This is a brief update on what I’ve been doing, my plans for the site and my WordPress Plugins.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Work has been pretty busy. For those that don’t know, I head up the web team for a large organization based in Brisbane. The role is mostly management / internal consulting, but with
a little hands on development.

The website uses the RedDot CMS, which is an interesting challenge for me, because it’s a proprietory Windows based solution, and I come from an open source background. I haven’t learnt much about RedDot itself yet, but I’m going to focus on that soon.

We’re looking getting a project off the ground to revamp the intranet site, which I’m very interested in. You’ll probably see some intranet related posts in future as I’ve been reading a lot about this topic.

I’ve also undergone some training in the Prince2 project management and ITIL service delivery frameworks, both of which were fairly intensive.

Because work’s busy, I have less time for my online ventures. It’s a little frustrating, as I have so many things I want to do. At least I enjoy work!

WordPress Plugins

As yet, I haven’t performed any testing of my plugins in WordPress 2.6, but I know I need to do it soon. I’ve had reports that DualFeeds works fine in WordPress 2.6, but don’t know about the others.

There is one very small issue with most of my plugins. WordPress 2.6 may break the Check Version function in the Options page. This does not affect the core functionality of the plugin and is only likely to occur if you have moved the wp-content folder from its default location.

The only plugin that’s likely to have it’s core functionality affected by this issue is LocalCurrency, which uses an AJAX call similar to the one used by the Check Version function. If you use LocalCurrency, don’t move the wp-content folder from its default location.

This means I’ll need to re-release all my plugins with this fixed. I’ll take the opportunity to add a few new features that I’ve been promising for a while.

Also, as mentioned in my last post, I’m working on a new DoFollow plugin for WordPress, which will only reward the people who leave good comments with a DoFollow link. Progress is slow because of a lack of time.

I also have several plugins that I’ve written and use, but haven’t released because they need some polishing (ie an option page added, the code tidied up, etc). There are also several half written plugins, that I’ve never got back to. When I have time, I’ll plan to finish these off, but don’t hold your breath.

The problem is, the more plugins I release, the more work’s involved with maintaining and supporting them.

New WordPress Theme Coming

I’m also in the middle of creating a new theme that looks a lot better than the current one. I am a good web developer and I do have design skills, but this doesn’t come across looking at my blog. I plan to rectify this soon.

Here’s my current header (click to see full resolution):

Here’s a sneak preview of the new header (click to see full resolution):

Let me know what you think! That’s just the header. The whold theme will be revamped – in fact, I’m rewriting it from scratch.

Direct Advertising

With the new theme, I’ll probably start offering some direct advertising. Many other bloggers do this, but I haven’t taken the step yet.

I’ll nofollow the links, so as to stay in Google’s good books. I haven’t determined the pricing yet, but I’ll provide details in future.

Services

I’ve been turning down requests for custom WordPress plugins because I’ve been so busy. I’ll have to drop free model as there just isn’t time: I’m not going to stop working on my projects, unless I’m being paid for the work.

I’ll still be offering a Custom WordPress Plugin service, but I’ll have to be adequately compensated.

I’ll also offer a Custom WordPress Theme service in future, now that I have the taste for WordPress Theme development. This was always on the cards: it’s a natural extension for plugin developers with web design skills.

Final Thoughts

There’ll be a number of exciting things happening here in the coming months. I’m busy and I’m only going to get busier – but it’s all good!

A lot of my favourite blogs discuss making money online. I’ve been plotting how I can get in on the action – but I recently had a revelation. While reading about the many different strategies, I’d lost sight of what’s most likely to make me decent money online: leveraging my existing skill set.

Do I Want To Make Money Online?

Yes! When I started this blog, the purpose wasn’t to make money from it. I only wanted to cover my hosting costs. Slowly, I’ve started thinking it would be nice to make more money from it. Maybe take my family out to dinner. Maybe pay for a holiday. Maybe, just maybe, even make a living online…

Why the change in my goals? Because I read so many blogs that discuss making money. That’s right – I’m blaming you guys!

So What Ideas Have You Been Putting Into My Head?

There are a lot of great posts out there about making money online.

Some cover strategies that could generate extra income from this blog, such as Affiliate Marketing, creating and selling an ebook or information product, sponsored posts or displaying ads from WidgetBucks, TLA, Kontera, etc.

Others involve creating additional sites. For example: building niche mini sites and promoting them through article marketing or starting an online store.

All of these sound possible to me. I’m convinced I could successfully implement these strategies. In fact, I’m planning to put more than one of these into place in the near future (but that’s a story for another day).

No Magic Solutions

One thing has stood out with everything I’ve read. None of these strategies will make me rich overnight. Many people point out that making money online is not an easy business. It’s possible, but it’s hard work and slow progress.

So, let’s stop for a minute. I’m spending lots of time learning something new, which is going to be hard work and take time to pay off? That’s fine. But why not make money from what I already know? I should be able to start earning right away. I’d forgotten the simplest route.

Leveraging Your Existing Skill Set

It will be different for everyone, but I’m sure that everyone has some skill or talent that they can leverage to make money online.

Think about your skills. Are you an SEO expert? Provide a website review service. A niche marketer? Provide a consulting service for starters. An architectural assistant? Do some freelance work. Get the picture?

Of course, many people do this already, but I haven’t seen anyone writing about it as a way to make money online. I’m not sure if it’s because people think it’s obvious or whether it’s not glamorous enough. Maybe it’s because there’s not as much mileage in telling people to do what they already know!

Whatever the reason, if you’re not utilising your skills you need to think about how you may be able to do this.

Argument Against Leveraging Your Skill Set

There is an argument against offering services which use your skill set: In most cases, it won’t lead to passive income. To keep the revenue stream going, you will have to actively keep working.

It may be better to spend the time developing passive income streams, which only require minimal work to maintain.

But There Are Follow-on Benefits

In addition to the immediate monetary benefits, there are follow-on benefits of offering services based on your skill set.

Providing services can help you position yourself as an expert in your niche, driving your blog forward and leading to greater opportunities down the line. It’s likely to lead to loyal readers, higher traffic, increased advertising income, higher sales of ebooks and so on.

How I’m Going To Leverage My Skill Set

What skills do I have? I can write WordPress plugins and develop websites.

I have other skills too, but these are the ones I think will best translate into online income. When I answered a WordPress Plugin Rewrite Challenge, I realised there’s a market for custom WordPress plugins and plugin modification that I can tap into.

I’m now offering services, including custom WordPress development. I’m not expecting to make a lot of money (one plan is free!), but it’s more likely to provide an immediate revenue stream than the other strategies are. I’ll persist with those as well, but services offer better short term value for me.

The Final Word

If you don’t offer services based on your existing skill set, you need to consider what services you could offer. By all means, pursue other ways of making money online, but don’t pass up an option which may lead to easy money.

What do you think? Let me know if you agree, or if you think I’m wrong!

A couple of days ago, my site was reviewed by RT Cunningham on Untwisted Vortex. I was happy with the review, but this post isn’t about the review – it is about the service provided by Untwisted Vortex.

RT didn’t review my site because he thought it was a great site. He didn’t review it because I paid him. He reviewed it simply because I asked him to on his Comment For A Review post. This is a great service which many have taken up.

Untwisted Vortex is all about helping other bloggers make the most of their blogs. I have to say it has really helped me – there is a ton of good advice there. Services such as free blog reviews are the icing on the cake.

In my 3 short months in the blogging game, I can honestly say I have met a lot of nice people. RT stands out in particular, because not only is he helpful, he always makes very good sense. It’s a rare case when I disagree with something he says.

I have my own ideas about how to do things, so I can’t promise I’ll always follow his advice, but I can promise I will always listen to it.

Now this might read like a Sponsored Post, but I can assure you it’s not – it’s just my honest opinion about JT and Untwisted Vortex. If, for some reason, you haven’t checked out his site – get over there.

Do you know of any other sites which are exceptionally helpful? If so, let me know in a comment below.