January 30th 2009

I have now been in Glasgow since Wednesday night. It was a pretty mixed day yesterday, I went down to apply for my Minicab License only to be told that my paper and plastic licences did not match and that I would have to contact the DVLA to get another paper one sent. This was a real setback as it further delays my quest to make money. I have now sent off for the paper license and hoping it arrives soon.

A company in London contacted me also about a job (my actual profession is in the Print Management field), and want me to travel down to London for an interview next Wednesday. So fingers crossed.

As for making money on the Internet, its confusing as ever, bearing in mind that I am a complete novice, and without spending any money. Firstly I created this blog (free), secondly I added some ads from google AdSense (free), and thirdly I was looking to increase traffic to this blog. The idea being that when people visit this blog there is a chance that they will click on the ads.
Here's what I have done:

Social Networking - I emailed all my friends and put my blog address on Facebook. This did actually increase visits to my blog page (traffic)
and also some clicks on the ads, not a great deal but enough to notice.

EZINES - There are actually online magazines where you can submit your blog as an article and have a link to your web page. The one I found was called Zimbio (www.zimbio.com) which does it all for you. I found this very easy to follow and notice an increase in traffic every time I post an article. So far I have also got most clicks on my ads this way.

Surf Communities - I have called these surf communities because basically that's what they are (nothing to do with the Beachboys). People who want to increase traffic to their websites/blogs will sign up as members (free) and surf the pages of all the other sites in the community. The more pages you surf then the more times your page will be visited. I have signed up with 2 of these and noticed an increase in traffic right away but no clicks on my ads! It is too early to comment, but the only benefit I see with this method is that traffic to your web page may help you climb up the google rankings. Most of the other members are will probably have the same type of ads as me.

I am now going to look at other types of ads to put on (apart from google AdSense), see what other EZINES/Forums are out there and continue with my research into increasing traffic. Once I do get a certain amount of money from my ads I can use to maybe invest in other online money making activities. Remember I am not an expert, so any whizz kids reading this who think I am a caveman then your probably right. Any fellow cavemen/women out there, if I do make any money from this then so can you.

Anyway that is my findings so far. As tomorrow is the end of the month I will let you know then how much money I have made. Its not a great deal, so don't get excited, but its encouraging.

I am missing Liz and the kids and hope to get home soon. Anyone else out there who is a victim of the recession, keep going and good luck.
John