DAY 123

Update: Wednesday, 13-Jul-2005 10:53 PM

Today I spent mostly reading and learning. One of the issues that I was concerned about were the pages that are adding up on p31.com. I didn't think about the possibility that I could have up words of 1,000 pages on the site by the end of the year. There are already about 250 and the sales area will create many more.

The problem is that when a small change is made now to a template, I can 'transfer' the template to all the pages that I have created with it. No problem there.

However, the template I have created when I started was rather small and took only about 100,000 bits and very little time to upload. The one I am using now is almost 4 times that and no doubt it will get larger at the page gets more completed.

The solution? It's called CSS -- cascading style sheets that is an online publishing standard. What it will do I think is reduce the size of the page (data/bandwidth wise) to about 50% of the total size. Perhaps, even more.

I think the problem was created when I inserted the "P31-STEP Success Building Center" text to the right of here. The setup was done using tables and that apparently is a 'no-no' when doing these types of setups.

So, what do I do. It just so happens that Macromedia has a development support area that I can use full of tutorials that answer such questions.

So, today I spent about 3 hours on two "WEBINARS" that were hosted by an employee of Macromedia covering the basics of CSS. I feel comfortable enough now to at least start testing the use of such technology to build the site.

I think when this site is 10,000 pages --you never know! --I will actually be able to manage even the slightest changes that I need to make.

Just a word about CSS. What it does is help me define the style, locations, colors and a whole lot of the other design features of this site. And it will help me minimize the size of each page so that downloading is fast. I have a very fast DSL connection --it's faster than most cable connections --but my page seems to come slow at this time from the server it's running on. The server only has two dozen sites hosted on it, so I know where the problem resides: Right on the pages.

Now what I am going to do study the chapter of my owners manual and then make a plan.

The outcome is that all the pages will need to follow the new format. That gives me an opportunity to update the entire site, some of the pages and the general 'look and feel' of the entire setup. I cannot update the older blog pages. The defies the original point of the discussion that I started --the point was to show the mistakes, the decisions and the outcome. Raw. Live. And talk about it.

Some of the elements that I can now work with:
--page colors
--better graphics
--fix broken links
--check the navigation -Is it easy for the user to see the different points of the site?
--update pages
--correct my multitude of mistakes

So, there is a lot to do as I update page after page.

As part of the sales center I have also decided to specialize on business credit building --all aspects of it and even funding operations for some of the Internet ideas that come across my desk.

Now, this is all well and fine, but first things first. I am still working on funding this operation and I better focus on that.

I still haven't gotten any positive responses for the items that was going to sell to raise funding. The idea was to sell the first 5 affiliate accounts that are worth, in my opinion, over $10,000 per month in revenue. Obviously, the problem is that others don't see it that way, and I have to do some convincing.

Anyway, I had a target of getting the ad out on ebay before the 15th of July and I think that will be done. I hope to post it before the weekend, and then have it go on for two weekends and see what happens.

It's just a test to see what interests that people or bidders will have on it. My other idea is to visit some financial forums and see if I can post some ads that reference the ebay auction to see who is interested.

Another reason for my interest to get the funds in quickly is because I want move the programming from Sri Lanka, where the work has been delayed month after month, to the Netherlands where things like deadlines, qualify and dependability matter a whole lot and I can count on someone saying it will be done by a certain date.

I know people here, and when they say something, they work their earnest to make sure of that. In Sri Lanka, well that just does not matter. Whatever gets done, gets done, and no one really gives a damn about the output. It kind of explained to me why the entire country is at the bottom of the GDP list, while countries like India are booming. Well, I need to qualify that too --parts of India and some of the people are "booming". The rest of them will take a few more centuries to catch up.

So, in the midst of all this activity I have kept perfecting the business plan. The danger in all of this is that as I keep "perfecting it" I keep adding things that take time. My time. Which I don't have a whole heck of a lot of.

I then made a bit more plans. The first one was to get an office near my home that I can walk to on a daily basis to get things done. The second ideas was to get a helper who worked from home but me at the office once or twice a week to assist my personal tasks.

Perhaps, even two such people. I plan to get such aide towards the end of the year. The office, which I already know a good place for, will come in perhaps, about early September and then the assistant between then and Thanksgiving time. That would give me about 2 or 3 months to 'educate' such a person regarding the activities that I am working on and to get the help of such a person during a 'slow time'...

I certainly see the period of January to May of next year as a very busy time with sales and marketing activities for my products growing month after month.

Ok that does it for an update. Got to go... Sam out.

BACK to DAY 122 | DAY 123 | NEXT is DAY 124