So here I am - alive after another day - another day of no word from kMan on money, no checks in, so another day running very tight funds - I admit, it’s getting very old, but as always I like to try to find solutions, and so I ran some numbers on things, trying to tweak configurations for servers, look at various providers, see where I could cut some costs - and my plan was to do that before dinner.
I came up with a savings of $250, while actually improving services, and even some room for giving customers some extra love for their patience in the move! I still have to check on 2 things with one customer, but it may line up just peachy with their idea to upgrade their website’s resources so all in all, if all things are agreed upon like it is currently, then I could be looking at $250 less towards servers, and I can start to really pay off bills, and push forward to an Apartment, even if the job at the coast doesn’t happen.
The blog got some touch ups today, really just needed to focus on a web project that wasn’t customer related for a bit, and it was fun, threw in some random code tweaks, changed out the background on the theme I found, and I think it looks good - granted there are no edit buttons per article when I am logged in, but I can probably get em added without issue, just some simple bits of code, and I’ll be good to go.
All in all, not the best week I’ve had to start off a new year, but none the less I am still breathing, and I am pushing forward, hoping for the best, and looking forward to some changes in my personal and business lives very soon.
Anywhoo - I am hungry! Had lunch at 11 with Dan, and now I am hungry here at what is now 6pm, so going to go find something tasty to eat, and sit down and enjoy some random TV! Night folks, keep me in your prayers!
I like my local branch of WaMu - as I noted last week with the odd fee, I figured a trip to the local branch might help, I printed my web copy of my bank activity, and took it in with a deposit I managed to get (still hoping for more today) - and the manager looked at it and said “Huh?” and she made some calls, she said she and the main office thought it was weird, and there was no reason they should of denied the $36 fee that was attempted, so she went and started a research bit to find out what happened in the system, and how it could be fixed up or at the very least properly shown to me to prove the error, because as she said, there was nothing on my online banking that showed it should of happened.
So she opened it, and also suggested at the correction of the error if I was charged any sort of non-payment/late fee, that the bank would cover it. Now that’s the WaMu I know and love, it’s just the same with anything I suppose, you get that one person who is just doing the job for the sake of a paycheck, then you have someone who still cares about their job wanting to help and go above and beyond that extra mile.
Anywhoo - busy day thus far, been up since 7:30 which is new for me, hoping to meet with the kMan as planned, still no call back from him, but I am mainly going to focus on coding as I don’t want to miss meeting with him if at all possible as I’d like to get paid as promised and get some real cash back in the bank, the rest of the outstanding folk who couldn’t pay for one reason or another, are all sending in checks, so more will be rolling in between now and Friday, the joy of money Have a good week folks!
One thing as of late which has become the ever-growing thorn in my side is fraud. While I have gotten a lot of orders over the last few months, 99% of them turn out to be fraud. So instead of just relying on my own instinct on them I am evaluating MaxMind to see what it can do, so far I have thrown some data at it from the past fraud orders and gotten the usual response “This order is very high risk, and we suggest you not accept it.” so far it’s hit everything right on, and I have tested it with my own information, and gathered some from friends - each time “Low Risk” with a score of 1.98 as the average, mainly because of folks using Gmail and such.
So I am going to give things a whirl for a bit longer, this would help greatly especially if things are going to amp up. Security has always been big with me, I don’t want to give someone instant access to the servers just because they paid for it, thus why I check orders by hand and don’t rely on instant provisioning (which I can do) - a 2-4 hour window tends to be a short enough delay, that folks don’t get too frustrated, and it gives time to above and beyond anything else, let me live and breathe!
From the looks of it, I have 1 order to cancel as fraud, and another to process and get online, what really irks me is the person who submitted the fraud order searched for “Christian Hosting” thus found FH - sad sad stuff, but such is the game it seems, but hopefully if this testing works and I get a few more orders in, this thing can earn it’s keep, as it looks good, and so far tests everyone pretty accurately, so we shall see.
Anywhoo - trying to stay awake today, tired, woke up at 4:30am after going to bed around 9pm, just trying to stay awake and see if I can’t manage to keep myself on a semi-regular schedule for the holidays! (One can hope!) Good Tuesday to ya all!
Wow, this week has flown by things have started to shape up around, might have a big client add here in the next month or so, working to get some details together for a package, so excited there - still slow on the hosting side, but no cancelations, so I am hopeful that things will slowly pick up, I do need to work on TN’s website, but I am trying to make my coding projects a major priority at the moment, which are going well.
Having a TV in my room again has been nice, between watching recorded shows, but also a Windows rig to take advantage of Amazon’s Unbox service, it’s lovely - plays great over Media Center allowing quick easy access from the couch as I code on the laptop, pretty clear on the TV too, at first I worried it’d be bad, but so far I’ve rented 2 flicks Evan Almighty (good flick) and Reign Over Me (twas okay) - but it was nice to have quick easy access to download, and on top of it, with Amazon’s Unbox client on Windows it leaves itself running so I can start it downloading while away from the house and it’s waiting for me, pretty snazzy.
I do laugh though talking about movies everyone said Evan Almighty was “blah” - however I enjoyed it, I think it wasn’t the same as Bruce, but it worked for me, that and I think you have to be used to Steve Carell humor, and watch for subtile things blended in, and I always like how they take a common misconception about Christianity/God and make it clearer to understand, like Lauren Graham’s chat with God in the restaurant - good stuff.
Anywhoo - time to get back to it, a long morning ahead of coding, and hopefully a moment or two of getting a pile or two of cash from outstanding bills in town and online, so busy busy - sooner or later I’ll get a nap in I’m sure so have a good fake friday!
So things are getting there, been a rough start to December, but it can only get better from here right? Today I should be able to one way or another tie up the loose ends with the budget for now, came up with a few stop gaps just in case, but I am hopeful that there will be a pile of checks in the box today, either way my plan should get things taken care of pretty easily - but if everything comes in this month as planned, there will be a nice surplus, and I’m not even to billing day yet - so here’s to hoping for a good december, and I can hopefully get ahead a little and be ahead for Jan.
In other news, FH newsletter going out this morning, I want to do some homepage makeover to better highlight hosting specials and such - but first things first, I need to wrap up the programming project, finished the RM one a week ago, but still hasn’t gone live, site owner has school, and work I’ll probably just move it over and give him directions on how to deploy it when he’s ready - the EE project is only some fine tuning on the display end, I am going to work on the admin more and leave in some place-holders for the add-on he emailed me about, but not code it until I get confirmation on the payment.
Anywhoo - that’s my random bit, I have been up for a long time now, pondering a nap, but I can’t oversleep as I need to get to the bank to deposit before 6:30 and the UPS Store closes at 6:30pm as well - so I need to get to the post office before 5, to the bank before 6, a busy afternoon/evening to prepare for, so setting 3 alarms, and going to nap for a while. Good Fake Friday to you all!
So today went by far too fast. All I really want to do is sit here and play Halo3 online, but I know I need to get some work done, I have a launch on Monday, one of which I hope will increase revenues. I ran the budget today as I was told officially that I have $250 in rent due on the first of the year - while in itself it’s not a big deal, I just really would like to get things rolling with a place of my own - don’t get me wrong, I love my parents, and I didn’t mind living here helping out while they were sick, but time to get a place. So time to amp things up.
My plan is simple, give hosting 3 months (So March) to sustain my budget, and give me enough cash flow 3 months in a row, if not - It’s time to look for a job, part of me does not want to do that, simply because if I get a job, I have to be true to it, and that whole thing about no man can serve two masters comes into play, and if I was honest with myself, I wouldn’t be able to pull off a 9-5 & a 12a-12a job so while I am not saying “It’s all shutting down” I guess what I am saying is if I do get forced to get a job, then it means some things will change.
So who knows, I am in good spirits about it, or at least I am trying to be, I’d love to find a steady flow of revenue from my business and side jobs, but if it’s not there - it’s not there, over the last few years things have slowed some, this year alone a lot of my larger clients have left, either scaling back their web presence or sadly going to budget hosts to “cut costs” and each time they assure me it’s not me, just they “need more” - of course a few I have watched have switched between 4 hosts in the process of 3 months after leaving, so who knows.
But there it is, things as they stand, not a major feat ahead of me to get things rolling, just need to buckle down, come Monday have my ads ready to go, micro banners for FH and such, I need to also find a way to push the affiliate ID via Wordpress so the Affiliate ID can continue from info on the website -> checkout, and folks get credit, as that’s my goal, I want to encourage customers to invite friends, I also am considering a point system where credits earned can be transformed into accounts add-on’s for a year and such… but all in due time.
Anywhoo - one step at a time, one day at a time, etc. etc. for now I am going to try and stay awake, and design until midnight, then have Sunday off as always, maybe hit a church in the AM - again, one step at a time. Night folks. Have a good weekend.
A good day thus far, barely 5pm and so far so good, a large lunch (Subway FEAST), got my final mailings done for TN - included a letter about the switch to making invoices digital - worked on the books a bit to look at the move on servers come 2008, worked on code for RNKDF, basically wrote a small mail form app with some nice little features.
It was a cool day, and now I think I have my bedroom all figured out - picked out a TV for the room, and going to convert the current Linux rig into the Vista rig as planned, picking up a TV tuner so I an use Vista’s media center features, but it should be fun, plus from my couch across the way I can relax, veg out, and use the laptop.
Tonight is working on graphics for the Affiliate programs, and getting things rolling for that on the 3rd, as well as getting the new features ready for each site and ready to go for the big push thru December and into 2008.
Good stuff, looking forward to things moving forward, put the Google Ads on a few sites I sponsor and here on the blog, making about $1 a day - not a TON, but hey, every little bit helps - and all part of playing with Google AdSense on pages to really get a feel for it, as I have been toying with a website again, and have some folks still interested in interacting with it - so time will tell.
Anywhoo - back to it, more EE code to do, may have a extra leg on it to work on, extra $300 will come in handy on the budget, really need to get it up and up more, so we shall see! Have a good on folks, I am off to it.
Have a good week folks!
