Thank you to Andrew Seltz.

[Jezee]

Hello to everyone, I have decided to write this post in order to say a big thank you to Andrew Seltz:The go-to guy, (http://www.andrewseltz.com)who give me some simple but brilliant advice, (http://www.barbarasher.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=20000&highlight=) and I took it by the horns and ran with it, now, well I feel I have a purpose once again. Basically I decided to set up a blog on Wordpress.com and after a week or two decided to have my own domain name, Host it and learn some basic HTML. I am hoping to make a living one day from it and would love to pack my current IT job in and work part-time, who knows but thanks to Andrew I have started the ball rolling. I believe you get out of life what you put in and Blogging is harder than it seems but I have so many ideas that I almost feel that I am becoming a writer and may even attend a Writing class. I hope this inspires others who would like to do something but just can't seem to get started. Good luck to you all.

[TheGoToGuy]

Jezee, Wow I just returned home from a week long vacation with my family and was catching up on my online work when I read this post. I was overwhelmed (and very pleased) by your gracious comments. Thank you for taking the time to share your success. It is encouraging to know that my approach to 'capturing my passions' is useful beyond my own work. You will definitely encourage others as you share your story here and on the blog. Keep up the great work. The more you write, the easier the process becomes. Thanks again for the kind words, Andrew Seltz The Go-To Guy! http://www.AndrewSeltz.com

[Jezee]

Hello Andrew, I wasn't sure whether to contact you directly or through this site so I thought I would do it through this site as it might inspire others. As I said before it was your words that got me moving, don't get me wrong Blogging is harder than I thought but I am enjoying it. I have a few questions to ask possibly a little personal but if you don't ask you don't get, how long have you had your website, how many people visit your site a week and how much do you earn from it? You can email me back if you wish jsanderz@fastmail.fm Again thank you.

[dani]

Congratulations to you both! And welcome, Jezee. Jezee, is your blog http://www.informationaddicts.com/? It's really terrific, much more sophisticated than you give yourself credit for. I'm a kindred spirit: last week I was consumed by The Skeptics Dictionary; this week, it's been foreign press. The second is largely to find out what people's lives are like around the globe, from their perspective.

[Jezee]

Dani, thank you so much for your comment I am so pleased you like it although I have a lot more to add to it and I am not so sure about the theme. I am wondering whether to change it. I would love to hear anyone else's opinion good or bad. Yes it is the site that you state. Again thank you very much for your gracious comment. Regards. Jeff.

[TheGoToGuy]

Hello Andrew, I wasn't sure whether to contact you directly or through this site so I thought I would do it through this site as it might inspire others.

Well, you inspired me. I'm happy to give you a few more stats on my blog. I bought the domain for the site years ago, but mostly used it for email accounts and didn't really have a site. I put the blog online in January 2006. My expectations for the blog were just to capture the advice I was giving and experiences I was having with the hopes that I would collect enough material to create something valuable some day. The site turned out to be much more valuable than that. I use it to get new websites indexed on search engines (Google picks up new posts within 24 hours and any new sites I link to get visited by the spiders within 48 hours.) I tinker endlessly with templates and plugins to get it the way I want it (and have made a few hundred bucks installing my special configuration for other people.) The little Amazon Discount Finder tool I created and worked into the page template makes a few bucks every month and I get a steady trickle of Adsense money and affiliate referral fees from products I recommend. I don't have a detailed breakdown, but the site generates at least $100 per month these days. Doesn't sound like much, but you have to keep in mind that it is not intended to be a moneymaker - but rather a knowledge collector that also pays for its own room and board. These days I'm getting 80-100 visitors a day who view 150-200 pages per day. These numbers have grown steadily over the past 12-18 months. One of the cool benefits of blogging this way is that visitors tell me which topics are most interesting by showing up and looking around. When an article shows signs of popularity, I decide whether it is interesting enough to write more about. When I do, I get more traffic on the topic (and a really popular topic can be spun off into its own website.) When I get really serious, I do some keyword research to identify long-tail keyword phrases with high ad value and affiliate products to promote and target them with new articles. One of my current projects is building a skate wheel camera dolly made from a used pair of roller blades and some supplies I get from Home Depot. I'll take pictures and write up a tutorial. I'm pretty sure this will attract some new visitors! If your primary goal is to make a profitable site, there are more efficient methods - but that is a huge topic to cover, so I won't even try it here. Jezee (and anyone else reading this thread), if you have a question you'd like to ask me, visit my site and click on the contact form. Anything you send me this way lands right in my primary email account. I'll do my level best to find you an answer. If the questions have wide appeal, I'll turn my responses into articles or posts and share them. Andrew Seltz The Go-To Guy! http://www.AndrewSeltz.com

[Jezee]

Andrew, Thank you for sharing your info, I will take up your offer if I have anything I would like to know. Regards. Jeff.