KhalidsLife.com

It has been a tiring return to work. I couldn’t sleep the first night, as you do when you are getting back into a routine. Then, on the second I didn’t have my usual eight hours and tonight I’ve been working solid for what feels like eight hours!

I’m ranting, but whichever way I put it what I’m trying to say is that I really need a rest. My ambition and drive for success sometimes means I skip sleep, cut out breaks and sit solidly until the job is done. Whilst this is really good and means I can hammer out sites quickly, it does mean I’m constantly yawning, my eyes are blood shot and I feel like I am getting no where!

It’s important to rest and take breaks so you return to work with a clear head and fresh enthusiasm but everyday when I get up at 6.15am to go to work I kick myself for not living my dreams of being a full time internet entrepreneur. And when I sit at my desk doing boring work, hating every second, I kick myself for not earning enough online.

I’m still ranting, I guess I just need to zip it until the day comes where I am earning enough to write inspirational blog posts and food reviews like Mr Chow. In the mean time I’ll be repeating my working patterns of coming home to build more sites until I have a network with hundreds of domains - 30 so far, I want 200. My time will come…I hope.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Since the launch of Bar Vacancy, a trickle of jobs have been posted on the site however this has since stopped as my target audience is either away from their desks for the weekend or just not interested…yet.

Many people don’t believe in the one-man-band startup, especially if he/she is offering something for free. Something that seems too good to be true is generally ignored. People are wary of a catch or hidden cost and trying to prove there’s not whilst promoting the benefits of the site is difficult.

As a result, I’ve been focusing on recruiting representatives in Europe, mainly areas where UK bar staff travel in the summer to work, such as Tenerife and Ibiza. The idea is to have these people go into restuarants, bars and nightclubs and have them promote the site face to face with the owner/manager. By doing this, they are effectively pushing word-of-mouth advertising and will even offer to post jobs on behalf of the business.

A difficulty that spawns from the above problem is having a balance between jobs and workers. At present, I have more workers than posts, especially people looking for work in Tenerife and Ibiza etc areas. This is annoying as I don’t want people thinking there is nothing available or the site is useless so I need to act fast.

I’ve posted on pretty much every applicable forum and replied to threads for people looking for work.

Watch this space I guess!

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

I’m back and I’ve already been working hard to launch Bar Vacancy. After sending out a few hundred e-mails to bars, nightclubs and agencies, I’ve setup an Adwords Campaign covering a lot of keywords. I’ve decided to let it run for a few days and if it doesn’t work well then I’ll need to look at another form of advertising.

The site is simple, easy and best of all FREE. There should be no reason people don’t want to use the site, I just need to ensure an balanced number of visitors between employers and employees. Word of mouth will hopefully play a big part in ensuring people recommend the site and I intend to advertise privately across bar/nightclub/security forums.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions I’d love to hear them. Perhaps you have an idea or opinion that could help?

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Marketing a product or service can be particularly difficult, especially if you have stiff, established competition. Introducing my latest site, www.BarVacancy.com

Bar Vacancy is a free classifieds site specifically geared towards the licensed trade. Bar Vacancy allows you to post free bar jobs and will make money through people paying for “featured ads” and banner adverts.

The site rivals Gumtree, BarZone and every other site because it is FREE! Gumtree charge £25 per ad and BarZone £34.

I need your help…

Marketing such a service may sound easy. People often say “Oh that’s a good idea and because it’s free everyone will probably use it” - In theory yes, if a vendor was handing out a product you’d check it out before paying for it elsehwere.

The problem is getting the message out.

I let Adwords run for a few hours, targetting keywords for employers only so I could get some more jobs posted on the site e.g. “bar staff required“. £14 later at a cost of £0.40 per click, I got nothing. Understandably campaigns like this take time and I can’t expect immediate results, but just how far do you go before you try something else?

I’ve been looking at magazine specifically for the licensed trade, such as bar owner magazines and websites. For a good quarter page magazine ad I am looking at £1400 and there are no decent websites I have found so far.

I was thinking of doing down the route of business cards but they would only cover my city and would involve a lot of legwork. Flyers and mailshots is another idea and I have an e-mail campaign ready to go but I need more ideas.

What do you think I should do?

Thanks, and good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

In preparation for my week’s holiday in Spain I’ve been pushing to get my “to do” list finished, including the completion of two projects posted on Rent a Coder, finishing the setup of a piercing network included in the sale of my tattoo network and sorting out some back dated paperwork!

Thankfully the Rent a Coder projects are done - one extremely well and the other terribly. Nevermind, the latter only cost $30 and it works so that’s the main thing. I’ll be introducing these projects soon, both require groundwork prior to launching.

In preparation for the well written script to be launched I’ve been building a network of sites to support a marketing campaign. These sites will provide keyword specific information and link to the main site for organic traffic.

Upon my return from sunny Spain I’ll be contacting e-mail lists of people who will benefit from the site (it’s free to use) and then finally I’ll be exposing it to the masses through word of mouth, business cards, posters, Google Ads and the information sites previously mentioned.

Having an over-active brain, it’ll be difficult for me to switch off on my holiday so I’ve purchased an iPod shuffle and three books. I had a 1st Gen Nano before that was 1Gb also so I’m happy the 125 - 250 songs you can hold on a shuffle. The design is cool too meaning I don’t have to stuff another electrical device in my pocket!

Out of the three books, two were business related and one was “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, seemingly a “must read”. They’ll keep my brain occupied and I’m sure the warm weather will slow me down a bit.

I’ll be excited to go and relax but excited to return and launch my new site.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid

I realise it has been some time since my last post but to be honest not a lot is happening. I am at the mercy of coders once again, two to be precise. One is doing his job well and on time, the other is a week overdue for a $30 script.

As I’ve been kept waiting, my mind has been thinking of new ideas and I’ve invested a few dollars into new domain names. I intend to build another network but that requires a custom coded site too, so back to Rent a Coder for more bids!

I’ll keep you posted in due course. Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

My last blog post was 6 days ago, which is terrible really considering I’ve generally been posting every two days. Lately I’ve barely had enough time to sleep and as a result, the blog suffered. My apologies, here’s what I’ve been doing…

First off, I completed changing the ad codes for all the tattoo sites so the new owner could start earning. It wasn’t a case of copying and pasting so it took a good few hours. In addition to that I am working on building a piercing network for him which was included in the sale.

My friend Stephen and I started our own cleaning company, Edinburgh Clean. After two nights of flyering properties late into the night, we’re now receiving calls etc which is keeping us busy. It is difficult to get a reliable cleaner in the city and with everyone now in the 9-5 rat race, we’re providing a service that is in demand.

In addition to that, I have outsourced two new projects which I will be launching soon. One is just a small site similar to my name generator Cool Nicknames, the other is a social media application for a specific niche that will require a large chunk of investment. The market is untapped in many ways so fingers crossed it’ll work.

Whilst juggling those 4 things, I’ve been trying to spend time with family and friends. Did I mention I also work 37 hours per week?

…this will either make me or kill me, I hope the latter is never an option!

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

After the recent sale of my website network I have some money to re-invest. Bankrolling future operations is now a lot easier for me as I don’t need to wait until pay day to make my next move, I have cash available to input into new projects. Being in complete control is a fantastic relief, and in addition having the money to hire people to do work for you!

Lukily I have a few sites I’ll be churning into sales and adding a little more cash on the pile shortly. I have a few big ideas I’ll be developing over coming months, including offline businesses. Spreading your risks is important and whilst I value the internet as a fantastic place for making money online, I feel putting two much into one domain can be risky.

Speaking of domains, part of my investments will be buying premium names that I can either rent or develop into profitable sites. As the .coms and .co.uk’s are snapped up at rapid rates, I think it would be wise to get a foot in the door and keep a hold of a few valuable names for the future.

I’ll keep you posted on any developments as and when they happen. Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

First it was for sale, then it was cancelled…now it has been sold. I got the price I asked for and the buyer got the network with a little extra. In addition to my tattoo network, the buyer got my piercing domains - a new network I was going to start - and my services for the next three weeks. This includes building these sites and backlink building.

In short, we both got a good deal and I am ready to re-invest into something new. The buyer will soon take responsibility for a network earning $300 - $400 per month with the potential to become the largest tattoo and piercing network online.

I am a large chunk closer to becoming debt free and have the buying power to start multiple new businesses. Keep your eyes peeled for my new ventures. And, don’t worry, I still have investments online and more sites to sell in the future.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

April was a good and bad month for me. Good because I managed to sell a site in 15 minutes and make $525, but bad because my network earnings were down with my main publisher partner, Media Jump. Here’s a breakdown of my income…

• Site sale: $525
• Media Jump: $163.22, down from $330.69
• Value Click Media: $50.19, up from $13.37
• TTZ Media: $36.45, up from $35.10
• Text Link Ads: $7.50, same as last month.
• Total: $782.36, up from $385.17

Media Jump was my biggest loss but my overall searches were up from 11,000 to 17,000 - higlighting they are just not paying as much per click. It is disappointing because I would have broken March’s earnings without the site sale if they had maintained the same pay per click.

Value Click was almost triple because I added two more banners and the network provided over 200,000 impressions in the month’s period. TTZ was up slightly, again due to more visitors, but their downtime over April has caused my earnings to be less than expected.

On a plus note, I doubled my income and can smile when I look back on my achievements.

• New daily average: $25.23

How did you do last month?

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.