Something that’s been brewing in the back of mind for while. Videoing the Stuff I Do as I’m doing it.
An old motor bike helmet with the head of a tripod bolted on and hey presto, my DIY Headcam. And it works, here’s the first test –
And the first How To video
I’ll need to get a bit slicker but it’s something to work on.
A new year and fresh resolve to get some jobs finished. I’ve bought the timber for making my sliding sash windows and got pressed in to another job.
Whilst I was getting a big order for timber together, the wife asked me about the front door I said I was going to make. So I added a few extra length to order and now I’ve got another job on the list.
Never mind, I’ll enjoy it when I’ve started. The trouble is starting, I’ve spent hours trying to get my head around Sketchup and only managed a visual representation.
Sketchup of Front Door
After spending ages creating this I literally went back to the drawing board. Within half an hour I had got all the proportions right and all the dimensions for the timber sections. Paper and pencil, a fantastic combination.
Timber Front Door design details. Includes- using the Golden Ration to get the proportions right
To come the full construction details
I detailed my search for a mortgage a few months back. At the time I applied for NatWest mortgage.
NatWest ended up refusing me. Not sure what the real reason was as they gave me conflicting answers when I asked. I think it just boiled down to them not wanting to lend.
Next I tried the Bank of China mortgage option. This would have been good, it was only after I had applied that they told me they don’t do interest only. So another dead end.
After another few hours searching I found that the Post Office mortgage offering looked attractive. The information on their website is quite exceptional. All the criteria is laid out so you can asses your chances before applying. The Post office mortgages are arranged through Bank of Ireland, another source I had investigated. The only problem was an exclusion for re-mortgaging within 12 months of purchase.
The 12 months are now up so I’ll need to do another search to see if the market has opened up with any better deals. If I can’t find a better deal then I’ll be going with the Post Office.
* Extreme DIY Warning * This is project not for the faint of heart.
I have already built one sliding sash window as a working prototype. It’s been installed now for for over a year and I’m happy with the basic design. For more details of the prototype build please visit my Sliding Sash Blog.
The next step is to have a bit of re-think on some of the details and make five more for the rest of the house. At the same time I’ll be recording, photographing and possibly videoing how to make them.
The intention is to provide the resource I was looking for when I started out on designing and building sliding sash windows a couple of years ago. I would have been quite happy to buy the plans at the time but could find any. Details are available of traditional single glazed windows but double glazing means quite a re-think.
The cost of purchasing modern sliding sash windows from a manufacturer or skilled joiner is way out of my budget. I’m also not convinced that all the design details they incorporate are appropriate. It seems to be a booming market at the moment and I think there are some poor designs being manufactured and sold for a lot of money. I want design that will work for many years, that looks right and doesn’t cost the earth.
This leaves me with the only alternative to design and make my own sash windows.
I have spent hours and hours researching and testing various ideas to come up with a near perfect design. I’m hoping it’s going to be worth it. For a start instead of paying around £1000+ per window I should be able to build my own for less than £300 each. On Six windows thats saving me more than £4200. Certainly more than enough to pay for the extra woodworking tools I’ve had to buy.
On top of this I intend to sell the plans as a e-book to those who appreciate the effort I’ve put in and fancy benefiting from the time I’ve spent.
When I’ve finished this batch I will have the plans, construction details and methods completed. These will be formatted as a step by step guide to building your own Double Glazed Sliding Sash Windows.
I’ll also but some articles together that covers the subject of sliding sash windows, double glazing in timber and the rational behind the design that I’ve put together.
Well to start with I need to pull my finger out. So far I’ve only place 1 advert – NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
I’ve been accepted for others but not done anything about it yet. It’s time I had a serious think about the best way to proceed. There are a few options.
1. Place the adverts carefully and leave them to it.
2. Design and write content to deliberately and shamelessly promote the advertisers.
3. Review various products, services giving an honest warts and all account of my experience.
Number 2 is not for me and not the impression I want folks to get from iDoStuff. When I’m surfing for info I come across these kind of sites and immediately click off.
If I’m writing about something its going to be about my experience or based on my in depth research. I do have standards you know!
That leaves 1 and 3. So suppliers and products I know, I’ll write about. If I mention others it will in the context of, ”These might be worth a look at”.
To help me keep focused, I’ve set a target. To get £10 a week in Adwords revenue.
This doesn’t seem like much but if I achieve this it’ll add up to £520 in a year. It’s also an incremental target, an additional £10 per month. Adding up to £3376 per year. Subsequent years this effort will add up to – £6240 for very little additional input.
I feel it should be a realistic target although I’m sure it’s not going to easy. I need traffic and I need good clicks. To achieve this I’ve got to put effort and time in to three areas.
1. Traffic for AdWords revenue - I need good quality content and links to it from good relevant sites. With quality content, not selling anything in particular, sites and forums tend to be willing to carry links. It’s very involving and time consuming on forums but informative. I keep getting ideas for content from the questions folks ask.
To get sites interested it a bit hit and miss so far – More work to do on this side.
I also need to look into the world of feeds and ways of encouraging links to be passed on.
2. Content for AdWords revenue - More writing but making sure it will attract good high paying ads. These adwords need to be relevant to subject and the readers. Before I go in to any subject in depth I’ll be looking in to what adverts and interest potential there is.
3. Format for AdWords revenue – Although I’ve done some work on this I’m sure I could do better. I might be overloading the pages at the moment. It’s hard to tell with the traffic I’ve got but as the traffic builds I’ll be able to see which placements and styles work best.
At moment half way through January 2010 I’m averaging £6.22 . I’ll see how I do.
After writing about using a wood-burning stove and looking at how much gas we are saving , I realised some simple steps were needed to stop some of the heat loss from our house.
Draughty door
I’ve draught proofed our problem front door. I had tried in the past without much success due to a wonky door, frame and floor. After putting my mind to it, I came up with an easy and cheap way of draught proofing.
It might not be for everyone, some simple wood work is required along with access to a router.
Have a look at details HOW I DRAUGHT PROOFED MY DOOR on the cheap
This Guide and Analysis is for anyone looking to purchase a wood burning stove. My views are totally independent and give a balanced opinion of the realities based on personal experience. It’s the kind of information that manufacturers and suppliers don’t focus on.
If you are thinking about buying a wood burner or multi fuel stove then this is worth a read.
We’ve been runing a stove now for over 2 years. From our experience, I’ve reviewed and analysed the choice we made to Live with a Wood Burning Stove.
I’ve tried to answer the question. Is Living with a Wood Burning Stove worth it?
Looking at the money side, the environment aspects and the lifestyle change in some detail leads me to answer “YES it’s worth it”.
Have a read through and see if you agree with my conclusions. Please leave me any comments, suggestions or queries.
<< Read - Wood Burning Stove – Is it Worth it?>> Includes my wood burning stove running costs.
And.. Feel free to link to the article if you think others out there may find it interesting.
Thanks,
Andy
Now I’ve got a few pages of content up and a tiny trickle of traffic.
With some Traffic I should eventually get some Clicks on the AdWords BIG BUT…The Adverts that AdWords is putting up don’t relate directly to the content. So they are not relevant and won’t get clicks.
The content is about “Buying Timber” <view it here> so I thought I’d get adverts from timber suppliers. I’m getting more for timber windows and joinery companies. I needed to figure out how the AdWords are targeted.
But first, I did a check to see if there are any relevant advertisers out there. I did some searching directly on Google and found there are a few. These are the few I want to get next to my content.
So how does Google decide which adverts to put up?
It’s keyword based, with some kind of adjustment for the the value of adverts. By this I mean, if Google and myself can make more per click using a less frequent Keyword, then that advert will come up first.
To try and get the right AdWords up I’ve done two things.
1. Used Section Targeting
I’m getting adverts for timber windows. This must be been picked up from a navigation link to my Sliding Sash Window Blog. I’ve now used section targeting so the AdWords robot will put more weight on the intended page content.
To do this Ive added the following to my page template in the HTML code (to modify all the pages)
<!– google_ad_section_start –> This placed before the text
<!– google_ad_section_end –> This is placed after the text
There is another command that can be used.
<!– google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) –> I might add this in as well before the navigation menu
I also need to see if I know need to but the start and end around the meta data in the header. To get that looked at.
2. Tweaking Content
I’ve gone through the content and attempted to increase the Key-Word density. Concentrating on “Timber Merchant”. This is tricky as I want the text to get clunky, to has to easily readable.
The crawler robots put more emphasis on Headings, bold text and italics. I’m going to have another sweep through and see what difference it makes.
So far there has been a slight improvement in the advert relevance but it’s not good enough yet. Google states it can take up to two weeks for the Section Targeting to take effect. In the mean time I’ll keep tweaking but I’m going to need patience.
This is where I’m starting to get serious. AdWords is one thing but if I can find the right advertisers with the right products I should be able earn good commissions on the introductions.
So, maybe a beginner at woodworking will be looking for a supplier of tools and equipment. I have to find the right suppliers with the right offers and advertise them alongside my content.
To this end I’ve been looking at various Affiliate networks and I’ve signed up to a couple.
Note of Caution: The terms and conditions need a good read through. I spotted a point about an inactivity charge. If the adverts don’t work then after six months I’ll have to start paying the affiliate network a monthly charge.
However I have total confidence that this will work out well. There’s no point bothering otherwise. It gives me a stick as well as a carrot to make sure it works.
I’ll be doing some more research, picking some affiliate programs and adding them in. With careful monitoring and adjustments planned I’ll be learning a lot as I proceed.