Spring Holiday's End

Christmas, then New year, then in China - Spring Holiday.

A string of holidays one after another and I am feeling quite refreshed :)

Been busy of late working on a newly developed strategy...well at least new to me.

Its called "monetizing your website"
That is to set up your website to earn income from advertising revenue.
Not a stoopid idea me thinks.

So I attacked and slaughtered the NiHao 3d website this past week in an attempt to place advertisements upon it in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

And its n0t as easy as it sounds.

Anyways the new look comes across quite well, got some nice, tasteful advertisement banners and buttons around the place and I think its not bad.

The test of it all is to determine if it will actually make money or not.

I don't profess to be a marketing genius although I do know a thing or two, so this is quite new for me, and....I must admit, it was fun too :)

The idea of earning something for doing what you love....oh its a great thing.

So I will count out the weeks, and count out the clicks, and see just how well I do at this "monetizing" venture.

Time will tell :)

Boring Holidays

Boring Spring Holiday comes around again in China. No work of course...well for most but me, I am forever at the grindstone :)

Because of the extra time that these holidays have created NiHao World has moved forward in leaps and bounds.

First of these to mention is the newly added NiHao Web hosting system web.nihao3donline.com
This tidy little system allows me to give my business customers a free enterprise website package upon joining. A nice little treat me thinks.

Then while at web work I finally got around to building the corporate image website for the company www.nihao3donline.com
This website talks about all the biz stuff that is normally behind the scenes to the whole venture.

Then onto my own dedicated download's server downloads.nihao3donline.com yippee!
I got tired of trying to find non-arduous download systems. Most were either too complicated in setting up, covered the pages in bulk advertisements, or both.

So although I am bored SH*TL*SS getting allot of work done is always satisfying.

*=IE for those not in the know

Leaps and Bounds

Merry Christmas to all.

These past two weeks have been filled with events both in my personal life and business life.

In the business world NiHao World has made some quite noteworthy leaps and bounds that are worth mentioning here.

The first of these was our foreign investment category listing.
A week before Christmas and I received an email from ChinaFIG indicating that our application to be listed in their potential foreign investment companies list was approved.

This was great news for us as it now readies the company for Venture Capital (VC) investment and after the procuring of investment we can take the NiHao Company forward in its development.

The sceond great move forward was the approval from Intel to join in their partnership program. The Intel® Software Partner Program page.

We at NiHao World will be looking into the development of CPU Hyper-Threading technologies for our software. In simple terms hyper-threading is the communication avenues and processes between 1 CPU and another.

E.g. An Intel Dual Core computer running the NiHao World software with the software designed to utilize just one of those CPU's so the 2nd CPU is free to handle other tasks.

Designing our software for CPU utilization means that we can produce a better software for our users.

For our users they benefit from knowing our software is compatible with the systems that they are using and that our software has been designed for those systems.

This means less drag on computers, better overall performance, and best yet....a longer life expectancy for user's computers.

On a personal side this month has been hectic.
Buying gifts, visiting loved ones, organizing timetables, and giving the NiHao Studios team a Christmas holiday even when we are too busy for the luxury lol.

Last week I sent a memo to the team telling them all to take leave....
"Go; have fun, enjoy the holidays"

Actually it wasn't a scheduled holiday nor a planned one but sometimes when the mood is right I don't mind letting the team enjoy the moment too.

And hell....its Christmas and we have all worked exceptionally hard this year...
We all deserve a break :)

So Merry Christmas one and all and lets look forward to a prosperous 2009.

Moving House Blues

This weekend I am moving house....

oooh joy.

Moving because the present house contract expires next week and wanted to find something in a little better locale.

Present house is 2 floors 4 bedrooms with all the facilities.
New house is 1 floor 3 bedrooms with more facilities.

The new house is 500 per month less than the present house and is beautifully equipped.
One draw back of this new house is that its on the 7th floor with no elevator :(
Hence being as cheap as it is.
But in saying that it is quite luxurious with a huge balcony that overlooks the hotels street :)

So packing everything up for the big move and one realizes just how much junk has been collected over the previous year.

Packing up the kitchen, bedrooms, and computers is not such a heavy task when compared to the buying of a multitude of bags for all the little accumulated things.

Sadly I will be without the internet for around 2 days during the transition but I should be busy enough to not notice that too much.

Ok that's all from me, I'll write again when I have gotten settled.

NiHao Studios Growth

This week has been interesting to say the least.

As well as having been a very busy week, this previous week has also been a fruitful week with 3 new additions to the NiHao Studios team.

Chris (Grimthorn), Caroline, and Jane have joined the NiHao Studios team to fill their specialist field positions.

This makes life a little easier for me from the head person's point of view, yet it also adds to it new challenges, more responsibilities, and a little more to be concerned with on a daily basis.

Its a funny thing...
One brings in more people to make one's life a little easier, then in doing so; one's life becomes more complicated.

Chris fills the position of 3d weapon's modeler.
Caroline takes the lead in project management.
And Jane takes over from Irene in translation.

One would think that with such an array of professionals around me I should be able to relax and take a long needed break.

Unfortunately not so.

Seems now I have even more to do, pre-thinking what the pro's have to be thinking about.

Its a bad habit that I have but it proves to be useful in times when something goes wrong.
For when something does go wrong, and something always does, I have already prepared a number of probable solutions for the event.

Sometimes I think team management has nothing to do with people management at all, but has more to do with problem solving.

Most people when told to perform a task will do so, whether it be done well or not.

But its when everything falls apart that the manager shows his / her true strengths.
And thats what the manager / head is for...To get the machine working again when it has grinded to a halt.

However, that means with every new person joining the team there's new probable wrongs that need solutions....Oooooh my poor head.

I am now thinknig its time to bring in a middle management team.
A sort of buffer between me and the Pro's that make up NiHao Studios.

I dont actually want to, but for my own sake I think I have to.
I think if I problem solve much more than I am doing now, I would be getting close to achieving god mind power lol.

So an interesting and busy week.
Fruitful yet not without its own drawbacks.
Yet growth must of course be a good thing.

One hopes.