My 10 point plan

Introduction:

After reading a delusional post about making $73,000 a year within 6 months I decided to challenge myself to see if making money was at all possible nowadays using automated blogs. This will also help me raise enough funds for my future plans (hopefully)

My History:

I am 33 (ok 33 on 9th August) and have been online since 1996. I have worked online for about 7 of these years. Now I have earned enough trust to work from home which has freed up so much time for me. No more commutes, no more petrol costs, no more parking costs. Life is good....although I shouldnt say that as it will come back and bite me in the arse!

I have also freelanced as an award winning website designer for 3 years and so host my own server from home.

I now have a 1 year old daughter who likes to take up some of my time also. My girlfriend occassionally gets a look in as well lol

My goal:
I would like to supliment my income with more money (who wouldnt?) and I have a 3 year plan to pack up and sail around the world (been saving for a few years already)

Whilst sailing, I will require an income of at least $500 a month and think its a good time now to get the ball rolling.

Internet is the way to go for me, I can access the internet whilst at port/marina etc and always have clients looking to update their websites (everyone knows sailors like to brag about their boats!)

Whilst I am at sea though, internet is a bit harder to connect to (not impossible lol) and so I need something automated....now what could I do that could get me a minimum $500 a month that is automated?.....hmmmm

AUTOBLOGGING!

The steps:
1: Find first niche DONE
2: Pick first site name and register it DONE
3: Setup my server for hosting DONE
4: Build blog and template
5: Setup keywords
6: Verify URL with search engines
7: Submit domain to search engines
8: Find advertisers
9: Automate blog
10: Setup next blog, rinse and repeat previous 9 steps

My weakness is content writing, never been any good at that lol and SEO is a major bugbear for me also. But as long as I have traffic, this should fix itself over time.

Do you think that my 3 year plan is achievable? Do you have any advice for me? I have always kept up to date with emerging web design trends, but blogging has always escaped me, I suppose now it as good a time as any to learn!

I hope to take between2-4 weeks per blog manually updating, then make it automated from there, add Adsense and YPN and move onto next blog. Then whilst at sea, I can continue this process.

I am trying to keep outgoings to a minimum at first, then when/if it succeeds, more money can be spent to increase income.

Thanks for reading

>Do you think that my 3 year plan is achievable?
Get to $500/month in 3 years? Absolutely. That's a very modest goal. Shoot for 5k and if you fall short it's ok.

>Do you have any advice for me?

Theoretical
1) Don't give up. Ever.
2) Diversify. Never rely on one site, one method or one revenue stream. Difficult lesson if you have to learn it the hard way.
3) Everything you do doesn't have to be a blog. Try a static site or 10.
4) If you spend time/money on something and it doesn't work, remember that all is not lost. Consider it the current tuition fee for your ongoing education.
5) It doesn't have to be pretty. If fact sometimes ugly sites can outperform masterpiece designs.
6) Your first project may likely fail. If it does, don't sweat it. Get back up and get swinging.

Technical
- YPN doesn't exist any more, except for existing prime (mega traffic) partners.
- Don't submit to SEs, let them find you.
- You're going to need links.
- You need to have at least an idea of advertisers before pursuing a niche.
- Doing automation right is probably not as easy as you think.
- You're going to need more links.

Practical
1) 500/month sounds pretty low to be all you'll need. If you're sure you couldn't need any more, then just double it. You will need more.
2) Check into serious security and safety precautions. At various places in the world, there can be a problem with random locals slipping into your anchored boat at 3am and slitting your throat to get whatever goods you have.

Thanks crixus, thats some really good advice, especially the links tips I take it I need lots of links? lol

As for the practical tips, $500 a month is a minimum, I know we can live on that (have sailed around Europe etc) If I earn more, then we can afford to eat out once in a while and even maybe stay in a Marina!

And as for slitting my throat, I do know it can happen, but we have tried to minimise issues by planning to stay on the beaten track as such. No going off to the Sudan or Iraq or Columbia lol

EDIT:

Why do I not submit my site to SE's? Whats the benfit of waiting for them to find me?