Diary Of An Internet Wannabe

Well, the last few days have been interesting. I decided I needed a way to drive traffic to my site so I came up with the idea of creating something that could be used in a viral email campaign. A viral email campaign is essentially something that draws people to the site - you seed it by sending it out to your contacts via email or posting it in a couple of newsgroups and then hopefully people will like it and forward it on to friends etc.

So I had a think about what is topical at the moment and Bird Flu came to mind. I then thought about a 'cure' and the image of a box of 'Lemsip' for birds came to mind.

So I got my Younger brother who is a dab hand at the old Photoshop to put together an image of a box of Lemsip but instead of being for human flu it is for Bird Flu.

If you do not know what Lemsip is then it is a hot lemon flavored medication drink that is taken for cold and flu and supposedly it brings you round and/or cures the Symptom. It is very popular in Ireland UK and USA. And maybe other countries too, I'm not sure.

You can see the result at http://www.pocketpcheaven.com/birdflue.php Do me a favour and send the link to your friends!

Anyway, the campaign resulted in me getting approx 825 visitors to my site yesterday Wed 26th Oct 05. Today Thursday at 10.00pm Ireland time I have had approx 260 visitors.

Not bad for a site that on average got 80-100 visits per day. That's the good news, the bad news is that it only resulted in 1 extra app added to the site. So I am posting a few more messages on the pocketpc newsgroup to promote the site. I have come to expect that it will take time.

It's a long haul, I think most people when attempting to build an internet presence expect overnight success but it is obvious that it does not work like that.

Well that's it for this time.

Hello again,

Well it's now 11.30pm Ireland time and this is the day that my press release re the Palm Invaders game has 'hit the wires.'

It's available on www.prweb.com and it is coming up in a search on Google news.

My main hope is that some publication or site picks up the story from prweb.com and then takes it to an even bigger audience therefore increasing my exposure.

At this stage in the day I would say that my site has experienced about 50% more visitors than normal but pocketpwire.com also sent out their weekly email today and I had a link in that so it is hard to say where the hits have come from. Any suggestions on how to track where visitors come from are appreciated!

I also discovered that the Palm Invaders game had been mentioned in a site called The Pocket Blog

I had never heard of the site before and came across it via a search for my site on msn.com but it seems the owner picked up the game via the pocketpcwire.com site and posted it on to his website so a thank you email is on it's way.

Assuming that the West Coast of USA is 8 hours behind my time then I still have another 8 hours possible interest time from the press release so it will be interesting to look tomorrow morning at my web stats.


Ruairi

Hello again.

Well, I've put my site online. It's been online since September 9 2005 and I've upped my visitor rate from around 50 per day to around 100 per day. But this is not enough and I am working on other methods to increase my visitor rate. I am aiming for min 2000 per day to start with.

I am also had a shift in how I'm going to make a success of this site. I've had a good think and have come to the conclusion that it is naive to expect developers and software houses to advertise on the site. Therefore I am now allowing developers etc to list the applications free of charge on the site. The reality is that there are too many competing free sites out there and to expect developers to pay to list on my site is asking a bit much.

So therefore since around late September the site is a free site. But even this has only saw 4 products listed free of charge which I find very strange.

So I have decided on another way to increase the exposure of my site. I need something sticky. Something that will hopefully generate some traffic. Via tutorials on a flash website
I have created a very basic space invaders type game. But rather than it being aliens and space ships the invaders are 'Palm' pda's and you must shoot these with an Ipaq Pocket PC.

The graphics are crap, there is no sound and the quality of the gameplay is debatable but hopefully it will create a buzz. I have also submitted a cheap press release to the site www.prweb.com and this is going live tomorrow Monday 24 October 2005. The release takes an angle of re-igniting the Pocket PC v Palm wars. I have also announced the game to www.pocketpcwire.com The release is on their website and clicking on it brings you to the game but so far there has not been much traffic. My experience of pocketpcwire.com in the past has shown that you get more traffic when they send out their weekly emails containing the weeks news rather than than from the site itself.

And I've also sent the game link to a friend in Australia who has a big contact email list plus my brothers asking them to send the link to their mates and so etc. I think it's called viral marketing.

So that's it for the meantime. I'll come back in a week or so and let you know how things are going. I've also a few more internet ideas in the pipeline so I'll bring you date with those.

Ruairi

Remember - you don't have to get it right, you just have to get it going. - Mike Litman

I am cracking up big time.

I was about to go live with my site www.pocketpcheaven.com today and at the last minute discovered a security problem which will take abit of coding to get around.

I have asked for help on the numerous php newsgroups on the net so hopefully it will not be too long before I am sorted.

I am aiming to go live Monday 5th September 2005, only a couple of days away, so I'll have to get the head down over the weekend. The fact that Ireland and playing France on Saturday night in a World Cup qualifier does not help but that will have to be missed if needed lol.

I also have a heavy day in work tomorrow and before I encountered the problem I was anticapating going into work on Saturday morning to clear some jobs but that now depends on how well I get the problem with my site out of the way.

So as they saw in Russia, Moscow (must go)

Remember - you don't have to get it right, you just have to get it going.

Well I'm back....not that anyone noticed that I was away in the first place lol!

A lot has happened since my last post in, er, January. I have managed to escape from my job in the discount retail chain and I found myself a job as a SQL data analyst in March.

Since then I have been learning new skills in SQL that I have used in the further development of www.pocketpheaven.com In my work I use SQL server but my site is based on My SQL and PHP. Thankfully SQL is SQL so the skills are transferrable.

And I've just returned from a week in sunny Sorrento Italy which has charged the batteries and has me rearing to go. Well sort of anyway. Find out more about Sorrento here.

The site is *nearly* there and is *almost* ready to go live. To recap, the basic model is that it is going to be a software directory for users of Microsoft pocketpc devices. End users can come along and find the latest software while developers and software houses will hopefully use the site to advertise their wares. And I anticipate charging these companies for the priviledge. Final pricing is to be decided but it will be competitive compared to others.

Sure, there are free listing software directory sites out there but in life you pay for what you get and I believe that I can offer that something extra. I have spent the last day or so trying to get the website payment system sorted. I have decided to opt for Paypal. It is the most recognised payment system on the net and if a potential customer has never heard of it then they must have been living in a straw hut in outer Mongolia. I actually don't know where outer Mongolia is but have heard others using the expression so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon too.

Well that's it for the time being. I'll be back with more drivel soon.

Remember - you don't have to get it right, you just have to get it going.

Friday 21st Jan 2005 12.20am

Hello again.

I have decided to post the time at the start of each post as I have noticed that the blogger systems seems to be stamping my posts with one of the USA times. Had a look in the blogger settigns to see if there are any settigns for specifying a time zone but could see nothing. If there is then could someone let me know.

Well, yesterday I was off work and I did not get near my site at all so I am really no further ahead, a day wasted. I feel crap about it as lost time is the one commodity which we cannot regain. I was working funny hours this week including 2 night shifts so my body clock is all over the place and I am wrecked. I did not get up till 1.30pm yesterdy afternoon. I then arsed about for a few hours on the pc and then drove a got some petrol for my car. I also visited my family home and lifted my new Samsung ML-1520 home laser printer. I got it for £50 on the UK site of the PC World Chain. It was cheap at £100 so £49.99 was too good an offer to miss. I got home at around 7.30pm but somehow found an hour or so to watch a soccer match on TV. Tut tut, I know.

Today I worked from 12pm - 10pm and I was home at around 10.40pm. This evening I did some more work on my site. I designed the page that will let software houses and developers add software to the site. There is still some testing to do though before the page is fully working. Even though I have designed the site using PHP and MySQL, I also use the excellent Dreamweaver MX for laying out the pages. Dreamweaver also contains excellent tools for automating connections to databases and can save alot of manual coding, I recommend it if you are serious about web design.

I also changed my holding page at my site and added a link back to this blog. Even though my site has been dormant for a year or so it still gets around 50 surfers a day 'blowing in' So if you have arrived at the blog from my site then welcome and make sure to keep checking this blog for the story of me taking my hopefully money making site to the world!

Well, that's if for tonight, must hit the sheets as I am up at 6am tomorrow morning to start work at 7am. Don't you just wish you where me, not! I finish at 5pm tomorrow so hopefully will get an hour or two on the site before heading out for a few hours to a bash for my cousin and girlfriend who are of to travel Australia for a year. I am trying to wrangle Saturday of in work as I start at 7am and will not be able to enjoy myself tomorrow night if I have to play Cinderella and leave at 12. I have to ask a fellow staff member nicely if she will cover for me so hopefully she will....

Remember.......'You don't have to get it right, you just have to get it going'

Well, here it is folks! The first of hopefully many accounts of my attempt at making a living on the internet. (Yawn etc - Joe Public)

About me - I am 33 years old and resident in the North of Ireland. I do not want to give my name or location away at the moment as that would be telling. Well not yet anyway.

I currently work HARD for a chain of discount supermarkets. Again I will not give the name away incase I say too much and end up like the poor fellow in this article. Did not like his job and some of his co workers and so told the world. But now he has been sacked.

Anyway, meanwhile back at the ranch. I hate my job too. I try not to be negative about it. It's not even the work, just the very long hours. I work an average 60 hours per week. Yes, I know trainee doctors and ER room staff work 60 hours, maybe even more, but at least they have the satisfaction of saving someones life or sewing someone's arm back on. Believe me, there is no satsifaction in working for a minimum of 60 hours per week in a discount supermarket and stacking beans.

My position is of.....(que the drum roll)...... Store Manager. Yes, sounds impressive until I tell you that each store has 3 managers. So it's sort of impressive only divided by 3 which = not very impressive. I have been in the position for 3 months. The store manager title is mis-leading. I do not wear a suit for a start. The official uniform is a shirt with a stupid clip on tie and then a stupid body warmer over that. I do not wear the body warmer as it makes me look like the Michelin Man as I am carrying a few extra pounds.

Until I started in this position I had never worn a clip on tie in my life. I did not even know how to clip it on for gods sake! I had to ask the manager of my training store how to clip it on! I'm sure he was wondering how I got past the interview stage. Also my title should be Store Manager/Store Detective/Cleaner/Outside Litter Picker Upper

Yes, this chain of discount stores is so discounted that they do not employ cleaners or ground staff, the staff and management have to do it.

Anyway, Prior to that I was the IT manager for a chain of DIY stores in the North of Ireland. Could not go any further in the company. So I thought that a chance of scenery would be the tonic. How wrong I was. I went from a 38 hour week to at times 68 hours per week. I used to work from 8.30am tro 4.45pm every Mon - Thursday and I finished at 4 on a Friday.

Moan Moan Moan, I've lost you already....

Anyway. I have decided to attempt at make a living on the net. Hopefully make a million but you have to start small. I am setting up an online business. The aim of this venture is to provide enough income so that I can leave this damned job of mine. The business could be described as advertising as I will hopefully charge businesses to advertise their products on my site.

Site? I hear you say. Yes, Site. I have and have had for the last 4 odd years a domain name and part-time-when-I-got-round-to-it website. The website is called www.pocketpcheaven.com That does not give much away but to cut along story short the site is a software directory for owners of the little handheld computer devices called Pocket PC. Microsoft makes the Operating system for them so no surprises there then.

The idea is that if like myself, you own one of these devices, then you will stumble across / go to my site and check out software for it. I would not hold or sell the software, hopefully developers and or companies developing software for these devices will pay me to add their software details to my site. It would be like a directory of sorts.

Visit it now here. There is nothing there except a glorifed under construction page. But that will change soon. I have teaching myself skills such php and mysql and I am working to get this site online. Whether or not it will a success is a different story, but sure I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. This blog will be the story of me taking the site from a late design stage to the big wild world.

Well that's it for tonight. It's now 3.45am Ireland/UK time as I write this so as they say in Russia.....Moscow (must go)

Keep tuned in for the exciting adventures of another soul in a billion who is tring to earn a few squid on the net. I love squid me. But I don't know how as I've never tasted it. I'd crack up if one of those dangling legs with the sticky things started moving in my mouth. No thanks, I'll pass on the squid.

I'd love your comments, positive and negative so don't be afraid of your keyboard!

Cheerio.