Start generating passive income with a Financial Backup Plan

Everything is getting more expensive! From rice, fishball, noodle (and fishball noodle!) to petrol. Inflation strikes again!

It is hip to be frugal again! Coupon cutting, sales promotion everywhere tempting us to spend more than we can save. When inflation strikes it is not about cutting on consumption (although we should cut the luxury item but how to cut on rice?). We are simply forgetting an important element - the rate of return.

During inflation if our income remains the same, we are actually not keeping up with the rising costs. Falling interest rates make it worst.

We have to think about A Financial Backup Plan (FBP...sounds nicer with acronym). Some called it Multiple source of income or passive income.

Hey, we have backup for our computer files and records, shouldn't we have a backup for our finance? There are always ready subsitutes to replace the injured main players in competitve team sports. Retrenchment and recession are common nowadays. Can you guarantee you have a job forever?

It is best if we can build up our Financial Backup Plan (FBP) sigma curve (see diagram below) when we are at the peak of our career or business so that when (in case) the main source of income goes down, the other can be ready to support it.

Be it internet marketing, affiliate marketing, home business, stock investing, ebay business, Network marketing, part time job, writing a book etc we have to start to build our sigma curve early (the time is NOW!) . So that you do not have to constantly worry about every little thing that affects THAT full time job. When you have only a source of income, you will be constantly fearful of losing it and as a result you will spend hours defending it. Why not take this time to build another sigma curve?

That said, You can have a backup plan for finance; you can even buy insurance to hedge those uncertain costs but there is only one source of security in life (see my post on The meaning of Easter) because life can still throw a curve ball at you.

Battle of the Blogs!

I just joined the Battle of the Blogs at BlogExplosion!

If you are a BlogExplosion user, please vote for me! Thanks!

If you are new to BlogExplosion, please read my post
Blogexplosion REALLY works!

Let BlogExplosion explodes your web traffic!

5 tips on Facebook marketing and traffic

I join facebook with the intention of networking as well as experimenting on how to increase web traffic with social networking site like facebook.

I would like to share some insight on my effort on increasing web traffic with facebook. So here it is my 5 tips on increasing web traffic with Facebook.

First about Facebook.
It has:

• More than 55 million active users.
• average of 3% weekly growth since Jan. 2007
• New Active users doubling every 6 months

so there is no surprise that alot marketing agencies are looing at facebook for online marketing.
You can see the advertisement on the left panel once you are in the facebook.

5 tips on increasing web traffic with Facebook marketing

#1 Create a group for targeted traffic
By creating a group, you can share, discuss specific topics and offer what just the readers or buyers wanted. This is a very important feature in facebook and i do not think marketers are using this feature enough. Alot of big companies are already realising this point and created group (company or product names) which is a good trend. There is a catch- be a friend first and be genuine. If not, you will find yourself with a group with no members. YRemember to invite your friends as group members and vice versa.

#2 Active Promotion
You promote your site or blog to thousands of users interested in your topic or what you have to offer. You can either post your message or promotion on others' wall or Discussion Board.. Catch: Please do not hard sell! Do not paste your blog or site url all over the place. If you are 'downgraded' as a spam, people in the facebook community will learn fast. Remember, social networking community are interconnected!

#3 It is all about Networking
Don't be shy. It is all about Networking. Add friends regularly. I am not suggesting that you add 100 friends in a day (YOU WILL BE BANNED y facebook if you do that). The more Friends you have in facebook, the more network you have to share you concepts and products. Again, do not hardsell! be a friend first! Join other groups (especially the popular ones-you can judge by the number of members) to network as well as see how they adminster the group.

Once word of caution! Be very discrete about your personal information for you own sake. Because you do not know who is out there on the internet or social networking site! if you have a wall or Funwall application, remember to moderate it to remove any desirable content.

#4 Link to you site or business
A lot of people have fun in facebook and forgot about the marketing side of it. They forgot (or take a long time) to link their site, blog or ebay business to facebook. facebook IS a powerful marketing platform for business especially online business. If you have a facebook group, you can post your blog or business url there and begin to share on specific topic. With specific group, they don't mind the 'extra' information as they joined for a specific purpose.

An example of linkage. If you have a blog and you want to market it to your facebook community to increase web traffic. There are applications like My Blogs which take your RSS feeds and post it on your facebook profile for them to view. Many will then go to your blog to view more posts.

Since i started on facebook, i have constant flow of traffic from facebook.

#5 Target same area first
This is the most neglected point. You should start to target those living in the same area as you first. If you are in USA, network and target your area first instead of Europe and all round the world. This is especially important if you have a local business and would like people to know and visit your store. You can then organise promotional events and invite your facebook members. Traffic from the same area is more targetted traffic for you if you are writing post that is cultural specific or you are only selling products within your region.


Hope you find the above facebook marketing tips useful.

Internet marketing blog Asia by Project Heavy Traffic

As there are very few English internet marketing blog in asia, Project Heavy Traffic aims to play a role in this niche area.

It is the objective of this blog to benefit bloggers in asia (and beyond) to overcome internet blog marketing challenges and increase website Traffic ranking.

I will periodically translate some of the blog posts in chinese to cater to the every increasing Chinese bloggers in China.

For those not on Facebook, please support me by subscribing to my widget or RSS at http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/proj-heavy-traffic-internet-marketing-blog-asia

Cheers!

Earth Day - Start saving our Earth Today

Today, 22 April is Earth Day!

In the midst of raw material and energy shortage, Let us do our part to recycle materials and conserve energy to save our earth.

You wouldn't want the earth to dry up one day...

Friendship Meme

My blog buddy Jean has dedicated a Friendship Meme to me.

You don't have to be tagged in order to join this Friendship Meme.Why not join me in this meme? I dedicate it to all my blog friends.

Let's see how huge this circle of friends can be. Add your link onto this Friendship Meme!

1. Catsy Carpe Diem
2. Catsy Download
3. Out of the Blue
4. A Day to Savor and Relish
5. A Piece of Idea
6. Write Shy
7. Stupid Wise
8. onlinememorylane
9. See Me For What You Will
10. Michelle’s Small World
11. Chez Francine
12. Cronaca
13. Le bric à brac de Cherie
14. Life
15. Hanna
16. AngrianiWorld
17. Farah
18. Anoushka
19. Noushy Syah
20. Eagle
21. Dasir
22. M2M
23. Sani-journal
24. NAFA
25. Mariuca
26. Bokjae
27. A Total Blog
28. A Great Pleasure
29. Project Heavy Traffic
30. Add your link here

The Keys of Life

Life is very interesting.

You can't Backspace it and there is no Return. Sometimes, Life likes to throw a curve ball at you just when you think you have everything under Control. You can't Pause it for a little while even when you are out of breath. You do not have a clear direction as you are always faced with many Alternate paths. No body is born with the A to Z manual of Life so everyone just has to stumble along. All, whether rich or poor, will have to Shift along life phases.

Life is very interesting, it is only when you are called Home that you End this game of Life.

*

So, live life to the fullest by first getting a Life. Play and go for a long haul holiday trip without feeling guilty; Spend time with your love ones; Go for your dreams. You only live once. It is better to have tried and failed than to never try at all.

Share your success with us, Google

Google just reported a 31% rise in first-quarter profit to $1.31 billion and the growth in paid clicks was much higher than expected.

Hey! How about paying us, the blogger aka content provider, more for Adsense?
Share your success with us.

残疾女火炬手金晶捍卫奥运圣火

残疾女火炬手金晶在巴黎捍卫奥运圣火.

Handicapped girl,JinJing fought to protect the olympic touch.

That's the true olympic spirit!

Picture source link:photocdn.sohu.com 搜狐2008奥运

U.S. sliding into recession: Expert says

In an interview with CNBC, Martin Feldstein - the president of the National Bureau of Economic Research said that he believes the U.S. has been sliding into a recession.

Watch the interview on CNBC.com http://www.cnbc.com/id/23994721

Just when i thought subprime problems are fading away...

Death of a blogger

There was a report in our local newspaper about deaths of the two bloggers which shocked me.This news brings me down to earth in the midst of my chasing for search engine ranking and web traffic numbers.

Weeks ago, two technology bloggers- Mr Russell Shaw and Mr Marc Orchant died of heart related problems. Many professional bloggers were pressured to write and come up with fresh content to earn more. This is in the effort to be the first to break the latest news and drive massive traffic to their site. Traffic drives advertising revenue.

This is a worry trend. There is nothing wrong with increasing website traffic and earn extra income but to do so at the expense of health, it is simply not worth it!

There is an underlying danger of prolonged hours of blogging. One gets addicted to it! (read my article on Blogging can be as addictive as Role Playing Games ). The push is even more when they are paid to do so.

The Death of 2 prolific bloggers reminds us not be too caught up in this man-made game. Breakneck speed is not sustainable. Again, do all things in moderation!

No longer Faceless in Facebook

I have told myself not to be caught in the "facebook storm" that has swept many parts of the world. All my known friends are in facebook. I tild myself it is just one of the many social networking site.

In the end, i still join facebook and have been at it since. I have to declare i am no longer
Faceless in Facebook.

I like facebook because of the ease in making friends. I like the simple interface. But the millions of requests have been weighing it down. You just have to have fun and not to get yourself so stressed in clearing those requests.

I have created my Facebook Aps called aptly Project Heavy Traffic. It is a feed of my humble blog. Until i can design more complicated Apps, this is it- my first Facebook Apps.

What's the big hurry?

I feel sad when i read about the tragic news of the child Prodigy, Sufia Yusof.

She is a victim of the world who is obsessed with being "outstanding"; being different from the crowd; being better than the rest.

What is the big hurry anyway?

If you get too caught up with the result, you will miss the journey. Some Prodigy, in such a hurry to grow up, missed exactly just that - growing up.

So what if you get a few years headstart? We all know the ending for all human is the same-Death. So what is the big hurry to go to the last square. Don't be caught in the Human Race.

Enjoy the scenery and the people. Be at the present not the future.

US in recession? brace yourself for a possible storm

US is going into a recession (or already in recession depending on how you define it).

Read about the lives of some of the americans and their struggles in CNN Money.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/news/0803/gallery.real_stories/

Quite a number of them have lost their job and are facing the prospect of losing their home.

*

It is a reality check for me to spend within my means.

And to brace myself for a possible storm in this part of the world.

The missing step B

One of my friends has asked me why do i detail my struggles in attracting web site traffic, in my blog. It does not make my site "sounds" professional.

"Just post the good news" he said.

I told him i am not an expert (yet) and there are many so-called "Expert" site out there that declared that they had tripled their web site traffic in a very short time but did not reveal the process. They merely listed down the general methods which could be found all over the internet. Hey! we want to know the real secrets!

It is like saying "I get from A to C". Great! so where is the step 'B'? What happened? What were your struggles in getting there?

This site is (at least trying very hard to) detailing the journey not just the result. You can actually trace back my posts to see where you are now (if you are starting out) and how i get to where i am now (which is not THERE yet by any Expert standard). But at least i am applying what i have gathered and learn and you can witness the live result in this blog.

The step B.

Babies do not come with manual!

I apologise for not blogging lately. I have been spending much of my free time recently with my son.

I wish there is a manual for parenthood. But babies do not come with manual.
Sure, there are self-help books out there but they are not quite the same when it comes to the real thing.

Infanthood is alright (on hindsight), thanks to my super duper wife and mum-in-law.
Toddlerhood, well, that is a different game altogether...

When my son found mobility, he seems to discover a whole new world, everyday.
He will run, skip, climb to anything thats catches his attention.

He will mess up the living room (i can't call it a designer room anymore), spill milk all over it (intentionally and unintentionally), crumble my newpaper while i am reading it etc

And i can't even watch TV anymore! There are only 2 programmes on my TV - High 5 and Barney. Although i try to reduce TV hours for him slowly (those who are parent will know the immediate effect of stopping them of something they like)

I, on the other hand, have to be super alert to prevent him from falling and trying very hard not to hinder his process of discovery and adventure (everyday IS an adventure for me)

No body tells me enough what to expect! Not even those self help parenting books (which some gives good advice). Every child is unique! That is why there is no standard manual or handbook.

My friends asked me to detail my experience in a notebook. I can't! Everyday is different!

Everyday is a journey of FUN! (did i mention the word- tired...) It is a joy of witnessing and being with your child as he grows up everyday.