My Second Blog Website December 10, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Business, Websites , add a commentA few weeks ago I treated myself to a book called The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.
The book is a reference book explaining the value in outsourcing, automating and eliminating business systems to give the owner free time and flexibility.
I bought the book knowing that it would be motivate me and it’s really changed my attitude to how I run my current websites. The stream of CouchSurfers arriving at our place every few days, full of anecdotes about their travels really whet our appetite for taking 12 month to explore the world.
Future Business Plans April 1, 2006
Posted by Martin in : Business, Computers, Websites , add a commentI get spurts of creativity all the time and act on impulse on most of them. Most ideas are half-baked and never really rise. I generally get as far as stirring the ingredients but I’m quite comfortable with the way things are progressing.
Last month I conducted a feasibility study to get an apple Macintosh application created to emulate the fantastic AI Roboform program for Windows but decided that the necessity of making regular updates would be more effort than I’m prepared to make.
I looked into creating a website to detail investment opportunities, news and strategies but this really is nothing new and would also take a huge amount of my time to update. I no longer feel comfortable making high-risk high-potential opportunities to people who are in a very different financial position to me. If they plough too much of their savings into just one or two companies which dies or underperforms I know I’ll feel guilty.
Personal Investment Pool January 14, 2006
Posted by Martin in : Business , 3commentsI am seriously interested in creating a private investment pool for myself, my family and friends. The next few weeks I’ll be banging on my calculator and discussing logistics and legalities with those in the know. My provisional timeframe for conception will be 4 more weeks but I’m looking to offer to a select few, interest rates of about 10% per month, a high level of investment transparency, 25-50% cash reserves and a personal guarantee of principle.
I have a few meetings scheduled and some significant due diligence to be making but I will keep some of you informed about progress when I make any.
“You Do Care” Takes a Tumble October 8, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business , add a commentAfter getting off to an incredible start, Josh, my You Do Care programmer finally lost his momentum. After moaning about why he’d not done any work for weeks he admitted that he was now unable to cope.
A very weird email! September 21, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business , 2commentsWhat kind of company sends out this kind of correspondence? Sure I’ll remember them, but for all the wrong reasons!
Enlightened September 19, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business , add a commentI returned to Bangkok full of enthusiasm and joy for life. It lasted about a week. I heartily greeted Thai residents with a big smile and engaged everybody I could in light-hearted conversation.
A New Beginning September 9, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business, Thailand , add a commentI’ve returned to Bangkok very much on a clean slate. I’ve finally achieved my goal of having my telecom businesses run themselves and during the last three weeks I’ve literally spent only a few minutes in total on them with a quick email here and there. Now that the backend of the new United World Telecom site automates everything for me I’m free to use all my time to do something new, exciting and different.
Too dumb to live? – not in Bangkok September 7, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business , add a commentI hate calls from telecom clients who complain “I can’t use the service”. This has got to be the vaguest description for a customer support person to ever deal with. It takes minutes trying to wean the information out of people, trying to break down as many assumptions as you possibly can, trying not to patronize people with “is your phone switched on” etc.
Today I spent 20 minutes on the telephone to a person like this.
You Do Care Blog Site [Started Today] July 15, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business , add a commentThe wonderful You Do Care site is now my main job.
I’m REALLY enjoying it. Firstly it’s a chance to improve on every mistake I’ve made elsewhere. The concept itself of purchasing gifts is really interesting and there’s such an incredible selection of novel gift ideas out there. The challange though is how to make my site better and higher ranked than other sites….
Welcome to my You Do Care Blog Site. Not only will the site be a pleasure to update but it’s designed to give me loads of text-rich keywords for indexing. I’m going to commit to a minimum of 10 blogs a week and the style will be light, and I hope practical.
I expect that I’ll be spending significant time updating the site but, as I enojy writing blogs it’s something to look forward to.
UWT4Me is Updated! July 15, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business , add a commentUnited World Telecom 4 Me is now completed.
I designed it in January so the delay caused endless headaches and has possibly set me back by as much as 4 months.
I’m pleased to say that I’m very happy with it and that my designers have done an excellent job. If you visit the June Archive here you can see how the site has developed.
The cosmetics are not really the main improvement and a host of labor-saving back-end features are lovely.
Needless to say I’m very pleased with it. I’ve had a few intensive days marketing it and will do some continual SEO work but I don’t plan to spend more than 2 hours a week replying to filtered emails and updating the FAQ pages.
I can now stay focused on developing You Do Care.
Your feedback’s appreciated, expecially if you find any bugs.
Goodbye Clarity Calls July 4, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business , add a commentGoodbye to Clarity Calls which I have decided not to renew the domain for. The site was my own branding of a callback service which did not live up to expectations.
I’m starting up new websites weekly so this loss won’t make an iota of difference to anything.
Welcome to CoderNow June 23, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business, Computers , add a commentI am proud to present to you a draft of Coder Now.
This is one of my two new and exciting new projects. It is still in development and should be completed in about a month.
Please note that none of the content on the site is mine and it will be radically changed in the coming few weeks.
This will be one of the only freelancer-webmaster recruitment sites that does NOT charge any commission on introduced projects.
The marketing for the site is going to be time-consuming but we have a 2-tier affiliate program and coupon generators to give it a kick start. We also have a number of companies worldwide who have expressed interest in becoming super-agents.
Watch this space …
“Calls in Thailand” Retires June 23, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business , 1 comment so farIt is very easy in Bangkok for a westerner to stagnate and eventually to ferment. What I mean by this is that I don’t actually have to work again, learn anything new, expand my mind or keep up to date with news . I’m nearly 26 and the residual income I generate from my United World Telecom looks after me well enough here for me to survive pretty well without needing a job. I could just lie on my sofa and sleep 24-7 if I wanted to.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a long way from being the guy at the school reunion with the Rolls Royce and butler in tow but with the low cost of living here life is pretty relaxed.
Living on my own, it’s sometimes an effort to do work which really isn’t essential and may not benefit me directly for a long time (if ever). I’m a pretty self-motivated person but even so, I’ve had 2 consecutively lethargic days.
I discovered yesterday that my enviable status of not paying tax anywhere is not so enviable when I get myself constantly rejected for debt consolidation loans in the UK. As somebody with ambition it’s essential to move forward here, my finances are almost exactly what they were 14 months ago when I promised myself I’d make an effort to clear some debts from my credit cards and family.
Contrary to the fact I’ve not detailed it on this site much I have actually been extremely busy building up some small but residual revenue sources. I’m also taking a survival-of-the-fittest mentality with my websites and I’m closing or retiring some which I consider the techno-equivalent of throwing my parents into a nursing home.
First to be led away in a wheelchair is my faithful Calls in Thailand Site.
The things I’ll do for money May 25, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business , 2commentsYes I know it doesn’t look so nice and this site is now laden with banners but for the little extra work it entails from me and for the number of visitors I get to this site I’m happy to swallow my ego.
Every recent post is now ‘sponsored’ as such and I’ll be very grateful if you guys can click on the links when you finish reading the posts.
I need to tweak the advert content over the next few days and see how I can make the ad’s open in a new screen but I think for now it is working ok.
Thanks for your help .
You just can’t get the staff May 24, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business, Computers , add a commentOn interviewing a web designer who’d submitted a $500 bid to complete a new website …
Martin: have u read the specs for it?
Them: Yes…we have
Martin: if you had, youd know that it was for the domain codernow.com
Them: I think I missed the attachment, because I read the specifications, give me some time, I am checking
Martin: the attachment IS the specifications!
This guy has contacted me to tell me that he can do the work for me for $500 within 3 weeks without finding out what I wanted done!
I had another guy yesterday who, on discovering I’m in Thailand punctuates his formal proposal with questions about how much it costs to get prostitutes here.
These guys did not get shortlisted.
