I'm trying to use the internet to create automated mobile income.

Instead of seeing myself as an online gold miner, I always saw myself as a virtual farmer. Gold miners are trying to find that one big deposit of gold. I see myself as someone who is establishing lots of fields where my crops will one day grow. The internet soil is very promising and continues to improve. I see each domain name I buy as a new field, but I originally had no idea how to plow, plant, and harvest the fields. With my first travel site, I figured out how to grow a small garden. I basically had to do everything myself, but I knew that smart people were in the process of inventing the tools I would one day use to tend all of my fields. My small garden plot was successful and money was being deposited into my bank account while I was hiking, sleeping, tending to my other fields, etc... The dream was alive and well. I was very excited.

My main problem is that I'm not as technical as the people I have been competing with. I basically saw them making their own plows and getting ahead of me, but I figured I wouldn't spend my time learning how to make a plow because I figured someone would soon create a tractor I could buy. Most of my predictions have been correct. There are now things called "hosted applications" where I can plug my domain names into a piece of online software and suddenly my entire fields (sites) are now operational and beginning to grow. My old garden plot was penalized by Google for being old so my old business model and source of "rain" basically dried up. I was hurt by the loss of income from my small garden, but motivated by the fact that I now have the ability to grow crops in all of my fields with very little technical skills required. The internet game has now shifted from the very technical people to people like me who have more skills in the content, marketing, and sales areas.

So that is where I am at now. My sites have never been better. They are the sites I have always wanted to have. The old garden plots were just brochures with ads on them. The new sites are fully functional community sites where people can log in and get involved in discussions and other activities. There are all sorts of rating and flagging systems built into the "hosted applications" allowing the community to regulate and monitor itself. The best part is that I once was told my new tractor would cost $600 a month per site and then a few months later a new tractor was invented that only costs $30 per month per site with many more and better features that I wanted to have.

My main job (now that the new sites have been built) is to be the first person at the party. I'm basically having discussions with myself as new people slowly join in and start to get involved. As more people join, there will be more discussions going on allowing me to participate less. Once the community is going, I will just need to check in once and awhile and make sure my tractor fees get paid.

Automated Mobile Income has been planted and is starting to grow. The new fields have potential to grow bigger than I could ever have imagined. I also know they could fall flat if I don't tend to them as I should. The virtual farmer analogy has really helped me understand what I am doing. The main difference is that instead of people seeing me out in the fields tending to my crops, people see me sitting at home on the computer with no idea what I'm doing.

I have also been using the analogy that I have 17 children already who are now entering their toddler years. The virtual farmer and virtual parent analogies both work pretty well. My labor has been tough, but it is worth it as I watch my children grow and begin to contribute to our family.

Overall, I really like what I do and feel I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm frustrated that I had to build my farm and tend my fields with no huge harvest yet, but that is what all farmers go through. My benefit is that instead of borrowing a lot of money to get started, I am debt free (thanks to my garden) so my future harvests will be all profit instead of going to pay off the loans that most farmers have to repay.

I just feel that if I was able to make good money with my small garden plot, I should be able to do much better now that I have numerous fields of growing crops. The new fields were only planted a couple of months ago so I am just starting to see some plants (new members and discussions) starting to poke out of the ground. It all is very exciting.

It will be nice if the sites take off. I won't need to spend so much time on the computer having discussions with myself. That can drive a person a little wacky.