Update

LOCATION: UK, My Flat, Plumstead

As you can see i've updated the header but friends have been asking me what the site actually is when i direct them so I have to think of a new strapline so it's obvious what the this site is all about.

I've also been reading various bits, swapped a few links and gained some help and tried installing various bits from feedblitz including a very handy subscription tool, so please subscribe if you want my blog by email. I'm still trying to fully work out what and how to use the blogroll and syndication list.

On donation... I decided to add this little link. It's hidden down under my profile at present and will stay there out of the way until I feel I have any content worth donating for then I will move it up near the top. The whole side bar is getting cluttered and unorganised so soon I will smarten everything up. The donation tool was easily added using paypal and since I already had an account I just set it up straight from that. The blogger template tool makes it really easy to add in code and stuff so i'm grateful that I don't have to fully undestand things at this early stage.

The Google Adsense and Textlink Ads buttons that have been newly added are more revenue making buttons. I don't know much about them as yet and not sure if i'll keep them. I guess if they generate anything they can stay.

Statcounter is working great. I open it about twice a second just so I can stare at the map and see where people have been looking from!!

I tried to contact the charity WWF about getting a free banner on my site but sadly they replied with the following email:

Thank you for your email.

We are happy for you to link to our website, however due to the many
requests we receive, we are unable to set up a reciprocal website link.
Please note that you are unable to use our logo, and that your link must
not imply any endorsement of your website on WWF’s behalf. I am sorry,
but we are unable to provide banners or photos for you to use for your
link.

Thank you for your interest in WWF.

Yours sincerely

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Supporter Relations Coordinator

Supporter Relations Team

So I guess maybe what i'll do is start a small charity links column in the sidebar as i'd imagine most charities will reply with similar rules.

Hopefully this weekend i'll set up the Cafepress site and upload my first design. When this is in place i'll make sure to write a post about the signing up process and uploading and how I plan to promote my items.

I guess that's it all for now, been a pretty boring few days for blog info but interesting for my knowledge expansion. It's great to be getting comments and help from people I don't know. It means that the blog is working.

Blog soon,
Forest.

£0

LOCATION: UK, Train between London and Hastings.

So here it is! Hopefully the start of my new online life. I'm going into this blind. If the stories are to be believed alot of hard work will eventually pay off with the possibility of earning an income online.

I'm 25 now and have been working since I was 16 as a Graphic Designer for print work and have only briefly scratched the surface of anything web related. Obviously like most 20somethings i'm fairly addicted to checking my email and surfing the net. My dream is to find a way of working from the internet with no office, no one to go and see and no ties as to when I work. I hope that I will be able to take my work anywhere where a wireless network or internet cafe lurks. The streets of Bali, a North American Lumberjack town or a sleepy Somerset village. I no longer want constraints of where I work but I am willing to work.

So I know I now have an extremely steep learning curve. It's going to be in my nature to steer towards ideas that somehow relate to imagery and graphics but I am hoping to try out various different money making strategies and hopefully put fingers in several pies to try and spread the chances of hitting on something good.
I guess my aim will be £1000 per month, if I reside at my mothers house in Liverpool (uk) then this should be enough to enjoy travellinga around and give me the freedom I crave. If I can acheive this (ever) I will have amazed myself but who knows, you just have to try these things. For now i'll make my next few weeks an aim to get something above £0.

As you can see this blog needs a lot of formatting and designing to make it more than just the template and that will definitely be one of my first jobs. I've also been surfing around the web and on first inspection it seems that Google Adsense seems to be the number 1 earner for most people so i'll be looking at incorporating that into this site and hopefully any other sites I start working on. I've also made a promise that wherever I feature money making advertisements I will always feature a free advert to one of the charities that I care for.

So, How exactly am I going to start. I have a swarm of various ideas blowing around my head and have been reading snippets here and there. So firstly I need to nail down a few serious ideas and start implementing them.

One of the first ideas I will work on are a few designs on a site called cafepress.com. Cafepress let's you sell merchandise featuring your designs and place a mark up on there product. They give you the webspace, print and distribute your items for free or a small premium cost depending on what kind of service you want from them. I particularily have one T-shirt design in mind but will try and find a few others around the theme and upload them, then start the promotion. Actual earning from this site seem to be sketchy from reading testimonials but if it's a few dollars as a start and becomes pretty easy to maintain then it will be a start.

I also have an idea for a links website for which i'll post more details later. This will be a basic site manually run by me at the start and featuring Google Adsense and a few other affiliate and pay per click schemes if possible. Details will follow when I have purchased the web address and started putting everything together.
Right now, i'm full of all the enthusiasm and none of the knowledge! Research will be key to this being a success and hopefully if anybody else reading this is interested in pursueing the same destiny then maybe my coming posts will be a help and maybe they can point me in the way of some helpful information. I will also be searching around and linking to other blogs and articles that I find helpful.

Wish me luck!!!!
Forest.