There was an Earthquake in Bali yesterday morning. Not long after we got up at around 6.30 in the morning. There was a loud rumbling and the house shook. The water in the swimming pool sloshed about so much it came over the edge. There were waves! That was a sight to see.

It had the whole household up very quickly, shame it was not a school day as Katie has not been up this early since… well actually never this early I don’t think!

It only went on for about 30 to 40 seconds but it is a very scary thing to happen I can tell you. Now I think I may be jinxed.

I lived in the Canary Islands for 17 years and there were one or two small tremors in that time, then we moved to England for a couple of years and we were there when the biggest earthquake for years again rocked our house and cracked the garden wall.

Now we live in Bali and I find out that we are living on the ring of fire, as it is known. I thought that was something you got after a hot curry. This is the second quake to hit Bali since we have been here and I am hoping that it was the last.

I am all for a bit of excitement but this is a bit over the top if you ask me.

Anyway back to business..

One thing about the Internet business is that you can run it from anywhere in the world. Another thing, is that if you outsource the majority of your work then you have to spend very little time on it. Having others make money for you is the way to go.

And after this ground shaking event, and no I don’t mean when I fell up the stairs, it may be time to move on.

As long as we have an internet connection we can work from anywhere. Communicating with staff who live in Brasil, India and the Philippines via skype and email allows us to run our little empire.

We have just setup a couple of new websites that we think will generate a little extra income almost on autopilot. Check them out and let me know what you think? www.PortratiPaintingGallery.com is live but needs a bit of work. It is a website to promote oil painting portraits from photos. We have an amazing team of artists that really know there stuff and produce some great works of art.

www.izabellamorgan.com is another one ready to go. Sharon and Astrid designed a range of beachwear that we will promote through the luxury hotels here in Bali and once established, across the World through a network of agents. So all good stuff.

I got portrait painting gallery ranked on Page one of google, msn and yahoo. Yahoo has dropped down to 35 now but still on first page of google. Not bad in a week eh? That is pretty impressive by anyone’s standards you must admit (He says in a smug voice )

I will keep you updated with how we get on with the ranking of this site over time and let you know how much traffic we generate and, how much we make from it.

Until then from ..

Testingalotlloyd What is that all about eh?

This word only exists in my brain and it is used as a test word to check where my article is found.

It is important to test everything that you do. For example, if you are writing articles or doing blog posts then you need to know where best to post them.

Also if you are going to create a number of web 2.0 pages then you also need to know which ones you should spend time on as they should all have unique content on them

It is not worth spending time to create a web 2.0 page if it is not going to get seen by the search engines.

IT is not difficult to check this and you do not need fancy or expensive software to do it either.

All you have to do is to create an article and embed a unique word or phrase into it.

After a few days then search for the keyword on google, yahoo and msn as well as any others that you want to check.

This can also be used to check how fast your website is indexed by google or the other search engines. if you make a post on your blog then check the publish time and check every few hours to see if it appears. Easy eh?

I use special words in my posts and articles and when it is eventually indexed we will see where my post is syndicated. Over time if the word is found in other sites then we know that the article is being used. You can then check it out to see if your content is being plagiarized or the proper links are being displayed.

Also check out this oil painting of Sharon and Morgan (my wife and one of my daughters)

http://picasaweb.google.com/lloydhester/BaliFamilyPhotos#

Portrait Painting

Our new website the portrait painting gallery is up at last.

The quality of the work is incredible, they hand paint in oils from a photograph. They can take several diffrent photos and convert them into one oil painting  even.

One request we had was for a picture of Michael Jackson next to the client so that it looks like they were together.

It was not until we started looking into it that we realised just how many styles of painting there are. Some people want a photo realistic painting. Although this seems to defeat the object of having a painting done. You might as well just have a photograph made into a poster size. My favourite is the impressionist where the painter puts his or her own style into the painting. Then there are the characutures where the painter takes prts that really stand out and accentuate them.

Anyway, the site should be ready to take orders later this week so if you are looking for an unusual gift, if you cannot think of what to get him or her for Christmas then take a look at having a portrait painting done.

take a look and let me know what you think. All comments and criticism of the site will be greatfully received.

Following on from my last post, I thought I would show you that I do sometimes practise what I preach.

I have just setup a new website to sell portrait paintings which are done from photographs of the subject.

They make ideal gifts and can be posted anywhere worldwide.

People who want their portrait painted simply upload their photos and then they are passed onto the relevant artist who begins work on the painting.

Once complete a photo is sent to the client of the work who then approves the painting and pays for it.

The portrait is then posted out to by recorded delivery.

All this is done on auto-pilot. All we have to do is match up the custmer with the artist and take our cut.

The hardest bit is to promote the site and this is the skill that few people have.

Fortunately for me and not wanting to be big headed, but I am pretty good at it

Check out the site www.PortraitPaintingGallery.com and look for Isabellas Portrait. It is Stunning and very reasonably priced too.

In fact here it is as well as a couple of other recent paintings that they have done.

When setting up an online business there are a number of things that you need to consider. Most people say that you should setup a website about something that you know about. I disagree, the most important thing in my book is that you can automate everything and that you can run it from anywhere.

Setting up an online business should give you the freedom to go where you want without affecting your business. If you set up a website to sell the bird cages that you make in your garden shed then in my book you defeat the main objective of running an online business. You are tied to your garden shed!!!

If you become an agent for a company that manufactures bird cages and you set up a web site to sell their products for a commission then you have a perfect business. You promote the site and pass all the orders and hassle to the manufacturer. Whether you choose to live in Toronto or Tobago, Manchester or Maui you can run your business.

The same can be said of digital down-loadable products like software or ebooks.

Also try to make it a business that does not take a lot of technical knowledge that will require you to be spending time on emails and support questions. The more that you can outsource and pass to others the better.

With e-books the customer comes to your site and buys the product, they pay through paypal and are then taken to the download page. They then download the book and bobs your uncle. They have what they have ordered and you have the money. All sorted while you are asleep in your comfortable bed or swimming with the kids in the Indian Ocean in my case

So, bare that in mind, if you want to setup a business that will make you money and enable you to enjoy life to the full. Don’t get involved in a business that is going to take up more of your time than you want to give.

Well we have been in Bali for 3 months now and life is great. When I first came it was work, work, work 6 or 7 days a week and 10 to 12 hour days. With little reward or appreciation and never a thank you!!

I think I forgot the actual reason we were moving away from the UK and that was to have quality time together with Sharon and the Kids.

So, now I finally got it and have spent the last week doing very little. We toured the north of the Island and got myself a motorbike (YESSS)

We have a number of things going on mainly internet based, of course, as we plan to travel around Asia over the next year or so and need to be flexible with our workload

We have also had a good response to our sourcing service which has been setup to find products that are made in Asia to send back to spain, the UK and the US.

We have chosen a range of great products and plan to sell them for a smallish profit to build up a good reputation and still make some money.

We have met a very experienced export and shipping guy who has been a great help in setting everything up.

So, at last I realised what I was here for which means we are all a lot happier.

I cannot belive just how stressed out I had become in Bali… Hard to imagine in theis Island paradise.

So, take note.. it always pays to take time out to sit back and look at our life and make sure you are really doing what you should be to get the most out of it.

Bali is a fantastic place to live. The people are friendly and helpful, the weather is great and we all just love it.

Thanks to Mark Attwood, one of the hardest workers and focussed people I have ever met, the family packed up our house and we winged our way to this sunny island in Asia.

They call it the Island of the gods and you can see why, apart from the fact that the majority of the Balinese are Hindus, each with their own temple which they provide offerings several times a day, but also because of the fruits that Bali provides and the beauty that surrounds you.

We moved into a house with fantastic panaramic views out over Nusa Dua and onto the Indian Ocean. Waking up every morning as the sun rises (not ut of choice but the kids start school at 7.30 ouch) and another blue sky just makes you feel good.

After living in Lanzarote and Tenerife for many years and then spending the last 3 years in the UK I was surprised that I had forgtoten how much of a difference it makes living in the sunshine. Ther is definitely a feelgood factor that you do not have when you wake up in the dark which slowly lightens to a dull grey.

There is healing in them there sun rays and makes life all that more enjyable, unless you are a penguin or a polar bear in which case you are in trouble with temperatures of 30 degrees celcius

oh well. off to the office which also looks out over the sea by the way. Are you jealous yet?

When looking for keywords to try and rank for it is important that you take the time to do the proper research.

There are so many keyword tools and guides but very few of them explain a really simple way to research the basic terms that you should concentrate on.

If you know nothing about keyword research then don’t fret, it is really simple but time consuming.

The idea is to find keywords with a high number of searches and a low number of results.

To find out the keywords go to the google keyword tool and type in your main phrase “coffee tables” for example. This will give you a list of related keywords. Then click on the “Approx Avg Search Volume” button to list the terms in descending order. Now take a look and you will quickly see that there is a big difference between “coffee tables” and “coffee table” more than twice the amount of searches for the term coffee table. Also “furniture coffee table” and “furniture coffee tables” nearly 3 times the amount of searches for the term using the singular “table”

Now go to google and type in “coffee table” and note down the results. Then do the same for “coffee tables” look how many more results there are for this term?

The lower the ratio between the results and the number of searches the better. High searches, low number of results equals happy, smiley faces if it is for a term that you want to rank for.

Also, it is worth remembering that sometimes you can find some keywords that maybe don’t have massive monthly search volumes, but if they only have low number of resulting pages you will be able to dominate for these terms easily and quickly.

I went to the dentist again today and had  some work done. The dentist, quite an attractive lady, smiled at me as she stuck in the needles then saying how sorry she was, while still smiling of course.

Now call me a cynic, but I have a deep rooted fear of dentists as does almost everyone I know and those that take up the profession must know this and therefore maybe they enjoy watching us go through  the excruciating embarrassment that we go through whilst trying to act hard while secretly wetting our pants.

They know we are scared they can smell it I am sure. Well I am sure she could in my case as she wore a double mask. Although I got to say I was not really that bothered and whilst it may be uncomfortable and the injections sting a bit, it does not hurt.

Says a man that has not been to the dentist for 20 years

Well after dribbling for the last 3 hours the feeling and now the pain of the work is beginning to hit me so, I am going to drnk a cup of tea, now I can without dribbling and take 5000 milligrams of some very strong pain killer… Why? Beacuse I can..

Finding Villas to rent in spain is a lot easier today with the internet websites available. However, you do need to be careful where you go.

The sites that allow you to contact the owner directly so that you can ask questions and find out about local information for your holiday are the best ones to go to.

Self catering villas and apartments are a lot better than they used to be. They are very well fitted out and equiped with all the mod cons.

Have a great holiday this year in your own private villa with your own swimming pool and maybe even a Jacussi.

Make sure that you use a website like www.accommodationrental.co.uk and have a great holiday.