I just got done setting up a new trixbox, used the latest iso for version 2.6, and there are actually a couple of problems out of the box. I thought I’d blog the solutions real quick because it took way too much googling / trial and error for me to figure them out, even though they were both simple.
The first you may notice is that help-trixbox, setup-polycom, and all those fun built in trixbox scripts aren’t working. The reason? They’re not executable. If you’re getting permission denied errors, just:
cd /usr/local/sbin
chmod 755 *
blam there you go.
The next issue I ran into was hudlite server not working. IIRC there may have even been a problem installing it from commandline but you can still install it from the trixbox packages page. I got it set up, got my clients configured, but no one could call anyone. I also noticed this error when logged into asterisk cli: “Connect attempt from ‘127.0.0.1′ unable to authenticate”
Well, what happened is the hudlite conf didn’t have my asterisk manager password in it. Here is how to fix:
nano /usr/local/fonality/hud/conf/connect.xml
Add the password info to the asterisk section like so:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<opt>
<asterisk>
<host>localhost</host>
<port>5038</port>
<pass>[your password, default is amp111 but you should change that]</pass>
</asterisk>
then save (control+o), exit (control+x) then service hudlite-server restart
Although I usually stay focused on current (internet money-related) events, I’m trying to branch out a bit. Here are the two things I’m trying to learn more about:
Voice Over IP
This is hardly new but I’m becoming fascinated with small business voice over ip. I just got a new office (I guess I should post some pics, eh?) and I set up my first system using an old p4 machine I had, trixbox, and a mix of grandstream gxp-2000, polycom sp301, and now a snom 360 phones.
After that I just set up my dad’s insurance agency with a trixbox and some grandstreams. I have handsets on their four desks, one in a different office, and one at my dad’s house. It’s pretty dope. If you service small businesses you may want to learn more about asterisk and voip, I think it’s going to be a huge part of my local computer business in the future. I haven’t started taking on outside clients as I’m still testing setups and providers, but with just word-of-mouth I have several neat accounts already lined up.
I could go on a lot more about VoIP and what I’ve learned, let me know if you’re interested.
Clean Tech
I’m not much of an environmentalist but I’m starting to get really tired of paying $500/mo to my local energy company (well + $120 for office), $70 for a tank of gas, and knowing I’m contributing to Al Gore’s movie career.
Therefore, I have ordered some books and plan to learn more about the (post-)environmental movement from the technology side. This is more for personal than business interest, but I’m well aware of my track record of setting tech stuff up for myself then selling it to people that want the same thing.
Anyway since this is a blog I thought I’d blog about that in case you are intersted. holla.
Since I’m Mr. Nerdwealth and everyone asks me how they can make money on the internet, I hear a lot of people say “I really want to get into adult.” I always tell them I think it’s a bad idea but never care to elaborate too much. I don’t have much time to really think this out but here is my off-the-cuff microexplanation.
Reasons noobs want to get into adult:
Hey its naked chicks!
Hey I can get paid to look at naked chicks!
I look at porn all the time… you always tell me to work with something I’m interested in!
Thar is rich guys on GFY! I saw pics of a big house one time!
Reasons they shouldn’t:
The novelty of working with porn will wear off, trust me. I would say easily 9/10 of the people I know that have ventured into adult are super burned out on it. It really is a grind. You may not have moral issues with it now, but as you learn more about the industry, there is a good chance you will develop some.
Yes, your 19 year old friends might think it’s awesome that you work with porn, but what about when you’re 25 or 30? What if you actually make money from it? What are you going to tell your grandma when she asks how you could pay for that new car? Yeah. What about when you get older and decide you want to go into politics or preaching or scoutmastering (lol). mhmm.
It’s not 1998 anymore. People know how to get free porn on the internet. Just how many signups are you going to get from your TGP or porn blog with sites like fucktube.com out there giving it away for free?
I may add to this later but cliffs notes is if you’re new to making money online I really don’t recommend you try adult.
Well, we closed on that office on 10/1 like we were supposed to but there was kind of a big problem. The seller told us the tenant that was in there would be out and the place was “move-in ready” — yet when we closed on the place and went there he was still there and we went to kick him out and got a cease & desist from his lawyer because he had a 6 month lease that the seller didn’t tell us about. Long story short we kept him in there as a tenant and are buying 2 more units (one has a tenant, one my we will occupy) and hopefully close on Monday.
Should be a neat office, it’s about 1200 sq ft (upstairs + bsmt), 4 offices, 1 bathroom. It doesn’t have a kitchenette or 2nd bath like the original unit did, but the offices themselves are much bigger and the looks nicer.
I got my trixbox setup at home and have a Polycom IP301 on my desk. Right now it’s just running on my home dsl. Quality is great as long as I don’t have bittorrent using half my upstream. I have yet to mess around with the QoS stuff, hopefully that helps.
I had a bid on a local site that I thought was a total lock…. but I ended up losing it to a firm in Malaysia. Didn’t see that coming. The manager guy that I dealt with on the bidding process really wanted me to get the gig but the biz owner is doing a ton of biz in Asia so I guess he thinks it will jive better. It’s a really neat business and they’re like 5 mins away so I was really hoping to get the account. I’m sure I’ll end up with it eventually though because I’m the meanest/baddest/etc.
Also I think I’m going to AD:TECH NYC in November with some new friends of mine. Drop a comment if you’re going to be out that way.
Haven’t really had too much to write about in the internets arena. I’ve been really focused on some offline stuff and projects for clients. Here is a random spattering of what’s been going on:
I’ve utterly neglected that lead generation site that I was going to focus on… it’s making a tiny bit of money but I really need to put some time in on it.
I had a project for a client that should have been really easy go horribly awry. Look for a post soon about profiling clients. Ugh don’t even want to type about it right now.
I’m buying an office (close on Monday) and getting serious my web design / computer service biz. Setting up a new LLC, hired a friend of mine already to handle the on site service. I’m also bringing my dad in to handle the offline markting and some sales.
I’m messing with trixbox and am going to set up the VoIP stuff at the office myself. YTCracker has handled all the asterix/voip jazz for all our prior projects… I’m looking forward to getting a handle on it personally.
I am going back to school part time…. 2 Economics classes on T/TR. Fun but man I really don’t have room in my schedule for them right now.
I’m working on a bunch of offline marketing stuff for my church. My first billboard campaign is going live this week. It should really make a splash in the community :-x. Also just redid their web site and launched it last week…. definitely been busy
A lot of people seem surprised that I’m focusing on contract/client stuff right now. My mini take on that is that I feel like a lot of stuff I make money from online doesn’t provide any real value to anyone and I’m getting kind of sick of working from my basement by myself. I hope that the office and b&m business will help me become more social. I also hope that hiring employees using other people (client)’s money will allow me to develop a talented local staff without having to do too much trial and error out of my pocket.
Even though its a big switch from the affiliate marketing/ppc/blah crap I started this blog to cover I’ll probably still blog about my endeavors for whomever cares.
Quadszilla from SEOBlackHat made a post today that I thought I’d link because it echoes what I’ve been saying to everyone that asks me how to get started. Find something you’re interested in and run with it. No groundbreaking news here, but if you’re one of the “how do I get started” people its worth a read.
enerbrat asked a question on my last post that I thought warranted a new blawg:
How do you determine how much you charge? Hourly or up front/what not. I have a couple deals working around but I have no clue on charging. I mean I know it depends but there’s gotta be some general.. err base price to work off of and to work up from there.
The only time I do per-hour quotes is for maintenance. Ideally I would get them to agree to monthly maintenance costs but usually people don’t think they’ll be updating the site as much as they do.
I really try to price sites based on value not time. Until you get a feel for this, though, the easiest way to do it is to set a goal for how much you want to make per hour, then estimate how long the process is going to take you, and make a quote based on that.
For example, if the client needs a layout that you’re going to do yourself (I always outsource this so I just take my cost and build it in to the quote), say that takes you 3 hours. They want 6 informational pages (1 hour each) and a lead form (2 hours). So right now you have 11 hours of work lined up. How long is it going to take you to get all the information from them, get them to approve it, etc. Maybe another 4 hours? Ok so you’re at 15 hours. Do you have any costs? I usually throw in domain reg for free since it’s so cheap. If you have any setup costs on hosting make sure to factor that in. Now say your goal was to make $80 per hour, 15 hours * $80 is $1200. That can be your price.
The thing is, sometimes that alone can be a hint that you’re undercharging. If you picture quoting that price to your potential client and them going “oh, wow, I was expecting much worse” that is an indicator you should be charging more.
Also keep in mind some people try to negotiate the price down on everything. I would say 4/5 of my clients accept my first offer. Sometimes I hold a couple “bonus features” back to throw in to persuade them. You need to size your potential client up and figure out which type they are. I recently forgot about the negotiator type, and was dealing with someone who is literally a multi 100 millionaire on a pet project for them and they argued with me for an entire Saturday about $1300. Getting the “best deal” is just in some peoples blood. Most small business owners, however, seem to value their time more so they are willing to pay the asking price of someone they feel is going to take good care of them and their interests.
