AlleNation

It’s been a bit more than 5 months since I last logged into allenation.com/wp-admin to check comments, incoming links and write a new post. There’s a lot to write about, but I don’t want to get things too complicated, too dramatic or too boring.

Bottom line is - I’m back. I wanted to come back a day after I left, but the army was coming and the most probable destination then was a combat unit, which was also desire, which would eliminate any chance of having internet access for the next 3 years.

Fast forward 5 months and I’m not in a combat unit, there are things I can’t discuss, so let’s just say I’m not in a combat unit, and my army service in the IDF is very similar to a job with unpredictable and unlimited work-hours.

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I don’t know how many of you are still reading this blog, I’m sure most of those who did read it are wondering why did I go underground for two months and why did I leave after setting the expectations bar so high (remember my March promises?)..

Truth is, I have no intentions of telling why I was gone, or what was I doing in that time, I can only say this - I’ve left the dream for a bigger one.
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Over the course of time, a blogger must overcome certain challenges, obstacles and generally rough times if he wishes to remain and grow; no matter how long you’ve been in the industry or what’s your current status - you will eventually face serious challenges that will test your consistency and passion.

I’m going a similar phase right now - I feel another, bigger test is ahead.
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After a forced hiatus I’m slowly getting back into my normal routine and hopefully the new features for March should be up soon. Today I want to talk about something everybody has been asking about: my best earner.

Over the last 3 months I’ve been reading a lot of questions and even complaints in the comments about the fact I don’t “share” my biggest earner, some have even tried to claim that I’m faking my earnings in various funny ways.
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5 days after paying $500 for my new VPS from Media Temple, I finally get my sites up and working on their server. The damage done to me by the recent downtime is significant and not everything is working perfectly so far; the funny thing is - I may be moving again in less than a week! why?

- Media Temple’s primary support method is a US toll-free phone number, the number is not toll free for international callers.

- Somehow, this very important piece of information is not mentioned anywhere on their site.

- Why is this information important? here’s an email I received from their sales department after complaining about slow responsiveness for my submitted support tickets:
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One of the golden rules in blogging is to never get too emotionally involved, it usually leads to nothing but trouble.

But I’m going to break that rule because I’m about to go literally insane at the moment, and you know the reason. I guess I’m now learning what I’ve been told many times: You get exactly what you pay for.

Anyway, I don’t want to rant too much. I’ve just placed an order at Media Temple, I’m getting a virtual private server and hope it will be robust enough to host my sites.

The post on my biggest earner will be published after the transfer.

Thanks for understanding, I really do appreciate it..
Allen

I promised March would be an even more exciting and interesting month here at AlleNation, and even though a leap into the domain market wasn’t planned, I found myself spending about $180 on 5 domain names since the beginning of the month.

When you first hear about someone spending “so much” on domain names you’d probably think it’s rather crazy than exciting or interesting; many people have hundreds of domain names in their portfolio with minimal reselling or developing potential, which makes their domaining experience futile.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case for me until now; out of the 5 domain I bought so far I parked one and put it for sale at Sedo on March 2nd, and yesterday -merely two days after- I received an inquiry about it.
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The fact February only has 28 days didn’t help my Adsense averages, but instead of whining about this and about the fact that Dreamhost was down for a whole day and loading extremely slow (have you noticed it?) for the next last 5 days, I’m putting together a recovery plan to perform better in March.

Earnings for February
February: the month of the slacker
March is going to be interesting, more than you imagine. A lot more.
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Some 20 days after I’ve been reviewed by request at John Chow Dot Com, I think it’s time to release a much awaited verdict. This post will actually kick off our next series, which will talk about blogging reviews: whether you need or should get one, and if you do - how to make the most of it.

But before discussing why & how, let’s see what have John’s review brought to this blog in terms of instant traffic, RSS subscription and loyal readership. Was it worth my $100?
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I recently sat with a journalist for an interview about my online businesses, he asked me to bring some paper and statistics that may be worth a mention. One of the things I brought with me to the meeting was my Adsense earnings spreadsheet for 2006 and 2007, including a graph.

When the guy took a look at my 2006 graph, he pointed at December and said “this is when you started taking it seriously, this is when you went problogging”, I then tried to explain to him that I started working hard earlier during last year, but the results didn’t immediately show in my Adsense earnings.

When he asked me “why?”, I knew I was talking to someone who isn’t tech-savvy, and that I will probably have to elaborate how things work in order for the readers to understand as well. I think I came up with the best way to explain how success usually “hits” in blogging.
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