First Affiliate Network approval received!

April 7th, 2010 in Affiliate Marketing
Posted by Daniel Jackson

Woohoo! As the title says, I just receive my first Affiliate Network approval email this morning from the guys over at Elite Clicks Media and I’m a little bit excited (as if it wasn’t obvious). On a side note, my overly-vigilant spam filter mistakenly decided that the email belonged in my junk folder, so I’m glad that I check it pretty regularly or who knows how long I’d be twiddling my thumbs in uncertainty.

I haven’t had too much of a look through the hundreds of offers they have available for me, yet, but I did come across a few that seemed like they might be fun to try out for starters. Next step is getting approval to promote them and then I’ll be able to get stuck into making some ads.

So what’s my game plan?

Well, for now I’m going to heed the old adage of ’stick to what you know’ and try to focus on the various offers that appeal to people around my own demographic. I reckon I have a far better chance of writing ad copy that typically appeals to my own age group and circumstances than I would for writing, say, an ebook on parenting. It seems like a really simple and obvious strategy, but we’ll have to see how I go.

In the meantime, I’m still waiting to hear back from the other two networks I applied for. It’s been less than 48 hours since I did, so I’m not worried at the moment. One thing that I really struggled with was Azoogle’s application form. Despite being completely Australian-based and therefore exempt from US tax laws since I pay my taxes locally, I was still forced to select between one of four IRS forms and then told to fill things out.

Meanwhile, Azoogle had no useful information about any of the forms on their own site and the link they provided to the IRS website was so utterly embroiled in its own jargon that I spent the better part of half an hour trying to figure out the right answers.

After doing some searching I figured out that the absolute bare minimum (name and address) should be sufficient, since the form is actually unecessary for the business I would be conducting with Azoogle. The form seemed happy with what little information I provided, so I’m taking that as a good sign.


New Goals for April

I’ve updated my goals for the month. I’ve simplified them a bit and I’m not going to go into too much detail since I feel that they all pretty much speak for themselves.

Sites: Launch Lonely Domains (finally!)
Five months delay is long enough, I think. It’s time to get this experiment off the ground once and for all. I’ll be balancing my time between getting this coded and up to scratch and trying out affiliate offers.

Sites: Get my first PPC campaign up and running.
With my approval for ECM having come through, it’s time to get testing with some PPC offers.

Finance: Make $50 in gross revenue from my online ventures.
I still haven’t succeeded in matching this very simple goal, so it once again rears it’s ugly head and taunts me just out of reach. Unless my PPC efforts come out as complete flops, I should be able to hit this even if I don’t see a net gain overall.

Blog: Try to make six new blog entries this month.
I still feel this is one of my easiest goals to achieve. The only times I fail at this is when I have nothing to write about, which happened the past few months when I wasn’t doing any online venture work. I have no problems writing about failures I have, since this whole thing is a big learning experience. The problem is writing when there’s absolutely nothing going on!

So there you go, that’s my April in a nutshell. What’s your plans?


*UPDATE* – I got a call from Azoogle. Seems like they’re currently not accepting anyone unless you’ve had some level of previous CPA experience under your belt, which is fair enough. The woman on the phone said she’ll put my application on hold until I get some more experience so I can come back to it once I’ve cut my teeth a bit. I’m happy enough with that, so I’m going to focus mainly on the offers from ECM for the moment.

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Back on the wagon?

April 5th, 2010 in Uncategorized
Posted by Daniel Jackson

Well it’s been way too long since I last made a blog entry here. And frankly, to be honest nothing much has really happened in that time (at least, not in the realm of my dreams and aspirations for becoming a successful web entrepreneur).

So what have I actually been doing all this time in the past three months of silence? The simple answer is Real Life. For those of us who aren’t living the high-life, money is still a very important daily concern and while I’d love to be able to quit working and focus 110% on my notions of granduer, the simple reality is that I like to eat every now and again. As such, the past few months have been filled with me embroiled in ‘normal’ work, and after doing that on a computer for 8-10 hours a day, spending even more time in front of a monitor was giving me the neurological equivalent of feeling sick. Basically, I wanted to be as far away from the computer as possible.

But deep down I always knew that sacrifice was part of this deal to get a long-term gain, so I’m trying to get back into the swing of things. I talked all about baby steps in an earlier post and then completely ignored my own advice. Even though I can’t devote as much time as I’d like to get things moving, I’ve come to realise that even 25% of the amount of time I want to spend on making my financial ideals a reality is infinitely better than 0% and that even an extra $50 in my pocket at the end of a week is enough to start making a difference, especially if I put it towards reinvesting into my business.

My time away has also helped me to shape my goals a bit better and hopefully more focused on what I want to achieve and exactly *how* I intend to achieve them. My plan of attack is now twofold, encompassing my desire to build up various niche community sites like my ever-neglected Lonely Domains as well as starting to get involved with various PPC activities through social media like Facebook and MySpace.

As sign of positive action towards getting myself back on the wagon, I’ve already submitted my applications for three affiliate companies that come highly recommended by a number of professional affiliate marketers who enjoy various levels of success with their services. The three I’ve signed up for so far are:

AzoogleAds/AZN Network – http://www.azoogleads.com/

Elite Clicks Media – http://www.eliteclicksmedia.com/

Neverblue – http://www.neverblue.com/

I don’t know how well I’ll go with them, I have a nagging feeling of rejection that I’m not looking forward to, but I’m hoping they’ll look upon my applications favourably. I tried to be as descriptive as I possibly could in my applications, but the application form from NeverBlue was pretty sparse and didn’t really give me an opportunity to provide any commentary. For that simple fact alone, I’m anticipating a rejection from them but hopefully I’ll be given a chance for explaining my objectives when they give me a ring.

While waiting for them to get back to me, I intend to do some more research on PPC, find some more networks to apply to and yes, even work on finally, finally getting Lonely Domains off my localhost and into the World Wide Web.

It’s time to get the wagon moving again.

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Looking back at 2009

January 4th, 2010 in Goals
Posted by Daniel Jackson

Well there’s no beating around the bush about it. I failed. I failed hard. Of all the goals I had for December, I did not succeed in reaching any of them.

Unfortunately for me, I can’t even use the festive season as a scapegoat. Or rather, I could use it as an excuse, but I’d be lying about it! No, the real reason I failed was because of a long-term problem of mine that this very blog is designed to help me get over.

After spending the first week of December working fairly solidly on Lonely Domains, I started to become disillusioned with what I had created thus far. First I wasn’t happy with the design, then I started worrying about the layout and whether it needed some tweaking and how it would fit with the rest of the site, then I was wringing my hands over which features I should/shouldn’t add in, and then I began doubting the business model and whether it was financially viable…

…eventually progress grinded to a halt. My motivation to get Lonely Domains up and running floundered, so I jumped ship. Lonely Domains is still floating around, but it’s been anchored in a Sea of Doubt for the past month. As a consequence, I also stopped posting blog entries.

So what have I been doing in the meantime? Well, to be honest, not much. Whenever I lose my focus on a project like this, I suddenly find half a million other little projects to keep myself occupied with. I have a long list of what I believe are good and viable ideas for niche sites. I’m confident that I will be able to earn a living from them if I can get enough up and running. My problem, my kryptonite (if you will), is the ‘if’. It’s the focusing on one project at a time and seeing them through until they’re completed. I’m just lacking that missing piece that will keep me engaged. But I’m determined to find it.

Despite the outcome, I felt that I should still have a quick review of my December 2009 goals as I do have a few little things to mention.

Sites: Have first two web sites up and running.
Uhh…yeah. Well, we all know how well that’s turned out. Clearly, I’ve got to get my priorities straight on this. As I’ve said before, I doubt anyone wants to read a blog about all the online marketing success I didn’t have.

Finance: Make $50 in gross revenue.
It’s the darndest thing. The ancient and neglected relic of a website from my first bumbling foray into online marketing about 3 years ago occasionally surprises me with a completely random sale. I don’t do any advertising with it, it’s pretty poorly designed and is in a market that has been pretty cutthroat for a long time and yet people still stumble upon it every now and again. I’ve mostly left it up as a reminder to myself to one day give it a fresh coat of paint and perhaps sell it off. In any event, December brought about a sale and subsequent profit of ~$25. So technically, I hit 50% success. I’m not really counting it towards my goal, but maybe I should move the redesign up a bit higher on my priority list…

Blog: Continue making an average of two good blog posts per week.
I loathe to use the term ‘Epic Fail’ here, but it seems appropriate. With my flailing focus on Lonely Domains, my blogging clearly suffered. And by suffered, I mean ‘came to a complete stop’. This post marks my determined return to regular postings.

Blog: Have a total of 50 Twitter Followers and 5 RSS Subscribers.
Lack of posts and lack of Tweets – hardly surprising that I failed this goal. Interestingly, my RSS feed came just shy of my target at 4 subscribers earlier this month. I’m a little regretful of letting potentially loyal readers slip through my fingers. At this point, all I can do is learn from my error this time around and move onward and upward.

There’s nothing like writing out a review of all your failures to really bruise your ego, but it feels kinda cathartic. I feel ready to get back on the wagon with renewed vigour and determination.

There’s a piece of advice that recommends you wait five days after the start of the year before making any New Years Resolutions. Tomorrow is the 5th, so expect my plans for 2010 then. In the meantime, I’ve got to get my year sorted out.

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Announcing my Goals for December

December 1st, 2009 in Goals
Posted by Daniel Jackson

Despite the fact that the silly season is almost upon us, I’m determined not to fall behind in my goals over the holiday period. This time of year is also when many online businesses make their biggest profits, so I’ll be interested to see if I can earn myself a sliver of the pie. To do that, however, I’ll need some actual websites.

Apart from the Affiliate Marketing side of things, I’m also interested in making unique and useful community-based sites. They may ultimately be my downfall, but until I get some of these crazy ideas out of my system I’ll never be able to move on.

With that in mind, my goals for this month are focused on my blog and getting sites online and out there for people to interact with. I’ve split things up into two separate deadlines this month, with the first one finishing two weeks from today.

Due 15th December
Sites: Have first web site up and running.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I had difficulties with the coding of my first site. Now that I know how I’m going to approach it, however, things should run a lot smoothly and I should be able to launch the first stage publicly within the next fortnight…freak astronomical phenomenon permitting, of course.

Due 1st January
Sites: Have two web sites up and running.
Once my first site is up and running my second one should be able to follow quite quickly. It’s a lot less complex programmatically and more in line with a ‘true’ affiliate site. It’s a fairly unique product and I feel that I could really make it work within the niche. Logically I probably should have started with this site first, but I have these odd periods where my brain becomes deathly allergic to rational thought.

Finance: Make $50 in gross revenue.
Again, my monetary goal is quite simple. Having made nothing the last time around, I didn’t feel that I should change this goal just yet. Breaking it down, I need to make a total of $1.67 per day from today. It’s a terribly small amount by any standard, but right now I’ll be excited to make any sum of money.

Blog: Continue making an average of two good blog posts per week.
I did well last month, almost making enough posts to cover my goals for this month. Still, as time goes on, the real test will be to see if I can continue the pace which I have set myself without degenerating into a blubbering mess. Making eight or nine posts this month feels a little daunting right now, so we’ll see how I go.

Blog: Have a total of 50 Twitter Followers and 5 RSS Subscribers.
I’m pretty happy with my Twitter results from November, but I’m thinking the upward trend may cool down a bit and my Followers growth will be a little slower from here on. Meanwhile, my RSS subscribers list hasn’t budged and it’s a little distracting. I don’t want to whore my blog out – especially when I have yet to provide any physical proof of my dedication to this online entrepreneurship – so I think that a relatively small target is achievable for now.

With November being a bit of a crazy month for me, I’m considering December as my first ‘real’ month on my journey to becoming a successful entrepreneur. If I don’t get 100% success in my goals this month, I’ll have no excuse. It’s time to show some results.

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Results and review of November Goals

December 1st, 2009 in Goals
Posted by Daniel Jackson

Whether I like it or not, I’ve hit the deadline for my first set of goals. Time has a habit of continuing its steady march despite my protestations to the contrary. So here we are to talk about the results (or lack thereof).

Firstly, it should be said that I was working with less than half the time I expected in order to complete my goals for November. My blog was not ready until the 17th and loss of hardware cost me an additional two days. Despite the circumstances, I think I managed to do alright for the most part.

Ventures: Launch the first website to get my ‘online empire’ started.
Despite my hopes, this simply did not happen. Given my time constraints, I think I simply put too much pressure on myself to get this done in time. In the end, I expended too much time and energy trying to get Lonely Domains up and running on an inappropriate platform – it is not a blog and never was. For all its utility WordPress is simply not suitable in this instance.

I have now come to the decision to build a custom CMS for Lonely Domains. I already have the basic framework, it is simply a matter of building the site functionality on top. This was a hard-learned lesson, but making mistakes are a part of the process and I’m certainly not going to make the same one again any time soon. I also don’t feel as though this goal was a complete failure, as I did manage to at least create the graphics template for the site layout.

Finance: Make $50 in gross revenue from my new online adventures.
Given that I failed to launch a website in November, it’s hardly surprising that I made all of $0. I’m not worried by this, however. It’s still early days, after all. I’d love to get some paid advertising on my blog, but I doubt that will happen until I actually start having some success with my ventures.

Blog: Make an average of two good blog posts per week.
I feel good about smashing this goal. Seven posts of decent length that felt like they were worthwhile (at least, to me they did…) in the two weeks that this blog has been up. The best part is, it wasn’t hard to find things to write about. I never found myself struggling to work out what I was going to say in my next post – it came quite naturally as soon as the idea seeded itself into my brain.

Blog: Get 25 RSS readers and Twitter followers.
As I predicted, I was 50% successful with this goal. I had a peak of 35 followers on the 26th and right now I have a total of 33 followers on Twitter which I feel is pretty decent. I don’t really ‘tweet’ that much other than to let people know that I’ve made a new post, so it’s interesting to see the response.

My RSS readership has not strayed since inception. Twice over the past 10 days I had 3 subscribers for brief periods, but I get the feeling they were aggregator robots rather than real people. I think that improving my RSS Subscriber is something I will have to work on in the future.

Life: Go for a jog for half an hour, twice a week.
I don’t have much to say on this goal. I successfully managed to drag myself off my chair and do my cardio workout twice a week for the past two weeks, so I’d call it a job done. I intend to continue doing so, but I might leave this goal off my list in the future as it serves no real purpose in the context of the rest of the site.

Conclusion

Well, that about sums it up for my first set of goals. In the end I managed to successfully complete 2.5 of my 5 goals over a 13-day period. 50% feels alright, but I’ll definitely be aiming to improve upon it in December so I’ll be posting my new goals in the next few hours once I’ve got them planned.

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The nightmare that is my first website

November 28th, 2009 in My Websites
Posted by Daniel Jackson

‘Hopelessly optimistic’ is one phrase that could be used to describe my current situation. ‘Absolutely moronic’ is probably a more accurate term, however. My idiotic stubbornness has gotten me into trouble this time. The launch of my first site lies tattered shambles of what barely passes (and parses, heh) for working code.

I apologise for the melodrama, but I’m feeling a bit disenchanted right now and it’s all pretty much my own fault. I’ve had a lot of other things going on in life right now that have distracted me from hunkering down and getting the job done, but even when the distractions leave me alone for a while I’ve had great trouble focusing.

The root of my problems lies in the fact that I choose to base the core of Lonely Domains on WordPress. In the original planning stages it seemed like a good idea at the time. Too late, however, I have realised that WP is no longer an appropriate platform for the community site that I’m now trying to create. Don’t get me wrong; WordPress is fantastic and I’d recommend it as the number one choice for a blog website, but I’m starting to feel that I’m trying to force a square block into a round hole. It’s just not working out the way I’d hoped.

My problem is thus:

Users are able to submit domain names that they think are pretty cool. These domain names are added to a table along with a description, a rating and various other statistics. Users are also able to leave comments on individual domain names. Users are also given points based on certain actions taken with these domains. So far this seems like a standard post with some added metadata (or a new table) that’s assigned to a special ‘domains’ category. The difficulty with setting this up lies not so much with restricting normal users to only be able to make posts of a certain type into a certain category, but the method by which they can do so.

Despite WordPress’ advances to becoming more flexible in it’s delivery as a general content management system rather than a blog, it still has quite a ways to go. From the research I’ve done, there seems to be very limited options in regards to modifying the Admin Dashboard short of hacking the core files themselves. I want to avoid that as much as possible, as it makes upgrading a total pain in the behind.

So where does this leave me?

Well, at the moment I figure I have two options:

Option 1. Continue with what I’ve currently got. Hack together a psuedo-admin for standard users that provides the custom options and display that I want to have.

Option 2. Ditch WordPress all together. Put the launch on backburner and work on one of my simpler site ideas until I have completed a custom CMS platform.

Option 2 is something I plan to do at a later point, anyway. The issue is the ‘later point’ part. At some point I’m going to need to draw a line in the sand and tell myself to stop trying to worry about everything. In any event, I’m indecisive about which route I will to take. I have resigned myself to the possibility that I will not get my first site up this month, but with a renewed vow to get one up in December before the silly season hits.

As it is after midnight I will sleep on my choices and make a decision tomorrow morning.

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Preview of my first website!

November 25th, 2009 in My Websites
Posted by Daniel Jackson

Once again I was overly optimistic about the time involved in getting the design for my first website done. In what seems like the universe telling me that this is all a bad idea, the other day I very nearly lost a finger on my left hand to a ride-on lawnmower. The engine was off, but while helping resolve a mechanical problem the (incredibly heavy) steel catcher fell loose and dropped onto my hand. As a result, I had a very swollen middle finger on my left hand for a little while, making any sort of work involving tapping away on a keyboard quite painful.

However, it’s been a couple of days now since my last post and I felt that I should make some sort of an update to my blog. So I’ve decided to provide a little bit of a background on the plans for my first website and a work-in-progress image of the design I’ve been slaving over.

Recently I acquired the domain ‘LonelyDomains.com’. I don’t really have much experience in the world of domain trading and site flipping, but I acquired it for what seemed like a very reasonable price given its potential. The deal also included some basic sketches for a website and I used them as a reference when planning out my strategy.

The plan behind the name

Lonely Domains Logo

The basic premise of the site is quite simple. My aim is to cultivate a unique community of users who are interested in good-quality, unregistered domain names. In addition to my own contributions, people can submit suggestions of free domain names that seem useful. Other visitors may rate, comment on or register these suggestions.

There will also be a section in which I will add relevant articles and tips. Additionally, there will be a rewards scheme in order to encourage people to submit good names and register their domains through the Lonely Domains website. These rewards will come in the form of various discounts and freebies.

I would also like to add a forum at a later date after the initial site has received some exposure in order to further foster the community feel of the place. Skinning a forum is a whole different ball game and I’d like to get the initial site up and running while I work on some extensions for the forum software to tie it in with the main site.

Monetisation will come in the form of paid advertisement blocks and through domain/hosting registrations on the site. Further monetisation plans include the ability for users to list their ‘for sale’ domains on the site for a low fee.

The design is in the final stages of being a work-in-progress. I just need to tighten up a couple of the subsections and sort out the style for the main content area.

A work-in-progress preview of the Lonely Domains website.

If anyone out there has questions, comments or scathing criticisms, feel free to reply and I will answer the best I can. I do feel like I’ve been a bit vague in one or two places but I’m saving a lot of the minor details for the actual launch – which I’m really hoping to do some time tomorrow. Things don’t seem to work out that way, but I’m going to try my best.

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Goals are my best friend and worst enemy

November 23rd, 2009 in Goals
Posted by Daniel Jackson

When I first started preparing for this blog I had already typed up a couple of posts dedicated to the discussion of my little goals widget currently residing in the right sidebar. Those posts were written all the way back in late October during my first attempts to get this started and they probably would have made for a pretty good read.

But alas, it was not meant to be.

As I’ve mentioned before, my background lies more in the realm of coding rather that design and my first custom theme attempt definitely reflected my rather under-developed artistic abilities. To be brutally honest, it was a pretty hideous effort. Unfortunately I don’t really have the money to spend on a professionally designed theme at this point in time – I’d much rather save it for setting up and marketing my other websites. I am, however, a rather stubborn creature by nature. So eventually, after a few weeks and numerous distractions, I had put together what you are now looking at.

I still have the original goals discussion entries I intended to post, although they’re pretty useless now in terms of relevance to my current status. I had originally intended to start working towards my current goals at the beginning of November, but due to my initial struggles I didn’t get my blog up and running until more than half way through the month. Add on the fact that I’ve lost another two days to freak weather events and I’m left with a third of the month I originally expected to have in which I could achieve my target goals.

Despite all this doom and gloom, I’m still quietly confident about nailing many of them. I fear that I do not share the same confidence about others. In any event, I felt that with a little over a week before I hit my 1st December deadline I would discuss where I am and what I hope to achieve.

Baby Steps

At the moment I’m keeping my current goals relatively short-term to start out with until I can more-clearly define where I’m going. I could just straight up say that I want a $250k+/year lifestyle and an 8 hour work week (which, let’s be honest, who doesn’t?), but those don’t feel like measurable goals at this point. In six months or a year that may be something I want to devise a plan and deadline for, but right now I still have too many of the mental barriers in place that prevent me from serious success. So until such a time as I do feel confident enough, I’ll be making progress with baby steps.

This month, I have the following goals:

Ventures: Launch the first website to get my ‘online empire’ started.
This is going to be the key to either my success or failure in my first month and all the others to follow. I have the essentials, I just really need to get the design finished off (it seems to be a recurring theme – finding a good designer that doesn’t cost a fortune is going to be one of my first priorities as soon as I get some cash flow). I hope to have the design ready so I can power through the coding and get the site up by late tomorrow. I am confident about achieving this goal by my deadline.

Finance: Make $50 in gross revenue from my new online adventures.
This is the tough one and the one goal I am really worried about achieving this month. I had originally set myself a goal of $100, but time has been my enemy this month and I was expecting a longer time period to achieve it. I was tempted to remove this goal completely for this first month, but I realised that if I want to succeed with this crazy life experiment then I need to push myself. Remember that I’m starting completely from scratch, so getting goal #1 sorted out asap is my top priority at the moment.

Blog: Make an average of two good blog posts per week.
I’m keen to get this blog off the ground and it doesn’t take a genius to know that consistent, good quality postings are a huge part of your success as a blogger. I’m enjoying the challenge of maintaining a regular posting schedule and based on the date of my first entry, I’ve already achieved this goal. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop posting – after all, if I managed to reach my financial goal of $50, I wouldn’t suddenly decide to stop making money. I think the real challenge will be maintaining this consistency in the next month, particularly over the holiday period.

Blog: Get 25 RSS readers and Twitter followers.
Looking at my current stats, I perhaps should’ve made this two separate goals. Right now I’m on track to having 50% success with this goal; I’m confident about getting the Twitter Followers, but after a brief peak of 3 RSS subscribers for a day I’ve basically been stuck at 2 all this time. Overall, I’m not too worried. Getting 50% success is infinitely better than 100% failure. In any case, I researched a few tips discussing how to attract more RSS subscriptions and I’m hoping to implement some of the recommendations when I have a chance.

Life: Go for a jog for half an hour, twice a week.
This goal is somewhat separate from my desires to become a successful web entrepreneur, but still something important to me. Every year I compete in an annual 10km fun run event, but I’ve never really done much in the way of training in the lead up to the day. Basically, I’ve been slack. This year, I hope to smash my personal best of 51:22 and do a sub 45-minute race. Apart from the personal challenge, I need to do something to keep me fit after sitting in a chair all day. So far, I’ve managed to keep up with this goal.

So where do I stand?

Right now I’m on track to achieve most of my goals this month. Unfortunately, I’m not feeling very confident about what I feel is probably the most important one on the list: making money. After all, it is essentially what my blog is about. Nevertheless, I have 8 days left and if I really push myself and get my website up and running tomorrow I feel that I have a chance to make it.

In the meantime, it’s back to work.

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Computer fixed and back in action

November 20th, 2009 in Miscellaneous
Posted by Daniel Jackson

Well after nearly 48 fun-filled hours and close to $200 later, my PC is now finally back up and in full working order. As it turns out, the old video card that I thought I could use was in fact too old for my motherboard and therefore entirely unhelpful. In the end, however, it wasn’t necessary.

After letting the old beast have a much-needed rest overnight, I decided to give it another shot. To my absolute astonishment, after fiddling around with the cables in a completely random fashion and booting it up, the screen came on! It made no sense; it was like when you were a kid and you’d blow into the base of your favourite old console game cartridge, ostensibly to remove whatever dust or mystical evil particles had attached themselves to its connector.

This exultation was of course short-lived, as I then discovered to my utter dismay that both my USB keyboard and mouse were failing to respond. I tried every other USB slot on my PC and also stuck my USB stick into a few slots to see if it wasn’t just my peripherals (turns out, they’re both dead as well…but I’m getting ahead of myself). Windows wasn’t reporting any issues, so I came to the inevitable conclusion that the USB controller on my motherboard was fried.

Long story short, I bought a new motherboard late yesterday afternoon. Installation was pretty painless and I spent some time cleaning the insides while I was already fiddling around. It wasn’t until I got around to transferring my RAM over that I noticed a serious problem…

My existing RAM was DDR2 and the new motherboard only supported DDR3.

Feeling like a complete twit, I resigned myself to being unable to proceed any further until I was able to get some new RAM today. After visiting the computer store for the second day in a row and installing it, I booted up with fingers crossed and heaved a sigh of relief when my desktop happily blipped into view. It was at this point that I discovered the mouse and keyboard were still unresponsive, but I had a couple of spares lying around so it was no drama.

And so here I am back online and ready to move on full steam ahead. I’ve got a little catch-up to do, and it has not escaped my keen notice that I haven’t really explained anything about my entrepreneurial plans in detail as yet. The weather did cause some problems in that regard but I intend to discuss them in depth in a number of upcoming posts I have planned.

Not entirely sure if anybody out there is reading these posts (if you are, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment!), but I feel that I’m getting the hang of writing posts of a decent length. Whether said posts are actually interesting is something I’ve yet to figure out.

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Disaster strikes! (In the form of lightning)

November 18th, 2009 in Blog, Personal
Posted by Daniel Jackson

Yup, you read the title correctly. I had another blog post lined up today but it seems nature decided to take an interest in what I should write about next…

Several hours ago a violent thunderstorm rumbled across the sky above where I live. I’d just come back from a short jog around the block and was in the shower when a bolt of lightning struck somewhere very close to the house.

The mains power was immediately tripped and I very suddenly found myself showering in the dark. A few moments later, someone kindly reset the switches and light was returned. After getting out of the shower I found out two things: that the lights adjoining the pathway down to a separate building currently being used as a home office had literally exploded, and that the power in the aforementioned home office was out.

Initially, I wasn’t too worried. I’d turned my computer off before heading out for my jog and the power cables were plugged into a fairly hefty surge protector. Unfortunately, it appears as though these protective measures were not enough. My monitor and printer appear to have escaped unscathed, but I’m pretty sure either the motherboard or video card in my PC have been damaged in some way as it boots up but nothing appears on the screen. It’s a bit of a setback, but it certainly could’ve been worse.

I’ve got a spare video card lying around that I’ll be trying out tomorrow. With any luck, that’s the only problem. I’ve got most of my important files backed up, but I’ll have lost some valuable stuff relating to the sites I have planned if the hard drives have died. I feel confident they’re ok, though, and this unexpected event has only made me want to work even harder towards achieving my goals (and to establish a more regular backup plan!).

In either case, I’ve got an old laptop that I’m currently writing this blog post on to keep me going until my PC is back up and running. I prefer to see the silver lining of this cloudy situation (no pun intended) and I plan to take full advantage of the downtime by writing lots of content for my sites. I’ll be continuing my entrepreneurial efforts, just at a reduced pace – so don’t think you’ve gotten rid of me that easily.

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