Forum #1 Up and Running!

After a long wait, my first forum is finally up and running.  Turns out my designer didn’t have to travel abroad - he was playing a practical joke on me!  It worked.  But I’m glad it was only a joke because the forum looks great and I’m eager to get it up and running.  Right now I’m going to refrain from sharing the domain name with you… but perhaps I will in the future, we’ll have to see.

This forum ended up costing me much more than I anticipated.
$600 design + $160 vBulletin + $35 Installation + $50 in hacks + $150 vbSEO + $50 installation = $1045
(I’m not even sure if vbSEO is a worthwhile investment - I”ll let you know)

I’ve already put a $200 down payment on my next forum and I think it will end up costing me about the same.  Seeing as how this is a sizeable investment for me, I’ll be spending some time over the next week preparing for the “launch”.  The official “launch” date will be either Friday, November 3rd or 10th.  It depends how quickly I can get the forum tweaked to my liking.  Then, I’ll be recruiting friends, family and acquantances to become members and make a few posts.

My marketing blitz will focus on one thing - getting enthusiasts of my “niche” to my website to read about a contest where they can win a product related to the niche.  Of course, they have to become members and make posts to be entered into the contest.  But, I’m getting ahead of myself.  I have to put all the pieces in the proper place before I want to attract volumes of targetted traffic.  This could be a tedious process, but it will be well worth it when the members come pouring in!

Stay tuned and I’ll keep you updated as the launch approaches.  Here goes nothing…

Outsourcing Issues Strike!

A couple weeks ago I decided on my first actual “project”.  While I had up some arbitrage sites and sorts that allowed me to get my feet wet, I figured that building a quality website with great content that generated return visitors was the way to go.  I also decided a great way to generate constantly updated unique content, and therefore return visitors, was by developing a forum.  The members post unique content for you and come back to check it frequently!

 I also came to the realization that web design and programming are certainly not my strong points.  My competitive advantages lie in two core areas: creative ideas and marketing.  So logically, I should outsource much of my designing/programming.  I spent several days locating a vBulletin designer/coder that had a strong portfolio and references to boot.  When I finally found one, I was still quite apprehensive about paying him $300 upfront to get started.  I thought, “what if he just takes my money, AND my idea, and walks away?”  It was a possibility… but it didn’t happen.

Within 2 days he showed me a beautiful sample skin and today, I sent him an e-mail about a few last minute changes before coding it and installing hacks.  The e-mail he sent me back was nothing short of depressing: in a few short days he would be going out of the country… for a 6-month period!

I hit a homerun on my first at-bat for finding an excellent designer/programmer and now he’s leaving the country!  Tonight, not only did I scramble to give him last minute changes to this forum, but I agreed to purchase a skin in his portfolio that wasn’t being utilized.  So there is good news and bad news.

Good news = I’ll have 2 beautiful forums by the end of the weekend.

Bad news = I have to find a new designer/programmer and if anything goes wrong when my current guy leaves the country… I’m pretty much screwed.

When it’s all said and done, here will be my expenses:

A nearly $2k investment means my financing pool is pretty much dried up for the forseeable future.  My main goal in the next couple weeks is develop a marketing plan to immediately bolster membership for these forums so I can immediately begin monetizing the sites.  Of course, I’ll have a long term plan of action too.

While I’m working on building forum membership, I’ll be creating a list of ideas and opportunities to work on next.  I already have 2-3 bigger ideas that will take a lot of designing and coding help… these will have to wait.  While I build up my queue of upcoming projects, I’ll also be mapping out some content sites that I can work on myself.  I’ll probably end up buying some really cheap templates for these content sites because what I make pretty much looks like crap.

In the meantime, I have two HUGE priorities.  (1) build membership in forums (2) map out a plan for these sites AND future sites.

I also have one huge dilemma: finding a new designer/programmer.  A few of my ideas I wouldn’t even want to share with somebody unless I could get a Non-Disclosure Agreement signed and I’m leaning towards finding someone local I can sit down and talk to about my ideas.  I have too many priorities!  Let’s just get these forums up and running and start writing a more detailed plan and strategy for these and upcoming projects.  Here goes nothing…

Here goes nothing…

The blog craze has swept the globe and the latest variety has been of the hopeful Internet entrepreneur attempting to capture the elusive dream of earning a fortune.  Only time will tell if I’m a dime a dozen or a diamond in the rough.

Since age 12, I’ve tried to think of that one idea, that golden moment - the EUREKA that would change my life.  To date, they’ve only been hiccups.  How many times have you wondered with friends, “What would I do if I won the lottery?”  I’m tired of wondering about the miniscule chances of inheriting a fortune out of mere luck.  I can control my own destiny, and the Eureka Diary is my attempt at redirecting and steering the course of my life.

I consider this m ydiary and it’s pages are open to you.  Maybe it will interest you and maybe not.  At it’s core, this blog is designed as a source of motivation and direction for myself.  It will help track my progress, make new goals, create accountability, develop routine and hopefully serve as a daily reminder to ‘keep on chugging’ (and not beer).

While I’ve done loads of reading and learning over the past several years, I have accumulated a large amount of knowledge and perspective yet very little monetary income.  Capturing this dream isn’t about waiting around… it’s about being proactive, trying new things and testing them rather than asking others the whys, hows, whens and wheres.  It’s about taking risks.  One thing is for sure - talking about how much I want to be rich will never make me rich.  Reading about how to get rich will never get me rich.  But creating a plan to become rich and implementing… now THAT could make me rich.

GOALS

I’ll have short-term goals that I share with you over the course of time, but obviously, my ultimate goal is to make enough money to make this a full time job.  To determine what type of sustainable income I can earn, I’ll base my results on profits from the calender year of 2007.  This gives me a set time frame to measure my success… and creates somewhat of a “race” which may be enjoyable and entertaining for you to witness.

I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment and quitting my day job is certainly a lofty goal.  So, I’ve given myself a tiered goal system:

Moral victory = $35k profit
Victory = $65k profit
Quit My Job = $100k profit

You might grimace if you knew that I have only intermediate skills in programs such as Dreamweaver and Photoshop and absolutely zero programming knowledge.  I’ll have to become very efficient with outsourcing.

I’ve got 2 and a half months before the start of 2007 and for the remainder of 2006 I need to work furiously to get as many quality websites up as humanly possible.  I’m essentially starting with zero websites.  I crunched some numbers and speculated on potential revenue based on different scenarios of #websites and $/day.  To tell you the truth it’s a useless excercise… I need to stop thinking/talking about what sites COULD earn and just create them and SEE what they earn!  So, by the end of the year I’m hoping to have 15-20 content sites up and a minimum of 3 forums (hopefully 5). 

Something tells me I might not have enough capital to invest in order to reach these goals.  But, if I can at least approach these numbers, I should have some healthy revenue streams to start the year with ample time to increase traffic and drive revenue throughout 2007.  It’s all about finding opportunities, planning projects and getting them up and running quickly.  And as so many people have told me: wash, rinse, repeat.

This is my eureka.  This is my realization.  And this is my attempt at reaching and exceeding my dreams.  Welcome to the Eureka Diary.