From Rags to Riches?
January 6, 2007 Posted by Tyler CruzOkay, well maybe not riches, but I could be on my way.
I am now very close to securing a quarter-million dollar home. I predict I’ll have purchased one within 6 weeks:
By the way, enjoying my fast blog updates? Nobody seems to care. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with this blog. Traffic hasn’t increased on it in ages, Alexa and RSS readership hasn’t either…
Posted: January 6th, 2007 under Videos
RSS readership won’t increase if you keep doing video updates. I add you to my RSS ‘cos I want to read, not watch. And if you’re that upset about it, stop blogging!
Yeah, not too fond of your vid updates. What people want is what your doing with your sites, well that’s me personally. I started reading your blog last year because of all your start-ups. Your home is not that interesting to me 🙂
I agree with Keith. I prefer reading about your websites, i do like the occasional video update like this – it shows me about whats possible. But, i remember some of your older posts being much more of an interest to me.
I’m the same really, more interested in the sites and I did really like when you posted about what the sites/income were doing for your life, what you could afford, what you were changing etc. etc.
I dont look at the vids anymore because its normally about the real estate and I’m just not into that anyway 🙂
Wouldnt mind the vids if it was what you used to write about but I still liked it more when it was text.
Where are you in Canada btw?
You are in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, right? Beautiful part of Canada – visited there myself and loved it.
I find it quite interesting hearing about how you are now able to afford a home thanks to your online earnings, but agree that some more about your sites and web development would be more interesting in the blog. By the way how did the resale for movie-vault.com go?
When do you plan on doing something with publisherspot.com? It seems a shame for it to just be sitting there.
When you say dollar are you talking about the US dollar or the CAD?
I don’t see a problem with the more general updates (the house stuff and the screen cast reviews). Both tie into web site ownership loosely as well. I suppose it is fair enough to be frustrated when enthusiasm in a site is slow to be reflected in hard numbers. It takes time though and you will tend to find that there’s a silent majority when it comes to things like blogs and forums.
As with others I do think frequent updates about your network would be nice (most will probably be looking to create similar online success and so will be looking for tips from the higher earners for advice).
Tyler, I started reading you blog a while back from the webmaster world posts you did. You did talk about, as many people have said, about your sites and earnings. Generally this is what people are going to look for.
I also read a lot of john chows blog. You should take some time and look over how he structures his blog. bit about his life, his sites and general news.
I expect, like myself, there are a lot of people enjoying your blog. I for one would like more posts, everyday, with more about how you manage your site and what you encounter everyday. Eitherway I can see its not easy.
Anyway keep it UP !
Tyler, I went through the same issue with my blog a couple of months ago. When I started my blog, I only talked about search engine marketing topics. My readership grew, and as time went on, I started to integrate more and more personal posts. I eventually noticed that this had a negative impact on my traffic, and as I slowly transitioned back to only posts related to search engine marketing, my traffic grew again.
People come to your blog for a reason, and its not to read about your house or the snow. Although people do like traffic and money stats a lot, they don’t care about what you do with the money.
Also, your videos are too long. If you’re going to do a video, take time to at least outline a script. If you cut down on the rambling, you can make a information packed one to two minute video (this goes for the Screencast reviews also)
I agree with the above posts. I started reading this site after I found it while researching making money online. The appeal of Tcruz was describing sites, how much money was made, advertising choices, business deals, and the like.
The personal stuff is OK, but should not exceed 10% of the content and lately, it’s been *much* higher.
What separates Tyler Cruz from everyone else online is the fact that he’s using the web to make money and live life on his own terms. Many of us own homes (although not at your age and price, T) so frankly, that’s not very interesting. To you, it’s exciting — I know because I remember my first home, but for the rest of us, it’s just everyday life.
Hopefully that’s helpful input and not overly negative. I really enjoy “living through your life” when you talk about making money online while I’m slaving at my day-job, so please go back to that formula and keep the extremely personal stuff to around 10%.
Mike
Good stuff Tyler.
I happened upon your blog a while ago, and it’s funny cause we have quite a bit in common.
We both run poker sites as our main incomes, and we both live in Southern BC (I live in White Rock).
I bought a place in 2004. For me, buying a condo was a great motivator to work hard on my sites. When you have that mortgage payment to make, you don’t really feel like slacking off too many days.
My advice would be: buy a place that you really love, even if it is at the high end of your mortgage limits. You want a place that you don’t have to do that much work on, and besides, given the area that you are buying in, your asset is only going to appreciate.
You’ll have your “holy crap, I can’t believe I have a mortgage this big” moments, but those will wear off fast, and soon you’ll be scheming to buy your first piece of investment property. Have fun!
I am in agreement with the people who want to hear more about your internet business and less about your condo shopping. Also, there is too much video stuff. You seem to just ramble on and on… maybe if you took a few minutes to write down what you are talking about, it would be better for the readers and better for your overall blog. I really, really liked this blog when it started out, but there hasn’t been much of interest lately. I know it is a big deal for you to be buying a condo, but it’s not really that interesting to your readers.
Wow, hopefully all of today’s comments will:
-show you that you still have a lot of loyal readers
-help you point your blog in the right direction
-give you motivation to keep on posting!
I’m against the majority in these comments. I really enjoy the video updates, they are a nice change from other blogs and show what it’s like in the life of Tyler Cruz! However, I you are going to do one you should have something to show.
This video update was kind of boring. I’m glad you are advancing in the home search, but I think you could have done this with text. When you do video have a interesting location or something to show us and on top on that talk about life and websites.
I agree with most here. I prefer when you talk about your projects – maybe you could discuss sites you like or give people tips (I’ve written a post today regarding adsense on forums, let me know what you think)
Keep going!
I like the video blogs, well maybe not so keen on the site critques, but most of them are good, adds a personal touch to the blog. As to the property hunting, good luck with that, it is a difficult decsion.
Dont pay attention to what mortgage brokers tell you they will lend you, because if they are anything like in Australia, they will lend you a tonne of money with no regard if you can pay it back or not. You need to sit down and go over all the numbers, factor into account 2-3% interest rate hike, if it is a variable rate, eliminate some of the once off high non recurring income from your income calculations, and then see if you can comfortably afford the payments. Dont make the mistake of thinking they will not lend you more than you can afford.
I thought for a minute that this post had been Dugg 61 times 🙂