This week marks the end of the first full month that Jcyreus dot Com has been online. Over the past 4 weeks I received a crash course in xhtml, php and script debugging. I also learned a costly lesson from trying to save a few dollars on hosting expenses, which resulted in my site being down over the first 2 weekends that I would have used to work through the bugs I discovered (and created) during my first week of dinking around.

That was all good fun. Now that I’m pretty much through with editing code, I’m free to concentrate a little more on building my subscriber base in order to reap the rewards of my efforts. In all, I have learned 2 important lessons that I anticipate will carry me to my personal goals with Jcyreus dot Com in 2008. Here is what I have learned:

1. Feed the [content] beast – Through knowledge that I have gained in reading through posts on the sites of people like John Chow and Zac Johnson, I have gained an appreciation for the importance of posting compelling content as frequently as possible in order to keep readers coming back. Aside from still having to hold down a full time JOB, feeding the ever consuming content beast is a challenge that keeps things interesting…to say the least. So far, I have been able to maintain my goal for daily feedings.

2. Pay yourself first - This is a philosophy that I truly came to appreciate when I discovered Jeremiah Owyang’s Web Strategy Blog about 10 months ago. The basic premise behind this lesson is an understanding that in order to turn your blogging “hobby” into something truly great (profitable) that will bring value to your visitors you must make time in your schedule to manage it. The best way to ensure that you always have the time is to prioritize it ahead of other obligations.

I have approached Jcyreus dot Com as a hobby because I enjoy it. I have incorporated a significant number of advertising networks, affiliate programs and syndication utilities in order to help build traffic and eventually generate enough personal income to afford myself a few extra luxuries in life.

February wasn’t anything to brag about, but a rewarding 1^st month for me just the same. I anticipate March will be a month where I kick a little ass and add a few more names to my subscriber list.