patrick.net

Any advice for improvement?

Or some way to make money from it?

That second one is pretty important, but I've never figured it out.

Oh, the platform: PHP/MySQL on Centos Linux

It started out as Wordpress, but there is very little of that code left. I've gone over everything and optimized it heavily, which is the kind of thing I used to do in real jobs.

BTW, anyone need a website performance expert for monitoring, load testing, and performance problem debugging? I'm looking for contract work in the Bay Area, but full time might be OK too.

I have this conversation a lot.

If you can build a site, and community like this you could also contribute to small business internet presence.

I monitize my time on the internet with our small business. We sell a cleaning service to the public, and get 80% of our new business from the internet.

I have a series of WordPress blogs that are free to me except the hosting. The business grows at the rate of 20% per year, on average, in the past four years.

With Real Estate sites they monetize by selling a service. They may advertise, but they have that income stream by services.

Dustin Luther at Rain City Guide sells his online ability in seminars about social media.

If you have this kind of ability, why not sell that, on your site? You then become your own best advertizer.

David Losh says

If you have this kind of ability, why not sell that, on your site? You then become your own best advertizer.

What kind of ability?

BTW, why not advertise your cleaning service next to every comment you make? That's a feature allowed to Premium users. Only $5/month, first month free. No "nofollow" tag either.

I think most internet people don't get the fact that they have an ability, because they aren't wired that way. That's the only conclusion I've been able to come up with.

FaceBook builds communities, and allows people to build communities.

You did that before there was a FaceBook.

Your site is smooth running, and you keep the crazies moving along in an orderly fashion. You have the ability to build the site, but also to make it function as a community.

That community is what small business tries, every day, to build. Big business calls it brand recognition, and you already have that.

Yes, there is a nice (well, not always nice) community here.

But I still don't know how to make a living from it without selling out. I just cannot put up ads for realtors or mortgages, are those are exactly the advertisers most interested.

selling out

Small business needs a lot of help these days to survive.

In 1999 I paid $2K for my first three page web site for www.aSpringCleaning.com Any time I want changes I had to pay that guy. I leased another site in 2002, and another in 2004 or 2005.

My first blog I started in about 2001, or 2002 for www.FixerFixer.com I have the same feeling about contractors that some of your readers have about Real Estate agents.

My little Blogger blog started out well until this guy, an HVAC contractor in Boston took offense that I would say you don't need a contractor, and you should do your own research.

That went on for about six months then the site got spammed to death. I closed it, and in 2006 I found godaddy, then WordPress after that.

I have no idea what I'm doing, and have paid several people over the years to help with with websites, but it is a bottomless pit, and hole with no end.

A guy here in Seattle named Bob Dunn is a good guy who has started a concept of consulting on WordPress. He's worked really hard, and has given away a ton of free time, but I think his concept is good.

I don't see how helping business owners would be selling out. We all need web presence, and that's what you have, and what you do.

You would be selling you, and your ability to create community.

Selling out isn't defined as monetizing your product

Selling out is whoring your product for the $$$.

You can stay true to yourself and your message, and sell a little bit of the patrick.net spare real estateto advertisers, with the caveat that you won't bend to the desires of your advertisers

Take me as I am. There's gotta be some potential customers for you that fit that mold, no?

An honest days work will only earn you an honest days keep, at best. If you want to get rich quick and easy, you're going to have to dress the part of a floozy

David Losh says

I don't see how helping business owners would be selling out. We all need web presence, and that's what you have, and what you do.

How about a web presence on Patrick.net? I can imagine dedicated pages like http://patrick.net/DavidLosh

errc says

You can stay true to yourself and your message, and sell a little bit of the patrick.net spare real estateto advertisers, with the caveat that you won't bend to the desires of your advertisers

It would set up that conflict though, where they would want me to bend and be giving me money. I guess newspapers have that conflict all the time.

You would be helping to put up sites for others, seperate from your site.

Other sites don't need to touch yours, but could link to yours.

Your site grows with like minded companies. You choose, you help, you take a consulting fee, and help maintain the site.

You can also have a pay per click, for sites in your control. You can watch dog the sites you help create.

As an example, there is a house painter here in Seattle who I like, who I trust. I helped set up a site for him, he got busy, and we referred work back, and forth. He did well, but after a year he was very busy. He now maintains his own site.

David Losh says

You would be helping to put up sites for others, seperate from your site.

Creating sites for others is not as interesting as expanding this site in some automated way. It's the difference between scalable and non-scalable businesses.

I can work by the hour any time. What I really want to do is create something automated that is useful enough that people will pay to use it.

So you don't want your own sub-site on Patrick.net?

No, thank you, but you can correct me if I'm wrong, but there are thousands of businesses associated with Real Estate. Construction, remodeling, legal, and search site applications.

The same as your comments add content, it is possible to link, and reciprocate links, to like minded businesses.

You could work by the hour, but don't you also have a another book? I don't recall, but there are thousands of people today who are lost in social media.

You are already a known quantity, so interview company profiles you think are compatable with yours.

Let's take an attorney who can do Real Estate paper work in a city, or an escrow that takes walk ins, or an attorney who does both.

They need to present you with a web presence, you can consult, they get a link, maybe per State, and you become an Angies list.

Before, after, or during a sale of property there are thousands of services to be offered. There must be a hundred independent Real Estate search sites.

Everybody needs a forum, everybody needs a community.

Most important is that you have the use of the content.

You benefit from the links, they benefit from you. The money is in your consulting, and formation of communities, maybe by State.

You can provide podcasts, webinars, video files, and how to manuals. You organize your site to be of interest in specific areas, then charge a little.

I was just hinking out loud while the next set of polls are closing.

You could do Patrick.net blogsite consulting at an hourly rate you feel confortable with.

You can put your own button, get paid through PayPal, or Amazon, or Google, or all three.

You look first, at a set rate, no more than fifteen minutes to look, and e-mail back what you think. You're like a doctor. You do the physical, then charge for treatment.

You choose the people you work with, but get paid to set up the relationship. Most people you would tell no politely, but there may be some worthwhile projects.

OK, seems worth trying even if not scalable.

I talked with a person today who does what I was suggesting. They charge $95 per hour. They do a phone interview to see if there is a workable relationship.

The base fee is four four hours to start with a billing for more, or in some cases less time.

They work mainly with WordPress, and seemed knowledgable.

At $95 per hour it is completely scalable. You can pay an assistant less to work with you. If you wanted you could disclose that you have a sliding price structure of $60, $80, and $95.

You are selling the magic of the internet.

BTW, you are branding Patrick.net, and expanding your reach in this process. There is also a book in there, when it's successful. Document your experience of a start up small business.