Midnight Sun at Kjerringøy Norway When I heard about the midnight sun I knew this trip was going to be special. Nothing could have prepared me for how special it would actually be. Kjerringøy is in the north of Norway, actually within the arctic circle. This means around this time of year the sun doesn't set. 6pm feels like mid-day, midnight feels like 6pm. It is an awesome thing to witness. This causes two things to happen. Lack of sleep Lots more drinking I had a … [Read more...]

This WeekJust a quickie this morning as I am tidying up and preparing for my trip to Kjerringøy, Norway. I will be there with a client for the week telling them how great I am and how lucky they are to have me around. Or something.Posts will be pre-populated but I hope to get wifi. After what happened last time I am taking no chances though! Please forgive me if I do not answer comments as swiftly as usual.Email ProblemsHopefully I got my email fixed up thanks to the wonderful services of … [Read more...]

I know I advise your blog should be all about your readers but it would be remiss of me to not inform you that Darren from blogged-out has interviewed me. You lucky people. … [Read more...]

As you will have noticed I don't often go in for link posts but every now and then people send me links that I think will be interesting or useful to you my dear readers :) Jan Hemmingsen has an interesting take on my Problogger post "Is Your Blog Truly Valuable?" asking Who Should Get to Decide? If you can create value for others while creating value for yourself then all the better. However if your sole motivation and what defines value for you is the creation of value for others then you … [Read more...]

It seems my email service has gone wonky somewhere along the line. I have been informed by a couple of people that my email service is bouncing their messages as spam plus I have noticed it is taking some messages a loooong time to reach me. I have a complex arrangement where my email is variously forwarded, stored, spam checked, virus cleaned, IMAP foldered, filtered, auto-responsed, or otherwise handled by 123reg, dreamhost, fastmail, gmail, yahoo! and btinternet - it could take a while to … [Read more...]

You might have noticed my "buy me a coffee" icon has gone. I didn't want to keep it up too long, at first I only had it on here to try it out then I thought I would leave it while I could draw some conclusions. Now it is time to write up those conclusions. While I do not disclose my earnings out of principle, I did get a bunch of donations (thanks!). It averaged out to a few every couple of days after the initial rush of them when the plugin first was put up. Providing you wrote posts that … [Read more...]

New York Magazine has a fascinating set of business case studies investigating how New York businesses turn a profit The wild risks, unexpected niches, and day-in-day-out grind behind making a dollar in New York for everyone... from a drug dealer to Goldman Sachs. It makes me glad I work online and from home, many of these businesses have Staff overheads Property overheads Fixed pricing (especially the taxi driver who has zero control of pricing) Fixed product offering (taxi driver … [Read more...]

Blog Profits Blueprint is a free ebook in PDF format about making money with blogs from Yaro Starak. The other day I wrote about it but had trouble getting the download. Today I can tell you what I think about it. The first thing to note is despite it being completely free (just provide your email address to get the download link) it is well stuffed with 55 pages of content. Not all of it is brand new and original, but it is all well written and drawn from experience. I couldn't say that … [Read more...]

Direct monetization isn't something I write about a lot. As most of you will know, my personal speciality is business and authority blogging. Indirect monetization through using your expertise, experience, credibility and authority. I realise though that many of you do want to know about how to make money directly from your blogs. If that is the case I have a treat for you. Yaro Starak has produced a free ebook called "Blog Profits Blueprint". To get the download you just need to supply your … [Read more...]

You guys! When I tried out the "buy me a beer plugin" (or in my case buy me a coffee plugin) I didn't expect so many of you to go ahead and use it. Have a guess what I spent the donations on, go on, guess! That's a venti banana java choc-chip frappuccino people, and it was delicious. I followed that up with a neck and shoulder massage. Say it with me - Aaaaah :) Roger made a special request that I not buy coffee with his donation, so I will make sure his dollars are spent on a very … [Read more...]