Mr Beach Bum.com

A lot of people I talk to about starting up their own web based business or blog ask me how hard it is to start their business. They seem to have an inate fear when it comes to starting an LLC or partnership, etc.  I have a former co-worker whom I talk to once or twice a month - we do lunch. Every single time, without fail, he asks me how the “online thing” is going. And every single time, like clockwork, he responds to my answer with “ahhh, I wish I could get something like that going”.

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I would like to send out a thank you to Iron Blogger for naming mrbeachbum.com on his top 100 make money online blogs. There are some big names in there and I am proud to be on the list. Thanks to everyone who comes here regularly. I have been very busy lately but I intend to really get cracking on making some good changes here soon and bringing you some regular and helpful posts in the coming weeks. 

Here’s the link to the top 100 list. John Chow, I’m coming for you, ha ha!

http://ironblogger.com/100-bloggers-that-will-help-you-make-more-money-online/

I never thought this day would come, to be honest. After waiting nearly 17 years for a full studio album from Guns N Roses, coupled with all the delays over the years, it seemed like it would never come to fruition. 2 years ago, Axl Rose announced that the album was going to come out, only to later announce more delays. It became a pathetic joke really. So when I heard that the album was coming out in November 2008 I said “suuuuuuuuurrrrrre”.

Only this time, Best Buy was actually selling pre-orders for it. I figured what the heck, I’ll order it. I was a big fan of the original Guns N Roses and despite the fact that it’s basically just Axl Rose and a plethora of guitarists, drummers, etc who’ve joined and quit the band over the last 17 years, I was really in the mood for some new music. The album actually releases on Monday but it arrived in my mailbox today and I set aside some time to listen to it start to finish. So here’s my take so far:

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Just a quick note to let everyone know that the format is going to change around here a lot over the coming weeks. It’s time to start blogging about anything and everything. Don’t worry, we’ll still cover advice on working from home, etc. But it’s time to start sharing the true life of a future beach bum with all of you and anything goes. Thanks for keeping us in your favorites list and hopefully you’ll find some entertaining bits of info in the coming weeks. Aloha and thanks for visiting!

I’ve recently come across an interesting website called Fixya.com. And lest you be concerned, I am not affiliated with them in anyway other than the account I created specifically for the purpose of this review.

Fixya.com is a community where people who need help with just about anything can float a question and “experts” on various subjects, who are also members, can answer them. It’s the mother of all forums in a lot of ways, but there is a nice little “make money” hook to it all which is what makes it so compelling.

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Last week I received my Text Link Ads commission check and promptly deposited it into my business account. I haven’t been with them too long and have only really experimented with their service so far but still managed to earn over $100 for my first check and without having to do much at all to be honest.

Unfortunately I received a notice from my bank on Saturday which informed me that the check bounced. All kinds of thoughts run through my head when something like this happens. There really is nothing worse than having money you’ve earned yanked back from you, but I did have to give them the benefit of the doubt. We all make mistakes, after all.

So I sent an email to customer service and got the following response back:

“I apologize for this inconvenience.  Our internet service provider has been down the past few days, and this is causing issues with publishers who have tried to cash their checks during this time.  We are working on a resolution, and I will contact you as soon as this is resolved.  Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience and we appreciate your patience in this matter.”

I have never heard of an Internet Service Provider outage causing checks to bounce. I must say that is a first. But what can you do? I have no choice but to wait for them to reissue a check or string me along.

Has anyone else out there run into this problem with Text Link Ads? Is this happening to everyone right now or is this just a fluke?

As soon as I find out more I will update this post.

UPDATE (from Text Link Ads):

“We apologize for the inconvenience that you have experienced with your June TLA check.  Our internet service provider was down towards the end of last week, an issue that affected a large part of the New York area, and was completely out of our hands.  The way this affected the cashing of checks, is when a bank receives a check from TLA, they contact us and request a positive pay file.  These files are sent in automated emails,
and because of the internet outage were never sent, resulting in the checks to bounce.  All checks that bounced are going to be re-sent by Wednesday of this week.  If your bank charged you some sort of processing fee, please let me know the amount and we will reimburse you for the fee on your next TLA check (If you previously mentioned the
amount it has been noted and there is no need to reply).  Once again, we apologize for this inconvenience and if you have any questions, please let me know.”

7/5/08 Update:

I was just recently given a new check and so far that has not bounced. Still curious if anyone else ran into this problem in the past month so feel free to comment.

Amazon has always been a great model to follow when it comes to online retail. If you’ve shopped there often enough you’ve probably noticed that they’ve opened things up a lot to the online entrepreneur by offering such services as their Associates program, for those who want to simply sell Amazon products from their own website, as well as an “auction-like” system where you can sell your new and used items to compete with Amazon’s listings.

Well there is an even more-powerful service being offered now that you may be interested in if you’ve given up on your dream of selling online because of the somewhat overwhelming notion that entrepreneurs are faced with in this arena - inventory tracking, payment processing and web development. Does that sound familiar to you?

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