back again....

So its been a while since i posted on here, things have been somewhat rather intense lately.

For starters i just completed 60 days of intense meditation, meaning some 3-4 hours a day. I got something out of it, a massive sense of presence but im not sure if it was worth the pain. The entire point of this 60 day meditaion marathon was to find your purpose. Problem is, if you've studied your fair share or buddishm, you'd understand that there really is no purpose. So here I am again, staring down the gaunlet of the future, and not knowing what it holds. Part of me is scared, part of me is excited at the blank page I have in front of me.

David Deida says that men go through phases of life. They will have a period of intense meaning, in which they have a goal and they relentlessly pursue it. Then they will have an entire period of nothingness, in which they have no clue were to go next. He says you should just sit in the nothingness and wait for a new vision to emerge. That's pretty much were i think I am now.

Im planning a colossal trip around Europe, leaving in the next couple weeks. I think my mind just needs some space from Sydney. I think everyones mind needs the occasional space from wherever they live.

Anyways, for now to bed I go. Lets hope I can commit myself more to this dream.

Ciao

So I have a new job......

So, a couple weeks ago I apply for a job as a Business Development Manager. I realistically didnt even think i would get a call back, because usually for IT BDM roles they require a fair amount of preious IT experience.

To my shock i was called back, got a first interview, and within four days had a new job. So now i am ofically a "business development manager"; which sounds pretty cool i your ever gonna pickup chicks. Then again the type of women i like usually arent dumb enough to go after a guy just because his jobs sounds like it pays a lot of money.

So i go in for my first day, and i'm greeted by my new boss. Who admittedly is a pretty cool chick. She shows me around, and i discover that the company i am now working for offically only has three people working for it......and I am one of them! I have no idea were i find these midget sized companies, but somehow i seem to atract them.

The office is in Crows Nest, which is a pretty cool area i guess. Except it has no trees or bushes to go and meditate in at lunch. Although the ofice i work in itself is pretty ugly, it somehow smells like mould. I've pondered bringing in a good air freshener, but that would only provide a temporary solution.

Anyways, I am responsible or selling two lines of projects. A top of the range PHP development environment, and another development environment which is used to develop remote applications.

The tragic thing is, these products have no market at all right now. Something which was not explained to me in the interview, along with this our biggest competitor with the PHP product is manufacturer of the product. They dont seem very willing to help us succeed. Again, somethings just arent explained properly in interviews.

In hindsight i'm not sure if i wouldve taken this role. It's good, however i think the probability of making a sale is pretty hard. Especially when the manufacturer is trying to beat you!

Looking back on it, i honestly dont want to be working at this point in my life. I really just would love to get on a jet plane, and dont know when i'll come back again. I could do this with a few more months of savings, but then I will feel pretty bad if i leave after a few months.

Right now, i just wish i could go visit Canada and be with someone that means so much to me. Just another one of the myriad of reasons i wish i was financially free.

webhost reselling

Ok, so i've been a bit quiet lately. Mainly because of deep personal issues i've been having. As much as these challenges have been intense, when i look at them I again wonder "what would happen if i was financially free right now?". Inevitably the answer is something which im not currently doing, which only makes me realise how much greater life would be if i was financially free.

One of the most attractive ideas i've been exposed to lately is the idea of webhost reselling. Essentially you buy hosting in large quantities from a supplier, then you divide that hosting up into smaller chunks and resell it at a profit.

One of the most interesting ones i've seen is websufion reselling; for around 26 pounds per month you supposedly get unlimited bandwidth and webspace. The only problem i see with this is that people that usually say something is unlimited end up being full of it, and sadly from some reviews webfusion appears to be one of those people.

This led me to the next best option, Godaddy. Here, from what i've seen so far they give you everything you need to succeed. Everythign from scripts, good pricing, ad credits, to even a reseller forum. So far they seem the most attractive option to me, so I intend on starting one of these reseller sites soon.

I figure rather than sporadically moving around developing website to website, why not just focus my energy on one project and build it up to a successful level. Webhost reselling seems like a good a project as any to devote myself to.

People seriously make money from this...

It was the Winter of 2007. I had just left my last job out of utter boredom and was looking for something else.

My friend Andre knew that I had always had an interest in becoming a developer, he himself had worked on many Java projects. He mentioned to me how his boss might have some work he needed done, and i said i would be glad to help.

Andre explained to me what he needed done, a website to manage and control download access to files. I say i can do it, even though I have no idea how.

I spend the next few hours browsing the internet, looking for ways to create database driven websites; i stumble upon a website called sitepoint. By a "random" click on a mouse button i stumble into the sitepoint marketplace. There i am welcomed into a new world, a world i had never known existed before.

In this world these people build websites, drive traffic to them and create residual income streams. I had no idea such a thing existed. You hear endlessly people talking about how much money people can make on the internet, but usually these are just network marketing knobs talking themselves up. But this was real, real web developers creating REAL income streams online. I was fascinated, i needed to know more.

On that day, as far as im concerned, a new dimension in investment consciosuness was opened up for me. Now for me to just capitalise on it.

In search of systems......

In Australia 90% of small businesses fail within the first five years; that figure drops dramatically to 30% if the business is part of a franchise. We learnt in final year business electives, that this is fundamentally because franchises contain systems.

By systems they mean methodological proesses that have been tested over and over repeatedly to work, and generate results. In Canada, some call this business process modelling.

After my euphoric flash of awakening that people seriously made reliable streams of income from developing websites, the next question that came to me was "what systems are there that have been tested over and over again to develop profitable sites".

Thus far, i have found it difficult to find established systems in the web development community. Most of the people on boards like sitepoint and DP, just rely on randomly testing things and seeing if they get results.

Although i have noticed that one systems seems to work a lot, and genetates consistent results over and over. This is the niche content system, best taught in courses like howtoflipwebsites.com.

The system is essentially this:
1. Find a niche (use services such as NicheaDay for this)
2. Investigate the keyword (use keyword tools to discover the frequency of that keyword, and of closely related keywords)
3. Try to name your domain after one of the closely related keywords
4. Write aroudn 10-12 pages of articles ocusing on the chosen keywords
5. Place the site or sale, and you should get in the $200-300 mark

This system does require effort, alternatively if you really are lazy you can just hire a writer. It's common to see writers charging aroudn the $5-10 mark per 500 words on sitepoint and DP.

Im am currently making several sites based on this system, so we will see if it actually works. Based on sales on DP, it does seem to work well.

Zen and the Art of Scalping...

Today, in a fit of cyber related boredom, I ventured onto my old cyber hangout inthemix. In the mix is known for large discussions of utter trash, which is the kind of thing you would expect from a massive group of MDMA consumers.

Anyways, today's deep today thought was on being a scapler. I'd never really thougth about being a scalper, primarily because it's illegal. However when I see things like this:

http://feedback.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=allevents08&ftab=AllFeedback&myworld=true

it makes me seriously consdier it as a viable source of alternative (tax free) funds.

Seriously look at that guys sales, page after page of scalped ticket. Let's assume 50-100 profit per sale, and that's a nice wad of extra cash.

I dont think it would be that hard to pull of in Australia, especially over the Summer period. Big dance events like Field Day, BDO etc always sell out.

From an ethical standpoint I see nothing wrong with it. Honestly whats the diference between the guy that bought business.com for $10 bucks, and then sold it for a couple million and a scapler who buys a ticket cheap and sells it at a profit. Both were just quick to the scene. Ethically both people did exactly the same thing.

Tragically though, Summer is dying now in Australia so it will be a wile beore any of the "sure payoff" events come around.

Ah, another idea to add to the heap.

Purpose....

Back in the day, when i was a wannabe Venesian artist, one of my faourite questions to "open up" a women was the question "what wold you do with you life if you never had to worry about money".

The prototypical answer is usually along the lines of "um....i guess id lay on a beach" or "um.....i guess i would travel for a while". Seriously though, i highly doubt that anyone could go through fifty years of their life travelling and laying on beaches. After this inital desire to "relax and have fun" subsides then what? What purpose will they live for if they no longer had to worry about money? What would enrich a persons life with meaning, purpose and passion?

Personally i think it's a tragedy that so many lives are wasted in the pursuit of the dollar. At the back of my mind i know that whatever our purpose is in life, i highly doubt it has anything to do with increasing the national GDP.

Sadly though, i believe that people in general arent free to purpose their purpose due to the fact that they are perpetually worrying about money. My desire to pursue pupose is a larger driver behind my desire for financial freedom.

I lust for the day when i ask myself "ok, so i dont really need anymore money.....now what?".