Making Money

Website Hosting: How I found my feet!

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When I started out hosting, it was very much ‘by accident’. I worked in a University where I had been involved in a departmental journal at around the time when all the Internet 1.0 hype was beginning.

So I offered to create a website on Geocities for the Journal. Lo and behold! It did generate quite a few tens of thousands of ‘hits’, enough to warrant the creation of its own website. Soon, I signed up with Dreamhost, which seemed to offer the most in terms of service for the dollar. One URL later (http://www.hjktefl.org) and our Journal had its own domain and a PR4! But it didn’t last! The department axed the journal because it wasn’t properly reviewed, and didn’t appear on a government approved list of journals. In fact, the department seems pretty much to have ‘disowned’ the journal… Ah! Well, but that’s another story.

By that time, I was already hosting several new journals, a school website, a couple of personal websites for myself and a friend, and, of course, this site. At the end of 2005, I had twigged that I could host sites well enough, and had enough skills to help other people to put up their websites, that I decided to approach a couple of people needing help, and see what I could do for them. I also had researched enough of the applications, and knew how they worked, how to install them, and how to find additional resources for them. I felt that I could at least provide a service to those who had been like me a few years previously!
Within about 3 months, I had my first two outside clients for hosting. You can find them on the hosting/customers tab to your left! Both of the websites are unusual and well developed, but QUITE different.

So, now my online hosting is growing very slowly. I have about 5 or 6 customers, some of whose websites you can visit from here (others will show up in the next few months), and I got to meet some great people this way, too, since I really only do business with people I can meet face-to-face, or at least, have met at one time.

I don’t know how, or if, the business can grow bigger; but I’m not in a hurry. I’m enjoying the challenge of helping people achieve something with their website. That’s great.

Payperpost: a good way to make some dosh for bloggers?

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Disclosure: Yes, I do sometimes post blog posts that are sponsored by companies who have arranged opportunities through Payperpost. And yes, there is a PPP referal image on the right column. But clicking links in this post won’t generate any revenue for me at all.

I’ve been a member of Payperpost for nearly six months now. During that time, I’ve earned nearly $700 over that time by posting opportunities on both blogs, so yes, this way of creating an extra cash flow really does work. During that time, Payperpost has paid me promptly for each post within 30 or so days. So this system works and works well.

Advantages:

  1. trustworthy;
  2. pays after 30 days via Paypal;
  3. good selection of posts to write about;
  4. you can post upto twice on each blog in 24 hours;
  5. regularly posting for PPP really helps you write regularly, which in turn helps drive your blog;
  6. the extra postings can drive extra traffic to your blog;
  7. a lively community you can join for free;
  8. and certainly for ‘smaller’ bloggers, much more choice than any other paid blogging system I have used, so far.

Disadvantages:

  1. it’s not automatic;
  2. payouts are smallish generally, esp. when you consider that these posts will remain on most people’s blogs permanently;
  3. sometimes there aren’t so many good opportunities;
  4. there’s no repeat payment, unlike ads on Adsense;
  5. you may not write EXACTLY as you wish, though you can choose which opps you want;
  6. the advertisers and editors may reject your postings for some reasons, though you can edit them;
  7. and you need to have had a blog that has been established for at least 90 days before you can actively participate in the PPP system.

Overall, though, I have a good experience, and the negatives have been hugely outweighed by the positives, my readership is up, my blog is MUCH more focused, and my Alexa ranking has improved. In addition, my revenue from the blog is slowly improving, too. So, it is worth considering this as a way to generate additional revenue for yourself.