George Blogs!

A few days ago, I started my very first niche blog, which you can see for yourself at:

http://www.RecessionJobHunter.com

I’m actually pretty new to niche blogging so we’ll have to see how it goes - but recession is a hot topic, and with unemployment hitting 16.4% in the US, this should be a pretty lucrative market to work in.

Yes, I know I promised to resume blogging three weeks ago - but as life would have it, things got in the way.

Aside from a terrible bout of hay fever - which I’m still recovering from - I’ve been preoccupied with preserving my branding on the SitePoint market.

SitePoint has become incredibly competitive in the last month. About a week ago, I created a market watch solution for SP. It’s updated several times a day - and the results aren’t pretty. The number of Clickbank-ready sites - the type of product that I specialize in - has exploded in the past 30 days, creating an incredibly tense atmosphere. Where previously there was only one major seller (Kate Anderson), now there’s several.

In short, back when I started, this used to be a fairly friend live-and-let-live market - heck, I could actually approach my major competitor (Kate) and ask her for advice on how to sell offerings that competed with hers.

Nowadays, SitePoint is a dog-eat-dog world. It’s take no prisoners all the way - go for their throats, because if you don’t, they’re gonna rip yours out first.

Do I regret it? Not one bit. As Gordon Gecko said, we live not in a democracy, but in a free market - and if you can’t play with the big dogs, get off the porch and go skulk in the corner. Competition raises the stakes - and it’s what really drives you to do the best you can. Because if you don’t, someone else will.

Above all, competition makes things fun. It’s one thing to simply make money - but it’s far more gratifying to triumph over and ruin the livelihoods of others.

There’s no victory without a body count.

This is just a quick update to let you know that I will start updating this blog on Monday. This Friday, I landed a very lucrative custom design project (which, due to confidentiality reasons, I am not at liberty to discuss - so don’t even ask). With my other site selling today for the BIN price and the custom order deal agreed upon, I am pleased that I earned $1,134 over the course of the last 24 hours.

Of course, events like these call for a celebration - so I finally decided to treat myself to a fancy new mobile phone (my old one was so ancient, I was embarassed to be seen using it). Say hello to my new girlfriend - her name is Samsung Omnia and you can see her pictured in the images that comes with this post. The rest of the weekend will probably be spent figuring out how to use the damn thing and getting used to touchscreen functionality (if I accidentally call someone - sorry!).

Speaking of which - if you’re reading this and know me in the offline world and if I had your phone number, please get in touch with me - I have a new SIM card, so while my phone number is the same, all contact information has been lost. I’ve done my best to recover contact information - but if there’s a reason I should have your number, please get in touch with me as soon as possible so I can add you.

Yes, I know it’s been some time since my last post - unfortunately, there isn’t much I can say in my defence other than to honestly claim that, frankly, I haven’t had time to blog lately.

I was working on two major sites for the past week or so - and I am pleased to say that one of them just went for $597. The other will probably be re-listed next week, as, for some reason, it’s not doing terribly well on the marketplace.

In short, this week was somewhat of a setback in that I expected to sell two sites and not one - but even with that, $597 still isn’t so bad - and I am still confident I will be able to hit the $797 mark for the other site next week.

Ok, ladies and gentlemen, we’re all business people here. And as a business person, there is nothing I hate more than independent contractors who simply cannot stick to their own deadlines.

I won’t be dropping any names here - at least, not for a few days - but last Thursday, at exactly 17:23 my time, I retained the service of a graphics designer for my next project. He contacted me prompty, acknowledged the receipt of the project and asked for 4-5 working days to finish the design.

No problem - 4-5 days for a minisite is somewhat on the longer end, but I can live with that.

You can probably anticipate where this post is headed…

As I’m typing this, it is now Friday, 0:19 AM my time (in other words, just past midnight). I haven’t heard from this designer, in spite of the two e-mails I sent him.

I have the book for this project ready and written - the only thing that’s missing is the graphics. By the look of things, I’ll be lucky to get it done this Friday (which already exceeds the self-imposed 5 working days deadline) - and even then, I won’t be able to sell it until Monday, because I won’t be getting maximum exposure on SitePoint during the weekend.

Bottom line is, this delay is costing me money (that’s the reason why you haven’t seen a single auction from me this week). If the designer actually knew what he was doing, the site would’ve been ready and sold, and I would’ve been reinvesting the money into my next project.

As it is, I am stuck here waiting on him like an idiot to, frankly, pull his finger out and finish the job that I’m paying him to do.

No, I don’t care what happened to him - if he needed extra time, he could’ve e-mailed me. But ignoring my e-mails as well as the deadline he himself specified is just bad practice - especially when it concerns a project that he’s being paid to do.

Bottom line is, you agree to a deadline, you stick to it no matter what - or you don’t get repeat business from me.

Harsh? Yes - but I never said that making money is easy or not stressful.

Christmas is over, and business is business.