Tag Archives: Affiliate Website Project

Status Update: Life & Purpose

My blog has been in existence for just over six months now. My first post, was on my reason for blogging, and I was asked about how it’s coming along. So, here’s a post to keep myself on track.

Over this period, I’ve come to accept most of the axioms of the manosphere, although, the praxis of it is still being worked out. In particular, I’m still questioning whether or not to learn game, but am trying to adopt some of the underlying attitudes of it.

I still have not decided what I plan to do with my life, but the two big options I am leaning towards are patriarchy or MGTOW.

Recently, I’ve come to realize that I am okay with going MGTOW; I don’t fear “being alone” like I used to. In some ways, I think I might prefer it, but I do know I’m not going to marry unless it is a very old-fashioned and patriarchal marriage.

High command has let my work unit know that cuts will be occurring, so my job may be in jeopardy over the next year or so, so that might force me to decide. If that happens, I’ll probably slide to a minimalist lifestyle and work on my side businesses rather than bust my ass finding a new one. Going minimalist will likely require, at least temporarily, MGTOW.

On the other hand, I truly would like to get married and fill my quiver. I know the prevalent attitude around these parts is don’t do it, but I think the benefits will outweigh the potential costs if I find the right woman. So, I’m willing to take the risk once and if I perish, I perish. I can than go minimalist MGTOW after that. On this front, there’s a potential, somewhat long-shot wife prospect who’d looks like she might make a good helpmeet, we’ll see how that turns out.

I’ve gotten in much better health. Through eating (mostly) primal, I’ve lost 30 lbs or so, have reduced my gut significantly, and have reduced my belt notches by two. On the other hand, my daily work-out routine disappeared over my vacation and I haven’t restarted it yet. I find I go to bed too late, so I don’t wake up with enough time to do it in the mornings.

I’ve started my affiliate website project, and have created the underlying structure of it. It’s actually up on the net right now and working, but there’s not much for content yet and I still have to market it. The project is ongoing, but I have trouble finding motivation in the evenings after working. I’m setting up a block of time in December to take off work so I can really put myself to work on it.

The affiliation through my blog here, has made me about $20 so far. Not enough to do anything with, but at this rate, I’ll probably get my first check (I need to earn $100 for them to write a check)  by sometime early 2014.

I’ve recently decided I want to eventually homestead. This is a long-term plan (we’re talking over the next decade or two), but  I plan to (eventually) sell my house, buy some affordable property in the country with a large acreage, add a solar power system, get some grazing cows and chickens, start hunting, and become mostly self-sufficient on the food and energy front.  Then use a combination of odd jobs, consulting, and various small business projects for income supplementation. We’ll see how that goes (some day).

So, that there’s the life update. I’ll try to remember to put another one out in about 6 months or so. We’ll see. Cheers.

30 Days of Discipline Conclusion

So, I reviewed the 30 Days of Discipline and had an update on it. I finished the 30 Days earlier this week, so here’s the conclusion.

For my main project, I got a decent start on it, even though this month has been the busiest I’ve had in a long time. In addition, I accomplished a number of smaller tasks that I’ve been meaning to get to for months. The 30 Days, really helped me in accomplishing things and freed up a lot of time that I otherwise would have wasted.

As for the other stuff, I followed the rules #1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, & 12 very well.

I did not accomplish my goal for #11 as I made a mistake on my affiliate project, had to restart, and learning the website creation tool I’m using is taking longer than thought, but I got a good start on it.

#4 was the hardest, just as I thought. Since my last update, I did well for the third week, but had trouble over the weekend. I reasserted for the last week, but my discipline failed near the end of the week.

#5 I got sick in the middle of the third week, so I fell off for a few days, but other than that I mostly kept up with it.

#7 I just plain forgot about in the final week. It’s the easiest thing on the list, but it was also very easy to forget in the mornings.

Overall, I would  recommend trying the 30 Days. It’s not easy, but it’s a good way to build some character.

Out of all the habits I’m going to keep # 6, 8, and 9. I’m going to half-ass #3, cold showers suck too much with too little benefit to continue with them, but I’m going to keep up doing lukewarm showers, rather than the hot showers I did before. #3 is one of those things I’m going to try to limit, but probably will only be moderately successful with.

The Bookshelf: The Spartan Entrepreneur’s Guide to Making $100 per Day Online

This is a review of The Spartan Entrepreneur’s Guide to Making $100 per Day Online by Victor Pride.

The guide is short (27 pages) and written in the same straightforward, matter-of-fact matter as the author’s blog. It communicates the plan it lays ou t simply and without wasted effort. Other than that, there’s not much to say on the writing style: it’s functional, but you aren’t reading it for entertainment, you’re reading it for the plan, so functional is good.

So onto the guide itself: it is exactly what it is advertised as, a step-by-step plan to making a livable (you won’t get rich off this plan) income through affiliate marketing without SEO manipulation. The entire plan is laid out in easy-to-follow steps that show you exactly what you need to do. The plan is realistic and simple to follow. Although, simply does not necessarily mean easy, this will take a couple hours of work each day.

I haven’t started the plan, but I’m pretty sure if you followed it and put the effort in,  you would make a decent income off this. Even if your first attempt doesn’t net as much as you want, it would be fairly simple to simply do the plan again for more income.

So, why haven’t I started the plan if I’m sure it would make money?

Simple, I’m uncomfortable with the plan. While I’m fairly sure the plan would work, I don’t really care for the method as is; it isn’t productive. It would make money, but following the plan you wouldn’t create anything of value to anybody. It’s above spam, but only by a bit.

As the guide itself says:

Remember: This is not a method to save the world, it’s a method to make you some money.

This just kind of rubs me wrong way: I don’t like feeling unproductive. If I go into business for myself, I want to be somewhat productive and create something of value. My largest complaint about my current employment is the lack of feeling productive, and simply switching to something else that leaves me feeling unproductive, would not be much of a gain.

On the other hand, after thinking about it, I figured out a way to do something moderately similar that will produce something of value. It will require more work on my part and will be slower to get off the ground, but I’ll feel like I’m adding value, so I don’t mind. So, as a start-off point with some thinking and rejigging, this problem can be overcome and the guide can be used as a base to work from.

Conclusion:

This guide does exactly what it says it does. If you want to make $100/day (or so) from affiliate marketing within a month or two, this will likely get you there. If this is all you want and you’re willing to put in some work, buy the guide.

I don’t like that the plan doesn’t create anything of value, so if you want to feel productive or suffer from the Protestant Work Ethic, the guide might not be for you. You may want to buy it anyway, as it can provide an intro to affiliate marketing without SEO or be used as a base for something more productive, but it may rub you the wrong way.

If you are not willing to put in the work necessary or are incapable of self-motivation, this guide will be a waste of money.

30 Days of Discipline Update

I’m now half-way through my attempt at the 30 Days of Discipline, so I figured a status report is in order to keep me honest.

Of the 12 points (I’m not going to outline them, buy the book and support Victor).

For disciplines #1, #2, #3, #6, #8, #9, and #12, I’ve been following them pretty good; a mistake or two here or there, but overall I’ve been fairly good on following through on the disciplines.

I must say though, cold showers suck hard.

I did #5 for the first week and a half, but the last half of last week I fell off in discipline. So, I recommitted myself to it Monday, and will follow through with it for the rest of the 30 Days.

#7, I’ve mostly followed, but just kind of forgot about it for the second half of last week. Out of all of the disciplines, this is probably the easiest, but I simply forgot for a couple days. The list is very useful, I’ve finished a number of smaller tasks I’ve been meaning to get to for months.  I recommitted myself to it on Monday and will follow through for the rest of the 30 Days.

As I thought going in, #4 was and is the hardest. I followed it for the first week, but fell on the Sunday. I then succeeded for the first half of the second week, but fell completely off for the second half of the week. I’m recommitting myself to it today and plan to follow through for the 30 Days. I plan to get around to Ferd’s books on the subject this week.

As for #11, as I stated previously I switched my goal a week into the 30 Days after buying Victor’s entrepreneur book. I’ve started the project and got it going, but may have made a mistake and may have to start over.

So, overall, I’ve been doing good, but I should be doing better.

Projects and Motivation

I mentioned earlier that I’d write about some projects I had planned, so here it is.

One thing I want to use this blog for is just keeping myself motivated in these projects. I have a couple ideas for projects that I hope might create an alternative income stream at some point, but I never get around to working on them. So this blog post is mostly for me to clarify my thoughts and to help motivate me to work on them. If you want to read, feel free, but there’s no analysis here and I don’t know if it will be worthwhile to anybody else; I’m writing this solely for myself.

Website Project #1

About half a year ago, I identified a major gap in one of my hobbies that could be filled through the creation of a social website. I’m pretty sure there’s demand for the project from those within my hobby, as I’ve seen much interest expressed in something similar throughout the hobby’s websites. I’m also pretty sure that there would be a chance at significant revenues as a primary advertiser for the hobby for whoever filled the demand.

On the other hand, I’ve seen a few other sites that tried to fill this demand, but none of them achieved the critical mass of users necessary to make the projects viable, so none of them meet the demand.

That’s the problem. The website would require a lot of work (a year, likely more, of my spare time) as I would need to a lot of programming in php, which I don’t know, but I know I would be capable of doing it. I also know that if I could attain a critical mass of users the site would contribute significantly to the hobby and I could probably monetize it for a decent revenue stream, but I have no idea how I would reach the tipping point when I’ve seen a number of other similar sites that have failed to do so. I started working on it somewhat half-heartedly a few weeks back, and getting a good start on this project was, until today, going to be my goal for the 30 Days of Discipline.

Website Project #2

But today, I had a better idea. I purchased Bold & Determined‘s Spartan Entrepreneur’s Guide (I’ll review this at a later time). I don’t think I’m going to follow his plan as is, (I’ll explain in my coming review), but his ideas on affiliate marketing got me to thinking and I had another idea for a different sort of website using affiliate marketing. This website would require less work upfront, but I could create the framework in a much shorter time-frame and roll out the content over time, unlike the first project which is more or less an all-or-nothing affair. I have to do a bit of research on this to make sure the possible demand for the idea hasn’t been filled, but an initial scan looks positive. So, I’ve decided to change my goal for the 30 Days to creating the framework for this site.

Blog Series

For the blog, I have three longer series I’d like to work out, and if they are well-received, maybe roll them out into clef-published e-books a la Worthless.

The first series I’ve already started: An Economic Analysis of Marriage. Over time, I’d like this to be a complete guide to helping young men considering marriage to calculate the potential costs and benefits of marriage.

I’ve been writing the first post of the second series for over the last few days, and it’s almost completed. Hopefully, it will be out this week. The working title of the series is Biblical Alpha Males, and that’s all I’m giving for now.

The third series is still in the conceptual stage, but essentially, it will be guide for omega males.  As I’ve mentioned before, I was once an omega male, a loser; I’ve since worked my way out of this, but it was not easy. I figure if I create a guide based on my experiences it might help other Omegas in the future.

Novels

I’ve also had three ideas for books that I would like to write at some point:

The first is an idea I have for an epic fantasy series. At this point, I have a strong concept and have developed a story arc that would span at least 5 books. The concept for the series came together last summer as two mediocre ideas I had been playing with in my head came together to make one idea I think is great. I’ve thought about it quite a bit since then. I really want to create this. The only problem is motivating myself to sit down and write. I started writing about half a year ago, and have been writing here and there over time, but I find that while I can just think about the story for hours on end, actually putting words to paper is much more difficult. I’ve almost completed the first chapter and plan to continue on.

The second idea came from an idea I originally had in high school. It’s a near-future sf techo-thriller. I wrote about five chapters in high school, but realized how juvenile, derivative, and inadequate the plot and characterization I was creating were, but the germ of the idea stuck. Since then, I figured out another theme to add to it, which really makes the idea work. I started writing it again about 2 years ago. I finished one chapter, then ran into a major problem: the novel requires a large amount of research on current British culture and socio-economics. The project was dropped as I did not have the time to research this and the epic fantasy idea began to take over my creative thoughts. It does have a working title though: Rivers of Blood. I hope to get back to it at some point; if I do it right it could be major; the idea is good.

The third is the least developed. It’s a mythological fantasy novel based around the modern world. It would require a lot of research on Norse Mythology, but could be interesting; it would probably end up having to be a series, but how long, I have no idea. It’s far behind the other two ideas in priority, but could turn into something at some point.

Over time, I plan to occasionally post status updates of my projects on here to keep myself motivated to continue.