I can honestly say that I was never a great fan of Shakespeare. I was forced to read Romeo and Juliet, and while the sword fighting was cool, it was all a bit melodramatic. Then there was A Midsummer’s Night Dream, well that never really did it for me and whilst Macbeth wasn’t too bad, not one of them ever made a lasting impression. probably the only two lines that I can remember from any of his plays was ‘Alas poor Yorick, I knew him’ and ‘To be or not to be, that is the question’.

Strangely enough though I remember the phrases, it wasn’t till I did an Internet search that I found they were both from Hamlet, one of his works that I’ve never actually read. It got me to thinking, what if we changed those famous words to;

To Blog Or Not To Blog

To blog or not to blog, that is the question
Whether it is better to blow the mind of others
By filling them with absolute drivel
Or to provide content of such brilliance
That they subscribe so as to always be informed
Stringing words together to please the souls of others
Or grouping them so as to please the search engines
To write, perchance to inspire, some bloggers dare to dream
For there are some that aspire to reach great heights
To thrill others with their cleverly woven words
While others wish only to encourage those
Who read into clicking or buying their offerings.
To research, to provide titillating information
To inform and satisfy needs and curiosity
Or to confuse, to confound, to bombard
The poor surfer who happenstance drops in to read
But then shakes their head in forlorn disbelief
To wonder what cruel fate caused the post to appear
Forsooth, the question is not worthy of contemplation
For in truth the question is all screwed
For in essence, the question should truly be
To blog with honesty and the goodness of heart
Or to blog merely for reasons that are not so pure

I honestly believe that if you were to research any of the top bloggers you will find that they all have one thing in common. They all host their own blogs. Some of you are probably thinking that these guys are able to host their own blogs because they make enough money from their blogging. I say to you that one of the reasons they do so well from their blogs is because they host it themselves.

I’ve been in business for nearly thirty years and I understand the necessity to invest money in any business venture. The beauty of starting your own website or blog is that the cost of web hosting is minimal. There are hosts that offer great deals, some under $4 a month! Most people spend more on coffee every week, and I can assure that apart from giving you a caffeine fix the only thing coffee will help you with is taking money from your wallet.

There are many other reasons for self hosting your sites, especially if your considering a business site.

1. Professionalism! If you want people to take your seriously then you have to show them you are serious, and you won’t be doing that form one of the many free sites that are out there.
2. Control! You have complete control over your site, on how it looks and on what you are able to post on it.
3. Security! There are many people out there who have lost blogs, myself included, that that have poured countless hours into them only to have the site close down causing them to lose everything.
4. Marketing! Because it’s your very own site, one that is actually costing you money to maintain, you are much more likely promote it. You will put more effort into marketing it, through whatever means available because you want it to succeed.
5. SEO! It’s a lot easier to use Search Engine Optimization techniques on your own site because you can access the files you need to change to apply some of these techniques.

Honestly, I have never looked back once I decided to host my own blogs, and instead of costing me money it’s actually increased my revenue stream.

Man, oh man, I can’t believe that half the year has just gone by. Where the hell did it go? It’s almost as if I blinked and missed most of it. Reckon I’m going to have to stop doing that. Still, as the last month has gone by it’s now time to post last month’s statistics. I’m happy to report that the overall earnings are up and that it is partly related to the overall page impressions increasing from 10,729 to 13,200.

The other major difference it that the paid reviews takings has also increased partly because I’ve had some nice tasks assigned to me. It seems that some of the advertisers have taken a liking to my work. I’ve even had to knock several back because they were either too low or not suited to the blog in question.

Anyway, enough waffle, lets get down to the stats.

• Adsense: $30.43
• Voxsant: $0.19
• Kontera: $0.11
• Clix Galore: $0.40
• Chitika: $1.81
• Infolinks: $1.15
• Advertisers: $4
• Commission Monster: $19.42
• Jumbo Affiliates: $5.38
• Paid Posts $135

Total: $197.89

The biggest jump was obviously the paid reviews, but we also had a couple of affiliates that have decided to show some stats this month, Commission Monster and Jumbo affiliates. I was lucky to make a couple of sales from Commission Monster that paid 5% commission as well as a campaign that paid 35 cents per click. Too bad that campaign only lasted a week. As for Jumbo affiliates, thanks to the $90 Million OZ Lotto Jackpot last Tuesday I made some commission from sales as well as signing up 15 new clients. Hopefully this will lead to a steady monthly income stream. Note to self; Must remember to keep an eye on future Jackpot draws.

Every now and again I come across an email that I just have to post about and this is one of those messages.

CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE READING THIS WHO WAS BORN IN THE 1930’s 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds , KFC, Subway or Nandos.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn’t open on the weekends, somehow we didn’t starve to death! We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this..

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because……

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

We didn’t have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, actually we didn’t have any video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY, no video/dvd films, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms………. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no Lawsuits from these accidents. Only girls had pierced ears! We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time…

We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays. We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Mum didn’t have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!

RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT!!

Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and sometimes a well aimed blackboard duster would hit it’s mark. Bully’s always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of because they actually sided with the law!

Our parents didn’t invent stupid names for their kids like ‘Kiora’ and ‘Blade’ and ‘Ridge’ and ‘Vanilla’

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, why not sit your kids down and make them read it so they will know how brave their parents were.

I’ve done a fair view videos, some of which I’ve edited and titled to offer a complete package for family and friends. While I reckon they come out pretty well I know my limitations. There is no way in hell that I would attempt to put something together for anything as important as a business presentation or a Corporate Video. That would be sheer lunacy, and while I may be known as a bit of a joker I am no fool.

No matter how good I think a particular project may turn out I just haven’t got the expertise to produce something of a professional quality. It’s not just the expertise that makes a good presentation, it also has a lot to do with the software and equipment that’s used for the editing, titling and special effects if needed.

Outsourcing projects such as trade shows, promotional videos or even marketing and training aids is best left to those who know what they are doing. I remember awhile ago how we had to hire a guy to present a safety course to our drivers, something that set as back quite a bit at the time. Thinking about it now, we would have been a lot better off having a training video made. The obvious reason for this, something we didn’t think of at the time, is that we can’t afford to hire someone for a presentation every time we employ a new driver, therefore a training tape would have make so much more sense.

I don’t really know why we didn’t think of it at the time, it just never came to us. Perhaps we just thought it was all too involved and didn’t know where to start. I know we were pretty stressed at the time, maybe that was it. I reckon I will know better next time.