Pyjamanating

A monthly blog? Whatever. In October the marketing niche continued to reap sporadic but quite reasonable rewards, so most effort went into more of the same, really and starting to think about developing a permanent site. Also messing about with adsense and other small beer activities. Having one blog post slashdotted turned a slipping technorati rank into the opposite.

Looking forward, I’ve suddenly landed a couple of months contracting work so  the marketing niche will be more of a spare time activity, but with the security of being well funded into 2008, by which time the little trickles of income will have stood a good chance of having grown into enough to cover the necessary expenses. So that’s a healthy situation to be in really. Pyjamanating is working out OK for me, but of course never in the way that was expected.

I wonder what’s next.

September was a month of two halves, I think. The first half continuing on from August trying to get the 30dc niches to work, and the second half consisting of some serious market research resulting in a couple of ideas and the starting of a new niche which began to bear fruit in early October. Teamwork helps too.

What I’m pondering now is the combination of optimising for niche keyphrases with the accumulation of traffic from long tail sources. Sometimes it seems like the obvious intuitive strategy, and at others like a contradiction.

There’s also the problem of an affiliate which pays after the end of a quarter in which the product was delivered, which is not good for cashflow.

August was a washout, weatherwise here in London, so staying in and working like crazy on the “thirty day challenge” and other things provided the best way of surviving without feeling terribly deprived of sunshine. I probably persisted with my two niches for too long. Always tantalisingly close to very high ranking and starting to get some traffic, it always looked as if one or the other of them would come good any day now, but that was not be within the thirty days, nor with an extra seven.

Perhaps more usefully than the exact method taught, is the adoption of some of the techniques learned to existing areas of expertise and experience. SEO for firefox, session manager, Wordtracker and various other tools, each quite humble but together making a powerful edge. Traffic is increasing already on some of my existing sites, and I’ll find a way to convert some of it eventually.

Anyway, September, yes. Wordpress MU. PJN v 2. Amazon US ( not .co.uk) and making a product related to my major domain. It’s all there to be done, and a few days respite and relaxation as well. The best time of year. No more rush hour tubes and trains yippee.

Here’s the rather convoluted way I contrived for measuring the red line against the blue one in photoshop.

I suspect the low tech piece of card method might have been quicker and just as accurate, but I’m not clever enough to think anthing so elegant as this:


Originally uploaded by eddale

While waiting for the next announcement about an announcement I’ve been busy upgrading wordpress blogs, reading news, twittering and facebooking and also found a really useful online training course to take part in. It’s called the “thirty day challenge” and takes place during the month of August, about internet marketing and it’s free.

The challenge itself is to earn a first $10 in 30 days, without spending any money, using a combination of traditional marketing theory and web2.0 tools. If you can learn these techniques then it is hoped that you can apply them on a larger project, longer term bigger scale afterwards.

I admit I was a bit skeptical at first, but after three days catching up and taking in the resources I can vouch that there is some good quality information and advice, sound theory and enjoyable learning to be had through enrolling on this project. You’d have to be quick though since it started a week ago, and be prepared to put in the rest of this week catching up.

I’ll be using this blog to write about my progress so if you want to hear how I get on you’d better subscribe now.

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I knew it would be a challenge adapting to a new routine and of course like everything else, events never turn out as expected.

I’ve kind of just slipped into this work from home lifestyle without consciously sitting down and working out exactly what I need to do first and prioritising anything yet. That’s not worrying me too much, I know that anything pressing will find a way to gain my attention, but there is a lot that I could do to improve my personal efficiency and writing this blog is probably going to be a key activity towards that end.

Yet my rate of blogging has decreased in an eratic way, on both this and other blogs. One positive reason for that is the absence of morning train journeys on which there is nothing else to do except think. I don’t listen to personal audio, so this was a time for quiet contemplation, albeit in a desperately uncomfortable and crowded situation often!

The trips out to meetings and suchlike seem to be a stimulus, so I’l continue to plan for around two a week.

One thing I’m aware of but haven’t sorted out yet is the physical state of my workstation. The adjustable height swivel chair is just not right, and I can’t maintain a good posture. That’s interfering with my work.
So where can you buy a chair with four legs thes days?

Well, I have to admit yesterday was hard going for various reasons. The online application went in before the deadline, a little brief perhaps, but better than missing out. I am reminded that the human resources people have seriously broken the whole process of recruitment. CVs are not accepted and the trend these days is to require a whole bunch of evidence which matches the candidate against a person specification. The only trouble is that the person spec is drawn up by a committee of stakeholders, who each have to add their own slant into the proceedings in order to exert their influence. The result is a long list of essential skills and experience, across a broad range of fields, in depth and with proven knowledge of both the discipline and the sector. In other words they end up insisting on looking for somebody who is already doing the same kind of job for the same type of organisation, who is capable of being all things to all people. Then they offer a short term contract on the lowest terms and conditions in the market. Anybody who is a suitable applicant on their terms wouldn’t dream of applying, and anybody who does apply is inherently unsuitable for the job as described, and thus likely to be filling in the application with a whole load of answers which bear little or no resemblence to the truth.

Enough of that for a while.

Today I need to get started on designing a course outline for some part time adult education in the local boroughs. It needn’t be too detailed, in fact it needs to be quite adaptable so I’ll use a wiki for the draft and invite my partner to collaborate. This will be creative and fun!

If it doesn’t rain all day like yesterday I’ll spend some time in the garden too.

Ironically one of my first tasks in the role as an independent freelancer is to apply for a position which, if I took it, would effectively put me back as an employee again. But only for a few months. If I get to interview, I will explore the possibilities of making it a part time contract for a start. Then there’s the opportunity to build up experience and contacts which this particular position offers. Filling in job application helps to focus on current skills and experience, keeping the CV up to date and thinking about opportunities. It’s also a task which I will tend to avoid if possible, so getting this done today is a good way of telling myself that I am at work and not on holiday!

Goodbye to the humdrum, adieu to wage slavery. No more command and control freakery.

From now on you can deal by yourself with the results of your own uninformed, unilateral decision making. I’m outta there!

The countdown ends tomorrow, without me having made too much of a fuss about it. The occasion will go unmarked and largely unnoticed until September. Just one more payslip.

I won’t miss the journeying, the hustling crowds, nor many of the people.� I may miss the new air conditioning system if the weather continues to return to what it should be.