Repairpal Is A Friend of My Brothers
One thing that I havent mentioned yet is my that my Brother Des is moving to Australia to marry an Australian girl called Em. On the way to finally settling down, at the ripe old age of 37, they are embarking on an epic journey around the world taking in the sites of a number of countries along the way before heading off to Oz to tie the knot. Last week the tour of the world landed them in the US and where else but L.A.
Fresh off the plane and after stepping out of LAX my brother decided he wanted a Ford Explorer to take in the sites of Compton and the hills of Hollywood. (The US film industry has a lot to answer for!!) So off they go to the nearest rental desk and pick up the car they wanted.
I went to LA in 1998 and I know how busy the freeways were then so I dread to think what they are like 12 years on. My brother said that everywhere that they turned the traffic was backed up, rush hour bedlam, and the car didnt seem to be coping too well for some reason.
After two hours of chugging away, bumpre to bumper, and probably covering no more that 10km their was an epic fail with the Explorer. The thing is LA is such a vast place, they had no idea where the were and who to turn to, being a stranger to such a vast City where would you turn to if you needed Los Angeles auto repair?
Luckily for them they found a site called Repairpal and managed to source an automechanic who told them they had blown a head gasket. Anyway the auto mechanic looked after them, sorted everything and was aparently very reasonable so Repairpal became my brothers best friend in LA.
Sign Of The Times
So the summer is here and the gardens need doing at the back and the front of the house. As I was busy for clearing the moss from the driveway I noticed next door had erected a new address plaque.
We have an indifferent relationship with our neighbour and to be honest I would normally just ignore any improvements she makes on her house as I always feel she is a little eccentric and find her taste not to my own. I also feel that address plaques can go one of two ways, it either sets the house off really well or gives the impression that the owner feels that their house is a lot grander than it is!!
However this address sign looks great and although our houses are very modest the sign adds a little touch of class to an otherwise fairly bland exterior. Eccentric or not, I want one!!
So my mission is to scour the market for the finest address signs and order one that puts hers to shame.
Well you have to keep up with the neighbours after all!!
Facebook – the future?
I keep hearing about Facebook and how social networking is no longer used to simply stalk the girl you never had the bottle to ask out at secondary school fifteen years ago!!
There are the obvious uses like the ability to build a fan page , sorry ‘like’ page as it has become, and have access to hundreds of members in one strike but then I am lead to believe by some fellow affiliates on the forums that the traffic that FB pushes towards their own version of google ads is extremely well targeted.
I will no doubt be looking into this more as I continue trying to ride this steep learning curve I am currently clinging onto for dear life!!
England For The WC, dont be daft!!
It has been two weeks since I have posted anything on my blog because I simply have not had the time. I have had to ensure that all the loose ends are dealt with regarding the closure of my recruitment business, tried to source new ideas for affiliate sites and various tournaments and presentations to attend with my kids football team.
I have had a couple of offers to build sites for friends for their products and services but it all seems a bit awkward to charge them and if I start a project I know by nature that I will have to invest time and money into them as I am just built that way.
I managed to get a little time to myself Saturday night to go to the pub to watch the Champions League Final. Although disappointed that there were no English teams in it the football was good and the fall out interesting with Mourinho giving off major signs that the proposed move to Madrid is more than just hack gossip.
The fever that surrounded the match was intense and it got me thinking of ways I can make money from the forthcoming World Cup, memorabilia, programmes, clothing etc. One thing is for sure though, I shan’t be putting the mortgage money on England to win it after disappointment time and time again in major competitions throughout my life time.
FEAR – Face Everything And Recover
Some 2 years ago the UK was hit with a recession, or the credit crunch, as it was commonly known. You couldn’t switch on a TV or pick up a newspaper without the words ‘current economic climate’ being banded about. We went into a state of panic, or recession by media as I liked to call it, as they slowly but surely ensured everyone was sufficiently scared enough not to spend a penny of their hard earned cash.
As the recession gripped the country I watched my business reduce to tatters as site after site that I looked after saw their volumes plummet and their need for temporary workers diminished. After 18 months of struggling against what the media told us we should give into I finally decided that enough was enough and there was only so much you could flog a dead horse.
The dilemma I then found myself in was how to replace my income, albeit a dwindling income, after all I had dabbled in odd ideas whilst the business was quiet but none of them had shown any great promise despite my endeavour to make them work.
The answer was brought to my attention by a very enthusiastic SEO expert with an infectious personality that sold me the dream of world domination, with great ease it must be said. He taught me how to build one page wonder sites and monetize them through affiliate links and adsense and now all I need to do is fine tune the process with tools he has equipped me with and step it up a gear so the pence I’m currently converting become pounds and the pounds become thousands of pounds.
This is the story of the journey, where it takes me, who has helped me along the way, what sites and tools I have found useful and whether or not I end up getting my house repossessed by the bank.
Wish me luck!!