from 2008 to 2009

Last year i said 2007 was the biggest year of my life for a number of reasons and that’s still the case. But online, 2008 has definitely been my biggest year so far. I vowed to complete BeerChief AT ALL COSTS in 2008 and i suppose it’s debatable whether or not it was completed. What i did mean by that though was that i wanted the site fully functional and online in 2008. So that was achieved mid way through 2008. ‘At all costs’ has now turned out to be $12k+ 😉

BeerChief

To date, over $12k has been pumped in to it which is an achievement in itself. It will succeed or fail in 2009 and we’ll see if the gamble has paid off. Even though i would say it anyway, i’m 100% confident that BeerChief can grow quickly and steadily. The way i see it, my neck is on the line and if it doesn’t succeed, i’ll have blown a massive budget, wasted hundreds of man hours in the process, failed to deliver on promises and ultimately failed to return a profit.

So there’s a lot riding on BeerChief and i’ve deliberately put all that pressure on my shoulders and convinced myself it must work. Why? Because when the stakes are raised and i’m under pressure, that’s when i work my best / hardest.

I’m personally revamping the BeerChief blog and will put a lot of time in to writing quality content for it. I’ll also be keeping BeerChief active on other social networking sites just to make sure we’re getting ourselves out there. Assuming we launch in January, it gives us 11 months to grow as fast as possible. Realistically, we should be looking at about 10,000 registered members by the end of 2009… an average of about 30 sign ups per day.

New Office

In may of this year i went all out and bought a new desk, PC, dual monitors and various other bits and pieces like an illuminated glass mousepad, gaming headphones etc… All in all, probably cost over €2000. Up until May, i had just been using my old Ferrari laptop. I could never go back to just using a laptop now. Dual monitors have me spoilt and they’re the best kept secret in IT. My XPS 420 isn’t too shabby either… so far it’s handled anything that i’ve thrown at it and i do have the option of upgrading to 64 bit and throwing more RAM in to it if need be.

Earnings

2008 was my best year online in terms of revenue. JPEGr was sold for $1k, i made another $3k by writing ebooks…. i sold various sites, worked on joint projects and did some paid reviews on this blog. All in all, i earned about $7,000 online in 2008 which is equal to about $583/month or $145/week. That’s surprising as i didn’t think i’d made that much.

When i look in to it more though, i did spend over $6,000 on BeerChief, about $2,500 on a new office plus i had to pay for domains and hosting and what not so all these online earnings are definitely not just money in my back pocket 😉

I’m not sure what 2009 will have in store. The first couple of months will be quiet as i focus on BeerChief. Around March/ April i’ll probably be looking to create more sites and flip them. I really don’t care about cash though so long as BeerChief is doing well. I’d happily earn $0 if i knew BeerChief would finish 2009 with 10k+ members and an active community.

College

I passed all my 1st year exams in 2008, meaning i could progress to 2nd year and not have to worry about repeating. I did need a second crack at maths but it’s probably made be more determined to pass all exams first time around from now on. In 2008 i also sat my 2nd year Christmas exams (in December) which i should have passed too. Results will come out on January 21st 2009.

2009 will be a big year for me in college. A big transition. I plan on converting my ‘wasted’ time in to productive time with my new Samsung NC10. It’ll allow me quick internet access and the ability to jot down thoughts or do assignments in any free time i get. It means i should effectively gain an extra hour or two of work every day. We hear of the expression ‘water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink’ when out at sea and it’s a bit like that for me at college. I’m surrounded by computers, but i can’t really do anything on them as it’s just too much hassle to login to the network, plug in my usb stick, wait half an hour for portable firefox to open…. at which stage i’ll be informed the room is now in use by a lecturer and i have to log out and unplug my usb…

It’s a problem and a waste of time, so at least with a netbook i can just carry it in to the room next door, leaving it switched on, meaning i’ll only lose maybe 60 seconds of my time.

Upgrades

For the first time in a long, long time, i’m reasonably content with the technology i have. My PC is up to scratch along with my dual monitors, my phone is still fairly up to date, i’ll have a brand new netbook soon… So i shouldn’t need to upgrade anything in 2009. Laptop isn’t necessary. I could do with a wii and a ps3 along with a nice big LCD, but that stuff is what i’d call luxury and honestly, i wouldn’t have the time for them or make full use of them. If i did, there’d be something wrong as it would mean my online work or college work is suffering – neither of which can afford to.

I look at a PC or netbook and i think ‘productivity’. I look at a TV or games console and think ‘fun’, ‘entertainment’. In recent years, i’ve gone completely off TV… i’ll only watch TV now if i’m with someone, watching football or a movie. That’s it. Unless i’m sick or something you’ll never find me watching TV on a sofa or in bed. The internet has ‘replaced’ TV for me.

Blogging

Both this blog & the BeerChief blog will be getting a makeover in 2009. I also intend upping the quality & quantity of posts on both and will try to gain more RSS subscribers and traffic as a result. On BeerChief, i’ll be writing ‘made for traffic’ posts and i’ve toyed with that in the past on this blog, with some great success. It’s really difficult to create consistent, quality, made for traffic posts, but i’ll give it my best shot.

On smemon.com, i’ll be keeping things personal and trying to add more pictures and video. You know the drill anyway by now… i won’t be going missing in 2009 and this blog will be updated like clock work 🙂