Categories
Uncategorized

Goal Progress: March 11

Full Stop.

Well, not full stop. I’m still running. Kinda.

Our son was born on March 1st. Since then, it’s been a little….hectic.

The CNC router has had absolutely no progress in the last two months. We haven’t even thought about churches since we went to that Nazarene one back in February. I’m still trying to train for a 5k, but missed about a week and I can’t get to the end of the training run without hitting my maximum heart rate, so I have to stop early.

And see how I stopped updating this blog? The other ones are worse. I think I made $8 in February across all my sites.

I’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there.

However.

My son is about the coolest thing in the world.

Categories
DogBlogging

Oh hi!

image

Categories
CNC Router Finding a Church Goals Internet Marketing Running my first 5k

Goal Progress: January 29

CNC Router

I got the x and y axes built on January 15th, but I haven’t touched it since
image

Affiliate Website

Bad news. I made a concerted effort to promote several products as an Amazon Affiliate. Like, I’m really proud how much work I did. I even got linked by much bigger blogs a couple of times and my traffic was about double my normal weekly traffic.

I made $2. In the last two weeks. Suck.

I’m not really sure what to do about that. That was pretty much the perfect storm and it totally cratered.

Run a 5k

I did a couple of things toward this in the last two weeks. First, I bought a ru, running shirt. I also increased the distance that Casey and I walk by another 600m, bringing to total to a little over 4km. I also tested out a Couch to 5k app on my phone just to see what it would do. The dry run worked out pretty well and I plan on taking my first run this afternoon.

Finding a church

On January 22, we went to church with some friends of ours. The church bills itself as a community church based on the Nazarenes, but we walked away feeling like we had just attended a service at any Nazarene church. It’s not really our style, but at least we made an effort.

This week, we were planning on attending a church that is within walking distance to our house. Unfortunately, we had a family emergency that took precedence. We’ll get back on that next week.

Categories
CNC Router Finding a Church Goals Internet Marketing Running my first 5k

Goal Progress: Jan 15

CNC Router

I bought the MDF on Wednesday and had the guy at Lowe’s cut it into 2ft x 4ft sections so it would fit in my Jeep. The controller came in on Friday from China and when I went to pick it up at our Post Office, the postal worker had a quizzical look on her face and said, “China? What?”

I guess they don’t get much of that around here.

I also bought all the hardware necessary to put it together. I think. This might be a 10-Lowe’s-Trip project. I’ve already been three times.

So, I have everything I need. Once I publish this, I’m heading to the garage to cut the MDF into the individual pieces and start assembly. The software required to get the controller going is called EMC2 and it’s not playing nicely with the 10 year old computer I decided to install it on.

Affiliate Website

The baby websites I mentioned last week have gotten some traffic, but not much. No one has clicked an affiliate link, and I don’t blame them–the site is a little spammy looking right now. My main site made a little over $11 last week, and this week I plan on doing some reviews of products I’ve been really pleased with. That should generate some affiliate sales.

The big news, though, is that I got a new job with a raise that can only be described as jaw-droppingly awesome. I now make 80% more than I made last April, and I filled the position I vacated at that time. What recession?

Run a 5k

Yesterday I bought some new running shoes at a discount place. The $100 shoes were purchased for $30. I bought my last pair there about two years ago and have been very pleased. This week I may actually sign up for the 5k.

Finding a church

I’ve been meaning to call our friends who live nearby and go to church with them,  but I haven’t yet. So, still no progress here.

That’s all I have for this week. I did get a lot accomplished that wasn’t necessarily part of my goals, like buying a new jacket and putting together an IKEA cabinet we purchased back in November. I also finished installing the custom pull-outs in one of our kitchen cabinets. More on that later.

Categories
CNC Router Finding a Church Goals Internet Marketing Running my first 5k

Goal Progress: Jan 6

In order to hold myself accountable, I’m going to try to post weekly progress reports for my 2012 goals. Right now this site has like 10 subscribers and the only people who directly visit the site are Nikki and myself, so this is more for me than for the non-existent you 😀

CNC Router

I have the motors and most of the hardware sitting in the garage right now. The plan is to buy the MDF next Thursday or Friday and start making the machine on Saturday or Sunday.

 Affiliate Website

Two days after I posted my goals, we received a baby gift that included bibs with website names on them. In what can only be described as a “Someone needs to get fired” moment, they didn’t buy the domain names so I did. So far, I haven’t made any money off the sites but they are getting a little bit of traffic. I made about $120 in December across all my sites, but I think that might be artificially inflated by people we know clicking on affiliate links. So far this year, I’ve made…..eleven cents.

Run a 5k

I’ve added 300 meters to the walks that Casey and I take in preparation for running 5,000 meters. Next weekend I’m planning on buying new running shoes. The couch to 5k program takes 10 weeks, and the 5k I’m thinking of running is in April, so I have to start training in about 3 weeks. I’d prefer to do my runs in the morning, but I don’t think that’s realistic. I like to sleep too much.

Finding a church

I haven’t done squat about this other than talk to Nikki about it. I’ve got a training class this weekend so I can’t attend a service. Next weekend she’s out of town and I may or may not try to attend a service on my own.

For this week I’m pretty happy with my progress on the router and the 5k. The affiliate website is kind of meh, and I’m falling flat on finding a church. Now I know what I need to work on for next week.

Categories
Uncategorized

Someone needs to get fired

Today Nikki went to see a friend for lunch. She gave Nikki a small bag of baby presents, and in this bag was a set of four bibs with website names embroidered on them.

Me, thinking it was a cute cross-marketing attempt, decided to visit the sites.

This company didn’t buy the domains they are printing on the bibs!
Why? Why would you do that?

Two of the four were purchased about three years ago by two different individuals. The other two were purchased by me, just now.

The free advertising they are giving me should more than cover the $7.50 I paid for them.

Categories
Uncategorized

2012 Goals

There is a lot of evidence that goal setting helps people be more productive. I did it last year for a couple of things and was fairly successful in my endeavors. I set two very specific goals and met both of them. That’s the key: specific….and written down.

Next year is going to be a little bit different for us since Ben will be here in February. It’s hard to tell what’s a reasonable goal and what’s not since we don’t really know how much things are going to change. Casey took all the low-hanging fruit in the leisure time category–or so I like to tell myself. So here are a couple of small things I want to get accomplished in 2012:

  • Finally build a CNC router. I’ve already ordered the expensive parts, and they should be here by mid-January. I hope to have this finished by March.
  • Have an Affiliate Website making $1000 per month by the end of the year. I made $90 in December on one of my blogs and it was the first time I’d ever made any money online. It was kinda cool. I’ll be happy with $1000/month in passive income from any source, but that’s too broad to be a good goal.
  • Run a 5K. Maybe the Purity 5K in April. There are lot’s of Couch to 5K programs out there and I ought to be able to find one that I can work with. Casey will probably help, although the couple of times I’ve decided to start jogging with her on the leash she’s been very confused and began to jump on me.
  • Find a local church and begin attending regularly. We really liked CrossPoint when we lived in West Nashville, but it’s too far for us now.

That’s probably enough for me. One other key point is to not overwhelm yourself by trying to do too many things. There has to be a balance between “so easy that it’s not a challenge” and “so hard that you can’t possibly finish.” In those extremes you get discouraged.

Categories
house stuff

To-done list

So much better than a to do list:

  • Ate Turkey (yum!)
  • Bought pretty much all the Christmas presents for the year (Actually, Nikki did most of that)
  • Cleaned the house
  • Watched Mississippi State walk all over that school from up north
  • Got a tree
  • Washed the truck
  • Put together the folding workbench we bought last week
  • Tried to assemble the table saw, but discovered one of the pieces was damaged during shipping
  • Installed the new 23″ monitor on my desk
  • Ordered some new stuff for us–hey it’s okay to buy stuff for yourself on Black Friday if you had already planned on buying that anyway!
  • Dinner with MomR
  • Casey got to meet/play with her cousin Doug
  • Casey got to run off leash. That was fun. She didn’t even try to attack the bicyclists using the same space!
  • Went to the range with Drew
  • Took out the trash
  • Re-joined the NRA (taking some training that requires it)
  • Decided on Ben’s crib. Couldn’t buy it because it may not fit in Nikki’s car

Why does it feel like I didn’t get anything done this weekend?

Categories
Uncategorized

Hi!

image