So, if you saw this post six months ago, then I guess I can’t really blame you if you’re somewhat skeptical about any statement coming from me regarding me actually posting on this blog in any manner that resembles regularity. I must confess, I’ve been much less than diligent in my blogging. In fact, it appears that I’ve only made one post in the last 6 months! I really must rectify this situation! And so I shall.
If you’re like me, having used dail-up for years because it “was the only thing available,” I’ve got news for you! Most desperate people living in a DSL-forsaken land turn to a satellite provider for their internet. There are some problems with this, however. First, satellite broadband has a high setup cost. Equipment is fairly expensive and installation if done properly ranges into the hundreds of dollars. Also, speed is dictated by how much you pay each month-for around $60 a month you get around a 512 kbps connection which you will only see in occasional bursts. Finally, latency is extremely high. Latency is a measure of how fast data can be sent from your computer to your isp’s servers. Using satellite broadband, your signal has to travel from your computer to a satellite miles above the earth and then back down to a datacenter. There is an alternative to satellite based internet from HughesNet or Wildblue. What is this solution you ask?
Mobile broadband from your cell phone provider! I find that many people are not aware of this solution because most cell phone companies market mobile broadband directly to businesses without thought to the fact that many individual consumers would be interested in this as well. Mobile broadband involves using the high speed data networks that cell-phone companies maintain for cell phones as a broadband connection. It works by either tethering your phone to your laptop or home computer or by purchasing a standalone modem. There are several benefits to mobile broadband.
The first benefit is mobility. You can connect to the internet anywhere you can get a cell phone signal. Setup costs are low. From AT&T you can receive a modem from free after MiR and you can receive a modem from other carriers for as low as $100. Installation is as involved as following the prompts on an installation cd and takes as little as ten minutes. The monthly fee will be around $60 per month just as satellite, but the speed of mobile broadband is not limited by the carrier based on your monthly payment. For $60 a month I usually get 1.5 mbps from Alltel-a connection fast enough for me to network and use on 6 computers at the same time. Also, latency is about half that of satellite based broadband.
Once you decided to give dial-up the boot, hard as that decision can be, you need to decide which carrier to go with. I am personally with Alltel. I am in their Rev 0 coverage area. When they upgrade to Rev A my connection will get even faster. Alltel’s network is fast, but its coverage area is relatively small. So most will need to choose from Sprint, Verizon, or AT&T. I have no experience with Sprint or Verizon, so I won’t comment on them. AT&T’s network can be as fast as Alltel’s in its 3G coverage area, but that coverage area is about the size of Alltel’s. Using AT&T’s 3G network I see about 1mbps. The benefit of AT&T is that even when your not in a 3G area, you can connect to the EDGE network. Very few people will tell you that EDGE is fast, but the fact is that it is much faster than dial-up.
So why don’t you join me in giving dial-up the boot! It’s a wonderful club!
So…
Welcome to the all new Sam2k.com! It’s been a year since I’ve done any blogging. At all. MasterTheWeb.org is dead. Go figure.
A lot has changed in the past year. I’ve finished my first year of college and am now a Marketing and Management major. I was promoted to a supervisory position at my previous job and am now working as a wireless sales consultant at an independant authorized retailer for AT&T. So, my internet empire has hardly taken off, but I’ve learned a lot about the real world. Now, I’m going to apply my knowledge of the real world to the internet and hopefully start doing a lot more blogging about diverse topics. I’m still going to blog about the internet, but not nearly as much as previously. I’ll be blogging about Technology, Politics, Money, and whatever else I feel like. As you sit there reading this post, I hope you’re as excited about this new direction and are willing to join me on this new adventure!
Until my next post…
It’s been two and a half months since my last confession *er* blog post.
Let’s see, what have I been up to? After I earned a payout from Google I sold off most of my adsense earning sites. I’m not quite sure why, but I think it had something to do with trying new things. Then I got busy with working nearly 40 hours a week at Magic Spring and kind of neglected it all.
But I’m back active in the game now. I’ve bought several sites and sold a few more. I’ve also invested quite a bit of money for me into the development of three websites. One, ProxAce, is already having returns. The other two still need some work. I was actually going to move this blog to one of those sites but there seems to be a few hitches in the system. If I ever do get it transfered then I’ll be blogging about a lot more than the web.
Well, there’s a quick update.
I got my first adsense check to day! The only problem is that in my excitement to open the unmarked envelope I accidentally ripped it in half.
I also sold Proxert.com today.
There are two reasons that I writing this blog post. The first is because I was looking at Awstats the other day and I found that someone had found this blog while looking for advice on how to evalutate their goals and this cause me to think that maybe I should have more posts around general topics like this rather than all of them focusing on me. The other is that I’ve become pretty busy between work and my senior year of high school and if I want to accomplish any more of the webmastering goals that I’ve set for myself, then I need to evaluate my goals and see which ones are best for me to pursue.
Find out where you are at.
Having goals is all well and good, but if you have goals but they aren’t relevant to where you are and what you are doing then you have a problem. There is no way that you can know where you are going, if you don’t first know where you are. Since this is my blog, we’ll talk about me and my goals, unless someone else wants to volunteer themself. 
Two of the goals that I set for myself were relatively easy to reach. They were earning a payout from Google Adsense and Getting a high PR website. If you’re goals are easy to reach then this tells you that they were already there for you, you just had to reach—which is a good lesson to learn early because most things in life are hard.
Figure out where you’re going.
If you know where you’re at then the next step is to figure out where you’re going. Ideally this should invlolve some praying and meditating on God’s word, but failing that, at least give it some thought. There are two things you should consider. Where do I want to be at y, and where do I want to be in xy. This is where short term and long term goals come in. If you have a definite end goal, then you can make your short term goals complement your long term goal or aid your progress in reaching it.
What if I don’t know where I’m going?
Why are you here? What is your purpose in life? If you can’t answer these questions then you have something in common with the other 6 billion people living on this earth: you don’t know why you are here or what your purpose is in life.
Evaluating Goals
I know where I’m going, they’re just so much that I want to do before I get there. How do I decide? There may not be an “I” in team, but if you rearrange the letters then there is a “me” and you are all that matters when it comes to evaluating your goals. I’m not talking about decisions that affect the lives of those around you, I’m talking about goals for your own life. Goals that affect those around you are far too complex to be covered in a single blog post. If you have your list of goals then the only thing you can do is give serious thought about what really want to do, and what you’d kinda like to make a stop at on the way to your end point. If at all possible then find ways to combine goals. For instance, I know that I need to learn PHP if I am going to be a successful webmaster, but I also know that it is covered in the Computer Science degree that I will be pursuing in the Fall. So there is no need for me to take the time know to learn all that I need to know about PHP. That will come when I need it. I’m not talking about procrastination, excuse my use of this four letter word, I’m talking about goal management. Some times it really is best to put things off, but when you do, put something in its place.
What if I change my mind?
You’re a human. That’s what you do. Humans are emotional creatures with chaning hopes, dreams, and desires. If your interests change then let your goals adapt to them.
What next?
You know where you’re at, you know where you’re going, and you have a general idea of how you’re getting there. That’s all you need. Use some improvisation, be daring, you don’t need it step by step. Live life, have fun, and keep your goals in mind. Keep a strict time frame on your goals, but don’t stress out reaching them. You can always move back the time frame.
I hope I’ve done more than just blow hot air with this post. If you like what I’ve written then leave me a comment. If not then I’m sorry and I’ll start working on my goal of become a good motivational speaker forthwith. Or Not.
I don’t have a lot of time, so I just wanted to report that since the Big Daddy update has apparently finalized, I’ve just gotten my first PR5! I now have PR 5,4,3,2 and 1 index page. Many people will tell you that PR doesn’t really matter, so when I have some free time I’ll explore whether or not I can make more money off of a PR5 website than a none PR5.
PS. I’ve also just noticed that a site that’s just sitting on my vps has gone to PR3 without any promotion.
Who says Google isn’t into practical jokes? Nice try G, maybe on this great day of April you will find your true love in Yahoo.
I haven’t updated in a while because I’ve had so much work to do at school. So much work in fact, that I had to sell Mlinkz because I didn’t have time to run it any more. I didn’t get what I wanted for it, but that is life.
I did do well with Adsense this month though. Roughly $70 total for the month which is a little over twice that of last month. I don’t think I’ll have time for very much over the coming month so it may be a while before I post again. I’ve only got a month and a half left of high school and my teachers are really piling it on.
Everyone knows that posting on forums with a link to your sites in your sig is a quick and easy way to gain a lot of backlinks quickly. What they often don’t consider is their profile pages. Whether a forum allows guests or spiders to see sigs or not, every post you make has a link back to your profile. Also, most forums have a list of online users on their homepages which has the highest pr. So it is not that hard to get a nice PR to your profile. Just checking out a couple forums that I visit I found that I have profile page that is predicted to be a 4 and a profile page that is predicted to be a 3! Suppose that you visited and posted ten times a day on 10 different forums. In a TBPR export or two you could have 10 strong forum profile back links. You don’t even really have to keep posting to keep the PR. Just pick a new forum and start posting, it doesn’t even have to be a webmaster forum—any will do. There is one small problem, some forums use a robots.txt to tell spiders not to index profiles so check to see if any other profiles from that forum are indexed before going all out.
Some time back I mentioned that after getting nowhere with Chitika I was beginning to have some limited success. I take it all back. All the limited monies I made were withdrawn during auditing. I won’t call Chitika a scam, but I can certainly see how some have been justified to name it as such.
Chitika was a great idea, but it’s useless if it doesn’t get money into my pocket. So now I’m left with finding a suitable alternative. I really only have 2 sites where I was really counting on Chitika to bring in some revenue, so I think what I’ll try is selling text links there instead. A couple sales and I’ll have made more than I ever “should have” with Chitika. If that doesn’t work out then I’ll have to try to find another ad alternative.
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