Glad to be here

[waldo]

Hello everyone, it's great to see a forum like this. I have been alone on my island called SOHD for a year now and it has just dawned on me to check for forums such as this.

A year ago my wife got a job offer that paid more than her current job. I was currently in a average job while I attempted to continue grad school. When we moved, we just decided that I would stay home with my two boys (1 and 3) and I would also attempt to get an online business going. Well 1 out of 2 isn't bad :) I'm a great stay-at-home-dad but the online business is going quite slowly.

I notice people talking about home-brewing, which I have always been interested in but never tried. I'm a beer fan, but a bit of a snob. My wife has gotten used to having to leave a place after I hear what they have on tap. 8)


Waldo

[Don-Dad]

Welcome Waldo! I'm glad you found us!

Whats your online business. I have an online business and maybe I can offer some advice.

[tt3]

Welcome waldo! Whats your beer interest? I have an at home brewing operation and could offer advice! :wink:

:lol: :lol:
Sorry Don, I couldn't resist!
:drinkers:

Post away waldo! Don't mind me, I get this way sometimes.

[Jackson's Dad]

Welcome!

Yeah, there's a bunch of us with online businesses. Gotta love the internet... what did we do before it? (Oh yeah, play video games.)

[mjknapp]

Where's waldo????


LOL, I used to love finding that little guy...

All kidding aside, welcome Waldo, I to have an obsession with brewing beer. And thanks to a person that I will not name I havent quit thinking about brewing for months, If I am not brewing a beer, I am reading about brewing beer, or I am drinking that beer, and every once in a while I type on here.......

Hope you stick around, alot of good people on here to talk to.

[waldo]

Thanks for the welcome guys. As far as my "business" I have tried a couple affiliate/mlm type programs which makes enough to buy a load of groceries once a month or gives me some walking-around money(I live 2 minutes walk from a 14-plex movie theater :P ). Needless to say it's not what I had in mind. Right now I am looking at just developing a couple sites that I have a strong interest, building the traffic, and using google adsense + other affiliate links.

My beer interests... Well not a big fan of fruity beers, like cherry wheat ect... Amber types, bocks, some lagers, some stouts, some ales... lol. I am not too too picky I guess. Basically don't like the beers you would see in a superbowl commercial.

We live in a 2 bedroom upstairs apartment with limited space for potential brewing. I would need to get very creative to find room. I also picked up "soaping" as a hobby which takes up some space too. I know, making soap sounds corny but it's something I can do with the boys go to bed.

Gotta love the internet... what did we do before it?
There was life before the internet? Now I find that hard to believe :)


Waldo

[SAHF]

Welcome Waldo.

I knew SOMEONE could not resist the "Where's Waldo" shot. Mike was just quicker than others. :wink:

You have ALOT of reading to catch up on.... :shock:

[Don-Dad]

I knew SOMEONE could not resist the "Where's Waldo" shot. Mike was just quicker than others

I was waiting for that one 8)

Waldo,

I am in the affiliate marketing business and doing quite well. We should talk sometime.

[Remington]

If I had just gotten here ealier... :lol:

Welcome Waldo. Beer is a fine subject and most threads just repeat our love for it.

We should all pitch together and start one huge online business. Of course I don't know exactly what that would be but sounds cool! :lol: :lol:

[mjknapp]

Mike was just quicker than others. :wink:


I just couldnt resist, I used to love that cartoon looking for him.


It doesnt take that much room to brew beer waldo, there is always room for a carboy!!!!!!!!

[tt3]

...It doesnt take that much room to brew beer waldo, there is always room for a carboy!!!!!!!!

In fact, I don't know anybody that doesn't have a closet corner that is holding some crap from 15years ago that you never look at, never use, but just can't get rid of it. That'd be a perfect place to hold a carboy! Just think, that space could be producing the freshest, best tasting beer you've ever had (because, even if the beer is crap, its still yours, so its good ;) )

I take that statement back, though, I'm sure those guys on "clean sweep" don't have a closet corner stuffed with crap... but I don't know them, right?
aah, I digress...

[waldo]

Hmm a carboy... *jots the new term down to research*

Well, thats it... one of my kids has to go to make room for brewing.
How much do cute kids go for these days? :lol:

We actually barely have anything we could throw away. I went nuts when we moved last sept. and just threw all kinds of stuff away. Made a vow never again to keep stuff like that.

Waldo

[tt3]

Dang, wanna come over and do it for us to?!?
With the basement work we're doing, we've been shoveling crap out by the truckful after the realization struck that there won't be room to store all this, and do we really need it?!?
:lol:

btw, carboy: big ol' 3-6.5 gallon jug, mostly seen outside of brewing holding pennies and other change.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/pics/thumbs/carboys.jpg

Cheers!

[mjknapp]

Nice description Tony, especially liked the visual aid.....

[tt3]

Thanks Mike, I try! :D

[waldo]

Mr Beer eh? Should that really be my first step into the brewing world or does anyone have other suggestions for me? I saw a site for mr beer and it seems easy and cheap enough I guess, hehe. :drinkers:


Waldo

[Jackson's Dad]

Right now I am looking at just developing a couple sites that I have a strong interest, building the traffic, and using google adsense + other affiliate links.

Cool. Find something you love, since it's gonna take a lot of your time! I am a photographer (and a designer among other things), so I have a couple sites through which I sell my work (http://www.sroka.net and http://www.modernketubah.com). I primarily use AdSense and some affiliate sites to advertise.. they work well for small businesses. The business is slowly building up steam, after a long learning curve. I love it!

Dan

[mjknapp]

Mr Beer eh? Should that really be my first step into the brewing world or does anyone have other suggestions for me? I saw a site for mr beer and it seems easy and cheap enough I guess, hehe. :drinkers:


Waldo

Tony, help me out here.....

I wouldnt go with Mr. Beer, there are some people here that use Mr. Beer and say they like it, but from all the stuff I have read and learned about brewing, Mr. Beer goes against all of it. I myself have never tried Mr. beer, so I have no personal experience with it.

Tony talked me into starting brewing a few months ago, and told me that if I was going to start brewing to just go all out and not take shortcuts along the way, and my beer will show the results. If you have an extra hundred bucks you can go to a local home brewing shop and buy pretty much everything you will need to brew an awesome beer. If there isnt a local homebrew shop around, then you can get it online, or e-bay even.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/ go there and you will learn alot about what to buy, and how to brew. There is a forum on that site to.......

[Don-Dad]

If you buy a mr beer kit I have an affiliate site for the kits, hehehehehe!

Next year we might have to get all of us involved in a site and see if we can have the best of both of both worlds, we stay home with the kids and make lots of money :wink: I have the domain for it, dadonthego.com, its in the developmental stages 8)

[tt3]

I try not to bash Mr. Beer too badly, only because I really haven't tried it. There are a few things that turn me from it though. 1) the batches are smaller, and the bottles are plastic, there's only one fermentation chamber and you're dealing with a possibility of very cloudy yeasty beer.
2) the kits are propriatery, you can't just go to the lhbs (who wouldn't carry them anyway) and grab some ingredients. That and they are more expensive per pound.
3) sooner rather then later the plastic will start showing wear and you'll need to replace.

I've got a silly analogy if you're into fishkeeping too, mr. beer and the beer machine are like a goldfish bowl. sure, it'll hold the fish, it does the job, but chances are very good that fish will die soon due to poor/no filtration and little space. Getting a "real" tank and doing it right will greatly increase your chances of keeping that fish alive and well.
hmm, poor analogy.
Anyway, if you can spare it, go for it all the way, only if you think you'll keep with it though. Get yourself a plastic primary pail, a glass 5gal secondary, and the rest of the fixin's. That way you can store the glass in the pail while not in use and save on space.
If you got the space and the $$ get the all glass rig, in the long run, it'll work out best for you.
If you want to just dabble and get an ok beer... try mr.beer, again, I can't say too much against them ;) (even though I already did) since I haven't tried them.

[mjknapp]

Nice analogy, it worked perfect.

Then again, like you said that you should only go all out if you plan on sticking with it, my wife would have killed me if I bought all this stuff and then got tired of brewing, and let it all sit around. If you arent to sure, maybe you should try Mr. Beer and if you like it, and want to make different varieties of beer, then follow Tony's advice.

[waldo]

Dan, very nice work! I'm not at all familiar with ketubah, but if I understand the general concept it seems like a wonderful thing. I have thought about getting into logo design but there is so much competition. My stuff is pretty good but I am very very slow at my work.

I read though a really good site about brewing beer (with pictures and everything! :yawinkle: and it seems a bit daunting but I figured out how to make decent soap so might give this a shot when the funds are available.

Waldo... Waldo..... Waaaaldo... come over to the dark side!

Dad??? Dad is that you???

:lol:

Waldo

[Remington]

Luke... I mean... Waldo.... I am your father...!

:D

[Remington]

Milkman.... father.... same thing.. :wink:

[tt3]

Aw man, you guys are funny!

One correction though, ;) I most definately am not holier then thou when it comes to beer, I promise. If some one hands me a Natural Lite, I'll drink it same as I would Chimay, ya know? But, I do think if you are going to do something and stick with it, you should give yourself the best chances to do it right, and keep doing it right and repeatable. Don't sweat it Louis, if you dig your beer, brewin' is still brewin'!
Theres a couple of cool websites out there, and there might even been one more (mine :lol: ) about brewing up a batch. One of the big things to remember is that fermentation has been going on for centuries, if some old chic can hack a loogie into some rotting grains and get it to ferment, you've got a good chance to make it work too. There's tons of different ways to get a similar product, I tend to watch out for people that act like they've got it all figured out. You know, "my way is the best way..."

To steal Charlie Papazians quote "relax, don't worry, have a homebrew"
:drinkers:

[Jackson's Dad]

Waldo, thanks for the compliment. Yeah, logo design is a tough one, due to the competition: it is hard to differentiate yourself from the masses. Plus, you never seem to get paid enough for the amount of work it requires. The last few logos I did were for some dot-com start-ups... the logos lasted longer than the companies!

Aw, Mr. Beer ain't too bad -- one great thing about it is that it is cheap to get into, and simple to maintain. Not too many parts, etc. Sure, it's plastic, but then again that makes it real easy to handle and work with. I've brewed a few batches, and they come out pretty good. Not world-class, but enough to learn from and have some fun. But I agree, if I get into this more seriously, I'll upgrade to one of the glass kits. First, I need to use up my last two Mr. Beer kits, and see how they go.

Don: dadonthego.com sounds cool! What do you have in mind? I am thinking that a beer-oriented site may be a must. (The Big Daddy Brewing Company?)

[tt3]

Ooh Ooh...
Big Daddy Brewing Supply!
Man, I can see it now!
:lol:

[Don-Dad]

Dadonthego can be anything we want :D

I like the Big Daddy Brewing Supply idea, we could have a mini mall or something with all our interests, Beer, and this way we all, Beer, could contribute, Beer. We could have a section for the recipes, Beer, and products we recommend, Beer. I have a logo ready, Beer and we could all push our online sites, Beer,. Most of all it should be fun, Beer, and informative, Beer.

Did I slip enough subliminal messages (spelling?)

[matellicblue]

Welcome waldo. :lol: Just read thru the posts, you guys are hilarious. :lol: Again hello and welcome waldo.

[waldo]

Thanks Matellicblue. I needed a place like this.


Don, I'm very interested in what your talkin about. Would like to hear
more of what you have in mind.


Waldo

[Don-Dad]

Not sure exactly how the new site will work. I have alot on my plate but will get the skeleton of the site done first and then throw around some ideas. Probably look into using a PHP Content Management solution. I think the best way to approach it is to keep each dads section separate so that no problems arise in regards to copyright and legal crap. Then Dadonthego connects all the stuff together.

[Jackson's Dad]

Don, sounds good. It'd be nice to build a space that we all like to hang out in, and then try to tack the revenue ideas on to that framework. I like the idea of a Dad-oriented content site: a place that supports our habits and interests, the things we do to keep sane. Beer being one, of course, but I could see channels for other topics: music, food, wine, woodworking, beer, games, beer.... whatever topics we talk about here. To share the work, some of us guys could each take a channel and be its editor: looking for content, links, writing articles, whatever.

Each of these content areas would be perfect for selling ad space, a la Google AdSense. Plus, a lot of stores now have affiliate programs, letting you generate revenue by driving traffic to their store. Amazon's is the classic, but even Apple's iTunes just set up an affiliate program. I wonder if any of the Beer suppliers would be willing to do the same?

This could be cool!

[Don-Dad]

There are a few beer suppliers that have affiliate program, checked that out a few months ago, :wink: .

I am affiliated with all the major affiliate networks and tons of others so almost anything we do could have some relevant ad space.

[waldo]

An online dad-at-home magazine is what pops in my head from your description of things. Sounds like a cool idea. What CMS have you been looking at? I have used Mambo before with a coffeecommunity(called coffeecommunity.com but currently I am looking for hosting again for it) site I had a while back and it was pretty easy to use, and FREE. But there are tons of them out there, some of which may be more suitable for what you are talking about.


Waldo

[Don-Dad]

I just signed up with http://diyhosting.com and so far so good.

http://www.ixwebhosting.com A buddy of mine just signed up with this host $19.99 a month, paid quarterly, host more than one domain, unlimited space and unique IPs for each site.

[tt3]

Daggum, I take a day off and it takes me an hour to catch up with the posts, and this on a Saturday!
I am super interested in this idea too, I just need to start banging out some content for my beer site. I plan on brewing tomorrow, and was thinking of taking pics of the steps that I take...
I'll leave hosting and all that orginizational stuff to the pro's though, I have a hard enough time dredging up ambition to write about stuff I like!
:)

[Remington]

Don't forget I own http://www.outdoorwebhosting.com and can get some of you great deals.... free credits, etc.

I can also customize your packages if you need me to.

[Don-Dad]

Yeah use Rem's service for hosting, its real cheap and he promises to answer customer support emails with 30 days, kidding. Seriously, Waldo, if you need some space, Rems your man.

[waldo]

Well I got hosting at Westhost about 2 days ago. I have about 8 or 9 domains I can put on it and it seems like a decent package for the money. (got the ultimate package). So once I add the domain names it will take a couple days for all that propagation stuff and then I can start working on them again.

About 6 months ago we had some finance problems(car accident, other things) so I had to drop my dedicated server. We are back on our feet so it will be nice to get back to trying my hand at this online biz stuff.

I have a couple new site ideas I think might tie in well with dadsonthego that I will start working on.


Waldo