Hello there, and welcome. I guess I should start off by introducing myself.
My name is Ralph Link. I’m 25, married with one kid, and living in Twillingate, Newfoundland, Canada.
While most likely no one will read this for the foreseeable future, it’s best to start from the beginning anyways. If nothing else, than this post should serve as a good copy and paste job for an “About” section eventually.
I’ve been glued to a keyboard for a large portion of my life. I began building websites sometime circa 1995-1996, and I’ve never stopped since. I like to think however, that I’ve come a long way from Geocities websites about my favorite skateboarder or video game. Then again maybe not, those both scream for a good MFA site.
After High School, I went to University to do a Electrical Engineering Degree - and promptly failed out. Despite a 90+ average in high school, and graduating with a scholarship, I didn’t take well to university.
I eventually went back, switching to a Computer Science Degree and then changing again to a Business Degree. Still my work ethic and motivation were horrible, and my grades were just enough to keep me in the program.
At some point here, I actually started dating my wife. I had known her for ages, having both grown up in the same small town. She definitely helped keep me on track and my grades began to improve.
When she graduated with a Education degree, we opted to do the same as many people in Newfoundland - move to Alberta for work.
Despite not having completed my degree, I did have excellent experience and interview skills. I managed to get myself a job as a department manager at a large chain grocery store in Grande Prairie. The job turned out not to be exactly what I envisioned, but it did mange to get us both relocated on the company’s dime.
Less than a year goes by and we both hate Alberta. Neither of us are truly satisfied with our jobs and we miss home. Then, Dawn ended up getting pregnant (via me) and we had the excuse we needed to move back to Newfoundland. We definately didn’t want to raise a kid so far away from our families.
Finding out I was going to be a Dad was the kick in the ass I needed. I recommend it to anymore who needs more motivation in life (much to the annoyance of my wife… especially when I’m offering this advice to anyone who will listen… including people still in high school).
Employment in Twillingate is not exactly full of options in the best of circumstances. Especially with an uncompleted Business degree.
Before we moved home I started to take web design more seriously. Taking advantage of a few trends like MySpace resource sites (which I’ve long since sold) and being offered an amazing opportunity to run a membership site in an ownership buyout agreement (which is now a core of my income) started me out well.
Over the past two years I’ve built this to a reasonable, constant income that we can live on.
However, with two full student loans my wife and I have a rather large amount of debt. If I had my time back I would have thrown mine in developing my own business, as opposed to a piece of paper, but we live and learn.
So here’s where things get interesting. Most people want to quit their day job and work for themselves. I on the other hand am about to do the opposite.
I can conceivably earn the same online income I do now, while also working a full time job. Putting all my sites into maintenance as opposed to growth mode will cut it down to a fews hours a day. This means I may not be able to experience as much revenue growth as I could otherwise, but I don’t expect any decrease either.
Now, I should clarify something else here. We live in a small town. How small? No Wal-Mart, no major Fast Food Franchise - under 3000 people. Moving to a larger town within driving distance could be a possibility, but in that case it would be much harder for my wife to get a permanent teaching position.
So what to do? Well, I’m going to do the furtherest possible thing from developing websites there is. I’m going to do a trade. Industrial/Commercial Electrician to be exact.
I have friends in the same field who’ve done there course in under a year, and have cleared roughly $50,000 within another. There’s good money to be made. With the price of oil rising and the development of the oil and gas sector in Newfoundland, there are tons of job opportunities. Especially if I’m willing to relocate to Alberta.
I know a lot of people would say; work harder on your sites. Well, I am. The problem is that I don’t have enough money to really grow the sites. If I advertise, I scrape money together. In fact I’ve gotten extremely experienced at beg, bartering and stealing resourcefully finding the exposure I need. Paying down out debt is a number one priority. We want more children, and would like to be a little more settled when they arrive.
If I do a trade and then take a job in Alberta, we’d be able to pay down all of our debt within five years. In theory (and I know much of this is in theory), the following can happen.
I get a fly in, fly out job in Alberta. This means I’ll work roughly 21 days on and get a week off. They’ll fly me from Newfoundland to Alberta and back again for my shifts. Since I will have absolutely no expenses, and I have nothing to do at all in a remote location during my downtime, all the earnings will be profit AND I will have almost as much spare time to work on my sites as I do now.
Also, because I’m not at home for the majority of time, our overall expenses go down. So hopefully, my sites continue to produce revenue the way they do now, and money from a “real” job goes straight to paying down our debt. So within three years we’re debt free and within five we have a house (homes are cheap here) and money in the bank.
At that point, I can either use some of our excess cash flow to do what I really love to do and work for myself or just opt to find a lower paying job, where I will be much closer to home.
That’s the plan anyways. Bottom line is it will give us a lot more financial flexibility. It will suck in the short run, due to schooling costs and being away from my family. But it the long run, we will be much better off.
So this is my chronicle of that journey to financial freedom. It’s not a make money blog, an internet marketing blog, a personal blog, or even a parenting blog. I’m not really sure what it will be, but I do think it will be very unique.
So why am I starting this Blog? And why should you bother to read it?
Well to be honest, it’s mostly a way for me to keep track of what I’m doing and make sure I’m working as hard as possible. Blogging about my progress and development with several sites is a good way to make sure that progress is happening.
As for you reading, l I think I offer an interesting perspective. I’m not one of the super bloggers making $40,000 a month from their blog alone. I’m not a super affiliate pumping $50,000 through CPA offers. I am however, someone eeking out a living day by day. While the former guys do have a goldmine of information to share, I think they’ve lost touch with what it was like to struggle (No offense to them, as I know I would too). My goal is to show you that being successful is possible, even on a much smaller level.
I like to think I’ll aim for a cross between Tlyer Cruz and Poop & Boogies.
Tyler Cruz is a blogger / site developer who makes a very decent income, but is still on a smaller scale compared to a power blogger. He started out being very descriptive about his tactics, and often discusses his personal life.
Poop & Boogies is a Dad blog, and he talks about interesting things happening with his kids and his wife.
Only problem is I don’t make as much money as Tyler, or am as funny as P&B……
We’ll see how it works out though.