it's been a while since i blogged about the "out of work, looking for work" deal, so here's a little update.

about 6 weeks have passed since i was laid off and i have been actively searching for web design and related opportunities/positions.

i have come across some really diverse things. i have landed a freelance gig helping a small company ramp up to the opening of an e-commerce furniture store and am working a bit on that now.

i have been spending some time working on developing some phpBay pro based sites to earn eBay affiliate income. they are wordpress blogs/sites that point to items on sale currently on eBay. if a visitor comes to your site, clicks on an auction or one of the other eBay pointer links, then a 7-day cookie is set on that computer - if an eBay auction win occurs from that computer within the 7-days, then i get a split on the fees that eBay collects for the auction.

it all works through the phpBay pro wordpress plugin i purchased that calls in all the auctions based on keywords/parameters you set in the software. pretty neat. it was only $49 and can be used on an unlimited number of sites.

as of today i have yet to earn any income from that, but i am willing to sit it out and try to build up traffic to the sites (a list of these sites are in the sidebar under "other buford sites").

i am currently participating in a new online blogging contest/course called the thirty day challenge. it has videos that teach you how to learn how to do sites for profit the correct way to not spin your wheels. i just started this and will post more after i get more into the course. the course is free, run by aussie's named ed and dan.

you can sign up for the thirty day challenge (30dc) yourself and try it out.

i'm also looking into various opportunities making partnerships with business owners selling items for them on eBay. it's amazing how many of those are out there.

today i went to a company that had boxes of computer products (new, but pretty old), plus 23 new violins (go figure) to sell. i took home a box full of them (1 of each item) to research the products to see if they will sell.

i have answered a ton of online ads for web site design, graphic design, html, css, web optimization, seo and more. there seems to be a lot out there, but nothing has fallen into place yet.

no prob. i'll just continue doing what i am doing and something will happen. more later.

if any of you got an email from the ebay partner network about the changes coming in payouts related to acru's (active confirmed registered user) and said "huh" after reading it then go read this article by j. frank carr at the blog optempo.

epn acru changes and you

he explains the whole thing pretty well.

i am investigating a facebook application called radical buy. i found it through an old high school friend named ivan schonwald that i recently re-connected with on facebook.

radical buy is an application within facebook that allows you to list items for sale as an individual seller like you would on eBay.

the twist is that you can also show other seller's products in the application and if a buyer then buys that product from your facebook page where they saw it, you get a commission that the seller offers for selling it.

they have a web site www.radicalbuy.com that you can go to outside of facebook to browse products for sale, add the application to facebook, read the forums or find out more about the program.

here is a video review from a site named www.facereviews.com, that has been watching the software for a few months.

i have not verified the fact, but i do also believe the company is based in dallas, texas, which is also where i live and grew up.

i will be testing this software because i think it might be a good alternative or addition to eBay as a sales outlet, plus i like the sort of affiliate marketing angle with the commissions. so far i have listed a comic book and am going to try and earn commissions on products a few other sellers have for sale as well.

i came across a great new (and i mean very new) course on how to harness the power of stumbleUpon to increase traffic to your blog or web site.

Click here to view more details

it is a free course if you want it a chapter at a time, paid if you just want to zip through all 20 chapters at once without waiting.

the course is called stumble rush and is offered by caroline middlebrook. you can sign up directly for stumbleRush here and/or go to caroline's excellent blog.

i'm already up to lesson #2!

well, on june 20th, 2008 i was laid off from my e-commerce position with hitchfinder.com.

my family has been wonderful and supportive. i have not been depressed at all due to the upbeat attitude of my lovely wife.

i have no regrets. it was a very good learning experience and i took a lot of knowledge away from the job, plus a really cool 24" iMac computer and the adobe creative suite cs3!

what have i been doing since june 20th you might ask.

Click image for larger view.

well, i have finished my freelance web site gushindesigns.com and am almost finished with my new business card. i have designed and opened a brand new web site called appleproductsdepot.com, which combines web design, affilliate marketing and eBay.

there is also a second one of these eBay affiliate marketing web sites that i am currently building that is centered around old and new cameras, both film and digital. i am still into photography and i want this one to be a bit more interactive and it will probably concentrate more on vintage camera gear than newer stuff.

and i have been going to a number of meetup.com meetings on subjects like joomla (a content management system for web sites), wordpress, eBay and various internet entrepreneur groups.

i have also been more active selling products on eBay than i have in the past, with 30 current auctions running. i am trying to liquidate a comic book collection i bought many year ago for a good price and have already made my original investment back so the rest is gravy as far as the comic books go.

there are a few opportunities i am checking into for web design work full time as well, but more about those if anything happens with them.