Although we have not promoted the web site at all and do not intend to truly monetize it for several months, we reached a kind of milestone on 2/28, receiving our first ever income from affiliate marketing, a whopping $13.06. It’s a start. :) 2 months ago

I’m taking care of all the minutia of getting this company up and running. One big step was getting our business license. Done. Next was getting our Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS. Done. Now it is opening a business banking account. I had a meeting with the Branch Manager and a Personal Banker at CitiBank last week. They let me know what paperwork we need, and I now have that in order. All that remains is to find time during banking hours to complete the application. Early next week? 6 months ago

Last week we formed our LLC. There’s a bunch of paperwork to wrap up before the end of October, including licensing, but we are in the Secretary of State’s database with status listed as active. Off we go! 8 months ago

This is a lot of fun. This past week we have been testing some advertising and analyzing the results using Google Analytics. Last night I was able to watch visitors arrive at our Beta web site, poke around and leave, identifying them by city. They come from all over the U.S. and Canada. It was midnight on the West coast, so I can only wonder who was logging on at 3am Monday morning from the East coast. There’s still a lot to do to get us business-ready. We’ll learn as we go. Decided to postpone formal incorporation till September. In another month, the Beta site will be fully operational and we can switch gears into launch mode. 10 months ago

Seems like I have spent every free moment in the past month working on this, including some moments I didn’t even know were free (pulled an all nighter last week; it’s been years since I last did that). We’ve hired three people on contract, spent a few hundred dollars on technology, and got our core web site about 80% ready for beta testing, which we’re hoping will begin on July 4th … so soon! We’re aiming at having everything fully operational in mid-September to take advantage of certain “opportune events” expected to occur toward the end of this year or early next. It’s certainly an adventure. I just hope the destination turns out to be as much fun as the journey. 11 months ago

For the past dozen years or so, my buddy pH & I have talked about making $$$ on the Internet so that we could enjoy hedonistic lifestyles well into our Golden Years. We both live in resort towns. We both built our careers on marketing. We both have strong connections to Asia. We also have strong aversions to hard work or anything smacking of maintenance. We considered and rejected the idea of doing anything illegal or immoral.

Then late last year, something happened. A certain law changed. I didn’t think much of it, at first, but a couple of months ago I had a flash of inspiration and realized how that legal change created an opportunity. I saw clearly that pH & I were perfectly positioned to take advantage of it, if we got up off our bums and did a bit of planning.

Well, happy to announce that the basic business plan is now done. Domain names for more than a dozen web sites have been reserved. Basic research has been completed, content development has been contracted and graphic design is in the offing. We’ll most likely incorporate (in Nevada, of course) in July. I have not been so excited about a project in the past four years. With a little elbow grease, the right timing and some good fortune, this could be the ticket to true retirement.

Such fun. Wish I could share more, but there’s an embargo in place. For now, the cat must remain in the bag a bit longer. 11 months ago