Once I had managed to push the sites into prominent positions online I felt I had to expand my marketing efforts further afield – particularly offline – for numerous reasons; I wanted more business and to not solely rely on SEO to build a brand. During this time I’ve been holding down my full time post whilst supporting my partner Christy as a student. It was fun and exciting to have a venture that was generating a respectable income and something that, to my knowledge, had never been done before (this particular revenue model in the transport industry).

I was not planning to sell the operation for a few years, but due to some unforeseen circumstances I decided it was time to purchase a house and have long term security. I’ve always been happy to rent as it is easy and means if I ever hit the jackpot I could quickly fly out the country haha!

I vaguely outlined (to avoid tyre kickers and idea thieves) the operation on a number of forums and John Lamerton, whom I’ve had dealings with before, is now the new owner. Under the new terms I still retain a small shareholding in the operation to assist in the smooth running of it and future developments, which I’m only happy to do. I think the operation has a positive future and no doubt in time John and his team will continue to build on the success. At this stage I feel it is only respectful to John not to detail specifics as I wish to protect his investment but we’re both happy with the arrangement.

The revenue model I promoted is now being used in other markets by friends and colleagues, and some taxi companies have even began offering it to hotels and guest houses as a way of securing new business. I’m proud of what I achieved and I’m already working on another exciting project.

I don’t think running any country is an easy task, but if charities can stay afloat on donations why are we in a trillion pounds of debt? I was happy to see successful businessmen like Sir Alan Sugar give his opinion and advice in a bid to help, citing financial wastage such as the police renting buildings and not even using them.

There are a lot of things to fix and it will take years to accomplish (that’s if they manage to do it), so will Scotland really be any better away from it all?

On a grand scale Scotland is a tiny part of the World with not a lot to offer. No offence to anyone but we don’t have the weather for tourism (it accounts for only 3%of our GDP), we can’t grow much to export and our manufacturing industry is dead. We’re pinning our hopes on one thing; the North Sea.

Now, let’s stop for a second and think; does anyone in their right mind think that our beloved Government in England will simply allow us to gather up our things, make Scotland independent and keep all the natural resources in the North Sea?

According to OilforScotland.org, in 2008 all revenue generated from drilling activities north of the border in amassed a £12 billion fortune that went straight to the crew that ran Downing Street. I doubt they’d be happy to let us keep that sort of change should Alex Salmond have his way.

Furthermore, Scotland lost 6,000 square miles of the North Sea because Tony Blair moved the marine boundary from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Carnoustie. Would he have been able to do that if Scotland were independent? Probably not, but it’s already been done, why do you think that was?

An article in the Guardian quoted that in the year 2008-2009 Scotland provided £1.3 billion more revenue that we spent, which seems like a lot. But really, that’s less than 1% of our GDP and includes our share of North Sea oil revenue. If you were the country’s accountant, would you want to split your partnership in a business because you were making 1% more than you were spending? Note, in 2008 crude oil prices were at a record high which could account for the 1% margin. I certainly wouldn’t like to pin my future on a product that’s price went up and down like a yo-yo.

Many believe Scotland can offer more than just what is beneath the sea, which is true, but it is also limited. Take off-shore wind energy (that we certainly have the weather for); it is her Majesty that owns the shoreline so we’d end up sending money down south again for being green!

Where Scotland does have strength is in the financial sector which accounts for 6% of our GDP. Scotland is the home of 4 clear banks; Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Clydesdale Bank and Lloyds TSB Scotland. But, England is the true financial hub of the UK so would these banking giants really have to stay in Scotland if we became independent? There is a morale duty for them to have a presence here just now as we’re one country, but would that remain if we split? Let’s be honest, it is more expensive to have two bases instead of one.

In theory I’d love Scotland to be independent as I absolutely detest the current setup, but I wouldn’t cut my nose to spite my face and I truly believe that’s what we’d be doing if we split from England.

Unless there are some dramatic economic changes first, I really do not think Scotland can stay afloat without its bigger brother by its side.

For me, Facebook has been overvalued for a long time, and becoming a public company with shareholders will only inflate those figures. I have nothing against Facebook, I’m an occasional user with a few fan pages I use for my businesses and it is certainly a great social media platform, but to value it at between $75 and $100 billion is ridiculous. Sure, Facebook is a profitable company and has, on the back of its success made companies like Zynga extremely profitable, but it is no Microsoft in my eyes. At the top end of $100 billion Facebook would be one of the biggest companies in the United States, but if it is worth all the cash then why are they even floating it?

Having shareholders on board improves cash flow, but surely if you’re generating enough money that’s not a concern? Personally I wouldn’t want the headaches of pleasing shareholders and answering their questions if I was running a successful company that is already generating $1.5 billion in profit (According to CNBC’s Julie Robertson). Is it all smoke and mirrors?

On the other side of the fence, will the floatation affect Facebook’s 800 million users? I think so. As a shareholder with an investment in a company with 800 million users, I certainly would want to monetise the machine and squeeze more out of it. If you can generate $1.5 billion why not generate ten times that? So, will Facebook begin to complicate their layout with paid advertising like Google has, or begin to compete with other businesses and offer similar services like flight comparison and hotel search facilities?

The truth is the future of Facebook is unknown and all our opinions are insignificant until we see what pans out. I’ll definitely not be buying shares though.

A large proportion of the content available on the web today has been funded by the revenue site owners receive from displaying advertising. According to WorldWideWebSize.com the number of web pages indexed by Google in the past two years has grown by 30 billion, and as a result the value placed on a web page has diminished.

Webmasters are now generating less revenue online through traditional advertising and software designed to blog advertising doesn’t help. What users don’t realise is they’re only hurting themselves.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction and in the case of this kind of software, webmasters are now actively combatting it by implementing some of the following;

- Reducing the number of times they update their website with fresh content as it simply isn’t as profitable anymore.

- Turning to alternative revenue streams such as subscriptions and “members only” areas.

- Installing recognition software that will ensure no content is displayed at all for web viewers with ad blocking software installed.

Advertising is all around us, and whilst sometimes pop-up pages and flashing banners can be annoying, remember that the website you are surfing costs money to maintain so it is only fair that it is recouped somehow. The World Wide Web isn’t just a playground, it is a business marketplace too.

I’m not expecting any of them to go viral, it’s really just a big of fun and something different.

What do you think?

There’s more over at my Edinburgh Taxi Youtube Channel.

I used to read blog after blog every single day, signing up to the networks they were signed up too, promoting products they were promoting and somehow trying to emulate their success. I set myself challenges, told myself and my readers that is was a simple case of building blocks and putting time and effort into sites that I know today aren’t going to live for much longer.

I build and flipped like crazy, which is there the money was, yet I somehow still thought I was doing something wrong because I wasn’t blogging to the world how I promote network X and get $300 a day.

The fact of the matter is that It’s All Bullshit. There’s no such thing as an “easy way to make money online”, no free eBook or download, no guarantees, nothing! Making money online is the same as making money anywhere else; it is hard, takes time and isn’t for everyone. What started out as a few bloggers recalling their success became a blogging shithole of greedy people charging hundreds of dollars for an ad on their blog, getting you to subscribe to networks through their affiliate links and even promoting random products in a bid for that little bit of extra cash.

These blogs were like gold, and some even for sold (Remember NetBusinessBlog.com – the domain forwards to a Forex page now) for ridiculous amounts of money. It is a sad state of affairs when sharing news and tips becomes a way of sucking time and money out of people.

I’m glad I went and did my own thing. I can’t say I wasn’t sucked in by it all, but through time and learning I’ve realised that the best way to make money anywhere is to put your head down and get on with it. I still share any updates and have helped numerous individuals who have asked for help via e-mail. In fact, I still ask for help from my friends too…but they don’t ask me to click through an affiliate link and then download their eBook first.

I have no doubt some downloads and courses etc are worthwhile, but it just seems like greed has taken over and any old trick in the book is punted to whomever will chew it down. And it is for that reason I no longer read the crap they churn out and instead look for anything else with an ounce of quality in it.

Sorry for the rant, I had to get my point out.

Khalid.

At this point I should mention I shelled out a lot to buy a card printer and consumables but people have been snapping the cards up so it has been a worthwhile task. The credit card was used but I know I can pay it back. No risk = no reward.

I’ve avoided posting about the success of my taxi partnerships as I’ve been focusing on making them work, but I’m happy to announce things are going well. If I could sum it up without getting into specifics, the money earned on a monthly basis from Edinburgh alone is in the low four figure range. This is a great achievement on a geo domain name and some offline marketing but it hasn’t been easy. Whatever I earn, and more, goes back into the business to generate more custom.

People often think that I sit behind a desk and the money rolls in; try saying that to me at 5am after standing all night in the cold with a couple of pr staff! I work day and night on my projects and radio advertising is still on the “to do” list but I’ll need to hammer the telephone number into people’s heads and get a few more thousand calls before I ask for that invoice!

Good luck with your pursuits,

Khalid.

But, what if the money in the bank isn’t enough? Do you save then spend, or do you take the risk and borrow money? For many startups the latter is often the case, but that’s not without its difficulties. I recently asked Santander for a £1,000 overdraft to help with cash flow in the event more money came out that went in, and I was refused. Yet, Barclays were more than happy to give a £6,500 credit card with all the bells, whistles and offers without even asking what the money was being used for. You can do some serious damage with £6,500 – you just need to remember the money isn’t yours and needs to be paid back!

Right now I’m promoting Edinburgh Taxi mainly, and things are going well, but every penny that comes in goes back out into marketing…and whatever else I have in my accounts! The money isn’t wasted, call volumes are rising month on month, but there’s only so much “cheap marketing” you can do. By that I mean low volume offline work and now I’ve come to a crossroads…

Do I…

a) patiently wait and save and stop marketing for a few months then do something big like a radio campaign?

or

b) pay for the big radio campaign on credit and pay it back over a few months?

Different people will have different views, and ultimately the decision is mine, but like any business decision there’s risk involved and it’s a choice. There’s alternatives sure, but with the increasing competition and rising costs of variables such as printing, man power, fuel etc, it needs to be done properly or not done at all and the costs come out the same.

The radio is simply an example of a big campaign I could do, there are others, but you need to alter your marketing to capture different markets and that’s where the difficulty lies.

So my question to you is; would you charge your credit card or would you play it safe and save?

Having recently launched a UK airport transfers website I was only too keen to try to get in touch with someone at Thomas Cook to see if I could discuss a commercial partnership whereby they used my infrastructure and sold transport to their customers. Whilst the commission per transaction may be low, the sheer volume of customers who need transport to and from their home to the airport is huge, and Thomson has access to a large proportion of them.

However, like many websites, I failed to find the contact of someone who could point me the direction of the person I needed to speak too. And this led me to try other firms, all with the same result. Now I appreciate large firms don’t want to be pestered by all types wanting a piece of their cake, but what about people wanting to offer something valuable?

The Easy Group have the right idea, as does Go Compare to name a few, so why don’t others follow suit?

Let me know your thoughts,

Khalid.

Personally I love to write when I have a clear head and something substantial to jot down. I’ve never been one to blog for the sake of it, because “I must do 5 new posts a week”. I quickly realised I’m no John Chow and the idea of talking about how much money I make from my WordPress site simply doesn’t appeal. For me, blogging is a way of recording where I’m at and where I’ve been; almost like my online memoirs.

I’ve spoken to a couple of friends who mention that people who are intent on blogging and posting on forums daily would get somewhere by actually doing instead of talking. I think they’re completely right and I’ve put it into practice recently by putting my head down and moving forward with my plans. I’m really proud of the progress I have made and it has given me a much needed boost to keep going.

I’ve also been dedicating some of my time, both in my employment and personal time, to aiding charities with website help and financial donations. The work is really rewarding and makes me feel like my time is not only spent on me but lending a hand to others.

Hopefully I’ll have some exciting updates soon!

Good luck with your pursuits,

Khalid.