announcements

If you wondered why accessing the Noobpreneur Business Blog is a bit difficult and troublesome, I am actually in the middle of upgrading Noobpreneur.com’s Wordpress to the latest version of 2.6.2 - meaning, better security and other enhancements.

Not only upgrading the Wordpress script, I am also in the middle of custom-designing Noobpreneur.com based on a Do-It-Yourself Wordpress theme structure, Thesis.

Why Thesis? After a long search for custom, user friendly Wordpress theme, I finally take action to purchase Thesis Wordpress theme, for several strong points:

1. Easy customisation, via click and apply method.
2. User and SEO friendly
3. Constantly developed - security and bug fixes, more features, etc.
4. Helpful forums!

The license is $87 for a single site, and $164 for multiple sites. It’s a fair price, considering the quality. If you are looking for Wordpress blog themes, do consider Thesis.

The customisation I am doing right now is almost finished. There will be a small update on the theme in the near future, but I assure you during that time, there will be no more interruption in your visits :)

Please let me know your feedbacks and comments on Noobpreneur.com new design.

Ivan Widjaya
Blog designer

I would like to announce the sales of one of my web properties - First Worlds Web Directory.

It’s a niche web directory that incorporates bidding system.

I design the directory myself, based on the original template by the script I use - PHP Link Bid. So, the design is pretty much unique.

The reason behind the sales is due to the much needed investment to boost my offline business through recession.

If you are interested, please visit my auction at SitePoint.com through this banner:

Thanks!

Ivan Widjaya
Web property investor

I am proud to announce that I am starting a new blog, Knol Today.

Knol Today is a magazine-blog that blog on selected knols in Google Knols.

If you are new to knols, here is what a knol basically is.

According to Google Knol, a knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic.

Google Knol is an interesting subject to blog on, because it is a cross between Wikipedia and Squidoo - Google Knol has the wiki-like feel of Wikipedia, and a more personal feel of Squidoo.

I will blog on a broad range of topic, from science to business, from health to sports. So, this project is really a challenging one for me.

A call for Knol enthusiasts to be authors on Knol Today

I would also like to invite Knol enthusiasts to apply for Knol Today’s author, because it is inherently impossible for me to blog on all those topics all by myself.

Initially, I would like to partner with two or three authors.

Authors compensation

I plot the blog not to be financially compensate authors, because in my opinion, it is rather impossible to remunerate fairly.

Therefore, I am offering the chosen authors to have the following perks:

[click to continue...]

As you might already notice, there is a green badge on the right corner of this blog.

Yes - Noobpreneur.com is a proud Pro member of CO2Stats.com, a company that allow member websites to go green.

How Co2Stats works

The main idea is to make member sites carbon neutral. The following is how CO2Stats describes its service:

CO2Stats monitors your site’s environmental footprint and purchases renewable energy to neutralize it, so your visitors feel good about staying longer.

CO2Stats script placed on your site will calculate the number of visits, the length of visit and the power consumption estimates of your site, host server and visitors - all accounted and recorded.

The information will be used to purchase green energy at the end of each month, with an online certificate displayed when someone clicks the CO2Stats badge on your site.

There are currently 4 plans to choose, with 3 plans requiring members to contribute a certain amount of money monthly, and 1 free plan that allow your site’s first 100 visitors in a month to be carbon neutral.

The benefit of joining CO2Stats

[click to continue...]

Money and Minds is my recent web property purchase that I can’t stop talking about :)

I always look for a niche blog that cover a laser-targeted topic in any industries. Money and Minds is the answer of my long search for such blog.

Money and Minds - Personal Neurofinance

Money and Minds is a blog about personal neurofinance - that is, about how the brain affects your personal money decisions - finance, budgeting, investing and other financial topics - all from the perspective of neuroscience.

This topic is, in my opinion, will soon to be booming, as finance experts and scientists alike are exploring the ideas behind our daily money decision making, all for the purpose of understanding human better, as well as how to develop better financial solutions.

Yes, it’s a crossing of finance-science, and probably not your type of easy reading, but I ensure you the articles within the Money and Minds blog are unique and top-notch quality.

I in fact team-up with 2 excellent writers that contribute on regular basis to the blog. So, yes - Money and Minds blog is a more desirable business model, even compared to this blog.

Please visit my personal neurofinance blog to read interesting insights on the issues of finance and your brain.

I have finally sold one of my web property. All this time, all I do is acquiring websites to add to my portfolio.

I can’t disclose the details - yet.

But this first-time experience is really teach me a lot, because, in fact, it’s not as smooth as I thought it would be :p

The transaction is through Paypal, and as long as Paypal has a 60 days transaction cancellation period, I have to be worry for the next 56 days or so, because it’s easy to get refund using Paypal :)

I actually eager do transaction with escrow services, such as Escrow.com, but my country is not in their list :(

All I can say is that some minor details went unnoticed, and my buyer asked me to settle the problems.

Silly me - I should’ve checked the details not when I’m about to sell it, but when I bought the site 5 months ago! A newbie mistake, I believe.

Fortunately, the buyer is keen to work this out and not rushing to get a chargeback through Paypal.

I’ll keep you updated with the outcome.

The first lesson I learn in website flipping is: Triple check every transaction detail and inquire small details as much as you can to the seller. It’s better being annoying than sorry later.

Ivan Widjaya
Website flipping noob

I like the concept on the new rich of The 4-hour Workweek’s author Timothy Ferriss.

The premise is simple - you can live anywhere you want, do whatever you want, and work whenever you want - principally by subcontracting or outsourcing your life - that is, trusting your workloads to virtual assistants and other types of ‘online employees’ and live your life more productively.

I’m thinking about hiring a virtual assistant to help me deal with my growing online business, because at the moment I stuck to my laptop for hours and started to think that a small change would make my life much, much easier. Just like the 80/20 Principle - In my case, doing the most productive things with minimal effort.

Any suggestions or anyone would suggest me someone who is capable, as well as trusted and accountable?

Ivan Widjaya
Outsourcing my life

Are you in the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Internet Marketing world?

Then you must be very familiar with SEO and link building, as well as directory submission, I suppose.

I have a good news for you - I would like to announce my web directory blog - Bidpreneur Directory Blog.

My brand new blog is on the stand-alone directory world, both paid and free. To focus, the blog will post a lot on bidding directories - my core online business recently.

What is bidding directory?

No, it’s not like what you think - it’s not Casino or gambling sort of stuff.

It’s a paid directory listing with a twist - Not only you can list your site, you can bid for the top position, usually the Top Ten.

What’s the benefit of being in the Top Ten? Advertising and SEO benefits, of course - Please read at my Bidpreneur post on bidding web directory.

What I can offer you with my Bidpreneur blog

If you are into directories, you can visit Bidpreneur blog for news and updates from my network of directories and news from around the Net.

What’s more, if you are planning to advertise your websites or your client’s websites, you don’t have to shoot blanks and do SEO and link building blindly.

You can find information on my network of directory in the blog to assure you that my directories might be the ones for you (a little promotional message - sorry, can’t help it :D)

Seriously, I take a great care at developing my directories so that whoever submit his/her websites for inclusion, he/she will get the best value of money.

Please do visit my Bidpreneur blog to see what I’ve been working on.

Ivan Widjaya
Directory owner

I would like to announce that yesterday, I finally acquire a design-related niche directory, Microtecture.net

Microtecture Design Directory is basically a niche directory that cater design-related audience. By saying design, what I mean is all things related to design as an art and a business, ranging from web design to furniture design, from illustrator to architect. Inf act, there are 52 categories to choose from!

If you happen to own or know about design-related websites, why don’t you submit yours to my design directory - It’s still free, after all ;)

Ivan Widjaya
Directory investor