My First Check Of $500

Let me start at the very begining. In 1999 I bought a computer because everyone had one and they were so full of it. The only problem was that I didn't know how to start it . In my ideal world it should have come alive as soon as I plugged it into the wall socket. But that was not to be.Now, seven years, hundreds of telephone calls, distress messages, crashes, virus attacks and what have you later, here I am full of knowledge (I know, now, that internet is not something loaded into the computer but is accessed through the telephone lines) and skill (I was recenty asked to help with a powerpoint presentation for a school project!!!), one website old and one blog young. And just between you and me, sometimes I even use words like upload, download, URL, HTML code in front of people who I know for sure have less knowledge than me. I write, 'know for sure' because it is very dangerous to show off when the best you can manage is 'think'. Trust me, and I know this from experience, you don't want to be the centre of attention at a gathering, when at best you 'think' you know about someone, only to find out there was a slight under estimation on your part (more than slight in my case).Anyway the gist of the story is that I am better at computers than I was in 1999, I am one website and one blog old and I am proud of my achievement- that is when I can bring myself to forget the really embarrassing bits.This brings me to the real story, the story that I have set out to tell with this blog, the story of my first tentative step on the virtual property ladder, my first trip (and trip I did - several times) down the virtual home owner's lane.Sometime towards the end of Febuary, 2006, I sat punching at my laptop trying to find some work at home opportunities. All I found after hours and hours of searching, were totally crass, brainless ads directed at people who wanted to make 500 bucks an hour, if not more but despite my robust optimism, I found it impossible to believe them. I mean, I know people selling these ideas are not lying, they are probably making much more than that, but what was there in it for me, other than making a contribution towards their financial well being? So I searched some more the next day and some more the day after that till I hit upon a website that talked about setting up blogs and websites and earning money through advertising on them.Now, advertising, in my dictionary is another word for showing off, which I think goes against my grain, really. But I don't know why and for what reason I found this idea very appealing. The more I thought about it, the stronger it took hold of my imagination. I could see people reading my articles, and discussing them at the street corners, admiring 'so much wisdom in one so young' and all that and then clicking on the advertisements because I had wisely decided to put them on my site. I could see myself as the power behind many a successful businessmen, who were ever so thankful for my contribution. The picture magnified with each passing hour, and by evening I couldn't wait any longer.I took the plunge at the deep end, without a life jacket and without any idea of how I would stay afloat (as it became obvious eventually).The First SlipMy first step was to decide on a domain name. It was only when I started thinking about it did I realise, that I did not have the faintest idea what the website was going to be about. But of course, it had to match my talent and my standards. Anything small and simple was best left to people with no ambition. I was far too motivated (how is that for a euphimism) to start small.Finally I decided to start an online store, the best, the biggest, the brightest, the smartest, the sassiest, the savviest, the suavest (If you have any problems with my choice of adjectives, write to me and I will make the necessary change. I don't have time to look up a dictionary now). And best of all full of advertisements. Wouldn't Seimens be happy when I made their dishwashers so popular, the word seimen would only ever conjure up the image of a machine full of dirty dishes in the minds of people, instead of something else that it does now?Once again, the more I thought about it the more magnified this idea became in my mind and the more overwhelmed I felt by my own brilliance. Yes! I would be a businesswoman, selling singlehandedly, more than all the Tescos, Asdas, and Walmarts put together.I promptly registered a name www.safeshopsonline.co.uk and got cracking... my head, that is, banging it, as I was, against the wall. For I had no idea where my website was and what it looked like. I typed the URL in Google to see my website and received a blank for reply. I promptly dashed off an email to the company I had used for registering the name to get some details. The polite reply I received, enlightened me to the fact that, to have a website I would have to first buy a hosting package and then build my own site. For some reason I had been thinking that I would see a ready made website just like the one I had been building in my mind, when I registered a domain name.So I started building the site, the biggest , the best, the smartest....Soon it became amply clear that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I had no knowledge of how a site is built. I subscribed to a 'what you see is what you get' site wizard and started typing. The final result looked like an MSword document. Moreover, I had no idea how and from where I would get advertisements to put on my site and what I would have to do to set up a shop with check out and payment facilities. Now to cut the long story short, just like a balloon bursts when filled with too much air, my idea became a victim of its own brilliance - and of the fact that some people had already made use of my brilliant ideas even before I had thought of them.

Thanks to:
http://www.viratualpropertymillionaire.blogspot.com/