romandock dot com

This post could be considered my own personal version of “When Will You Get A REAL Job?” However, it is something that I have noticed quite a bit over the last couple of years and the skepticism is getting harder and harder to ignore. Sometimes I almost feel like giving in. I make no secret (especially on here) of the fact that so far I haven’t really made any money to speak of through my online endeavors and this only fuels the skepticism.

The timing of this post being so close to the publishing of the one I linked to above is purely coincidental. You see, I have recently began some preliminary work on accomplishing one of my goals for 2009 and building a new website designed to make money. However, in doing so, I have shared my idea with a couple of people and also spent a bit of time researching and planning so that I can start putting things together. A random sampling of the comments that I seem to get include:

Why would you want to start another website when you hardly have time for the one you already have?
Don’t you have other things you should be working on?
Maybe you should work on your homework.
What do you need another website for.
You spend all your time on the computer.
Why don’t you work on something that you actually need to do?

I never really know how to answer these questions or respond to these comments. Perhaps if/when I finally start making some money from these endeavors some of these comments will stop. Until then, I will just continue doing what I can to try and keep this site updated and make some money online and just keep hoping that things will work out for me. I’ll just keep believing in my self and persevering.

In response to the naysayers, I can only say this. I’m doing this because I enjoy it and I want to. I do it because I have committed myself to it. I do it because it’s a very small investment for what could turn in to a very nice return. I do it because I am learning more about these things everytime I try something new, things that could possibly help me in the future. I do it because it’s just something I do.

Do you ever get responses like this? How do you respond?

Ok, so I’ve procrastinated on this long enough. Dennis Edell at Direct Sales Web Marketing has been a loyal reader and active participant of romandock dot com for a few months now and I am going to help him out by entering his $100 review contest and trying to follow all the rules it includes!

The Personal Site

First of all, I am going to talk a little bit about his personal site at DennisEdell.com and what I think of that. The site itself is laid out fairly well, and the design seems to work, although it seems a bit cold for a personal site. I would suggest perhaps using “warmer” colors as well as some random fun stuff throughout (perhaps random fun images between posts and in the sidebar) to make it a bit less professional.

The current look seems a bit too professional for a site where the about page reads like a personal ad. Although, maybe he is going for a more professional image on that site in which case the about page should be changed.

I also have a couple suggestions in regards to saving space. Starting at the top, the navigation menu seems to have more than enough space both above and below the text (Home, About, Archives, Contact) and that extra padding above and below could probably be cut in about half without having an adverse effect on the look of the site.

My next space-saving suggestion would be to list fewer “Popular Articles” and not show the number of comments with each in that top block. This would allow that block to be made shorter and all three columns to end at approximately the same level. As an added bonus, these changes would make of the text in the post visible above the fold.

I also am not a huge fan of the sidebar layout as there is a large gap between the content and right-sidebar below the end of the left-sidebar and the right one is significantly longer. I think they should be a bit more balanced.

You may notice that all of the things I have mentioned above are purely cosmetic issues. There is nothing wrong with the content of Dennis’s personal site, the conversation (in the comments) is good, and I see no reason not to subscribe.

Easy Cash Contests

Moving on, I’m going to talk a little bit about his contest site at Easy Cash Contests where you can Win Cash Online and my opinion of it. I’ve subscribed and it’s a nice way to get a “heads up” anytime he comes across a contest with a cash prize, and hey, who doesn’t like cash? However, there are usually contests posted only every couple days or so which means you’re not going to get overloaded with contests that you think you should enter.

Due to the nature of the site, there’s not a whole lot of discussion on it so don’t expect to see a lot of comments (at least not yet) and I can see this being a niche that would be hard to generate discussion in. However, I certainly see it being of enough value to deserve more than 36 subscribers even if the number of comments does not increase.

As with the other one, I do have a few criticisms with the design of this site. Here, the color scheme actually works quite well for the purpose/content of the site, but again it feels quite top-heavy. My first suggestion would be to shrink the header image (the contents are small enough that some extra padding could easily be shaved off) and also the navigation menu (the same way as the other site) to move the content up.

The next big block takes up way too much space for the amount of information it contains. The subscription stuff is nice to have there, but could be condensed down and made shorter without losing much (if any) effect. Oh, and, Dennis, put something cool in the left one already (I have a suggestion if you care to ask).

Again, the sidebars are a bit unbalanced, but they are not too terrible so they could probably stay that way at least for the time being. Finally, the bottom of the page is again far too tall for the amount of “stuff” it actually contains (the three admin links). There is no reason for that box to be as tall as it is, especially with two “Soon To Be Displayed” sections.

Ok, so I’ve pretty much only talked about the design of the site, but if you want to know more before subscribing, you can check out the about page or browse the archives for yourself.

The Contest

I mentioned at the beginning of the post that this was going to be as a part of a contest. Well, I think it is probably one of the more involved contests that I’ve ever participated in and there are so many rules (7 to be exact) that I need to be sure to follow. However, I guess that since he’s kind of a friend and I could certainly use the money so I’ll do my best to follow them.

Rule #1:

You must blog this contest including all sponsor links with a link back to this page for comments. If you’re as lazy as I am, you can even copy/paste this entire post…..just be sure ALL links are clickable.

For the sponsor links, see below. The link to that page was at the beginning and is also in the quote above. For the rest of the rules (the “blog this contest” part), just keep reading.

Rule #2:

Write the review(s). You may do both 1 & 2 in the same post or two different posts, it’s up to you. If you do it all in one, the review must be first…..be sure think up a catchy title so they know it’s both a review and contest.

Well, I’ve written the reviews and it is the same post. The review portion was first (see above) and I’m not much for catchy titles so “Reviews For Dennis - A Contest Entry” will have to suffice.

Rule #3:

The review must include a least 2 links for each blog - Home page & About page. Home page keywords for EasyCashContests is Win Cash Online. No keywords for DennisEdell.com unless you can think of something nifty .

I’m pretty sure I’ve got the required links in the reviews above and I even made sure to work in the keywords. I didn’t think of anything nifty for the personal site, but luckily, that wasn’t one of the requirements!

Rule #4:

Share on at least two social sites of your choice (buttons below). Please take care to get the right category.

Ok, I shared it on Technorati and Google Bookmarks. I chose these two because I already had accounts at those places that I could use. I hope I have them categorized properly or that if I don’t it’s not going to void my entry.

Rule #5:

Subscribe to all 3 blogs via email using the same email address for all. You can do that here, here, & here.

I’m not sure why I would want to do that when I’m already subscribed to all three of them in my RSS reader, but I guess I’ll play the game and do it. I can always undo it later and just read through my reader, right?

Rule #6:

Comment below with: Link to your post(s) (if you separated them, leave both links). Links to social sites you shared on. Email address used to subscribe.

Ok, this one is pretty standard and I have no problem with that. I just have to remember to include both the post link AND the Technorati link. I’m not sure how to put a link to my Google Bookmarks though so I guess I’ll just export it and email the resulting .html file to Dennis, I hope that’s sufficient proof…that along with a screenshot ought to suffice

Rule #7:

After commenting check the “subscribe to comments” box…..I may leave updates there, and you don’t want to miss them.

Well, I always subscribe to comments anyway, so I have nothing to worry about there.

Sponsors & Prizes

CASH VIA PAYPAL:

Dennis Edell @ Beginner Marketing Tips - $25

Dennis Edell @ Win Cash Online - $25

Dennis Edell @ DennisEdell.com - $25

Yep, I’m personally putting up $75 .

Mirjam @ MeMyselfAndIBlog - $10

Wei Liang @ ABloggerBlog - $10

Rodel @ Lagahit.com - $25

Suzanne Franco @ SuzanneFranco.com - $30

BANNER ADS (1 month ea. w/value if available):

Sherry @ SherrysShopping - 125×125

Sherry @ PinkyPosh - 125×125

Sherry @ AnotherContest - 125×125

Wei Liang @ ABloggerBlog - 125 x 125 ($10)

Superman Joe @ PostBlogger - 300 x 250

Sharmin @ ContestSpot - 125×125

Erwin Tan @ ErwinTan.com - 125×125 ($20)

Jonathan @ How To Blog - 125×125 ($15)

Garry Conn @ GarryConn.com - 468×60 ($70)

ZK @ WebTrafficROI - 125×125 ($20)

Yan @ Blog Setup - 125×125 ($20)

Archie Pennies @ SomeExtraPennies - 125 x 125 for 4 months

TEXT LINKS:

Collin @ FeedFlare - life time blog roll link

Harish @ BloggingKid - 1 month text link ad

Archie Pennies @ SomeExtraPennies - site wide blog roll link for 4 months

EBOOKS:

Peter Lee @ Make Money Blogging - New Home Study Course,”Quit Being a Wage Slave in 10 Easy Steps” ($47)

Ben Pei - @ Make Money Online - Instant Blog Traffic ($47)

Kathy Hendershot-Hurd @ VirtualImpax - 8 Week Power Blog Launch product ($77)

BLOG REVIEWS:

Mirjam @ MeMyselfAndIBlog - Blog Review ($25)

Superman Joe @ PostBlogger - Blog Review

Nishadha @ rumblinglankan - Blog Review ($20)

ENTRECARD CREDITS:

Sherry @ Heart Random - 500 EC
Sherry @ Name Sherry - 500 EC
Sherry @ SherryGo - 500 EC

Rodel @ Cebupacificairphilippines - 1000 EC

Nishadha @ rumblinglankan - 1000 EC
Nishadha @ YeastInfectionInDogs - 1000 EC

Wiehanne @ Wiehanne Lounge - 500 EC

Wiehanne @ Medan Daily - 500 EC
Wiehanne @ SimplyWP - 500 EC

OTHER:

David R Young Jr @ Niche-It - custom squeeze page template package ($7)

Brian D. Hawkins @ ExtremeEzine - one year Pro membership to YourAdTracker ($39.95)

Well, there ya go, I hope this fulfills all the requirements of entering Dennis’s little contest. What do you guys think, was this a bit much to go through for a contest entry? What would you have done differently if it was your contest?

Since I recently found out how much Jason misses snow I decided that I’d share a picture of some of the snow we have so that he can at least see some

It’s been awhile since I have put anything into my open source software category so I figured it would be a good time to do that. The software that I am going to talk a little bit about today will allow you to create PDF documents from any program that is able to print.

I must admit, I haven’t personally used this nice little utility, but PDFCreator appears to be quite handy. Since I haven’t personally used or tested it I’m not for certain, but it appears that it installs as a printer and you just go into your print menu and select it as your output.

This will provide a nice, basic, quick, and easy to use method of creating PDF documents from just about anything while incorporating some more advanced features as well. It may even be more versatile than some of the other methods that I have used in the past and will likely find a home on my computer in the near future.

Along with PDFs, it appears to be able to create image files such as the PNG, JPEG, TIFF, and BMP formats. This added functionality could be nice in certain situations as well, I would imagine that it could be useful for taking a “screenshot” of a website and being able to display the entire page rather than just the part currently visible on your screen.

If you’re concerned about security, it also includes the ability to encrypt and password protect the PDF files it creates (I’m not sure about files saved in an image format) to prevent them from being opened by unintended recipients.

If you’ve wanted to make a PDF file but didn’t have the means to do it, give this little utility a try and it just might be exactly what you were looking for. I know I’ll probably be installing it the next time I have a PDF I want to make or want to take a “screenshot” of a particular website.