Making Money From Blogging

I don't make any money from this blog.  My total revenue since I started it is about a pound.  I don't really aspire to make any cash from it.  It is just a handy place to write down thoughts I might want to refer to again in future.  I did wonder when I started it if it would be a surprise money spinner.  But it has been going long enough that I know now that it won't.  But I have another blog that is producing a steady £100 plus a month from Google ad sense earnings.  It gets hundreds of visits a day and on current trends by some time this summer it will have chalked up a million page views since it started.

Do you give too much weight to other people's advice?

I have had a lot of advice from a lot of people over the years.  A lot of that advice has been good, most has been okay and some has been truly terrible.  I can look back on many things I have been told with the benefit of hindsight and with the knowledge and experience I have now gained.  So I can confidently dismiss much nonsense I have been told and which I believed at the time.  Getting qualifications is not the most important thing if you want to get on.  Being loyal to a company is not the best way to get promoted.  Real ale does not taste better than the conventional variety.

Sacking Customers

So I have been getting enquiries almost daily.  I get repeat business and referrals from existing customers.  I have a full schedule and enough money in the bank to pay myself a salary I am happy with.  But I am working way too many hours and too much of what I am doing is selling time rather than generating a steady income.  I am also finding I can't turn jobs round as quickly as I would like or that my customers would like.  So all in all, 12 months in I could be in a lot worse place, but I have to do some really serious thinking and take some significant actions to get where I want to be.

Work All The Time You Work

In his book Time Power Dick Tracy suggests that you should work all the time you are at work. This has to be one of the hardest principles to comply with when you are an employee.  You are up against your fellow employees, who certainly have no intention of working all the time.  Or any of it in some cases.  They regard you as fair game as a distraction.

Getting Up Early

One of the big differences between being self employed and having a job is that I can stay in bed as long as I want to in the morning.  I have always been an early riser, and used to typically get up in plenty of time to go to work.  Normally I set my alarm for 6am and would be out of bed by 7am.

Don't Seek Approval From Others

An old coworker got in touch with me yesterday.  I hadn't spoken to him for about 15 years, but we seemed to slot into exactly the same relationship we had had when worked together.  I had been a bit higher up the food chain than him.  Even though we were no longer in the hierarchy that we used to be, indeed that particular hierarchy no longer exists, I still found myself dispensing advice and instructions to him as if he was my junior.

How I Use My Calendar As My ToDo List

I'm an inveterate fiddler and am always trying out different ways of doing things in an attempt to find the best one.  Often the search for the optimum approach becomes more important to me than actually getting the job done.  This is sometimes es a good thing, and sometimes not so good.  The worst outcome has been the numerous experiments in keeping well organised, most of which have resulted in reduced levels of productivity.  Although it goes totally against the grain of my being, the conclusion is inevitable.  A simple system that I stick to is preferable to a perfect one.  And I have one now that seems to work pretty well.