So Lets see… Here its how this is supposed to work. I finish high school with good  grades. These good grades will get me into a good college. I have to graduate with good GPA to get a good job. Good job will ensure that I’ll make a lot of money . All that money will take care of all my needs and once my needs are taken care of i’ll be happy and well-off.  This is exactly what we are nurtured into since very early age. Its kind of funny to see how rarely people actually question this norms and ask for who set it?.

You get much better perspective of things when you start questioning people around you about it. Most of the people I know are not happy with their job. But they continue working because they have responsibilities and there is no other way they can think of. You have one short life and you really want to do something you are not fond of for a living ? Second thing that startles me is the fact that most of them shy away from starting up. If you really good at some thing or know ins and outs of a industry, go out there and make some coin.

To be honest, I think its high time people get out of the ‘get a job’ jargon and think out of the box. There are tons of things you can do to make money except a job. They might be a little volatile source of income but at the end of the day you are your own boss. Life is too short to kill your dreams and do something you don’t like.

Recent set of events shook me rite from my grounds. A lot of things changed the way it shouldn’t have. I had not anticipated or accounted for any of this losses. Losses were significant, nevertheless. Losses did highlight one major thing : Keeping your passive income passive requires a constant ‘Active’ effort.

Ok, So here is the story. In last 3 months three of my sites got hit by Google’s panda update.  Initial 2 hits could be justified but the last hit which happened 2 days a go pissed the living shit out of me. As a consequence of the panda hit, the daily traffic count dropped substantially. Traffic dropped, revenue dropped. These were sites that made me decent income with little or no effort. Decent Income ? It made me 1 grand AED a month.  Can I fight the Panda back ? Yes, I can. But the first two sites were just not worth the whole effort. The third site is well worth the fight and I’ll take this freaking panda head on.

The basic thing you can notice is that my business is dependent on one basic resource called the ‘Google’. If  ‘Google’ gets cranky, I am f*cked in the ass.  Just FYI, getting f*cked in the ass pains. There are very few things I can do on internet without getting ‘Google’ involved in it. Lets think of it this way, Its more like a transportation business. You business is directly related to the petrol prices and petrol prices are volatile. It is difficult to control something that is not really under your control.

Now let me go around blaming my self. Once my sites get established and the money starts pouring in, I tend to get a little lazy. I tend to focus on other things. I don’t update my site often and don’t do things which I need to do on a regular basis. My five sites got hacked yesterday just because I never got around to update the software I was using. Luckily, there was a back up. Remember, I don’t update my sites often ? So that allowed me to use some really old back up without much trouble.

Cribbing about a problem doesn’t really help you in anyway. So WTF am I gonna do ? I’ll be working on this sites regularly to get the sites where they were initially. Is it the worth the trouble ? I don’t know. I wanna see how far I can push my self.  Plus, I ll be completing other projects which I am lagging behind on and taking backups every 30 days. In short, I’ll be working on a far more regular basis. I’ll try blogging daily or every other day. Easy money, is not really that easy and passive money is not really that passive.

We all come across some twisted characters from day to day basis. Not every one you meet daily  is easy to deal with. I personally have a very hard time dealing with such people. Before we go any further with the discussion, I would like to define what exactly do I mean by ‘Difficult People’. Difficult people can be defined as people who just don’t understand you due to their sheer Self-Centerism or just stupidity. They are very difficult to negotiate with and can get on your nerves, really bad.

So how do we deal with such Mo-Fos ?

Avoidance : If you have another option, go for it. Try not to come in their way and keep them away from yours. Simple neat trick and works all the time. But some times its just not so easy.

Patience : Not every one has this in them and might take a while to cultivate. Always listen what they have to tell you, completely. Never ever interrupt them. Never ever scream back at them, no matter what they tell you. Try to talk as slow and lightly as possible. If its not worth the “talk” , don’t bother. Keep holding it, till you can.

Confrontation : Tell that Mo-Fo what problems you have with him. Don’t scream at him or abuse him. Talk lightly and have the talk. Talking lightly when he is screaming at you will just put him off but screaming back at him will just worsen the situation. Give reasons and evidence wherever possible.  It is very important to make your stand look rational and logical. You don’t want to give the ‘Difficult’ person much to argue with. Spend some time preparing it. Use pen and paper if you have to ( I personally prefer pencil though… ) . Talk when he has ample time, so he can’t run away some where.

God bless difficult people….

After all my words of wisdom posts, today I am here to ramble a little. I didn’t post at all in the month of June due to my finals and then due to the sheer load of the website work that was pending.  I had no other option but to make as much as I could off the small 1 week vacation I had to catchup with all the work that was pending for a long time.

I wouldn’t say I completed it all but there was a little progress. Some progress is better than no progress. My To-do list is still 2 page long of a normal notebook with no spaces, so yes still lots of ground to cover. Many of the task are simple but very tedious and hence you tend to get annoyed very soon. But work is work, whatever pays the bills….

Lately, I have been coding. The last major thing I coded was a rapidshare premium link generator. The project didn’t really take off but I am still very proud of my creation. The last 2 days I have been coding for 14 hours a day.  I am working on this Ubercool scraper which tends to lighten my load from all this tedious tasks. Ok, what are scrapers ? Scrapers basically allow me to extract data of my choice from a set of webpages. It can be literally anything. I think, I have kind of got good at it. I’ll be posting detailed tutorials about coding bots on my Webmaster blog at Soulwebworks.

Its funny how you can keep doing something you like for so long without being tired. 14 hours straight is no joke ! Now this gets me to think WTF am I doing in aeronautical engineering ? Its funny how life turns out and how everything does not always go your way.

Second most important thing, my internships are starting from today. Its going to be really hectic and I am looking at 14 hour days for at least 6 weeks. . This clearly translates into lot of pending work. I really have to capitalize on the week ends. I don’t know if my internship will change my mind about the course and planes in whole. I have kinda decided to make websites for rest of my life.

Lets see how this goes.

Every one has their own comfort zone. Basically a circle of things they are comfortable doing and type of problems they are comfortable facing or have faced before. The true metal of the person is determined when he is out of his comfort zone facing the unknown and tackling the fuck out of it.

Tackling the unknown is not as easy as it sounds. It requires patience and the drive to reach the end. Currently, it is semester end and the work load is just crazy. I have 3 exams and 1 presentation next week along with a 300 page assignment submission. This by no means is my comfort zone but Like we all know “You gotta do, what you gotta do ” .  As far as I know, I ll make it through. The question is will i sail through with flying colors or just drag my ass from start to the finish for the sake of it ?

Its all in the mind. I think i need to work on strict schedules, smaller sleep times and less leisure time. If i have any hopes of making it through. It has to be done and will be done. Somehow , any how !