Newsbites

For small bits of news, quotations, odd videos, and flimflam.

Apologies: WP update – updating to Version 2.7

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Apologies to all, but we’re updating the server. The WP-MU officially ended, and we’ve migrated back to Wordpress. In the meantime, we’re redoing the overall design of the site over the next few days, so we’re hoping to have a new theme soon. Also, we had some ‘problems’ when we initially upgraded: including missing images, a bunch of spam, some missing widgets, and a bunch of smaller stuff! Sorry. But we’ll get these ironed out.

We’ve now removed the old install, reinstall the original Wordpress, updated all the plugins and Wordpress, imported all the previous sub-blogs, corrected the URLs, restored the images, removed the spam, removed some useless or broken plugins… but there’s quite a list of stuff to sort out, still. Should be up and running by January 1st.

I was staggered but…

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I haven’t updated my online income in a long time. In fact, it’s sat on my sidebar for ages showing just under US$12,000. Well, last night I decided to do a conservative estimate of the income since September: it’s now a tad under US$16,000. And the pace of income is now picking up somewhat in the past 12 months, even despite the recent hiccups on the stock market when my dividends got nearly wiped out. It’s been a triple whammy, though.

  • Interest rates are now diving: good for loans (I’ll be saving US$30~US$60 per month, soon); bad for savings.
  • Dividends: some divs are down, others are suspended. Fortunately some still trickle in.
  • Advertising: It’s difficult to get advertisers, and deals tend to be smaller than before. Other advertiser dependent streams are still suffering.
  • Profits from Business: These could be down, too.

But on the positive side for 2009: I’ve now developed an overall plan for income, I know have some idea how to increase each of these to make up for the shortfalls, and I’m quietly optimistic for 2009. Though it will be a difficult year, there are going to be good opportunities even now!

So it’s pretty much on all fronts these days. Income streams are shrivelling. But at least they are still present. So be careful out there! These are mean days!