Misguided Ramblings

Should banks be held liable for the subprime meltdown?  Should the government bail out the poor defenseless people who got taken in by the big evil mortgage brokers?  Not in my book.  I have to tell you that I’m getting sick and tired of the “cry-baby” attitude that our society seems to think is ok.  What happened to the days when people actually took responsibility for their actions?  Folks, if you didn’t read the fine print, if you didn’t bother to check when your ARM was going to go up, if you couldn’t be bothered to take the time to learn a little bit about financing, or you foolishly bought more house than you could afford, then I have no sympathy for you.  Take responsibility for your own mistakes and quit trying to blame the banks.

Now for those of you out there that were actually lied to, you deserve to cry and take your grievance to court, but I’d say 90% of the borrowers that are crying “foul!” simply did not read their contracts and did not ask enough questions.

But hey, that’s just my opinion.  What’s yours?

Woot!  Finally, no more commute!  At least not if you are a microwave photon and you work in a prism located across town.  For the rest of us though, this is definitely a good sign.  It’s only a matter of time before scientists come up with a matter transporter based on this technology.  Of course, they’ll first need to heat your atoms up to the point that they have the same energy as a microwave photon before they can send you off to your working prison, err, prism, but what’s a little unpleasant burning sensation compared to the time you’ll save on your commute?  Sign me up!

You can view the whole story here.

In my intro post I mentioned that this is one of my “things”.  I really want to generate some passive income streams, and I don’t have enough cash to buy another house, so I decided the web was a better answer.  I started on April 15^th, (tax day!), by buying some domain names, registering for Digitalpoint and Sitepoint, and reading as many posts/blogs/info sites as I could find.  So far I’ve spent $633.78.  Here’s the breakdown:

Domain names only - $216.44 (approx. 51 of them all total, 36 unique – some are the same names with different TLD - .com/.info)

Actual sites - $345 (meaning a site someone else had for sale – I bought 5)

Hosting - $49.87 (reseller hosting at $19.95 a month)

Other - $22.47 (bought some blog posts and links)

Yes, but how much have you made?  $0.52.  Not bad huh?  That’s like a negative 6 million ROI.

Ok, so it’s not a loss if you learn something from your mistakes – so what did I learn?

First of all, DON’T buy a domain name until AFTER you have created your site.  I bought 3 different domain names for a site I was building before it changed focus and then I had to buy another one instead.  And that site still isn’t up yet.  Also, DON’T buy a domain name thinking that you are going to turn it into some wonderful site later, because you probably won’t get around to it.  I now have a network of 16 domain names waiting for me to turn them into sites.  Obviously, if you are going to be a domainer this rule doesn’t apply as you’ll need to buy plenty of domain names for reselling later.

Second, DON’T browse the boards looking for sites to buy until you have figured out what niche you are going to specialize in, otherwise you might wind up with impulse buy sites that you don’t need and that just sit on your server…..

Ok, so what would I DO if I had to do the last 4 months over again?  Obviously I would buy less, but I would also read more and I would have spent more time finding my “niche”, (which I still don’t have).  The thing about a successful website is that it needs something to draw in traffic, that something is normally content, and you can’t really write good content if you don’t know anything about the subject or aren’t really interested in it yourself.  So the first thing I would do is decide what subjects I’m interested in and would be willing to produce content for.  Second, I would learn everything I could about SEO, (Search Engine Optimization), and social marketing.  You need these two skills to drive traffic to your website.  And traffic is the most important part of the equation.  The best website in the world won’t make you money if no one visits it, and the worst one in the world will most likely make you something as long as people are getting to it.

Only after I had done both of these steps would I then start looking for a pre-made site to buy, or start creating one of my own.  As for hosting, there’s really no point in buying it until you have a site to host, but while you are reading up on things take the time to view some cpanel/whm demos if you plan on using a reseller account to host multiple sites.  If you only have one site it’s best just to go with a $5/month plan from any of a number of reputable hosting companies.

So to sum it all up.  Decide on your niche.  Write the content for your niche.  Create or have someone else create the website that will display your content, (don’t forget the SEO), and then promote your site on forums/blogs or wherever else the readers of your niche would likely hang out - which obviously you should know if you have an interest in that niche right?  Once you have traffic coming to your site you can monetize it through adsense or affiliate programs.

Now if I can just figure out my niche before I spend any more money….

Btw- It’s been making the rounds that a second serenity is not dead yet.  From Joss to the fans, the new special edition sales will have everything to do with getting another movie out there.  He is also talking about doing a direct to customer dvd like the guy that did farscape.  But if you want it on the big screen see if you have someone that would like The Serenity special editions as a gift or buy it for yourself! 

If you don’t know what this means – it’s referring to an excellent Sci Fi show called Firefly that was so good that when it got cancelled they made a movie just to shut the fans up.  In fact, it’s so good they are now considering a second movie to keep the rabid fans off their back.  Now here’s my question(s):  What kind of an idiot cancels a show with grade-A acting and a loyal fan base?  And what kind of an idiot allows the absolute drivel I see on TV to last for 7 seasons?  Are TV account execs culled from the dumbest portion of our populace?  Inquiring minds want to know….

Well, here’s a great little article to start my Misguided Ramblings off on. It basically says that homo erectus, (us), lived at the same time as all the rest of the other homos, (in ancient San Francisco?), which means we did not evolve linearly from them.  Well duh, we didn’t evolve at all.  At least not in the sense that we evolved on this planet naturally.  See, my idea is that either A). We came from Mars after destroying it, probably by using enough nuclear weapons to boil off the atmosphere.  Or B). Some aliens dropped by and screwed with the DNA of the primates thereby creating homo erectus, (probably as slaves for Atlantis).

Now sure, I know you are thinking it’s a crackpot idea, but let’s think about it for a sec.  Why is man the only animal on the planet that doesn’t have a place in the food chain?  Cuz’ he doesn’t belong naturally!  Also, why is there such a big gap between that amoeba like thing at the bottom of the evolutionary chart and us without anyone ever really finding the “missing link”, (alien genetic experiments are why of course!).  And why did “intelligence” seemingly spring up overnight, (in geological terms).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a bible-thumper and I believe that the process of evolution as a scientific method is valid.  If you take a species and put it into a different environment it will adapt, i.e. evolve to deal with the new environment.  I just have a hard time buying that we came from primates without some help.  And some days after looking around at everyone else, I’m pretty sure I don’t belong on this planet.  =)

I wasn’t planning on starting a blog, mostly because they take a lot of work, but also because I want to make money on the web and for a blog to be successful it needs to have a focus, as well as someone to write in it every day.  So why am I starting this blog?  The domain name really.  I saw this domain for sale at DP and I just had to have it!  It fit me perfectly.  Come on, Misguided Ramblings just says it all.  =)

As for a focus, well I don’t really have one, and that’s ok since I’m not planning on this blog making money.  Although, I won’t say no if it does.    I do have some interests though such as making money online, business and management, web design, web programming, online games, and many, many, others.  I’ll be talking about whatever interests me, and while I try to be polite, I’m certain I will piss off a few people with my opinions.  So let me say in advance, everything on this blog is nothing more than my opinion, and if you don’t like it you are welcome to go visit another blog.  Just don’t let the megabytes hit you on the way out….

Let the blogging begin!