Simon’s Notes

Ok so I’ve been blogging for about a year now, and while I haven’t been as successful (or as faithful) as I would have liked to be, I do believe that I’ve learned a thing or 2 about blogging, and I’ve certainly identified some thing that I would do differently.

If you’re planning on starting a blog of your own, you’re in for quite a ride. I remember when I started my first blog, and to be honest, it was quite crapy; but the feeling of starting something like a blog is definitely one that I won’t forget (kinda like the same feeling one gets from building something really cool out of Lego, for me anyway). I don’t think it’s easy to get it perfect the first time around, in fact, this blog was the fifth blog that I ever created, and even though it is a marked improvement from the other 4, it’s still far from perfect. So don’t worry too much, just start and everything else will fall into place.

Having said that, read the rest of this post, and maybe you’ll pick up a few pointers that could make your blogging life easier. So here goes.

What I would do differently if I were to start over:

• Have a clear plan for my blog’s theme - This is critical. When I started this blog, I had a vague idea of what I wanted to write about, but I didn’t really sit down and decide exactly what I wanted. If you’re starting a personal blog, then this point isn’t so important, but if you plan on turning some sort of profit from your blog, either from monetization or selling later on, then this point is absolutely vital. If I were to start over, I would spend a good amount of time and energy on this point.
• Develop an SEO strategy - This point ties in closely with the previous one. I’m always kicking myself for having neglected this in the beginning. SEO doesn’t have to be such a huge deal either, I know it can seem daunting, but basically all you’re doing is deciding on a key-phrase (or several) and then just adding it anywhere you can. Of course it can get more complicated than that, but if I had at least done that, I would have been happy. As it stands, I don’t even have a key-phrase that I’m targeting (if you have any ideas for key-phrases that suit this blog, please let me know).
• Curb the over-enthusiasm - I know the feeling, you start your blog with at least 10 posts in mind that the world needs to read today. The reality is that nobody is going to even see them, EVER. When I started this blog, I was churning out new posts daily, often it was more like 2 or 3 daily. I don’t think that many people have read those early posts, and as a result I quickly ran out of things to write about. Pace yourself, that burst of information overload that you experience in the beginning is good, but save those posts and publish them over time. It is much better to publish 3 posts a week, then it is to publish 15 a week for the first month, and 1 a month (if that) thereafter.
• Beware of monetization overkill - For a lot of us, we get attracted to blogging because of the prospect of doing something fun and making money in the process. But that can be a dangerous trap sometimes. Nobody likes a blog that is full of ads, so you much rather sacrifice the few potential cents that could be earned, and concentrate on content, and building a loyal reader base. Once you build a loyal base of followers, you can afford to throw up some ads, and maybe even look at other forms of monetization such as paid reviews, but if you put that as your focus from the beginning, you might find that some people are just not coming back.
• Commenting on other blogs - If I was starting this blog over, I would spend a lot more time commenting on other blogs in my niche. That might seem a little silly, but think of it as handing out your business card. When you start a new business, one of the first things you should do is print up some business cards and get them out there. Commenting on other blogs, in my opinion, is the best way to let the world know you exist, and that you know your stuff. So get active, blogging is about community.
• Wordpress - I started this blog with blogger, but unless you really can’t afford it, you should really go with wordpress (not the free one). Wordpress is the bloggers best friend, there are so many plugins that make life so much easier, and your blog will definitely be of more value if you’re not using a free hosting service (such as blogger). Wordpress also has a large community that is very interested in it’s well being and improvement.

Wow, that was long. I’m sure there is still a lot for me to learn, but I’m sure this would help. If you have anything to add, please let us all know in a comment.

Enjoy

Simon

Filed under: Blogging, Personal by Simon Rodrigues
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One of my favorite hobbies is computer programming. If I ever got a conventional job, I would want it to be as a programmer, and one day I will start a computer game development company, I think that would be great fun. The problem with enjoying programming as a hobby is that every time I don’t do it for an extended period of time, I have to learn a lot all over again, and that’s tough.

Anyway, the other day I was looking through some of my disorganized files, and I found a computer game that I wrote a while back. It’s quite a fun little arcade style game that I called ‘Space War’. It’s only got 8 levels, but I’ve never made it past level 6, and there is a high score so you can compete with your buddies. Check out some screen shots:

Early levels are easy enough:

After a while it gets tougher:

Anyway, you can download the full game here http://rapidshare.com/files/71654252/Space_War.rar, feel free to share it and spread it around, as long as nothing is changed. And make sure to give credit where credit is due, a link back would be nice. In fact, as an added incentive, I will link back to anyone that links to this post, you can write a review about it, or you can just make a simple link. Just leave a comment with the URL where I can find the link and reciprocate ASAP.

But first I gotta give a few credits of my own, I wouldn’t have been able to make this game if it weren’t for the book ‘Beginning Game Programming‘ by Michael Morrison. I owe a lot of code in the game engine to that book, and if you’re thinking of game programming as a hobby, this is the first book you should get.

Enjoy

Simon

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Filed under: Blah Blah, Link Exchange Programs, Personal, Reviews by Simon Rodrigues
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Hey guys, I’m back. As you all know, I’ve taken a huge step back from blogging, in fact, I haven’t been blogging at all. I didn’t stop because I stopped enjoying it, but I just didn’t have the time any more. I found myself neglecting the things that put bread on the table, and instead I was devoting too much mind space to blogging which is great fun, but not always profitable.

As much fun as blogging can be, the bottom line for me, being a business minded person, is whether or not blogging is worth my time in dollars. When I retire I’ll have plenty of time to do the things that I love, and one of those things will certainly be blogging, but until that day arrives I will have to cut out some of the fluff.

So why am I blogging again? Well, as far as I can tell there are 3 basic ways to make money online:

1. Sell content.
2. Sell advertising space.
3. Sell products or services.

Anyone can sell advertising space pretty easily by just smacking some adsense on their site or blog, but that doesn’t mean you’ll ‘make money’, not enough anyway. Selling affiliate products is the simplest way to make money from the third option. And selling reviews is the norm when you talk about selling content.

For those of you that don’t know, I’m a big fan of paid reviews. There are a number of good paid review programs that you could join, and I joined them all. Some of the programs that I recommend are PayPerPost, Smorty, Blogsvertise, and ReviewMe.

Anyway, I started noticing that I was qualifying for quite a number of paid reviews. At first I didn’t really pay much attention, but then I thought I’d give my blog a visit. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that google had finally decided to do their PR update and they had given Simon’s Money Notes a very healthy PR4.

When I first started this blog, I had a very modest goal of getting it to turn over 100 dollars a month by the end of the year, but with my new PR4 I think I could reach that target this month and the possibilities are endless. Blogging just might be worth my time again.

It’s good to be back.

Simon

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Filed under: Blogging, Personal by Simon Rodrigues
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Hi guys. I haven’t posted in a very long time, half a month to be exact, and I’m feeling very embarrassed about it. I’ve had quite a number of people asking me if everything was fine with me, and I just want to say thank you for your concern, you really touched me. The fact of the matter is that I have been absolutely swamped with work, that I haven’t had the time to focus on my blog as I would have liked.

Some of you might know that I don’t actually have a job, if I did I would have more energy to focus on my blog, what I do have is a company. I’ve never had a job so far in my life, cause I’ve always figured that if I’m going to work, I might as well work for myself. As a result I’m always busy working on some project, which is really great. Having a company and being an entrepreneur is a very challenging and rewarding life to lead, and I must say that I love it.

Early this year I started my own company (it’s a corporation, never go for sole proprietorship or partnerships because of the broad liability) and I use it as a sort of umbrella for all my projects. I’m still busy ironing out kinks (they buggered up some paperwork in the beginning which I’m having to sort out) so that keeps me quite occupied. Other then that, I have a number of projects that I’m working on at the moment and I’m going to quickly run through some of them to give you a bit of an idea of what an entrepreneur’s life should look like:

• I own (together with my wife) an entertainment company. To be more precise, we specialize in balloon sculpting and face painting for children’s parties and corporate functions, we’ve also bought a jumping castle so we’re expanding a little. This doesn’t take a lot of time as I only do it for a few hours on the weekend.
• I’ve also started a company that deals with computers. We’ve recently relocated to another city so I’m having to start from scratch again. We basically buy and sell computers, and we also do repairs. I’m looking at expanding, I have a few possibilities to start doing some graphic design and web design.
• I love poker, so I’ve just bought some poker sets and I’m getting a table and I’m going to start renting them out for private parties and corporate events. Hopefully this takes off and I can start looking at it seriously.
• I’m working on getting an import/export license so that I can import some goods from China (preferably electronic goods). I’m also looking at some potential suppliers and I’m spending a lot of time reading and learning the ins and outs.
• As if that wasn’t enough to keep me focused, I’ve started network marketing as well. I’ve joined up with the Amway corporation and I’m taking it very seriously.

Now that I’ve put that out there I feel ashamed of myself, a real entrepreneur would have many more projects going on at the same time.

It’s not so much that I don’t have the time to write posts, it’s that when I was writing 1 post a day, all my focus was on my blog. I would spend the day thinking about what I was going to write that evening, it was great and I would love to spend my day doing that, but I have more important things that I need to focus on right now.

I love all my readers and one day I will be back in full force, but for now I have to focus on what is important in my life and the life of my family. I will try to post as often as I can, but please understand that that might not be as often as I’d like. If you have any questions or ideas that you would like me to discuss please leave a comment and I will be happy to write about it. Alternatively, if you would like to guest post on Simon’s Money Notes don’t hesitate to email me with your post.

Thank you for your support.

Simon

Filed under: Personal by Simon Rodrigues
6 Comments »

My daughter Arwen had her second birthday a few days ago, on the 19th of July to be exact, and I haven’t posted any pictures yet.

I think she had quite a bit of fun. I’m not one for big events with lots of people and I don’t think she is either, so we went to an animal farm where she got to pet and feed the animals. We got her some chips, and ice cream, and we still went home and had cake and a small party with some of her friends. Pictures are worth a thousand words so I’m going to shut up now and let them do the talking.

It was a happy birthday.

Simon

Filed under: Personal by Simon Rodrigues
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