NASCAR-Forums.net

Published
by
J.B.Slife
on February 24, 2008
in Forums
. 5 Comments

NASCAR-Forums.netNASCAR-Forums.net was one of my original failing sites that I have decided to bring back to life. It will probably take a long time to get this one to take off, but it does have a couple good members that have taken an interest in it. It also has a few other things going for it.

Many People Love NASCAR

NASCAR is one of the most popular sports around and they all need a great place to talk about it. Since my Wife and I both love NASCAR, it shouldn’t be too hard for us to be regular participants. A forum that the owner doesn’t care about is doomed from the beginning. You never know, someday all of the members may meet at the races on a regular basis.

Great Software: vBulletin 3.7 beta 4

The site is running the newest beta of vBulletin. This new version of vBulletin has allowed me to remove many of the 3rd party hacks that I normally install in my forums. I believe this software gives me at least one advantage over the big dogs like NASCAR.com. With every NASCAR fan on the net (including myself) going to NASCAR.com on a regular basis, I need all the help I can get.

Time

I have all the time in the world. I am going to keep the site going just because I like it. Whether the site takes a month or ten years to get going, it doesn’t matter to me. I think I can get this site going and I think it’s going to take time.

That’s just a little update on NASCAR-Forums.net. If you like NASCAR stop by and say hello sometime. It really is a great place to talk NASCAR.

2007 Review: A Time of Change

Published
by
J.B.Slife
on February 16, 2008
in Blogging
. 3 Comments

2007 was a big year. It was a year that many things changed for the better. At times it was tough, but it really was a great year.

Family

My wife and I had our second daughter, Layla. Ah…yes…huge change, but definitely for the better. Layla and our first daughter Maggie are the greatest thing that ever happen to us, but it forced us to change.

We realized that California was no longer a viable option. We made the decision to move back to my home state of Wisconsin. With my parents still in Wisconsin, we would be close to family. We thought long and hard about moving to my wifes home state of New York, but it was just too expensive in the long run.

Employment
Moving away from the place we had been for 9 years meant getting a new job for the first time in a long time. My wife and I both worked for the same company in California. The owners were great to us, so leaving to a new job was a very difficult decision.

Fortunately, I found a great new company to work for. My wife will be working with me again as soon as we find a nanny. Currently she is the power behind the day to day operations of our online gymnastics pro-shop. If you have forgotten, my wife and I are a husband and wife team of gymnastics coaches.

Real Estate

One of the tough parts of 2007 was the realization that we were going to have a hard time selling or even renting our California condo. Right now we are still in the process of trying to rent (or sell) our condo. As soon as this major road block is out of the way, we’ll be on our way to financial freedom.

Websites

J.B.Slife dot Com - I am always trying new things online.  I tried starting a blog…this one.  I ended up letting it sit for quite some time due to all the changes.  Hopefully I can get it going again, I have lots to talk about.

LeotardCrazy.com - Leotard Crazy, my gymnastics pro-shop, did about $5ok in sales in 2006.  I’m happy to say that we hit $90k in 2007.  I’d love to go into detail about how Leotard Crazy increased by 80%, but that’s for another post.

The Chalk Bucket - My gymnastics forum, The Chalk Bucket, grew greatly also.  It went from under 100 members to over 1000 members.  Currently about 15% of the members are active in any given week.  I am positive that The Chalk Bucket will grow to be one of the largest gymnastics communities on the net by the time the 2008 Olympics are over.

Summary

Everything changed for the better in 2007.  My family and I are currently living in the small town of Hartland, WI.  I found a great job with a great little coffee shop on the way to work.  When we finally get rid of our California condo, we will look at buying a house in Wisconsin.

Now that I have a couple successful websites, I look forward to repeating that success on new websites.

Thanks,

JBSlife

Merry Christmas

Published
by
J.B.Slife
on December 25, 2007
in Random
. 5 Comments

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

Yah…I’m Still Here

Published
by
J.B.Slife
on December 15, 2007
in Random
. 0 Comments

I haven’t posted for quite a while, but I’ve been busy. My new job has been quite demanding (so have my two daughters). Anyways, this is just a little teaser to let everyone know that I’m still here. I’ll give you a complete update on all my projects over the next couple of days.

Later…I have to finish drinking my eggnog.

Two Members Currently Active on CountryMusicForums.net

Published
by
J.B.Slife
on May 14, 2007
in Forums
. 9 Comments

Most people think this is nothing, but any forum owner knows what it’s like to log into your new forum and find an active user online. Today was the first day that I actually found a user on my site at the same time as myself (actually there were 2 members plus me). Even better, I don’t know either of these users (they were just random people that found my site and registered). I know, I know…yipee. Well, they both also posted on the site more than one time. Not much, I know…but it’s still a major milestone for the site.

Check out County Music Forums, the newest country music forum on the net.

Removing Ads

Published
by
J.B.Slife
on May 14, 2007
in Blogging
. 19 Comments

I read a post at TylerCruz.com titled “You’re Not a Rock Star“. In the post Tyler sites reasons why someone with little traffic (myself) should remove the ads from their blog. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while, now it’s time.

I originally started this site because I was inspired by John Chow. Of course that means that I started this site to make money. My plan was to share my secrets with the world and make a good amount of money doing it. It’s been a couple of months and I’ve only made a couple of dollars, time to refocus.

The content of the blog will still be exactly the same, “eCommerce, Forums, Blogs, BBQ & Beer”. My main goal will now be building content. If enough people find me interesting, then I’ll start adding some of the ads back in. As they always say, “Content is King”.

« Older Entries