My marker board has gotten out of hand again.

However, I have a finite list of things to do today: teach class, meet with the client whose site is supposed to launch today, finish up site alterations and a strategy plan for another local client, do the weekly reports for my Northerners, draft a newsletter for the New Yorker, and then if possible continue on to the next project for The Computer Guy.

Yesterday, I read, did a bit of sewing while watching Dreamweaver training videos, discussed philosophy with #1 daughter, and failed to do any gardening or hiking or indeed any energetic activity of any kind.

Oh, I did yoga and step class with the Wii, so I wasn’t a complete slug, but I even drove to church, because I was wearing suede shoes.

I used to do a lot of hiking and camping and stuff, but I seem to have given it up. I need to take it back up again. #1 son brought me the pictures from his float trip, and the people in them are having so much fun just being out in the beautiful day.

It seems to me that it’s easier to work normal   working hours and take time off and stuff like that if you’re actually doing something, as opposed to merely resting.

With the second anniversary of my layoff coming up, I am working hard at having normal working hours and time off and something approaching a balanced life, and I may just need to go on a float trip now and then.

Another thing that I did yesterday, though, was to work on the website I’m imagining for #1 son, as well as on my new educational website.

The outdoor sports website is giving me practice in using templates successfully. I’ve gotten reasonably good at it by now, actually, but I figure I can build another half dozen examples of this site and by then I’ll be very good at it.

I’m planning to set both of these sites up for affiliate marketing.

I’m blogging now for a guy who does a lot of PPC and affiliate marketing and stuff like that, so I’m writing about how amazingly profitable it is. I know people who do this, including Lostarts who very kindly shared a lot of her experience with me, and no one I know is earning hundreds of dollars this way.

Here’s the basic math at Amazon, one of the major venues for this type of thing: in order to earn back the $10 for your domain registration, you must have someone buy $200 worth of stuff from you each year. In order to earn my hosting, I’d need someone to by $500 worth each month.

Over 8,000 people have read my lesson plan on “The Big Turnip” so far. I’d earn about 31 cents for each one of those people who happened to click through and buy the book. That would mean that I’d need about a 20% conversion rate, which would be unusually high. Of course, that’s assuming that 8,000 people read it in one month, which isn’t what’s happening. But it’s also assuming that I have only one lesson plan and one link, which is also not the case. I have hundreds of lesson plans, and hundreds of links, and will be adding more all the time. What’s more, someone buying a $6.99 book at Amazon will probably add on another item or two in order to avoid paying shipping. If 20 people a month shop from my website and spend the minimum to get free shipping, it’ll pay for its hosting. I expect that site to do other good things for my business, so having it pay for its hosting is really all I need.

But the outdoor sports site wouldn’t be linking to $6.99 books. It would link to $250 crash pads and $500 tents and $280 sleeping bags. #2 son has also been given special dispensation to take the web design class at the university next term. If he does so, and does well at it and learns how to do basic design work, then he could do my little coding jobs and design a couple of sites for me every month and earn a couple thousand dollars. If he also did a good job with his website and earned a couple hundred a month there, he could be quite a comfortable drifter, and of course all his outdoor sports would be tax deductible. Now that he’s 21, he can play clubs, too, so his music could bring in some trickle of money as well.

I don’t really believe in interfering in my kids’ lives to this extent. #1 son may not want to do this at all. However, he might. It seems to me like a really practical way for him to finance his chosen lifestyle.

Okay. Time to get dressed and off to class. Oh, and breakfast. Better hurry!