ago and I still feel awful. I slept from 10PM yesterday until 6:30PM today. My mom was worried that I was dead and kept coming in my room to check on me.
Speaking of illness, my grandma was diagnosed with leukemia the last week of May and died a week later - the day after I got back from Bonnaroo. The week before she was diagnosed, I went up to the cities to visit her. She was telling me about how tired she was and that she didn't get dressed because she had no energy. My cousin, her fiance, my uncle and my parents were there as well. We thought she was tired because of all the people that had visited in the last couple days. The next day she was admitted to the hospital. It took a couple of days to diagnose her but once she was diagnosed, she refused all treatment and was put on hospice. When we learned that she was on hospice, we came to visit her again. We saw her on Tuesday before we left for Bonnaroo. She seemed just fine. She had all her energy back and even wanted to cook us dinner. We could only stay for an hour though and when we went to leave, she was begging us to stay. She said she will always love us and we said the same to her. By Monday, she couldn't get out of bed and wasn't eating. My uncle flew in from Virginia and my grandma's sister flew in from California, both on Wednesday. They visited with grandma for an hour before she died. They said she thanked Jesus for a good life and then she stopped breathing. Neither of them knew she was in bad shape so none of them brought clothes for a funeral. My mom went with my uncle and my grandpa to buy new suits on Thursday. My grandma and grandpa just celebrated their 65th anniversary in February. My grandma was 87 and my grandpa is 91. My grandpa always thought he would go first so he was pretty devastated to learn about my grandma's illness. He seemed to be in pretty good spirits at the funeral. He cracked a few jokes at the funeral and the wake. For example, when the priest told him that he would see him later, my grandpa said that he wasn't planning on dieing anytime soon. The priest laugh and said that he meant that he would see him at church on Sunday. My grandpa laughed and said that he knew what he meant. The wake was on Sunday night and the funeral was on Monday morning. I'm kind of confused about my emotions. I didn't cry at the wake or funeral. It seemed like everyone was crying but me. I cried for 5 minutes when I learned that she had passed but I wasn't even sad at the funeral. I guess I had already come to terms that she was dead, she's in a happy place now and she lived a long and wonderful life. I said goodbye to her when she was alive. There wasn't really anything to be sad about at the funeral or wake. I'm going to miss her but I have good memories from when she was alive that I can think back on when I'm really missing her
On July 6, my nephew will be born. My sister-in-law is scheduled for a C-section on Wednesday, July 6. I'm not sure why they are scheduling a C-section when the baby is healthy but SIL's mom keeps freaking out about all kinds of little things. There was some abnormality with the placenta which is common but her mom thought that there was something wrong with the baby. She was all worried about it and I'm sure she was the one that convinced the doctor to schedule a C-section. Anyways, I'm not the one being cut open so as long as they are both okay, I'm fine with it.
Finally, what you've all been waiting for, I'm going to update you on my work. I feel like I'm being split in a million different directions. I'm still doing titling for Demand Media. I need it to pay my bills. I've got about 4 different niche sites now. I'm going to name them so you don't get confused. Niche site #1 was the site I started for The Challenge. Last month, I changed the theme and added a few pages and it's earned about $0.50. That's the most I've ever earned from it so I'm happy with that. I'm planning on adding around 15-25 posts. I'm aiming to earn $20 a month from niche site #1. I'm going to have to choose a different keyword with more traffic to rank for. I'll probably work on this site slowly as I have other, more profitable sites to work on. Niche site #2 is the career-oriented site that I started in March. It's made $25 so far this month. It fell out of rankings for it's main keyword so the $25 is from long-tail keywords. The site is almost completely done. I hope to finish it by the end of this week. I'm adding state regulations for career training and I have about 30 states left. Once I get the site done, I'm going to add about 10 article marketing backlinks, 10 forum backlinks, 10 blog commenting backlinks and 10 .edu backlinks. Then I'm going to let the site sit while I work on my other sites. Niche site #3 is a housing site. I haven't started on this site - I just have the domain. I actually bought it to help my parents sell their house. They decided not to sell their house so I have the domain name with nothing on it. I'm not sure how much this site can earn but I think the keyword is pretty good. I guess I'm going to add articles on how to buy and sell houses. I don't know what else to put on the site. I'm saving this site to work on last. Niche site #4 is a communications niche that I just purchased on Sunday. I was having trouble with a particular service and I couldn't get it to work. I was searching for a new provider and I couldn't find any information on it at all. I went to Market Samurai and did some research and found that there are a lot of people searching for this but there is little competition. The CPC is pretty high. I think I could get this site up to $500 or more a month if I can get it ranking in the top 10 for it's keyword. I'm not sure what I'm going to put on the site as far as articles and information but as soon as I'm done with niche site #2, I'm going to do some brainstorming and get to work on getting this site up and running. My plan is to eventually get to $5,000 or more a month with niche sites. I figure it will take me 10-15 niche sites and around a year to get to goal.
The rest of the summer will be spent working on my niche sites and working towards making money with titling. I still owe about $300 on my credit card that I need to pay off plus I need to pay for fall tuition and I need to save for the cruise. I hope to be making over $100 a month with my niche sites by the end of the summer. I'll try to update again before September. I hope everyone has a great summer!
My college classes went well and I got 3 A's and a B. I only have two classes left to graduate and I'm taking those in the fall. I've decided to pay for fall tuition with cash instead of student loans. I already have over $30,000 in student loan debt and I don't need anymore. After I graduate, I'm going to focus all my attention on my niche sites. Doing web design for clients will be a back-up plan.
Bonnaroo was amazing! I saw so many great bands. I wish I hadn't dragged my parents along. They were a bunch of party poopers. They complained the entire time and it really brought me down. The festival could have been a lot more amazing if they didn't complain about every little thing. Anyways, I enjoyed the festival regardless. I was able to save up enough money to pay for gas and my parents paid for food. It's been over a week I got back and I'm sick. I think I caught a virus at the festival. I can't breathe, I'm sleeping all day and night and I've got a horrible cough. I went to the doctor and she told me to take some cough medicine and I'll be fine in a couple days. That was four days ago and I still feel awful. I slept from 10PM yesterday until 6:30PM today. My mom was worried that I was dead and kept coming in my room to check on me.
Speaking of illness, my grandma was diagnosed with leukemia the last week of May and died a week later - the day after I got back from Bonnaroo. The week before she was diagnosed, I went up to the cities to visit her. She was telling me about how tired she was and that she didn't get dressed because she had no energy. My cousin, her fiance, my uncle and my parents were there as well. We thought she was tired because of all the people that had visited in the last couple days. The next day she was admitted to the hospital. It took a couple of days to diagnose her but once she was diagnosed, she refused all treatment and was put on hospice. When we learned that she was on hospice, we came to visit her again. We saw her on Tuesday before we left for Bonnaroo. She seemed just fine. She had all her energy back and even wanted to cook us dinner. We could only stay for an hour though and when we went to leave, she was begging us to stay. She said she will always love us and we said the same to her. By Monday, she couldn't get out of bed and wasn't eating. My uncle flew in from Virginia and my grandma's sister flew in from California, both on Wednesday. They visited with grandma for an hour before she died. They said she thanked Jesus for a good life and then she stopped breathing. Neither of them knew she was in bad shape so none of them brought clothes for a funeral. My mom went with my uncle and my grandpa to buy new suits on Thursday. My grandma and grandpa just celebrated their 65th anniversary in February. My grandma was 87 and my grandpa is 91. My grandpa always thought he would go first so he was pretty devastated to learn about my grandma's illness. He seemed to be in pretty good spirits at the funeral. He cracked a few jokes at the funeral and the wake. For example, when the priest told him that he would see him later, my grandpa said that he wasn't planning on dieing anytime soon. The priest laugh and said that he meant that he would see him at church on Sunday. My grandpa laughed and said that he knew what he meant. The wake was on Sunday night and the funeral was on Monday morning. I'm kind of confused about my emotions. I didn't cry at the wake or funeral. It seemed like everyone was crying but me. I cried for 5 minutes when I learned that she had passed but I wasn't even sad at the funeral. I guess I had already come to terms that she was dead, she's in a happy place now and she lived a long and wonderful life. I said goodbye to her when she was alive. There wasn't really anything to be sad about at the funeral or wake. I'm going to miss her but I have good memories from when she was alive that I can think back on when I'm really missing her
On July 6, my nephew will be born. My sister-in-law is scheduled for a C-section on Wednesday, July 6. I'm not sure why they are scheduling a C-section when the baby is healthy but SIL's mom keeps freaking out about all kinds of little things. There was some abnormality with the placenta which is common but her mom thought that there was something wrong with the baby. She was all worried about it and I'm sure she was the one that convinced the doctor to schedule a C-section. Anyways, I'm not the one being cut open so as long as they are both okay, I'm fine with it.
Finally, what you've all been waiting for, I'm going to update you on my work. I feel like I'm being split in a million different directions. I'm still doing titling for Demand Media. I need it to pay my bills. I've got about 4 different niche sites now. I'm going to name them so you don't get confused. Niche site #1 was the site I started for The Challenge. Last month, I changed the theme and added a few pages and it's earned about $0.50. That's the most I've ever earned from it so I'm happy with that. I'm planning on adding around 15-25 posts. I'm aiming to earn $20 a month from niche site #1. I'm going to have to choose a different keyword with more traffic to rank for. I'll probably work on this site slowly as I have other, more profitable sites to work on. Niche site #2 is the career-oriented site that I started in March. It's made $25 so far this month. It fell out of rankings for it's main keyword so the $25 is from long-tail keywords. The site is almost completely done. I hope to finish it by the end of this week. I'm adding state regulations for career training and I have about 30 states left. Once I get the site done, I'm going to add about 10 article marketing backlinks, 10 forum backlinks, 10 blog commenting backlinks and 10 .edu backlinks. Then I'm going to let the site sit while I work on my other sites. Niche site #3 is a housing site. I haven't started on this site - I just have the domain. I actually bought it to help my parents sell their house. They decided not to sell their house so I have the domain name with nothing on it. I'm not sure how much this site can earn but I think the keyword is pretty good. I guess I'm going to add articles on how to buy and sell houses. I don't know what else to put on the site. I'm saving this site to work on last. Niche site #4 is a communications niche that I just purchased on Sunday. I was having trouble with a particular service and I couldn't get it to work. I was searching for a new provider and I couldn't find any information on it at all. I went to Market Samurai and did some research and found that there are a lot of people searching for this but there is little competition. The CPC is pretty high. I think I could get this site up to $500 or more a month if I can get it ranking in the top 10 for it's keyword. I'm not sure what I'm going to put on the site as far as articles and information but as soon as I'm done with niche site #2, I'm going to do some brainstorming and get to work on getting this site up and running. My plan is to eventually get to $5,000 or more a month with niche sites. I figure it will take me 10-15 niche sites and around a year to get to goal.
The rest of the summer will be spent working on my niche sites and working towards making money with titling. I still owe about $300 on my credit card that I need to pay off plus I need to pay for fall tuition and I need to save for the cruise. I hope to be making over $100 a month with my niche sites by the end of the summer. I'll try to update again before September. I hope everyone has a great summer!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Only One Month to Go!
A lot has happened since I last posted. Where do I begin? I got A's in all my classes last semester except for 1 class where I got a B. It was the class that I expected to get an A in - Interactive Web Design. The professor never told me why he gave me a B.
This semester is doing great so far. I'm taking four classes this semester. I'm taking Digital Art II with the same professor as last semester. We have three projects for the semester - 1 project each month and they are really easy assignments. The second assignment is due next week and then we only have one project left. 3D Animation is really boring and I don't know when I'll ever need to use this stuff but the assignments are easy. The professor is nice and she moves the due dates when she sees that we are struggling. Motion Graphics I is also an easy class. The professor is great and the assignments are spread out over a few weeks so we have plenty of time to get them done. The class I hate the most this semester is the class I liked the most last semester. Interactive Web Design II is a huge pain. We have to work with a partner and my partner is very flaky. She turns all of her work in late and she didn't even do the last assignment she said she would do. I had to do it for her and it ended up being a week late. I asked her why she didn't get it done and she told me that she took off a couple extra days for spring break. Ugh! I'm doing all the work for this assignment from now on. I cannot trust her. We get to assess our partner at the end of the semester and she will get a bad assessment from me.
Luckily, there is only one month left in the semester. I now need to focus my attention on summer break and what I'm going to do with the time off.
First, I started a health-based niche site that I would like to get in the top 10 in Google for its keyword. I fully expect the site to make at least $800 a month once it's in the top 10. It's currently ranked 85th for its keyword with only a few backlinks. I should be able to get it in the top 10 in Google with a few more linkwheels and article marketing. I also want to make a few videos to post with links back to my site.
The second thing I need to focus on this summer is making money for vacations. I am going on vacation to the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival at the beginning of June. I need to make $1,000 for food and gas. I'll be doing title selection for Demand Studios in May to make this money. I'm also going on a Carnival cruise in November. I'm so excited about it I can't wait. I already paid for the cruise but I need money for food, drinks, excursions, souvenirs, tips and gas to get down to Florida. We are also going to Walt Disney World after the cruise and are staying in a hotel (my parents are paying for the hotel). I'm probably going to need at least $1,000 but I want to play it safe and make $2,000. I'll be working on this throughout the summer. I'll have plenty of time to do it. I'm only taking one class in the fall so I'll have time next fall too.
Another piece of news I'd like to share is that my sister-in-law is pregnant with their first kid - my first nephew. He is due to be born in July. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm very happy for them but at the same time, I'm jealous. Growing up, I dreamed about being a stay at home mom with three or four kids. I'm nearing 30 years old and I've never even been in a relationship. Seeing my brother and SIL decorating the nursery and buying toys and diapers just reminds me of what I don't have. I'm not ready to have a kid but that doesn't mean I don't still yearn for one. Sometimes I don't think it's fair. I'm the oldest child, I'm suppose to have the first baby. I'm trying to focus my attention on my upcoming vacations and new career instead of on babies. My time will come. It may be a few years but I'll be better off because I will have more time and money to give to a child once my career is stable.
In summary, my plans for this summer are to work on my niche site and make money for vacation. I would also like to buy a new HP Touchsmart so I'm hoping to make enough money for that as well. I've got so much going on this summer. I'm excited to get started.
This semester is doing great so far. I'm taking four classes this semester. I'm taking Digital Art II with the same professor as last semester. We have three projects for the semester - 1 project each month and they are really easy assignments. The second assignment is due next week and then we only have one project left. 3D Animation is really boring and I don't know when I'll ever need to use this stuff but the assignments are easy. The professor is nice and she moves the due dates when she sees that we are struggling. Motion Graphics I is also an easy class. The professor is great and the assignments are spread out over a few weeks so we have plenty of time to get them done. The class I hate the most this semester is the class I liked the most last semester. Interactive Web Design II is a huge pain. We have to work with a partner and my partner is very flaky. She turns all of her work in late and she didn't even do the last assignment she said she would do. I had to do it for her and it ended up being a week late. I asked her why she didn't get it done and she told me that she took off a couple extra days for spring break. Ugh! I'm doing all the work for this assignment from now on. I cannot trust her. We get to assess our partner at the end of the semester and she will get a bad assessment from me.
Luckily, there is only one month left in the semester. I now need to focus my attention on summer break and what I'm going to do with the time off.
First, I started a health-based niche site that I would like to get in the top 10 in Google for its keyword. I fully expect the site to make at least $800 a month once it's in the top 10. It's currently ranked 85th for its keyword with only a few backlinks. I should be able to get it in the top 10 in Google with a few more linkwheels and article marketing. I also want to make a few videos to post with links back to my site.
The second thing I need to focus on this summer is making money for vacations. I am going on vacation to the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival at the beginning of June. I need to make $1,000 for food and gas. I'll be doing title selection for Demand Studios in May to make this money. I'm also going on a Carnival cruise in November. I'm so excited about it I can't wait. I already paid for the cruise but I need money for food, drinks, excursions, souvenirs, tips and gas to get down to Florida. We are also going to Walt Disney World after the cruise and are staying in a hotel (my parents are paying for the hotel). I'm probably going to need at least $1,000 but I want to play it safe and make $2,000. I'll be working on this throughout the summer. I'll have plenty of time to do it. I'm only taking one class in the fall so I'll have time next fall too.
Another piece of news I'd like to share is that my sister-in-law is pregnant with their first kid - my first nephew. He is due to be born in July. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm very happy for them but at the same time, I'm jealous. Growing up, I dreamed about being a stay at home mom with three or four kids. I'm nearing 30 years old and I've never even been in a relationship. Seeing my brother and SIL decorating the nursery and buying toys and diapers just reminds me of what I don't have. I'm not ready to have a kid but that doesn't mean I don't still yearn for one. Sometimes I don't think it's fair. I'm the oldest child, I'm suppose to have the first baby. I'm trying to focus my attention on my upcoming vacations and new career instead of on babies. My time will come. It may be a few years but I'll be better off because I will have more time and money to give to a child once my career is stable.
In summary, my plans for this summer are to work on my niche site and make money for vacation. I would also like to buy a new HP Touchsmart so I'm hoping to make enough money for that as well. I've got so much going on this summer. I'm excited to get started.
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