Sunk Costs - An Economic Concept for Everyday Life

In five years of college, I learned about a wide variety of topics including programming, digital design, microelectronics, and engineering methods. However, there is only one concept that I attempt to use in everyday life, Sunk Costs. A formal definition of sunk costs from the Economist.com states:

When what is done cannot be undone. Sunk costs are costs that have been incurred and cannot be reversed

The example used in class to help us conceptualize involves grocery store lines. Say you're in Wal-Mart and selecting a check out line. The only two lines open seem to be about the same length so you pick the one that you think is best.

Ten minutes later, you've barely moved and the other line seems to be moving at about twice the pace. Most people will inexplicably stay in their current line, because of the time they've already put in to waiting there. With consideration for sunk costs, you should switch lines.

Why? The time you put in has already passed. You can't get it back regardless of your course of action. If the other line will get you out of the store faster, you should switch lines...always.

In case I didn't explain that well, consider this math breakdown:
x: amount of time you've already waited in line
y: projected amount of time you will still have to wait in current line
z: project amount of time you will have to wait in the other line

Total time in current line (if you stay) will be x+y
Total time if you switch lines will be x+z
Since you think z < y, it's a no-brainer to switch

So how and why do I apply this concept to everyday life (outside of the grocery store)? Anytime I see a better path than the one I'm on, I take it. No questions and no hesitation. If at anytime the new path turns worse than another (including the old one) I switch.

I apply this to everything I can. If I'm reading an article and it's boring, I quit reading it. If I rented a movie, but an opportunity comes along to hang out with friends instead, I ignore that I rented the movie. If I'm writing a cover letter for a job and see another job that I'm more likely to get or will give me more satisfaction, I'll write that cover letter instead. You can always go back to the article, movie, or cover letter later on, but you may miss out on the better opportunity if you don't take it when it arrives.

I'll admit that the rented movie is a bad example because at some time, the rental expires and it would cost you more money to rent it again. But I would easily trade that $1-3 for a fun night with good friends.

Stepping Out of Your Box Required

The thing I've noticed most since really attempting a run at my business Hyrax Hype (which I guess I didn't formally announce on here like I said I would) is that I have to do things that I'm not entirely comfortable with. I don't mean that from an ethics standpoint, just things that are outside my typical character. I can see that I will really have to step outside my box to make this work.

The one thing that stands out the most is that I'll probably have to ask people for things. I don't mind asking people for things when they're owed to me, but I really hate calling in favors. However, it seems that to score some early clients I'll probably have to go heavy on the networking route...especially since I don't have any money for traditional advertising methods. I suppose that this is the make or break point for most entrepreneurs; you are either willing to suck it up and do the tasks you don't want to...or you aren't.

For example, there is a local business that I would really like to approach to offer a heavily discounted price because they will be my first client. I think it would be a win win for both parties and yet I keep procrastinating and putting other tasks in the way. Unfortunately for me, networking and sales are two of the hats I will have to wear within this business (especially on the front end, but really as long as the business continues).

Part of the thrill and excitement of being an entrepreneur is getting to wear the multiple hats and deciding what to do when. But I think I've stumbled upon a critical realization; some things just need to be done whether you want to do it or not.

Can't Find a Job After Graduation? Start a Business!

Entrepreneurship as a fallback plan probably isn't how most businesses are started. However, in today's economy I'm sure that it is looking like the most viable option for a lot of unemployed recent graduates and unemployed professionals. When you scour the internet for interesting articles about start ups and advice, you don't hear entrepreneurs exclaim, "I was unemployed, so this was really my last option!" Generally, they developed a good idea, gave it a test run, and proceeded to drop out of the cubicle workforce.

Most of these "trial-method" entrepreneurs are self-driven and motivated enough to propel themselves and their business to at least a quasi successful state. But I think we're about to see a new trend of entrepreneurs that just don't have a better option. Starting a business without a day job is historically seen as too risky and too unstable for professionals with families and responsibilities. However, it's a lot less risky when you are completely without income. The worst that happens is you give it a good run and end up where you started with some extra stories to talk about in your next interview.

I know all this because it is exactly the situation that I'm in. Although I'm currently living with my parents so I don't go into massive debt, I can't seem to get a job for the life of me (even part-time, temporary, or night shift). I've been through the interview process at several companies so far with pretty good odds of landing each of the positions, but there seem to be too many people more qualified than I am. A lot of times when I discuss this with people I get the "oh, just keep trying and the right job will find you eventually." Unfortunately, that just doesn't seem to be how it works anymore.

I read an article this morning called Where Do You Rate on the Entrepreneurial Scale. I've been pondering it ever since. I would put myself at a 7 on this particular scale, because I have the drive and know-how to really go at a business, but have never truly done it. However, you could apply the same scale to your job seeking skills. A 1 being you post your resume on a couple job sites and update it each month (it would almost be hard to qualify you as 'looking' for a job, because really you're just waiting for a job). A 10 would be researching companies you want to work for and picketing outside their offices until someone gives you an interview (You're on the edge of insanity. Some would call you pushy; others would call you motivated). Seeking out positions you qualify for, crafting a matching resume, and not generally following up your applications would probably put you around a 4 or 5.

I get a different score on this scale. I would honestly be hard pressed to give myself more than a four. Although I'll go out of my way occasionally to ring someone for a job that truly excites me, I pretty much don't follow up my applications whatsoever. I'm sure there is some correlation to this score and my ability to get a job, but that is not the point.

The point, my very few readers, is if I get a better score on the entrepreneurship scale than the job seeker scale then shouldn't I be trying to start a business rather than going on an endless job search? Take this mental test and be honest with yourself. I know that when I really let the truth roll, starting a business is really where I want to be.

Take an Idea and Run With It

Talk about a long lull in activity...it was interesting that I hit it the same time the guys at Corporatepreneur did. I guess my lack of activity was just caused by the recent turmoil in my life. Things have to be relatively settled before I can think well and clearly.

Anyway, I was going pretty hard at the job search. That may void the title of the blog for some people, but it was all according to plan. The idea was to get a solid career related job (preferably one where I could learn some new skills to help me with my future endeavors) to get me on my feet somewhere and then start a venture or two on the side with hopes that after a year or two I could step back from the cubicle before I got too entrenched.

As it turns out, the universe (but mostly the economy) has been plotting against me. I came close to scoring a job offer on several occasions, but nothing has worked out so far. Applying for jobs for 4-6 hours per day just wasn't giving me any satisfaction and really turning my outlook negative in a hurry. There was a day in the middle of this week when something really clicked--I'm here indefinitely, time to start getting on with life.

I usually can't understand why I don't get hired for a position. Many times it is out of our own control, but when you really feel like you're the perfect candidate to take the figurative dam and blast it wide open it is really discouraging when you find out the bad news. I've felt like this for two positions recently, where I just can't imagine a candidate who is a more perfect fit than I am.

Well, I realized that just means its time to use the 'potential' and 'drive' that I've always been told I have to (taking a semi-quote from 300) do what I was trained to do, what I was bred to do, what I was born to do! I've come up with an idea for a business that I think could be a real winner. Everything is under tight lock-down right now, but I'm really optimistic and excited about the idea and opportunity.

I'll let everyone in on the secret when the website is complete, posted, and functional (and when I get the name on all of the social networking sites). Anyway, I will probably relocate this blog to my own domain (allmendingerenterprises.com) which is just sitting empty right now. Redoing that site with this blog attached is on my to do list right after the business's website.

I have to say, sorry to toot my own horn, but the website I'm making for this business looks well beyond my normal capability level, almost as if a graphic designer has swooped down and taken hold of my mouse! If you can't tell, I'm excited about this to the highest degree. Hopefully that will translate to success.

SEEFAD #1 Results

This post is a followup to SEEFAD: Self Employed Experience For A Day.

I had a great time during the course of the day. I woke up earlier than I would on a normal day because I was excited to get started. I did some brainstorming over hot chocolate on my balcony and drew up a plan for the new site I've been scheming about. I uncovered a mindblowing realization that if I throw in a handful of 'user centric' pages on this site, then I could hope for a bunch more visitors that I hadn't initially anticipated. I did a good amount of keyword research and then I wrote ZERO articles to get the site started.

Unfortunately, the plan was to spend most of the 'working day' writing articles to not only jump start my progress on the site, but also to gauge how quickly I can produce these articles so I can use it as a planning benchmark. I got a lot accomplished, but article writing wasn't one of them.

Everything was well on track until about 10:30am when I received a call from a recruiter about a job I'm actually interested in (normally I get calls about embedded systems and other crap I don't like). I don't yet know if it will amount to anything, but I spent the next hour or so researching the area the job is located in. Of course this had to include checking cost of living prices, especially rent, and looking up some activities in such a small town.

At the end of these shenanigans, it was time for lunch. I took a break and watched an episode of 'That 70's Show' from one of my box sets and then attempted to get back to work. Basically from this point on I was all over the place, checking various websites, reading, and occasionally doing some work.

I reworked some of the SEO characteristics of my power inverter website to try to help it get a ranking. I found some strange problems with it and thought of another potential problem this morning. The most interesting problems were that none of the pages linked back to the index page and there were H2 tags on every page, but not H1 tags...

Clearly this was a different version of myself when I created this site two years ago ;) I wouldn't do things like this now. Anyway, I changed the H2's to H1's and setup the linking structure (which is still slightly faulty) to better accomodate the world. These could have been the major issues holding the site back from a good ranking (it was back at like 100 for 'power inverter', which is wildly absurd because there isn't too much competition and it's the site's sole focus).

I think the day was pretty positive but obviously I didn't accomplish the tasks I intended to.

Lessons Learned:

• Treat the day more like you're at a job
• Focus on task items, but allow for short timed breaks to pursue tangents
• Attempt a fixed schedule next time...

Speaking of next time, I've decided that it will be tomorrow! I do have a class from 10-11am, but I'll just pretend that is a business meeting or seminar. I'm going to create a fixed plan tonight with time slots and what should be accomplished/attempted in each of the time slots. I think that will be a more efficient method of tackling the goals.

SEEFAD: Self Employed Experience For A Day Preparation

Tomorrow I try a SEEFAD, a concept I borrowed from the Corporatepreneur blog. SEEFAD stands for Self Employed Experience For A Day and will allow me to experience a taste of being by own boss and doing things solely because I want to. Here is what the Corporatepreneur guys said about it:

"What we do is take a vacation day or use one of the many holiday days off to mimic a "a day in the life of working for ourselves." And the experience is amazing. It's like fast-forwarding into the future when you can control what you do and when you do it. And all of your productivity benefits you directly.

SEEFAD doesn't mean that we spend that entire day working a 9 to 5 for our own job. Some of us wake up late - hit the gym (because we always said we'd get in shape if we had more time) and then work leisurely from home. Other times a small group of 2-3 of us meet at a coffee shop with Wi-Fi and build our own businesses with great drinks and great company. Nothing is more motivating than being around others who are entrepreneurs (or have the entrepreneurial spirit) as well."

I'm going to do some preliminary research tonight so that I can hit the ground running tomorrow morning. I've always found that accomplishing things early inspires me to be more productive the rest of the day so I want to make sure I have a plan for the first couple hours.

In addition to observing the self-employed experience, I'm also using the day to measure my potential level of productivity building/writing content for websites. Then I plan to use the new 'data' as a benchmark to schedule a post graduation site building schedule.

Unfortunately I do have some commitments (including studying for a test thats on Tuesday) tomorrow, but they are minor and commitments will always exist even in a self employed world. I'm hoping to get in 6 to 8 hours of work in addition to a trip to the bookstore and a morning exercise/meditation session. I'll report back tomorrow night or Tuesday to review my experience and accomplishments.

April Goal Setting

It seems that lately I can't accomplish much without setting public goals. I suppose that has to do with some turmoil emotionally within my head, but life goes on. Here's a brief update before I get to the goals:

I finally got a firm no on the job that I originally thought I would surely get after my on-site interview, which is probably a blessing in disguise; now I can quit stressing about it and move on. Also I signed up for twitter today to try to discover why people like it and what its really all about. You call follow me, @vtgorilla, if interested. Now...moving onto April Goals.

Vegetarian
finish basic set of articles by April 18
basic article directory submission by April 30
basic link building by April 30
*Official "grand opening" delayed until May 1

Power Inverter
basic article directory submission by April 11
basic link building by April 30
*this will provide good analysis for the Clones I'm planning

Tyrod Taylor
some basic link building by April 30
*nothing like the off season to boost SERP ranking

PI Clones
more thinking and scheming
define target subjects and umbrella subject

Two Images of Myself in the Future

I took myself through a brain exercise to try to understand what I want out of life and how various careers can get me there. There is an interesting dynamic that I discovered that I thought was worth putting down here. This is just an exercise that I thought of myself, not a book or professional guided deal.

Basically I tried to imagine who I wanted to be when I'm successful. It really helps to have a clear personal definition of success for this, which I don't really have. Perhaps that is part of the problem, but nonetheless I attempted to go through with the exercise anyway. I created a mental image of what I will look like, the career path I have followed, and my general lifestyle choices.

Basically I come up with two utterly distinct images of myself, both of which I believe I am capable of. The first, and more traditional of the two, is a high powered executive. I'm not afraid to wear a suit to work everyday and having the ability to invoke strategy across a large business keeps my creative juices satisfied. This image comes with money, a fancy lifestyle, and work is the main focus of life. I certainly think that this could be exciting, but hesitate at the path that might need to be taken to get there and don't really know if I want to live my life in a business (my own or someone else's).

The second image focuses much more on lifestyle and a lot less on career. It is unclear how I stepped into the role, but based on the personality I've assigned myself it wouldn't really matter. This version of me has a grey pony tail and a tattoo sleeve on his left arm. He lives by the ocean and spends time enjoying life. Working is completely non-stressful and he doesn't care too much what people think of him. Money is not a major concern because, although it is much more limited, he just happily lives within his means.

I can tell you immediately that I'd be happier as the second guy. But I'm afraid that I have a drive to do and create things that may not be satisfied in that lifestyle. However, I have problems handling large amounts of stress which would clearly go right with the first guy. I'm sure that optimally I would be a hybrid of the two images, but it is hard to define where that is. The best I can come up with now is to aim to own my own business so that I can do what I want and act like the second guy with some of the good traits that come with the first. Then perhaps I can sell whatever business I would own (or at least no longer directly manage it) and move toward the relaxed lifestyle more.

Biking to Uganda

This past weekend I had a wild camping romp in the rain at Martinsville, VA. It was a great break from responsibility to reset my head a drive into the final section of the semester and job hunt. I came back exhausted yet mentally refreshed. I hit the ground running on Monday by applying for about 25 jobs online and writing a few emails to prospects that might land me a job.

Today I applied for several more jobs, but not with the fury of yesterday. I still consider it a success, because I cleared out several job types on Monster. Tomorrow I will look for additional jobs that are relevant on Monster before heading off to Careerbuilder, HotJobs, and Dice. I hope to hit all of the highly relevant job postings this week so that next week I can focus on niche job sites and direct company inquiries.

I had some time to kill today between classes and made great use of it. I've been carrying around a green speckled notebook in by backpack whenever I leave home in case business ideas strike me suddenly. However, I also use it just to put some things on paper that I don't want to hold in my head any longer. I suppose I got the idea from the movie 16 Blocks, where the one character wants to make cakes and keeps all his recipes in a similar notebook.

Anyways, I went through and properly analyzed revenue potential for my network of content sites that I've been brewing about. It certainly seems profitable, at least to a limit. Who wouldn't want an extra $10k per year? However, it will be interesting to see where that boundary is. I laid out a plan, with several options based on my employment situation following school, on how to create this network of sites using my own abilities and some freelance writers after some progress has been made.

My overly hopeful view has me making enough to not need a job after about two years with enough money left over to fund an ecommerce project or two. I didn't write a realistic view, because I think its necessary to set the bar high.

Dale was right in his comment about my last post; I need to keep a more positive outlook about my situation and accomplishments.

Oh yeah, I would have forgotten to mention it except I had already written it as my post title. I plan to Bike to Uganda tomorrow. Its a fund raising event I saw on campus today. They have about ten bikes on trainers counting miles. I think I'll head over there tomorrow and help them out for a half hour or so. I heard we're only barely behind UVA, so I'll do anything I can to beat those suckers!

Productivity Analysis III

I did little on the entrepreneurial front over the last several days, but with good cause. I had a giant project due today for my wireless networking class. Of course, being the king of procrastination, I didn't start on it over the weekend like I wanted to. But being alone with college basketball playoffs can do that to you.

However, my partner and I pretty much finished the project in time. We were up most of the night and each skipped a class this morning to finish. However, this makes it hard to call myself unproductive over the last couple days. I need to somehow push an element of this kind of motivation into my internet projects.

I did a small amount more research for the clone sites I plan to launch in terms of categories, site architecture, and the like. I still haven't selected concrete categories or written any content. I will have to mull over everything first before I spend any serious time. Also, the veggiehub is still a higher priority.

Hypothetically the official launch date is April 1, but now I'm pretty well behind schedule. After some brainstorming I decided that the reason that I am not making progress is because I don't enjoy writing these initial articles. There is some level of basics that the site should cover that need to be up for the launch, but I find these article types to be rather boring.

Once the site is launched, there will be less articles of this basic nature and more about current events, analysis, and other more fun stuff. I suppose I just need to charge in and get the writing over with for the launch. What stinks about being behind schedule is that the launch won't be at all dramatic because I haven't done any marketing so I just have a few daily remnant visitors from the veggiehub sites of the past.

I have an "important" test on Thursday and then I'm heading to Martinsville this weekend for the Nascar race so I'll be lacking on accomplishments until next Tuesday or Wednesday probably. So, I plan to post again at the end of next week.

Solving the Motivation and Time Wasting Problem

I said I would post Friday night to analyze my progress and how well I did with accomplishing tasks. Technically I guess its Saturday morning now, but that fact that I followed through with this post means that I've moved forward.

I created the action item list on my marker board complete with the day and time each item should be accomplished. Sadly this was pretty much no help at all. I basically did the things I absolutely had to and just slacked off the rest of the time.

I logged every minute of my time for 24 hours. This was interesting to look at, but only helped me moderately in being more productive. I didn't want to write down that I played Madden for three hours, but I played anyway. It helped a little in the beginning just because I was conscious of what I was doing, but after a couple hours I quit caring.

The interesting thing is that the experiment should have been doomed to success from the beginning. This is because most of the action items just related to studying for a Biology test I had on Thursday. I normally can handle things like that because they default to a higher priority in my mind automatically (the same thing happens when people pay me to do things).

I didn't study as much as I wanted to/should have for the test, but once the test was over my stress level was reduced enough to do some other things. I did some minimal work for the veggiehub, but didn't finish or write an article like I planned. Another one of the action items was to create a power inverter clone site my Thursday night, but not yet purchasing the domain.

I was able to attempt this, but didn't actually create any content. I just put in a couple hours of research into topics I should create the sites about. It was time well spent because I think I'm going to try a more umbrella style domain and just have a bunch of micro sites that are clones of the PI site.

Although I wasn't supposed to be reading the internet/blogs I actually found several articles that were really helpful. I'm a regular follower of Adam McFarland's Blog and went back to review his posts about ROWE (Results Only Work Environment). Also I ran into the Corporatepreneur Blog and enjoyed reading the author's 'baby steps' philosophies and attempted to apply it to my immediate situation.

Although it will show you the extent of my slacking, I found this sweet image on deviant art that I absolutely fell in love with. A print of this might be my first purchase when I get my first post-graduate paycheck. I love the art style and the body language of the guy standing. I decided that he is exemplifying the ultimate feeling I want to have in life.

My closest attempt to define it is...supreme victory and ownership with a big dose of relaxation and a realization that he is in that exact moment.

I have some stuff to do this weekend, so I will review my productivity again during the beginning of next week. For the sake of holding myself to a deadline, I will do it Tuesday night.

A Dense Fog

It seems that I haven't accomplished very much in the last several weeks. I don't really have answers as to why, so I'm writing this post to think through what the problems could be and how to resolve them. If I ramble and repeat myself...at least now you know why.

So you can see that its been just more than a month since my last post. I realized that I've been very unproductive, so that makes sense to me. Not only did I not have motivation to write a new post, but I wouldn't have had anything to write about. I was very excited while writing my last post about the future of VeggieHub and the prospects for LogoAnalysis. This time I don't have anything exciting to write about...except that I'm doing so little that I let veggiehub.com expire before I paid to renew it *eyeroll*.

I created deadlines for the relaunch of VeggieHub. This was supposed to motivate me because I'm deadline driven (or at least, I think I am). Luckily I disguised an extra week into the timeline so I'm not that far off of where I need to be to finish all of the important things by April 1. However, something has completely stopped me from making progress.

Some sort of block has created itself firmly in the way of any progress I could make. I even have half of a very well written article for the VeggieHub. It may only need two more paragraphs, and yet it has sat incomplete for more than a week.

I guess my mind has been elsewhere; it is probably more focused on obtaining a job following graduation. I feel like I'm at wits end regarding getting a job, like all my potential sources are drying up. However, I haven't done much regarding getting new sources in the last several weeks either. Its like I'm frozen.

Spring break was last week. Although I had big plans for 8 hour days, I did little. I had a job interview on Thursday and Friday and probably just couldn't refocus my brain away from that because I really want the position badly.

The other thing that bothers me about my lack of accomplishments is that I have less to do right now than I have ever before and probably ever will again, at least until I retire. I'm only taking four classes--two of which are biology classes that require no work 90% of the time. The other two should require work, but somehow I manage not to really do anything. SO WHAT AM I DOING ALL THE TIME???

Starting right now I'm going to keep a paper log of what I am doing with every waking minute. Maybe then I can analyze what I'm throwing my time away on. I think basically I just read Reddit and watch movies all day. I don't even have cable right now.

As soon as I'm done writing this I'm going to go clear off the marker board (which currently has the VeggieHub deadlines, which I'll transfer to paper) and create a list of action items with deadlines attached. I have to somehow make my entrepreneurial activites more important than surfing the web and other nonsense. Its really stupid that I have to consider this because I WANT to pursue my internet ideas...I shouldn't have to trick myself into doing it.

Okay, here I go...I'll post back on here by Friday night to verify my progress, mainly with myself since I don't think anyone reads this. By Friday night I should have a solid collection of completed action items and have more things to write about.

VeggieHub and LogoAnalysis

I've been working very hard on recreating the theme on the Veggiehub.com site. The new look is clean professional and bound to make me famous...just kidding. I think it definitely looks good enough to be one of the premier and trusted vegetarian sites on the internet. The biggest problem will be updating the content regularly enough.

Since there are multiple sections in the architecture that will require occasional posting (1 per week is probably about the slowest I should do) it means that visitors will be disappointed when they come back to the site and there is nothing new if I don't update at some typical frequency.

Take for example the younggogetter blog that I mentioned earlier. It hasn't been updated since the first time I looked at it. Its a shame too because the theme is amazing and I know there are readers out there looking for articles on that subject. A side note: the new veggiehub theme doesn't look anything like the younggogetter site even though that was the first idea I had. I think it fits a vegetarian site much better than that one would have.

In other news, I secured a new domain name and have big plans. Since there are only three months until graduation and I still don't have work lined up (damn you economy!), it may come down to me working in a job that I'm not thrilled about. My main target at this point is an online marketing position or a position with ecommerce (analysis, manager, specialist, etc...). This should be a relatively easy field for me to break into with a technical background but a mind for marketing, however it seems I'm facing a wall that cannot be breached.

The domain I purchased is LogoAnalysis.com. I know its not the greatest in terms of branding, but I think it accurately describes what I plan to do with it. That is of course create a blog about logo and brand analysis. I plan to analyze popular brands to try to decide what makes them good. In the end branding is about how your customers perceive your business, and the logo is what creates a visual image of the brand. I find the whole subject interesting and since it is related to my current long term career goals (although of course I have several path options in my head and I'm sure none of them will actually see reality) I figured it can't hurt to have some branding experts read my blog. Maybe if it gets popular enough I can be a branding consultant or something.

Goals for 2009

In the midst of graduating from Virginia Tech and finding a job, I want to extend my presence online and increase the revenue of the sites that I currently have.

Goals by site:

BorisSaid.net - Update regularly with Boris Said news and submit a google site map

Tyrod-Taylor.com - Create jQuery main page that links to various sections

VeggieHub - Complete the redesign started last year, perhaps model it after younggogetter.com

Create Invertersofpower clone

Complete real life mmo site that I've been planning

Monetary Goal: $300/month by the end of the year
Right now: probably making about $50/month

So it begins...

I'll start off by mentioning that I don't expect anyone to actually read this blog. My intended audience is mostly myself. I plan to use this space to track the progress of my entrepreneurial pursuits online. I've been making money online since the beginning of 2007.

My first website, The Unofficial Boris Said Fan Site, is dedicated to the Nascar driver Boris Said and continues to be the premier site of information on Boris Said even though I neglect it horribly for months at a time. The site generated most of its revenue from a t-shirt store that I setup through Spreadshirt.com, but also earns through Google Adsense and another source that has been pretty strong (I'll leave it unnamed for now).

The next pursuit was a quick string of several other websites. These included a Geico Cavemen fan site, invertersofpower.com, the veggie hub, and maybe one or two more...Inverters of power is strangely profitable even though I haven't ever updated it. I abandoned the geico cavemen site once the television show came out and was terrible but it is still live and gets occasional hits. The veggie hub did okay to start with, then i redesigned it and ruined any good traffic that it had in an effort to move it to wordpress...its still looking to be completed.

My next website is a Tyrod Taylor fan site. He is of course the quarterback at Virginia Tech. I hesistate to monitize the site with anything other than adsense or link sales for fear of copyright nonsense. I'm sure its borderline as it is...