Checking in with Google

It appears that in order for Google to find my new shiny Blog, I needed to register myself at the Google Webmaster Tools Section and verify my site.

I then added a sitemap by simply selecting "add" under the sitemap column, selecting "General Web Sitemap" from the dropdown and adding "atom.xml"

This enables the crawler to find my Blog and all the juicy search terms.

This is, I'm sure, is a big deal.

I also added my Blog to a syndication service called Blogrush. This, apparently, will send traffic to me. Some people seem cynical of that on the internets but we'll give it a shot. You can see the widget on the left side of the Blog.

My First 46 Cents

Well folks, here it is ...

PENDING PAYMENTS FOR "NETWORK ADS"
Transaction Date	Total CPC	Your 75%	Payment Date	Number of Clicks
01/01/2008	$0.51	$0.38	Approximately on or after 03/01/2008	4 click(s) recorded
12/31/2007	$0.10	$0.08	Approximately on or after 02/29/2008	1 click(s) recorded
Total:	$0.61	$0.46	2 record(s) found

Adster came through with my first blog earnings. I just got Adsense set up fully yesterday so I am not saying Adster won but I will say it is delivering with less than optimal (at least per the online experts) placement. I have some concerns about the ad matching that adsense is doing to my core topics but it is getting prime placement so we will soon see.

The reason this is significant is that I have done little to create heavy promotion or optimization of advertising. This blog is effectively a baby with little useful content or linking to it. I might be on to something here.

"Creating a new Blog" topic has dominated a little lately but that is just while I implement the core subject of the Blog which is improving your finances. Real content should be showing up with some real results to promote over the coming month. That said, it may be very valid if it can produce new income at some considerable level (say $300 a month to start).

More Blog Promotional Activity

I listed my beautiful baby blog on Technorati which, from investigation, is a major method of increasing visibility. I also used a site called Pingomatic to automatically get me onto several blog search engines.

Checking out the various adsense competitors but details on that to follow.

Need to concentrate on content now .....

Additions to the Blog

Quick update.

I added the various social networking links via the Feedburner site so that there is a chance for better visibility. Added a few Ads and a "Donate a dollar" button.

I posted a nice review of Mint.com and posted my review and the link in their forums (I hope that is considered OK). By viewing my statistics on Statcounter, I actually got 3 unique visitors from there.




Overall this is been relatively easy for not having done much research.

From tiny acorns do mighty oaks grow ....

Setting up the Blog

Basic requirements for setting up my blog were simple - It had to be free and it had to allow some method of generating income.

Wordpress (which I had some previous experience) does not allow the income part but Google's Blogger meets the criteria of both. I am also generally impressed with Google as a company so I decided to use Blogger. There may be more out there but I am not that patient.

I chose my topic, name and made a little banner using Paint.net (Free) to quickly throw it together. The results are before you.

Next thing was setting up some sort of ad revenue. I tried setting up Adsense (Googles ad "engine") but it gave me an error when trying to register so I am waiting on that to see if I can get it working. I did a search under "Adsense comparison" and found another service called "Adster" which was very easy to set up and claims greater revenue to the Client so I thought I would give that a try too. Once again there are probably more there but I figured I would give these to a try.

Blogger does not have statistical analysis so I signed up for Feedburner and Statcounter. Both pretty easy to set up but Feedburner seems to have more than just statistics and I will review that later once I work out what it fully does but it seems to have services to help promote your blog.

Now, onto posting content and lots of it.

Another Income Source - I'm a blogger now!

I can't believe I didn't post this earlier.

I started a Blog! Its called "Financial Irresponsibility" (Duh!).



The reason for this is that bloggers can make good money. I don't expect to make anything near the quantity of cash they make but a few hundred extra a month would be nice.

I am doing this blindly. I didn't do hours of extensive research but what I did pick up was that "content is king" so I hope my little or large gains are both interesting and helpful to people. I chose finances because everyone uses money, wants money and needs money. I have a certain amount of experience over the past year that might be helpful and I know i would have read my blog a year or two ago when times were at their darkest. I also think that my project to save $1000 a month on expenses is valuable if I achieve my goal or get close. I could see people using this project themselves.

I don't have a lot of time with Jobs, wife, 3 year old and volunteering at a non-profit so lunchtime and little spare time blogging for dollars it is.

Updates on how to stumble through setting up a blog on the chance it might make a little cash coming up ....

Save a G game!

OK so based upon me pulling in about $6000-$7000 Net income per month (for those of you who do not live in San Francisco, don't get too excited, it goes fast here), I have decided to see if by clever means I can reduce my expenses by $1000 per month.

Being a tech geek, I decided to harness the power of the internets for both information and services that may help me on my quest.

First up, I need a fair estimation of where I stand, where is my money going?

I went to a handy Web 2.0 review site called Webware and searched under "personal finances" and found a site called Mint.


















REVIEW: I can say I can be hard to please with services like this. I don't like to have to work very hard at any administrative tasks (This may be a reason I got into financial difficulty). I expect things like this to be simple, easy to setup and intuitive.

Mint delivers so well in this category. I gave it my email address and a password, gave it my bank account online log-on details and it went to work. It categorized about 66% of my bank account transactions over the previous 2 months and gave a nifty and fast method of mass categorizing the remaining third. Selecting the "Spending trends" tab brought up a full display of graphs and details regarding my spending and income. I can honestly say that the task of tracking my spending was 90% done in 10 minutes of using this site.

There is a section called "ways to save" but I did not have enough information for it to do its thing so I cannot comment on this function. Apparently it is in beta and will offer best credit cards, savings account and cellphone and other potential savings. Shame about that since that is the core purpose of my even looking for a site like this.

I was initially going to check out its competition but feel no need to search any further as Mint handles what I need so there may be better but I am pleased with this.

A

Additional Income

Another part of my plan was to pick up some nights and weekends contract work. I am a programmer so this is not uncommon. I found the best method for doing this is using Craigslist "Gigs" section and post under "Services".

Found some work, the nicest being a $1500 job to fix up a mess left by a previous contractor.

Got some Resumes out

Got 300 resumes out in one week!

Phone ringing off hook.













Mainly headhunters at first. I have a strong negative opinion on most if not all headhunters I have worked with. They are trying to parasitically get between you and the jobs already on job-sites so they can pocket a commission. The danger is that when they speak with you they are trying to slow down your own efforts so they can place you. If they help you fine but don't depend on them.

Then the real McCoy! I got three interviews set up.

Got the job! My income will go up from $85,000 to $100,000 and a approximate $15,000 Christmas bonus with full benefits. Score!

Getting a New Job

This was easy for me since I did not really like my current job so if there is any inner conflict at you doing this, can't really help you except to say more money is good in this situation.

I have a very good method for finding a new job. I got this tip from a trusted friend and have applied it several times before and have gotten friends to try this method and it works.

Anyway, basic theory is you are now marketing and advertising - as a job seeker you are selling your services so it is fair to think that the same axioms apply to job seeking as selling product X. The secret is to blanket the place with your main form of advertising, your resume.

I get hundreds of them out in a week.

That may not make sense, and I am not saying it makes sense, I am just saying it works.

You will run out of places to send them after about 20 or so (going to Hotjobs, Monster, Craigslist etc.) but then I go to websites of any company I feel vaguely relates to what I am looking for and drop a resume to their HR dept. via the "Careers" page on the main company website with a generic cover letter.

Anyway, let the advertising campaign commence!

The Masterplan!

Alright, so here I am.

Post-Bankruptcy.

The current situation is that I have a monthly payment I have to make that matches "What I make" minus "What I need to survive". Not a bad scenario but things get tight and luxuries are limited.


I have about 6 months before my next evaluation of my income vs. expenses (After taxes are filed). So my theory is, keep increasing income and reducing expenses to buy me the elbow room to live a little looser with money. Sure my yearly evaluations will make me have a bigger payment but at the end of this I will have a chance to actually pay off my debts and have a nice financial scene when all this is done. You hearin' me?

Onto the first step .... new job, increase in pay!