Catching Up

Posting has been tricky lately due to pressure of work, I am behind in all sorts of areas... We are still a bit behind the production curve at work, so I have been working hard to try and cover all sorts of bases at once.
I should have at least started ny online Tax self-assessment, but as yet, have given it very little thought - having said that, I have completed my spreadsheet - I just haven't done any of the on-line submission work yet.
I took most of the week off last week to take part in a half-term Soccer School for youngsters aged between 10 and 13, so that took quote a lot of my energy. Still have lots to do around the house too, and we are considering investing in a new roof this year too! Such a lot of money to spend, but such a weight off my mind to finally have the roof done, it HAS to be worth it in the long run.

Working for Hunny..

Well, I set this blog up as an experiment to see if it was possible to make online earnings from a blog. My intention was always to use the income to buy things that I could otherwise not afford, hence the 'Hunny' part of the name is supposed to represent 'treats' of whatever kind. I am now all set to buy a new Android phone as a 'reward' for all my hard (!) work. I just had a job in from another online income source that will pay me around £100, just enough for me to get that new phone I have been looking at.

I think I can also justify offsetting the costs of the phone against income for tax purposes as I do use that phone line for the business. I don't put the phone charges through the business although I probably could do that too.

I also hope to find loads of new Android Apps that I can blog about too!

Looking for a tablet...

No, not medicine, but an Android tablet is now top of my shopping list - I keep seeing bargains on eBay but not making much headway with actually winning any auctions.
I have come up with a preferred spec:

• Android 4.0 software
• 1GB RAM
• Bluetooth & Wifi
• Preferably a 10.1" screen

I may not achieve everything on the wishlist for the approx £50 I would be willing to part with, but you never know with eBay...
Our laptop was getting a bit over-used and recently died, I have a replacement, but it occurred to me that a simple device like a tablet would be better for the main tasks required of the laptop, which are surfing the net and email. The days of the laptop I think are seriously numbered, which prompts me to think again about the piles of laptop spares that I have hidden away with the idea of restoring them to former glory. I believe the best plan now would be to simply sell off the spares rather than go to the effort of trying to get them working, as the value of a working laptop is probably dropping by the week.
In other news, I have finally got round to completing my tax return....Hoorah!

Summer Update

It seems an update is long overdue, but due to pressure of my daily work, there has been little progress in the sphere of my online 'work'. I actually have seen a small upturn in interest for turning cassettes into CD's after a few months with little or no interest at all. Passive earnings have been erratic - but recent activity must have triggered a payment from one of my affiliates that I have had for years without having seen any reward. $35 appeared in my PayPal account without any warning, which is always nice... I think it has taken about 3 years to amass enough to trigger a payment.
I have finally been awarded a log-awaited pay increase at work and am planning to buy my company car which will save me around £1000 a year in tax - things are looking up!
I would love to be able to plan some online strategy and it is always at the back of my mind, however I have to concentrate on work and family before considering online domination... I have lots of half-formed plans and very little time to do anything about them. I haven't even done my tax return yet which is very lax for me.
I hope by the time I come to do my next update I will able to report that the tax return has been completed - I have recently been hankering after a tablet computer to use around the house, so am thinking of offsetting some of my online profits by getting a cheap Android tablet - especially since I have enjoyed my Android phone so much - I have half an eye on eBay although I am not sure it's a great idea to buy a tablet from eBay, as recent experiences have been sketchy to say the least.

Update

I feel like I have been neglecting my blogging somewhat recently, but I can announce that I have started a new cider review blog recently as I quite enjoy my ciders, and I am enjoying writing about the different taste experiences. I am hoping that others may find the reviews interesting and useful.
I am not sure where I am going with the new blog, but I have stopped adding posts to a couple of older blogs lately, so the new one will be taking up some of that 'slack'.
I am employing some new tactics on this blog, and wondered if I should have done it as a Wordpress format, but blogspot is so easy to get up and running, I opted for yet another one...

1300 posts

I just noticed that I am now up to 1300 posts on this blog. I have other blogs, but this is the one that gets most regularly updated. I guess over that time, I have learned a bit about communicating through the written word.
As a blogger, there are several different criteria that need to be met. Some sponsored posts only require a couple of sentences, so the skill required there is to try and make a point in a short post, and try somehow to fit that into the general character of your blog. Where posts requirements are more demanding (and remuneration is hopefully higher), it is often necessary to write several hundred words or maybe three paragraphs. The challenge with the longer post is to try and keep it relevant and interesting without straying off the point. If you are planning to host sponsored posts on your blog, you will also need to create a lot of non-sponsored posts, so that your blog is not just one long advert.
Regular posting is a must - if not every day, then at least several times a week, even if there is no sponsored 'work' to do. Over the years, it is difficult to fit everything to one theme unless you choose a really open theme like 'innovation' so that you can blog about any new products or ideas, or 'news' so that there is a steady stream of content that you can latch onto. My themes vary, I tend to pick up on mini-topics to write about, and I tend to blog on several different themes including personal stuff which has two advantages - it's personal so you are an 'authority' on it - and there is usually something to write about.
I am not as 'theme-oriented' as I should be - which is why I have started other blogs that have more of a niche - but to be fair, I always regard Munny4Hunny as my 'home' blog. My latest mini-topic has been Android Apps - this type of theme can be good because there are thousand of Apps you can write about, and it is a topic that may appeal to a number of casual visitors. I am also hoping that by use of keywords and tags, that I may even be able to attract search engine traffic.
Traffic generation is the 'Holy Grail' of bloggers, and the best advice I can give is that you immerse yourself in your blog - interact with other bloggers through comments and track-backs - write good useful content, and the traffic will come...

Financial Year report 2012-2013

It's the end of the financial year, and I have finally caught up with my paperwork. True to expectations, this has been a disappointing year in terms of 'turnover'. Last year I turned over about £1500, this year was more like £1000. Last year I had outgoings of just £224, this year was almost £400. Actually, spending the money on stuff that I need for online work such as hardware and software is good use of earnings because I don't have to pay income tax on it. So it's not all bad especially as I have been able to use some of those earnings to refurbish my new office with work-related items.

March was one of my best months of the year with a total of £120, £100 of which was 'passive' income including a substantial affiliate payment and payment for contextual adverts over several sites.
So it's a 'profit' of just over £600 this year, but I have already bagged quite a few earning opportunities for April, so the new financial year should start with a bang.
I haven't done any cassette conversions for a few months, but am expecting one this week, added to that I have done some paid blogging work which should be profitable. There seems to be plenty of paid blogging opportunities around at the moment, so there is a chance to start pushing the new financial year in the right direction.

Easter

Happy Easter!
We have had a busy weekend with a wedding and a christening to attend. Today we went on an Easter Egg hunt in the glorious sunshine (although it was a bit cold), and are recovering ready to undertake a trip to see family and friends on Easter Monday.
I have lots of blog work to be getting on with, which should hopefully be reflected in my final earnings of the financial year, although it may end up in next years earnings. I still haven't looked at income and outgoings for online work for the last few months, but hope to be able to do that soon. I am not expecting much from this years earnings although I am experiencing something of a late flurry, so I may have clawed back some of the lost ground.
Of course with online work ANY income is welcome, and having very few 'costs' as such, there is really nothing to lose. I do have a few fixed costs for web-hosting and domain registration, but they are quickly covered. I am looking forward to seeing what my March earnings actually are, but at the moment there is a good amount that has yet to be paid out.

Credit Card Spreadsheet

I have started working on my debt-tracking spreadsheet, and have decided to 'brand' it as TheCreditCruncher.com which is the name carried by one of my blogs. I intend to get it to a state where I think it can be shared with the general public and then include it as a free downloadable file. I have sketched out the way I think I want it to work, although I am having to compromise a little...
I use a similar spreadsheet, but use one large sheet which just grows and grows (in fact I use one for every card or account that I have, and then link them together via a menu). This new spreadsheet will probably consist of one page per month, that way users will be able to check each sheet against their monthly statement. This gives me a problem in that if I automatically carry over an 'opening balance', that balance will automatically carry over onto future months sheets - The alternative would be to have to enter the opening balance manually - this would give us a neater graph where future debt is zero, however one could argue that any outstanding amount IS actually future debt, and every payment against the account should show that debt dropping. I need to ponder this and maybe get some opinions of other people before I progress to a final version. I also want to try the sheet for a few months myself so that I can be sure it does the job in a realistic situation.
I am also considering whether to add on functionality to track several cards or accounts in one master sheet - perhaps offer a single account version, two-account, three account etc... I am also thinking about whether I need a version which uses dollars as currency, and another for £GBP, or maybe I just remove the currency altogether?? One other thing I am thinking of is having everything available both as MS EXCEL and OpenOffice files so that anyone will be able to access the spreadsheets without having to be a subscriber to Microsoft products.
I have already settled on a colour scheme and a logo, but frankly I usually go 'off the deep end' on appearance and will probably have to come up with something more conservative before unleashing it on an unsuspecting public...

Munny4Hunny

I still haven't taken the time to work out the last few months of earnings, but have had a very welcome payment for contextual adverts. The last few months have been slow in terms of online earnings, but I seem to have hit a rich stream just at the moment. I have had enough opportunities to keep me really quite busy in the last week or so - not sure when the payouts will be, but happy to take the work.
In the meantime, I have allowed one blog with a .com domain to lapse - it will still be available as a blogspot domain, but I am not bothering to renew the .com as it doesn't bring in much income.

I have also had a sudden upturn with affiliate payments after a quiet few months. I have found one fairly successful affiliate (which I am not going to name right now..) from which I have been getting very regular small payments - it had been very quiet for the last few months, but suddenly I received quite a substantial amount (£25.50) this last week. I just wish I had more time to plough the successful channels and maximise the income...

Latest

Having got my new 0% credit card deal sorted, I am determined to try and track down as much online income as possible. I have also designed a spreadsheet for tracking credit card transactions/statements that I think I will make publicly available via another blog. My idea is to use this to track my current credit card debt, maybe even post updates, and when I have debugged it all, offer it for a free download. I am using OpenOffice to design it so that it can be used without having to have MS Office installed on your computer..
Next steps are to update all the sites I need to update and develop some new ones, but the new ones will have to take a back seat. I am determined to be disciplined both about curbing spending and about developing income - this last year has been a bit of a low in terms of tracking spending and borrowing, so I am tendering my New Years Resolution now just in time for the new Financial Year.....

Update March 2013

As the end of the financial year approaches, I have yet to update my earnings for the last few months, but I am aware that they will be lower than the last couple of years. There has been a noticeable drop in paid blogging opportunities, but to be fair, I haven't had the time to pursue some of the avenues that I would normally use, and some opps have lapsed before I have been aware of them. This is mostly due to the increased pressure of day-time work and is no bad thing as I have been paid to reflect those demands on my time.
I am pretty much decided to let go of one of my blogs, and am prepared to cut back on posting to others - I expect to maintain munny4hunny as the 'flagship' of my blogs and the regular earner. I am also aiming to do some WordPress work when the opportunity presents itself.
On the frugal living front, I have let the credit card run away with me and really need to start looking at ways of curbing spending - I have asked for a raise at work, so hopefully there will be an improvement in disposable income which will allow me to pay off some debt. I am currently looking for another 0% interest credit card, as my last one has just run out and is starting to charge interest again.
I am also considering buying the company car that I use, this will save me a load of tax, but will also incur a lot of running costs. We really like the car as a family vehicle, so this would be the only way we could afford to buy a car like this realistically.
Also have a few 'toys' to put onto eBay including one of my refurbished laptops - this has been hanging around for ages, just need to get motivated, and I am hoping that I will be able to get it done this weekend.

March Update

It's March already, and whilst off-line life has been as busy as ever, on-line seems to have slowed down quite a bit this year. I haven't even worked out 'earnings' for the last few months, but I'm pretty sure I have spent far more than I have earned...
I am expecting a payout for contextual ads this month, and some of the regular stuff has continued, but it has been a while since I did a tape conversion. Bearing that in mind, it is probably time that I concentrated my efforts on WordPress as this could be a potential earner for me if I can set up easy-to-edit websites for a few local businesses. I need to get my Livewyre.NET brought over to WP, and then maybe create a few more examples to form a portfolio - I have an idea for updating an old site - which could involve building a 'sister' site. Of course, once I have created one, the sister site will be relatively easy to set up using the same or similar WP theme.
All these things take time and I am deep into another DIY project at the moment as well as being tremendously busy with the 9-5. There's still nothing quite so satisfying as making a bite of extra cash on the side doing on-line stuff, so I'm not ready to give it up yet...

Happy Valentines

I managed to forget my wallet yesterday, so had no flowers to greet my wife with this morning... However, I was still presented with a very large bar of chocolate despite my error. I will of course be purchasing an extra large bunch of flowers on my way home this evening....

To be fair, we don't really buy into 'Valentines' as it seems to be just another of those dates made up by manufacturers of greetings cards. It may be fun as a youngster, but when you have been married a few years, just to select one day of the year to demonstrate your affection for your spouse seems a bit pointless, unless of course you are in the sort of relationship where demonstration of affection once a year is actually an improvement on the norm...

Snow in the UK

Winter has come a little later this year with snow bringing the usual chaos and mayhem. The UK is famous for not being able to cope with snow and I have two observations to offer that might be used as mitigation for this failure to come to terms with extreme weather.
The first is that for us, snow is fairly extreme and relatively rare - up until the last two years, I can't remember how long it has been since we had proper snow that has been good enough to build a snowman that would last more than a day... Hence, to invest in tonnes of hardware such as snowploughs and heavy-duty gritters is hard to justify in our relatively mild climate. Before we bemoan the local councils inability to cope with snow, we should ask ourselves how much more we would like to pay in taxes for this hardware to be purchased.
Secondly, in the last few decades we have become a country that loves to take action in the courts. I spoke to a teacher friend this week, he works at a school where the school caretaker used to grit and clear the snow from the premises in order to keep the school open. I say 'used to' because one year he did so and a pupil slipped and fell on some ice on a step. The parents of the child took the school to court over the 'inadequately' cleared snow, and as a consequence, the caretaker has been instructed NOT to clear away snow, and the school remains closed for 'health and safety reasons' when the snow falls.

The knock-on effect is that the local council/education authority ends up paying (from our taxes), and consequently instructs all schools to adopt the same strategy - tax-payers lose out in that they either have to foot the bill for compensation or accept a lower standard of service (more school closures). Either way, it is this willingness to sue that ensures many places stay closed when in all honesty there is no good reason why they shouldn't stay open. The parents of pupils affected by closed schools must then come up with a strategy which usually involves them having to take time off to look after the kids for at least a day until suitable arrangements can be made with family or friends - this in turn affects all types of industries that that parents are engaged in (unless they are teachers who are also off work of course...).
In the 'good old days' when we use to have 'accidents' and didn't have to sue the council because we fell over on the pavement, schools remained open - the only time I can recall my school closing was when there was no fuel for the boilers and the school heating system could not be operated.

In conclusion then, I don't suppose things will improve in the sense that firstly there is not the money to invest in snow-clearing equipment, and secondly, 'ambulance chasing' is a growing industry. I have however sensed another reason why snow closes us down, and that is simple acceptance that 'it is snowing and therefore I need not work'. It is one of those self-fulfilling philosophies in that if only a few people attempt to get to work, then there is little point going to work at all... This is the most concerning development, personally I will do whatever it takes to get into work when it snows, either by motoring through the drifts or by getting the waterproof trousers out and walking. I have noticed that there is a growing tendency to make plans to stay at home at the first sight of snow as if it were a foregone conclusion that it will not be possible to get to work - this is of course true for many who will have to look after school-age kids, but I notice this attitude equally affects those who don't have kids, and who frankly (it seems to me) can't be bothered. In fact there was a news report the other day and the interviewer was talking to adults who were 'skiving' off work and playing in the snow - some had even driven to snow-covered hillsides with their sledges having first rung into work to say that they were snowed in and wouldn't be able to drive into work.

At least this kind of weather is sufficiently rare for it not to be too big an issue, but with the current harsh economic climate, people should probably be trying to protect the businesses they work for, by keeping high ethical standards when it comes to attendance and work-rate.

Back in the saddle

After a reasonably relaxing Christmas and New Year, I am back into the swing of things and working long hours at my day job once more. More deadlines and a huge work-load are keeping me particulalry busy. To be fair, the last 12 months have been manic, I was hoping that it might have levelled out a bit by now...

It's always good to be busy, so I don't want to moan, and in fact I enjoy having a lot to do, but what is missing is a bit of balance.

I beleive all humankind needs balance in all areas of their lives including work-time and home-time. At home, it's nice to balance family-time with a time to do tasks and time to yourself. At work it is good to have a variety of tasks, and a little time to relax in between. Right now, I need to be able to get a bit of balance into both work and home life.

Happy New Year

Unsurprisingly, we seem to have survived 2012 despite predictions to the contrary... I have also had a reasonable month of online earnings at almost £170, the best of the year so far. I was hoping to have another cassette job that would have taken me well past £200, but it didn't happen in the end.. There's just a few months left until the end of the financial year, but I am not expecting to reach the levels of the last few years.
Last year, for instance, by this time, I had a profit of £1100 on a turnover of £1300, this year in contrast I have only a profit of £600 on a turnover of just under £900.
I tend to split income into three main categories:
1. blogs
2. passive (including contextual adverts)
3. Cassette conversions
Each of these categories are showing a significant reduction in turnover, so there is not one specific area which is suffering. It's a little disappointing, but as it is just income that I am earning in my spare time, I guess I am having more spare time to myself... although I am spending a lot more time and effort on my 'day-job' this year, and have had significant bonuses to show for the effort.
I still have a few more projects (mostly Wordpress) that I want to explore, and have just come up with a new idea for a website - not sure whether there is any great way to monetise it, but the idea tackles a subject I am interested in, which is the key to seeing a project through in my opinion. I am going to use a WP theme for this which gives me three projects currently on the 'front burner' (plenty more on the back burner..). I am still working on getting Livewyre.NET onto a WP platform, it is looking really good, but I still have a lot to do. I have another site that I want to transfer onto a WP theme (tricky client though, it's for my wife!), and this new project that just occurred to me.
It's good to keep busy, and they always say that there is no rest for the wicked, in which case I must be particularly bad! If you are kind enough to read my posts, then Happy New Year - and to those that pay me for posts, Happy New Year to you too!

All over bar the shouting

Well it's all over now, Christmas Day and Boxing Day have gone and life reverts to 'normal'. Thankfully the holidays passed without too much shouting, but nonetheless, it is all over.. We actually passed a pleasant few days away from home, Christmas Day was spent in the traditional family gathering, but we had Boxing Day to ourselves. I got a good deal on an 'executive room' in a hotel over the Christmas break, so I booked an extra night and my wife and daughter and I had the extra day to ourselves yesterday. We started with a swim in the hotel leisure complex, a walk in a local park, lunch in a diner, a film at the cinema and home in time to have dinner in the hotel. Remarkably few arguments, and money well spent on a small 'suite' comprising two rooms (each with an impressive flat screen TV) in the hotel - an experience which I will be only too ready to repeat in the future.

Merry Christmas

The parcels are wrapped and ready to be opened, the bags are packed ready for the Christmas trip to see family and friends, there is the sound of sleep from the little one's room and all is calm ready for the excitement of tomorrow. I have a glass of wine, a ready supply of mince pies and a huge box of chocolates. We have each opened one present early, and mine was the chocolates...
The next two days should be relaxing and revitalising, I really hope that's how it turns out! All that remains to say is Merry Christmas, or as we say in this part of the world 'Nadolig Llawen'.

Relaxing at Christmas

I am not good at relaxing, I find it really hard to switch off even when it is holiday time. I have however recently realised that I do have a method of unwinding that works quite well for me.
I have always been keen on reading, and it does force me to sit down and relax with a coffee or glass of wine. My favourite writer is Charles Dickens, I have read pretty much every book he wrote, and I am now starting to read them again.

I recently picked up 'Nicholas Nickleby' and have been reading it at odd moments over the last week or so - I firmly intend to find more time over the Christmas break to read more, when I finish that particular book, I have a whole host of other Dickens books that I can re-read. When I originally read the Dickens books, I read them all one after the other, so consequently I find it difficult to recall what happened in each book.

The main purpose of re-reading is to see if I can better remember the books and the characters afterwards.
I also read most of Thomas Hardy's books, but am not as keen on him as a storyteller, as his stories are generally darker and depressing. My modern favourite is John Grisham, I enjoy all of his books and notice that there is a new one out in time for Christmas...