After a lifetime of work with little time off, I have taken two vacations recently. I had grand visions of writing plenty of blog posts in advance and having them posted automatically every few days. That didn’t happen.  My vacation days on a cruise ship and in Juneau, Alaska were enjoyable enough that I let my work ethic take some time off too.

Work isn’t a burden to me. I think work is a blessing, especially considering that I enjoy my job(s) so much. Besides eSnipe I am also working on a company that publishes ecourses. I am also learning about internet marketing so I can do a better job spreading the word about eSnipe, and I think affiliate marketing will be the best way to do it. During vacation I didn’t write much but I did study. I am investigating work at home possibilities for older people who are enthusiastic Web users but who find their age is a negative on the job market.

From the time I was young I was readying myself for economic doldrums like these (and worse). I have done a pretty good job of it. I studied the lives of other who had achieved economic security and wanted very much to follow in their footsteps. My parents came out of the Depression and I am naturally cautious, so I went entrepeneur fairly young, failed a lot, and finally found a position where I could be productive and earn a decent living.

Starting a traditional business has always been hard. I know, I’ve done a few. By the 80s and 90s it had become much worse in many places than it had ever been before, due to layers of red tape thoughtlessly wrapped around the wrists of entrepreneurs at every bureacratic level: city, county, state, federal. And whereas in 1935 you could at least start a hot dog cart business with relative ease by 1995 it was an ordeal, with health inspectors and zoning and permitting that made it impossible or nearly so.

But the Internet is still in its early stages. Starting a small business on the Web is roughly like putting a hot dog cart on a busy Manhattan street during the Depression. You can do it with a modest expenditure, but while times are bed there is still a tsunami of potential customers rushing by your business every hour of the day.

I am exploring these no-physical-inventory, low expenditure web startup possibilities and have been even as the blog has been languishing. I have alwyas been an expert on how to make money even in hard times, and my last big success (eSnipe) was a pioneering web business launched during the first bust of the Internet era.

Along with the Great eBay Seller’s Experiment I am working on those ideas too. I have found a world-class mentor  and will report back to you as I progress. Now more than ever we need to understand the possibilities allowed us on the Net, especially those of us who are old enough to suffer job discrimination and who want to explore work at home possibilities that take full advantage of a connected world. More coming on that.

Meanwhile, I’ve been getting some excellent feedback on the Seller’s Experiment and will post more about it ASAP.